Free Republic

Christie's ground game doesn't match his aggressive debate style. His volunteer effort it rather tame. The NJ crowd didn't make the 4-hour drive north to New Hampshire.

Good morning from Augusta, where a large group of Republican legislators and activists is set to endorse presidential hopeful Ted Cruz on Thursday. Between 40 and 50 legislators will hold a noon news conference at the State House to announce support for the Texas senator, who won the Iowa caucuses on Monday, finishing ahead of runner-up Donald Trump and the third-place Marco Rubio...

Maine State Police took to Facebook on Friday, saying a trooper is being falsely accused of racial profiling.

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage said he has made it a point to attend the Maine Right to Life’s Hands Around the Capitol rally every year because of children. “They are the future and we have to have more children and a better future for our society,” LePage said. “Right now, more people are dying than being born, so it’s time to have an opportunity to keep them alive. We should not have abortion.” LePage, who received two standing ovations, was among a handful of speakers Saturday afternoon to a crowd gathered at St. Michael School gymnasium in Augusta to...

Singer Don McLean was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge Monday in Maine. Camden's Chief Randy Gagne told FOX411 police responded to a call at McLean's Camden, Maine residence early Monday morning and arrested the singer without incident. He was transported to Knox County Jail in Rockland, Maine, and was later released after on bail. He has a court date set for February 22, 2016. ...

Critics of Maine Gov. Paul LePage failed to muster enough support to require a vote Thursday on an independent investigation that could have led to impeachment for alleged abuse of power. Instead, House lawmakers voted 96-52 to indefinitely postpone debate after Republican leader Ken Fredette introduced a motion to pre-empt any action on the impeachment order. A group led by Democratic Rep. Ben Chipman of Portland wanted to punish the brash and outspoken Republican governor for pressuring a school operator into rescinding a job offer to Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves. ...

Mom Becca Edwards is "pissed" about a racist remark that her state's governor made, and she's calling him out on it, offering her own biracial family as an example of how very wrong he is. Maine Gov. Paul LePage issued his offensive comment at a town hall meeting in Bridgton on Jan. 6 while speaking about the influx of heroin in the Pine Tree State. "These are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty -- these types of guys -- they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home," the...

Not sure about the press herald's policy for copywrite, so I'll just sum up here- Democrats in Maine are going after Gov Paul Lepage for 8 charges- mostly to do with what they call "abuse of power"- and for his comment a bit ago that out of state drug dealers were impregnating "Young White Girls" in Maine. The are calling for a special house committee to investigate "allegations of misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance and other misconduct"

A long-time math teacher at Bangor High School said on her Facebook page that she was ordered by the principal on Friday to remove a small Christmas tree from her classroom. Catherine Gordon said in a post timestamped Dec. 18 at 9:17 p.m. that the "tree had no religious symbols on it whatsoever. No crosses or angels, just pink Hello Kitties and my students really enjoyed it and it cheered me up during the day." Gordon said in the post that she has been decorating her classroom for the holidays for 30 years. Bangor School Superintendent Betsy Webb issued the...

State AG sues major tech support provider alleging deceptive scam By Connie Thompson Wednesday, December 16th 2015 State investigators just sued one of the rising stars in the tech-support industry claiming part of the operation is based on a scam. The company, called iYogi, is accused of tricking people into paying for tech support services they don't need. According to investigators iYogi engaged in a different twist on the notorious tech support scams where someone call you claiming your computer has problems. What's significant in this case is workers don't call you, you call them. And iYogi is one of...

Republican Gov. Paul LePage recently began enforcing Maine’s volunteer and work requirements for food stamp SNAP recipients to keep their benefits. The end result was more than 9,000 non-disabled adults getting dropped from the program. The rules prevent adults who are not disabled and do not have dependents from receiving food stamps for more than three months, unless they work at least 20 hours a week, participate in a work-training program, or meet volunteer guidelines for 24 hours out of the month. Any one of those three getting met will not result in the loss of their SNAP food benefits.

The lone health insurance cooperative to make money last year on the Affordable Care Act's public insurance exchanges is now losing millions and suspending individual enrollment for 2016. Maine's Community Health Options lost more than $17 million in the first nine months of this year, after making $10.9 million in the same period last year. A spokesman said higher-than-expected medical costs have hurt the cooperative.

Since the start of the Syria's civil war in the spring of 2011, the U.S. has admitted 2,311 Syrian refugees and resettled them in 36 different states. According to data from the State Department's Refugee Processing Center the top three destinations for Syrian refugees since the beginning of the conflict are California, Texas, and Michigan. From March 15, 2011 through December 1, 2015, California received the most (261) Syrian refugees, Texas received the second most with 242, and Michigan has received the third most with 217. Other states that have received Syrian refugees since March 2011 include: Arizona (182), Illinois...

The Thanksgiving tale of the Pilgrims and the Indian has an astonishing, less well-known back story. The story of how the Pilgrims arrived at our shores on the Mayflower—and how a friendly Patuxet native named Squanto showed them how to plant corn, using fish as fertilizer—is well-known. But Squanto’s full story is not, as National Geographic’s new Thanksgiving miniseries, “Saints & Strangers,” shows. That might be because some details of Squanto’s life are in dispute. The important ones are not, however. His story is astonishing, even raising profound questions about God’s role in American history. Every Thanksgiving we remember that,...

Mary Mayhew, commissioner of Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services, knows her politics aren’t always popular. “I can’t stress enough what an attack campaign it has been from the media for four and a half years,” Mayhew said Thursday at an anti-poverty forum in Washington, D.C., hosted by The Heritage Foundation. Then there are the more personalized critiques: “There is a poet, or he calls himself a poet, and he sends me poems all the time,” she added. “They are not nice poems.” Mayhew claims that detractors—who mostly take issue with welfare reforms enacted by Gov. Paul LePage, a...

"Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values," [Obama] said.Six Republican governors have announced that Syrian refugees won't be allowed to resettle in their states in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in Paris. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued statements Sunday saying that they wanted to prioritize the safety of the residents in their states. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott; Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a GOP presidential candidate; Arkansas Gov. Gov. Asa Hutchinson; and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence joined them on Monday. "Michigan is a welcoming state and we are...

Some people just can’t seem to catch a break. Maine resident Harvey Lembo had suffered from a number of health issues which wound up landing him in a wheelchair. Then his apartment was broken into. Four times. Having had enough of being the target of criminals, Mr. Lembo went and purchased himself a handgun. On the night of the very same September day that he brought his new weapon home, criminals broke into his place for a fifth time, but on that occasion things ended differently. (CBS News) “I had the gun under my pillow. I reached out and...

Last night's off-year elections produced a number of noteworthy outcomes, none larger than Republican Matt Bevin's upset victory in Kentucky's gubernatorial race. Bevin ran as a hard-charging outsider conservative, warts and all. Public polls gave his opponent, Democrat Jack Conway, a modest but stable lead throughout the race's home stretch, averaging out to a three-point Conway advantage in a three-way contest. They were off by double digits. Bevin won handily:DailyKos tweet at link ... Bevin, boosted by a massive investment from national Republicans and help from his former nemisis Mitch McConnell, nationalized the race, tying Conway to President Obama at...

Sen. Bernie Sanders brought marijuana into the national conversation last week, calling for legalizing and regulating the drug. Under his plan, people in possession of the substance would be treated no differently than people smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol. By removing marijuana from the list of dangerous drugs, Sanders' move would allow states to legalize the marijuana without Washington having a say. Beyond campaign speeches meant to appeal to young voters, a host of state ballot initiatives on marijuana will be greeting voters next November. In California, which became the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, residents may...

DANVILLE, Va. - Dr. James I. "Buddy" Robertson said Wednesday that emotion is the key element in the movie "Gods and Generals."Robertson, a renowned Civil War historian, was the historical consultant on the Warner Bros./Ted Turner movie that features Confederate Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson as its main character."Gods and Generals" is an adaptation of a book written by Jeff Shaara and is the prequel to "The Killer Angels," on which the film "Gettysburg" was based.The movie deviates from the book with a healthy dose of Jackson's character taken from Robertson's biography."This is the greatest Civil War movie ever made,"...