Most of northern Maine, including a large portion of Aroostook and part of Washington counties, is an energy island that is dislocated from the rest of the northeastern power grid, ISO New England. A bill to connect that island to the New England power grid has passed...
Implementation of a state law that prohibits restaurants, stores, and a wide variety of other eating establishments including places in the entertainment, hospitality, recreation, and tourism industries; catering establishments; correctional facilities; hospital...
The Maine Ethics Commission removed the video and livestream of a public proceeding after a commissioner mentioned the name of a person or business entity that the campaign finance regulator is investigating. The highly unusual move came at the request of Stop the...
Maine lawmakers have passed a set of bills aimed at addressing the growing problems posed by “forever chemicals” that have shut down several farms and contaminated dozens of private wells across the state. Lawmakers approved multiple bills dealing with the...
The Maine Senate voted down a bill to form a consumer-owned utility to buy the assets of Central Maine Power and Versant Power, reversing the results of initial Senate action and considerably dimming the bill’s chances of passing the Legislature this session. The...
Maine’s plastic bag ban takes effect July 1, after which most retailers will be barred from bagging customers’ purchases in plastic bags. Customers will either have to bring their own reusable bags, opt for paper bags for which they will pay a mandatory 5-cent...
The Maine Legislature put in a couple long days this week with both the House and the Senate wrapping up the Legislative session with two evenings that went into the next morning. The full Legislature will likely be called back for “Veto Day.” Veto Day is when the...
The Maine Legislature passed a bill that would allow tribes to operate gaming businesses. The issue of tribal gaming has been hotly contested in Maine for years. The state has no competitive process to approve casinos, so casinos in Bangor and Oxford have been...
Joined by members of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, legislators, and others at the Blaine House, Governor Janet Mills ceremonially swore in Valerie Stanfill as Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Governor Mills nominated Stanfill to serve as Chief...
The Maine House of Representatives late Wednesday endorsed a first-in-the-nation bill that would shift some recycling and waste disposal costs from local taxpayers to producers of hard-to-recycle packaging materials. The bill, from Rep. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth,...
Legislators approved the creation of a new public authority to coordinate investing tens of millions of dollars in federal funding for broadband infrastructure in Maine. Both houses of the Legislature passed L.D. 1484, establishing the Maine Connectivity Authority...
Legislation that would ask Maine voters to buy out the state’s major utilities and put the electric grid in control of an elected board initially cleared the House of Representatives on Tuesday, though it still faces a potential veto from Gov. Janet Mills, who has...
