Maine Things Considered

A retired Marine general and expert on national security is in Maine Thursday to discuss what he sees as one of the biggest threats to stability: climate change. General John Castellaw says there are currently 32 locations around the world where conflict, aggravated by climate change, is affecting U.S. interests, and he sees a few ways to restore order. Castellaw spent 36 years in the Marines. He says his view of climate change as a national security threat was shaped over time, and that he's

A Superior Court judge has ruled that state election officials should continue implementing Maine's landmark ranked-choice voting law for the June primary elections. The ruling, by Kennebec Superior Court Judge Michaela Murphy, is a victory for supporters of the voting system, who have been battling with lawmakers in the courts and in the Legislature ever since voters approved ranked-choice nearly two years ago. But the legal battle is far from over.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission voted Wednesday to approve a $1.2 million taxpayer subsidy to an embattled biomass company operating two plants in West Enfield and Jonesboro.

Maine Senator Susan Collins' says she's doubtful that Congress will take action anytime soon to stabilize the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. Her proposal to lower health insurance costs was not included in the omnibus spending bill passed last month, and Collins now says she’ll refocus her strategy.

While people in Southern Maine are starting to think about mowing the lawn, a cold wintry spring season persists up in Aroostook County. A group of residents close to the Canadian border is taking advantage of those conditions this weekend in an effort to break a world record.

Amid a national debate over gun violence, Maine lawmakers are being asked to grapple with a difficult question: If someone is deemed by a judge to be a danger to themselves and to others, should police be able to temporarily confiscate their guns?

Building a vacation home on an artificial lake can have pitfalls, as water levels rise and fall within certain limits, at the whim of whoever owns the dam. Waterfront property owners in Ellsworth are hoping to take some control over their summer shoreline, as the owner of two dams on the union river seeks a renewal of its federal licenses. Ed Damm, of Bar Harbor, owns a camp on 8000 acre Graham Lake, where water is stored and released by a dam to power the turbines of the Union River Dam

State lawmakers are giving an initial thumbs down to Gov. Paul LePage's proposal to raise the bar for new wind energy projects in Maine. The governor wants to limit streamlined permit reviews to wind projects only in eastern Aroostook County. And he wants to expand reviews of their visual impacts to anywhere within 70 miles of significant scenic resources. Rep. Paul Stearns, a Guilford Republican, says he sees the scenic harm wind farms can do first hand.The porch of his camp on Piper Pond in

Maine Attorney General Janet Mills says that she has a solution to the funding stalemate between Gov. LePage and lawmakers that is blocking Medicaid expansion. At the State House Tuesday, Mills announced that Maine will receive millions in additional funds from a settlement with tobacco companies that could pay for expanding health care coverage, which voters approved last year.

A district court judge has granted a protection from abuse order against Seth Carey, a Rumford attorney who is running as a Republican candidate for district attorney in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford Counties. The Lewiston Sun Journal reports that the victim believed she was in “immediate and present danger” from Carey, who she said sexually assaulted her in the home they shared. Reached by telephone Monday, Carey said the allegations are “100 percent false.” He said the woman is a friend

We all know the association between Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and its home state of Vermont. The brand is known in all 50 states and 40 different countries. Now one Maine-based company is looking to become the Ben & Jerry's of gelato.

Another turn in the ongoing legal and political fight over ranked-choice voting Maine — Republicans in the Maine Senate on Monday passed a measure to block implementation of the system, which could be in place for the June primaries.

The Trump administration is expected to announce next week that it will relax greenhouse gas emissions and fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks that were last approved more than five years ago.

It’s still unclear whether Maine voters will use a landmark ranked choice voting system in June that will purportedly make elections less acrimonious and less partisan. But the fate of the voting system could largely be determined by voters who identify as partisans, and less so by the state’s biggest voting bloc: independents.

Secretary of State Matt Dunlap says that he plans to use ranked-choice voting in the June primary elections after all, despite a conflict in election laws triggered by a people's veto petition. Supporters say they believe the courts will clear up the matter quickly.