Maine Things Considered

Earlier this month, Republican Gov. Paul LePage took up a Democrat-sponsored food sovereignty bill, and signed it. The move, which delighted or dismayed, depending on who you talk to, essentially tells state regulators to butt out if a municipality chooses to assert its local authority over food regulation.

Maine lawmakers have voted to extend the legislative session for five more days to give themselves more time to hash out a budget deal, as Gov. LePage threatens a shutdown over any new taxes.

Supporters of Maine’s first-in-the-nation ranked-choice voting law say they could launch a people’s veto effort to keep the initiative alive. While approved by voters last fall, the law ran into constitutional problems, and could be scuttled by the Legislature. The threat of a people’s veto adds another layer of complexity to a political stalemate. The ranked-choice voting law ran into a legal problem. After it was approved, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion finding that the law

Since April, Maine Public has been following the journey of two Mainers thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail — Danny Moody of Winthrop, and Dan Giguere of Manchester, Maine.

Gov. Paul LePage took to the airwaves of WVOM Tuesday morning to defend his decision to release 17 nonviolent male prisoners deemed to be at low risk of re-offending. LePage said he commuted their sentences as a way to help address the state’s growing labor shortage. It’s an unconventional approach that’s being applauded by prisoner advocates, and female prisoners could soon be next. Speaking on WVOM Tuesday morning, LePage said 17 male prisoners were “let go” on Friday after careful

A Superior Court justice says Maine Public and WGME TV must provide outtakes of interviews related to a 25-year-old murder conviction that’s under fire now for alleged prosecutorial misconduct. In 1992, Anthony Sanborn was convicted of murdering Portland teen Jessica Briggs on a Portland pier. But from jail he has always maintained his innocence. And he was released on bail last month after a key witness recanted her original testimony, saying she had bad vision and was coached by police.

The fragile deep-sea corals that populate the canyon walls and basins in the Gulf of Maine provide habitat for many species of fish as well as baby lobster, crabs and squid. But the New England Fisheries Management Council has concluded that the northeast coral beds are threatened when they are disturbed by commercial fishing operations and is weighing new restrictions that could affect Maine.

The parents of a Lewiston Middle School student who died by suicide this week say their daughter’s story reveals a complete breakdown in Maine’s mental health system. Anie Graham’s parents say there should be distinct protocols to help kids at risk of suicide, and properly trained providers who are available to help.

Gov. Paul LePage has allowed the early release of 17 prisoners through conditional commutation orders, according to his office. The governor’s action follows the recent announcement that he has been reviewing the release of an unknown number of prisoners deemed to be lower-risk offenders. According to the administration, the commutation orders are based on recommendations by the Department of Corrections. The LePage administration billed the orders as an effort to modernize the prison system and

Parents, students and community members from across Lewiston shared their grief in an emotional meeting Thursday night following the suicide of a 13-year-old student. The mood was somber inside Lewiston’s Green Ladle, where about 200 residents gathered to talk about the death of 13-year-old Anie Graham earlier in the week. Some students said they wanted everyone to remember Graham for who she was — bright and accomplished — while others said the community needs to do a better job supporting

A Washington, D.C.-based progressive think tank estimates that more than 117,000 Mainers would lose health insurance under the House GOP bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. The Center for American Progress estimates that over the next decade, 57,000 people on Medicaid in Maine would lose coverage, as well as 47,000 people in the individual market. About 12,000 people are estimated to lose employer-based coverage. The projections are based on the Congressional Budget Office score for the

A last-minute proposal by Gov. Paul LePage to phase out the Maine Turnpike Authority was taken up by the Legislature’s Transportation Committee Thursday and then swiftly and unanimously defeated. LePage wanted to shift responsibility to the Maine Department of Transportation as a way to reduce tolls. The governor is convinced that Maine could do a more efficient job of running the toll highway than the quasi-independent Maine Turnpike Authority. In fact, the way he sees it, if the DOT was in

It's Thursday and time for the Across the Aisle, our weekly roundtable on politics. This week, Dick Woodbury, an economist who served in the Legislature as an independent; Meredith Strang Burgess of Burgess Advertising, a former Republican lawmaker; and Cynthia Dill, an attorney who served in Augusta as a Democrat.

This month, college seniors from across Maine will walk across the stage to accept their diplomas — most after four or more years of classes. For more and more students, however, graduation day will come much sooner, a trend designed to make college more appealing and affordable.

Some new hope surfaced Wednesday for the embattled Downeast Correctional Facility. The Maine Senate voted 30-3 to preserve funding for the Bucks Harbor prison for the next two years. Union officials representing the guards at the facility say 55 layoff notices had been sent out by the governor, who wants to save about $5 million annually by closing the facility. Given the choice, most Republican lawmakers would likely prefer to be on the same side of policy issues as the Republican governor. But