Free Republic

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)A Maine nurse back from treating Ebola patients in West Africa followed through on her vow to defy the state's "voluntary" quarantine on Thursday, leaving her home for a bike ride. Kaci Hickox and her boyfriend stepped out of their home Thursday morning and rode away on mountain bikes, followed by state police cruiser. There was no immediate comment from state health officials, who were going to court in an effort to detain Hickox for the remainder of the 21-day incubation period for Ebola that ends on Nov. 10. Police were monitoring her movements but couldn't detain her without a...

Anyone arriving in California from an Ebola-affected area and who has had personal contact with a person infected with the deadly virus will be quarantined for 21 days, according to an order issued Wednesday by the state's public health director. The order provides a more nuanced set of guidelines to assess the risk associated with people returning from regions afflicted by an Ebola outbreak -- currently Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea -- than the controversial blanket quarantines in New Jersey, New York and Maine.

* Nurse Kaci Hickox left the home of her boyfriend in Fort Kent, Maine, on Wednesday night to speak with the press * Residents of the small town are unimpressed that Hickox is trying to fight a 21-day quarantine imposed by the state * State's health chief and governor vowed to enforce Maine state guidelines which ask for a voluntary three week quarantine * Governor sent state police to her home but did not say whether she would be arrested if she tried to leave * State may go to court to get an order to make it mandatory tomorrow...

PORTLAND – The Campaign for Maine, the political action committee supporting Eliot Cutler, received $50,000 in contributions from major, out-of-state Republican donors in its most recent campaign finance report. The donors, James and Marilyn Hebenstreit of Kansas, also contributed the maximum amount to Eliot Cutler’s campaign in September. (SNIP) Conservative radio pundit Howie Carr also told GOP supporters to talk up Eliot Cutler to their "moonbat friends" to help re-elect Gov. LePage.

Nurse Kaci Hickox — who remains symptom-free after spending three days in a New Jersey isolation tent after flying home from Ebola-stricken West Africa — remains under quarantine at home in Maine, but for only another day, she tells TODAY's Matt Lauer. “I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines. I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me, even though I am in perfectly good health and feeling strong and have been this entire time completely symptom free,” said Hickox, who wouldn’t emerge from Maine’s 21-day voluntary quarantine until Nov. 10.“I truly believe this...

Nurse Kaci Hickox — who remains symptom-free after spending three days in a New Jersey isolation tent after flying home from Ebola-stricken West Africa — remains under quarantine at home in Maine, but for only another day, she tells TODAY's Matt Lauer. “I don’t plan on sticking to the guidelines. I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me, even though I am in perfectly good health and feeling strong and have been this entire time completely symptom free,” said Hickox, who wouldn’t emerge from Maine’s 21-day voluntary quarantine until Nov. 10. “I truly believe...

Kaci Hickox, a nurse who treated Ebola patients and threatened to sue New Jersey over being quarantined before she was discharged, today threatened to sue Maine if officials there do not lift a 21-day quarantine restriction. “I will go to court to attain my freedom,” Hickox told “Good Morning America" today via Skype from her hometown of Fort Kent, Maine. “I have been completely asymptomatic since I’ve been here. I feel absolutely great.” Maine's health commissioner said Tuesday night the state will "pursue legal authority if necessary" to keep her quarantined. Hickox, 29, arrived at Fort Kent Monday, but is...

Kaci Hickox, the nurse who was quarantined at a New Jersey hospital despite exhibiting no Ebola symptoms after arriving from West Africa, won't follow the quarantine imposed by Maine officials, her attorney said tonight. "Going forward she does not intend to abide by the quarantine imposed by Maine officials because she is not a risk to others," her attorney Steven Hyman said. "She is asymptomatic and under all the protocols cannot be deemed a medical risk of being contagious to anyone." ... Maine requires that health care workers such as Hickox who return to the state from West Africa will...

Ebola health care worker Kaci Hickox, who was released from quarantine with the support of the White House, is a Centers For Disease Control and Prevention employee, records reveal. The lawyer who helped earn her release is a recent White House state dinner guest.Hickox was released from Ebola quarantine in Newark, N.J., Monday afternoon after the White House pressured New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to release the nurse that was working in Sierra Leone with Doctors Without Borders. Hickox’s case for release was also bolstered by New York civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, who took on Hickox’s case.“I feel like...

Health officials said Tuesday they're prepared to legally enforce the state's "voluntary" quarantine on health care workers who've treated Ebola patients. Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew declined during a news conference to comment specifically on the case of nurse Kaci Hickox, who was confined against her will at a New Jersey hospital before traveling home to Maine. But Mayhew said her department and the attorney general's office were prepared to take legal steps to enforce a quarantine if someone declines to cooperate. "We do not want to have to legally enforce in-home quarantine," she said. "We're...

Attorneys for a nurse released from isolation in New Jersey after returning to the U.S. from West Africa say she will not comply with Maine health officials’ requirements that she remain under quarantine at home for 21 days. Kaci Hickox, who treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone and shows no symptoms of the virus, agreed to refrain from going out in public for two days only, said Steven Hyman of the New York law firm McLaughlin & Stern. She traveled to Maine on Monday after her release from a New Jersey hospital, where she was isolated against her will. “She...

The nurse who was confined against her will at a New Jersey hospital after treating Ebola patients in West Africa is seeking time to decompress at an undisclosed location in Maine, her lawyer said Tuesday. Kaci Hickox's partner, a nursing student, has opted to stay away from the University of Maine at Fort Kent to be with her, a university official said. His off-campus home showed no sign of activity Tuesday. "At this point, he has made a decision he has decided to take a break from campus," said Ray Phinney, associate dean of student life and development. "We don't...

A nurse who treated Ebola patients in West Africa before being briefly and controversially quarantined in New Jersey could be the focus of a new battle over state health policy as she returns to her home state of Maine. Kaci Hickox left a Newark hospital on Monday and was expected to arrive in the northern Maine town of Fort Kent early Tuesday. Maine health officials have already announced that Hickox is expected to comply with a 21-day voluntary in-home quarantine put in place by the state's governor, Paul LePage. However, one of Hickox's lawyers, Steve Hyman, said he expected her...

Maine’s Republican governor, Paul LePage, has opened up a 10-point lead over his Democratic challenger, Representative Michael H. Michaud, according to new poll released Sunday for The Maine Sunday Telegram/Portland Press Herald. Mr. LePage’s 45-to-35-percent lead is outside the poll’s margin of sampling error and has struck fear in the hearts of Democrats. Previous polls had shown the race a dead heat between Mr. LePage and Mr. Michaud. A third candidate, Eliot Cutler, an independent, continues to trail, with the new poll giving him 16 percentage points. The poll has led Maine Democrats to turn up the heat on Mr....

An analysis was conducted by a team of reporters and data researchers to rate the success of the Affordable Care Act after being in place for more than a year now. It was found that the act has been a success at least in terms of fulfilling the main promises made by President Obama.... The reform has been able to...bring down the cost of health care.

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...