Maine Things Considered

According to an Oxford University study, nearly half the jobs considered indispensable today, from loan officers and paralegals to baristas and waiters, will disappear over the next 30 years.

State regulators will hold a hearing on a proposed ban on small liquor bottles next week. Gov. Paul LePage says he wants to ban the sale of the bottles, known as “nips,” because they contribute to drunk driving. The bottles have also been associated with a littering problem. Opponents say the proposed ban is nothing more than retaliation by LePage for a veto override this past session. The prolonged debate over the merits of a five-cent deposit on 50-milliter liquor bottles officially ended last

It’s Thursday and time for Across the Aisle, our weekly roundtable on Maine politics. This week, attorney Cynthia Dill, a former Democratic state senator, and Meredith Strang Burgess of Burgess Advertising and Marketing, a former Republican lawmaker.

Gov. Paul LePage suggested Thursday that his relationship with the media has deteriorated to the point that he devises ways to mislead reporters.

State education officials told local school districts Thursday they’ll find out what their share of increased state school aid will be two weeks from now. The new state budget includes $162 million more in state aid, but there are many details behind that number. For starters, the new budget only provides $48.4 million more for the upcoming school year. For the 2018-2019 school year, the increase swells to more than $113 million more. The budget law says at least 50 percent of the increased

Maine is home to hundreds of dams that have fallen out of use, a legacy of the heyday of its mills.

A Bar Harbor restaurant owner has filed the necessary paperwork with federal election officials to run for Congress in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District as a Democrat. Tim Rich says to beat incumbent Bruce Poliquin he has to start his campaign early. “I think it’s important when you are up against a two-term incumbent to understand that it is going to be a difficult election, and that you need to start early and work very hard and raise the money, and you need to be out in Maine meeting people,

MADISON, Maine — Maine State Police say they don’t know what drove a man to kill three people and wound another before being fatally shot in a confrontation with officers. Spokesman Steve McCausland says detectives are trying to determine what sparked the violence Wednesday morning in the town of Madison. The spokesman says 51-year-old gunman Carroll Tuttle killed his partner, 52-year-old Lori Hayden, and their son, 25-year-old Dustin Tuttle, at their home. The third victim was 57-year-old

As we gear up to celebrate the nation’s birthday, we’re likely to hear the names of the founding fathers invoked in ceremony, or in spirited debates about how history informs the challenges of democracy today. Maine Public’s Jennifer Rooks spoke with author Kenneth C. Davis, about the writers of the Declaration of Independence, two of whom died on the very same fourth of July. Kenneth C. Davis is a part time resident of midcoast Maine, and the author of the Don’t Know Much About History series.

As many people are traveling to celebrate the Fourth of July Holiday, the state of Maine is experiencing a partial government shutdown. An impasse over the two year state budget continues at the state House in Augusta…where tensions are high. Mal Leary, Maine Public’s Political Correspondent discusses the situation with Maine Things Considered Host Nora Flaherty.

While most state workers were forced to stay off their jobs on day three of a Maine government shutdown, others turned out for a rally at the capitol.

Almost any teacher will tell you that they’ve got more on their plates today than they did 15 or 20 years ago. New initiatives, tests, teacher evaluations — and then there’s the new state mandate that every student graduate with a “proficiency-based diploma.” That means that many teachers are now rethinking how they work, and that takes time. More schools are now trying to create weekly “early release days” to give teachers more time to work together, but some parents are aren’t happy. English

Update 6:10 p.m.: The House and Senate have given initial approval to a $7.1 billion two-year budget designed to prevent a shutdown of state government.

The Legislature has given all but final approval to a measure that would legalize fantasy sports gambling in Maine. But the measure could be in trouble. If you listen to professional sports programs, you have likely heard the ads urging fans to play and win. It works like this: fantasy players put together a fantasy team, made up of athletes from real professional sports teams. They make a payment upfront to enter the contest, and win money back based on how those players perform in real-life

Portions of President Donald Trump’s travel ban will start being enforced at 8 p.m. Thursday. It applies to visa applicants from Syria, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya. In Maine, there’s fear and confusion about what the ban might mean for its large Sudanese and Somali communities. State Department guidelines say visa applicants must have a “bona fide” relationship in the United States. It’s not quite clear what that means for students, workers or people working with nonprofit immigration