Maine Things Considered

Waterville Mayor Nick Isgro made his first public appearance at a city council budget workshop Tuesday night, one day after several residents began a recall effort against him and after he resigned, under pressure, from his position as a vice president at Skowhegan Savings Bank. Republican Gov. Paul LePage, a former mayor of Waterville, weighed in Tuesday on his behalf. Isgro has been under fire for a recent tweet mocking Parkland School shooting survivor David Hogg. He also has a history of

The legal sale of recreational marijuana is one step closer to reality. The Maine Senate is backing a bill to allow retail marijuana sales approved by voters in 2016.

There’s a new development in the saga over Maine’s landmark ranked-choice voting law: Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy is recommending that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court review whether state election officials have the authority to implement the voting system for the June primary elections.

The Maine House has given approval to a measure that would ask the voters to change provisions of the the state constitution governing the collection of signatures to initiate referendums. Supporters want to raise the bar for getting questions on the statewide ballot. The current language in the constitution is over a century old. It requires the valid signatures of 10 percent of the voters in the previous election to initiate legislation that lawmakers must either pass as proposed or send to

The chief operating officer for the National Science Foundation has been tapped to lead the University of Maine’s flagship campus in Orono. Joan Ferrini-Mundy will become UMaine’s next president on July 1, when current President Susan Hunter steps down from the post she has held for the last four years. Ferrini-Mundy made her public debut before an audience of students, faculty and the UMaine board of trustees, who gathered at a morning press conference in Orono. “I can barely wait for July when

The Legislature’s second attempt to setup the market and regulatory system for the retail sale of recreational marijuana is already faring better than its first.

A petition drive has been launched to recall Waterville Mayor Nick Isgro after calls for his resignation over the past week.

Parents, teachers and students packed the seats of a legislative hearing Monday to voice their opinions about two bills that would drastically change — or even repeal — Maine’s move toward proficiency-based diplomas. Six years ago, legislators passed a law saying that for students to receive a diploma in Maine, they must reach proficiency in up to eight content areas ranging from English and math to health and art. This year’s freshmen are expected to be the first to graduate with the diplomas.

A Superior Court judge has sided with the town of Kennebunkport in its almost decadelong dispute with a number of property owners who filed suit to halt public access to Goose Rocks Beach. Attorney Amy Tchao is representing the town. She says the property owners claim they have exclusive ownership to the beach areas in front of their homes. “And in that case the town, once sued, believed it had no choice but to defend the right of the community and the public to continue to use this beach along

Health groups and providers were out in force to urge lawmakers to fund the expansion of Medicaid in Maine as approved by state voters last year. There are currently about a quarter of a million Mainers covered by Medicaid, and voters approved an expansion to cover about 80,000 more. At a hearing on the bill to implement the expansion, health care providers joined some uninsured Mainers in urging lawmakers to support funding for the measure. Maria Pineo of South Portland says she needs expensive

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is awarding more than $700,000 to Maine’s Department of Marine Resources to study whether lobstermen’s gear poses a mortal threat to the endangered right whale. There are about 450 right whales left on the planet, and some scientists say entanglement in lobster-trapping gear is making their extinction more likely. But many Maine lobstermen are skeptical and are pushing back against calls for new regulations on their ropes and buoys. Now, DMR

A Superior Court judge has declined to weigh in on how a Washington County prison should be operated, after Gov. Paul LePage emptied the facility in February. David Webbert, an Augusta attorney representing laid-off workers at the Downeast Correctional Facility in Machiasport, filed the request for clarification with Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy. "She's not going to tell the governor how to do the right thing any further than she already has," Webbert said. "And we have shown harm

It was a chaotic week for those attempting to follow developments of Maine's ranked-choice voting law. And it's still unclear how all of this is going to shake out. Political correspondent Steve Mistler joined Nora Flaherty on Maine Things Considered to get us up to date and tell us how we got here. NF: Steve, earlier this week a superior court judge ruled that state election officials have to continue implementing the ranked choice system for June primaries. But it sounds like Republicans in

When a suspected case of child abuse or neglect in Maine is reported to the state, it is the state's job to decide whether to open an investigation. A year ago, the Maine Office of Child and Family Services started using a new tool to help caseworkers make these decisions. But some professionals who frequently report suspected abuse say they're worried that the state is no longer investigating all of the cases it should, leaving some children in unsafe situations.

President Trump's proclamation directing the deployment of the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border has prompted pushback from some members of Maine's congressional delegation. These representatives want to know more about how many troops would be called and for how long.