Free Republic

I live in Wisconsin, which according to Mary Burke Democrat candidate for governor is dead last in the Midwest for job growth. ((Its a flat out lie, Walker has really turned job growth around and says Wisconsin is 4th in the Midwest for job growth. I work a lot in Illinois which according to Illinois Policy and the Illinois GOP is dead last in the country for job growth. This is also advertised on political radio ads. http://www.rebootillinois.com/2014/01/23/uncategorized/brendanbond/illinois-predicted-dead-last-job-growth-2014/5012/ But when I binged it, the GOP Minnesota gubernatorial candidate also says Minnesota is dead last in job growth. http://johnsonforgovernor.org/jeff-johnson-issues-statement-minnesota-dead-last-midwest-private-sector-job-creation/#.VEsGgcai1g2 I thought...

PORTLAND (WGME) -- Maine Medical Center says a patient is currently being held at the request of the CDC for observation as a precautionary step, but says the hospital does not have a confirmed case of Ebola.

Ever since Mitt Romney's "47 percent" disaster-gaffe in 2012, national Republicans have tried to shirk their image as welfare-hating, green eyeshade–wearing budget choppers. Even Paul Ryan, the former head of the congressional Ayn Rand fan club, now talks about expanding the scope of welfare programs to return more of their dependents into productive workers. But Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), himself the product of a poor and disordered childhood, is not following the national herd. He's promising more cuts, and not exactly masking his rationale. Last year, he even took up the 47 percent number, saying "about 47 percent of...

Republican Governor Paul LePage has pulled ahead of Democratic Congressman Mike Michaud by one point in Maine's gubernatorial race. LePage picks up 41% of the vote to Michaud's 40% in a new Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Maine Voters. Independent Eliot Cutler is in a distant third with 16% of the vote. One percent (1%) prefer another candidate in the race, while three percent (3%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or...

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) thinks it's time for Republicans to let go of their efforts to repeal Obamacare. Speaking to an NBC affiliate in Portland on Thursday, Collins argued that the GOP has missed its chance to get rid of the health care law entirely. She noticeably did not say whether she would vote to repeal or defund Obamacare, despite being asked. "You know at this point, I think we’re past that," Collins said. "I think it would’ve been much better if there’d been a bipartisan bill crafted in 2008 that had provisions that both parties could agree on, such...

Federal funding for honor guards at military funerals in Minnesota has been cut. KSTP sister station WDIO-TV reports instead of supporting 5,000 military funerals each year, only 3,000 funerals will be supported. Funerals held at Camp Ripley, Fort Snelling and a new veterans cemetery in Preston will get priority. John Marshall, captain of the Duluth Honor Guard, says that means some veterans in the Duluth area will likely miss out on having the two active duty military personnel at their funeral. “The federal government reneged on its promise to supplement two active military soldiers at all military funerals,” Marshall told...

Michelle Obama joined a campaign rally for a pro-abortion Democratic gubernatorial candidate in the state of Maine. She did not use the word abortion but said this, “And if we don’t show up at the polls this November, if we don’t elect leaders like Mike who will put people first instead of just fighting for special interests, then we know exactly what will happen. We will see more folks interfering in women’s private decisions about our health care. We’ll see more opposition to raising the minimum wage and ensuring access to health care for hard-working folks.” Justmichelleobama4 before saying this,...

Cutler, LePage and Michaud face off for first debate in Portland By Darren Fishell, BDN Staff Posted Oct. 08, 2014, at 6:35 a.m. PORTLAND, Maine — The three major contenders for the Blaine House had their first debate Wednesday morning in an event hosted by the Portland Regional Chamber. Wednesday marks the first time the three candidates have appeared together and addressed each other in person during the campaign. The three are scheduled to debate four more times during the next two weeks, including Thursday morning in Waterville. Just when the candidates would take the stage together and how often...

AUGUSTA — Lawmakers on the Education Committee split along party lines Friday in rejecting the governor’s nomination of conservative blogger Susan Dench of Falmouth to the University of Maine System board of trustees. “I think they value partisanship over diversity of opinion,” Dench said after the 8-6 vote. Democrats on the committee questioned her writings and positions on social and educational issues, and heard testimony from one speaker who accused Dench of plagiarism, an allegation Dench denied. ... One speaker at Friday’s hearing, the chairwoman of the English department at the University of Southern Maine, said Dench had plagiarized long...

Throughout her political career, including during her current race against former GOP Sen. Scott Brown, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.) has touted her experience as a small business owner. Shaheen’s small business “experience” was co-running a store that once sold thousands of dollars-worth of stolen jewelry. “As the former owner and manager of a small retail business, Senator Shaheen knows what it’s like to worry about meeting payroll and inventory costs to keep a business going,” the Issues section of her Senate website declares. Her Senate biography also describes her as a “former small business owner.” This week, the Shaheen...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Michaud supports the position of allowing illegal immigrants to continue to receive welfare in Maine. Michaud, a U.S. congressman who has represented Maine’s 2nd district since 2003, is in line with state Senator Eloise Vitelli, who recently said illegal aliens are entitled to taxpayer-funded benefits.In June, Republican Governor of Maine Paul LePage issued a directive for local governments to stop providing welfare to illegal immigrants, or face having their state funding withdrawn.At the time Rep. Michaud said he agreed with cities like Portland, Maine, which vowed to defy the Governor’s order, and continue allowing illegal aliens...

... liberal activists believe Mainers with strong Democratic voting records are having second thoughts about Michaud because of ads highlighting his position on welfare for undocumented immigrants. The conference call, held Thursday, included nearly a dozen representatives of liberal non-profits and was organized by Maine Equal Justice Partners, a 501(c)3 non-profit that has been a relentless critic of the LePage administration. The stated goal of the call was to develop a response to the RGA’s television and radio ads.

PORTLAND, Maine — A veterinarian and co-founder of Hope Elephants, which cares for retired circus elephants, was killed Tuesday when one of the animals stepped on him, police said in ruling his death an accident.

A teenage mother is fighting a do-not-resuscitate order imposed over her objections on her brain-damaged daughter, saying she should be responsible for medical decisions. Child welfare officials who intervened after the baby was severely injured say life-saving measures in the event she stops breathing would only prolong her suffering. The mother, Virginia Trask, originally agreed to the do-not-resuscitate order. At one point, the infant was removed from life support and placed in her arms to die, then opened her eyes and began breathing. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine and Christian Civic League of Maine are joining the Alliance Defending...

Imagine Cape Cod without cod. Maine without lobster. The region's famous rocky beaches invisible, obscured by constant high waters. It's already starting to happen. The culprit is the warming seas — and in particular the Gulf of Maine, whose waters are heating up faster than 99 percent of the world's oceans, scientists say. Long-established species of commercial fish, like cod, herring and northern shrimp, are departing for colder waters. Black sea bass, blue crabs and new species of squid — all highly unusual for the Gulf — are turning up in fishermen's nets. The Gulf of Maine's warming reflects broader...

My Aroostook County Maine field sign for 2014.Maine is all in for our Tea Party Guvnah, Paul Lepage! Have a look-see.

Parts of northern Maine saw the first below freezing temperatures since spring, according to the National Weather Service in Caribou.

The last time he was discharged, Will was a different man. He'd refused treatment for 2 1/2 months and gone back into the world the way he'd arrived: confused, incoherent, psychotic. Two months later, he bludgeoned his mother to death with a hatchet. He believed she was an al Qaeda operative. Will is part of a special state program in Maine that allows the most violently mentally ill to get treatment after crimes instead of going to prison. Each remains in the custody of the state but has earned the right to live in the community by following rules, taking...

A Rwandan man wanted for his alleged role in his country’s 1994 genocide was apprehended in northeastern Maine last week after illegally crossing the U.S.-Canadian border. Jean Leonard Teganya was arrested August 3 after a local resident of Houlton, Maine reported a “suspicious person” walking in the woods near the Canadian border, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) press release. […] Teganya is an ethnic Hutu, the majority group in Rwanda. In 1994, he worked as a medical intern at the University Teaching Hospital of Butare, where Hutu extremists killed over 200 patients and staff members who...

The U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding crisis is demonstrating far-reaching effects on the nation’s economy and foreign policy goals. Take, for example, Ingalls’ recently closed composite-construction yard in Gulfport. First, the Coast Guard passed on composite deckhouses for its new class of fast-response cutters, going to a different design. When the Navy decided to transition from a composite deckhouse like on the first two Zumwalt-class destroyers to a steel one constructed at Bath Iron Works, that proved the knockout blow. The yard closed in July, putting 400 shipbuilders out of work, according to local TV station WLOX. The decision was announced last...