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Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Wednesday said she is likely to oppose a bill backed by Senate Republican leaders that would defund Planned Parenthood. “I'm still looking at the bill, but if it is an immediate defunding of Planned Parenthood before we have more facts in, then I would likely oppose the amendment,” Collins told reporters.

Education remains separate and unequal nearly everywhere in the United States, but Confederate-flag-waving Southerners aren’t responsible for the most racially divided schools. That title goes to New York, where 64 percent of black students attend schools with few, if any, white students, according to a recent report by the Civil Rights Project. In fact, the Northeast is the only region where the percentage of black students in extremely segregated schools — those where at least 90 percent of students are minorities — is higher than it was in the 1960s. Schools in the South, on the other hand, saw the...

From the top of a mountain in Maine, he swigged champagne and recounted the historic trek. By noon Sunday, 50 people had reached the summit of Mount Katahdin. They hiked a trail through the woods, up boulders, and across a windy ridge to camp out on jagged rocks overlooking the lake-dotted Baxter State Park in central Maine. They waited to see ultramarathoning history. They all had the same question. Where is Scott Jurek? At 2:03 p.m. ET, they got their answer. He was clutching a faded wooden sign, his cheek brushing the engraved letters that read, “KATAHDIN, Northern Terminus of...

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine » Maybe it was the sunset selfies on the lawn at Walker's Point, the family compound, with the state flags of Texas and Maine fluttering in the salty breeze. Maybe it was the standing ovation for the elder President George Bush, frail but beaming, when he arrived Friday morning at a discussion of how to elect another of his sons to the White House. But over two days of lobster rolls, and strategy sessions, whatever reluctance Jeb Bush may have had about publicly embracing his dynastic inheritance seemed to vanish. And for the hundreds of donors to Bush's...

AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday signed into law a bill to nix the concealed gun permit requirement in Maine. The law, dubbed “constitutional carry” by supporters, won support from a broad bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in the House and Senate. It will take effect 90 days after the current legislative session ends. The bill is one of only a handful that LePage has signed or let pass into law without his signature after pledging in June to veto all bills passed by the Legislature in protest of its unwillingness to adopt his policy agenda.

The office of Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) and the clerk in the Maine House are in disagreement over the fate of 19 bills that the governor apparently did not veto in time to prevent them from becoming law. One of the bills grants welfare benefits to some immigrants, which LePage vehemently campaigned against in 2014. As the Bangor Daily News reported Tuesday evening, LePage appeared to be attempting to use the parliamentary procedure known as the pocket veto. By not signing the bills and "pocketing" them, LePage could under some circumstances have effectively vetoed them. In theory, that would...

Governors in New Hampshire and Maine are set to make a decision on if the carry of a concealed handgun without a permit will be signed into law in coming days. In New Hampshire, Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) has promised gun control groups she would veto a narrowly successful measure placed on her desk this week. In Maine, Gov. Paul LePage (R) earlier voiced support for a proposal that passed the state legislature by large margins, but has since vowed not to sign any bills under protest of the lawmakers’ refusal to act on eliminating the state’s income tax. LePage’s...

Devon Staples, 22, was killed in a bizarre incident that took place in a backyard as Staples and his friends were firing off fireworks. Investigators said Staples had placed the fireworks mortar tube on top of his head and set it off. The explosion caused a fatal head injury and he died instantly. Police said Staples had been drinking with friends at one of their homes on South Street

BANGOR, Maine - Maine Sen. Susan Collins has joined those making an early endorsement in the GOP race for president. Collins told MPBN News she is supporting former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. “I have recently made a decision after talking extensively with Jeb Bush that I am going to endorse him for president," Collins said at an event in Bangor.

Maine’s Paul LePage became the first sitting governor to endorse a candidate in the 2016 GOP nomination race, throwing his support behind Christie Christie’s fledgling bid for president. Mr. LePage said that the New Jersey governor has been an inspiration to him over his career and said Mr. Christie, as the head of the Republican Governors Association, played an instrumental role in helping him win re-election last year. (SNIP) LePage refused to criticize Christie for accepting Obamacare’s huge Medicaid expansion, a program LePage has derided as “welfare expansion” and that he repeatedly vetoed when the Maine Legislature sent it to...

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New Hampshire utility ratepayers will pay a Taiwanese company $1.22 million to build the state’s largest solar installation so that a small town can save about $500,000 in power costs over the life of the project. Taiwan’s Walsin Lihwa, parent company of Borrego Solar, will use Chinese-made solar panels in the 3.5-acre project, which is supposed to be finished in July. It will supply power to several municipal buildings in the area but only some of the time: the town of Peterborough (population: 6,284) gets only 197 sunny days per year. “What a great project,” deadpanned David Kreutzer, a senior...

If liberals had to endure what conservatives do on campus, or off of it, they would be screaming “witch hunt” so loudly you would think that we were all back in Salem. Susan Dench, founder and president of the Informed Women’s Network, was named by the governor to the University of Maine’s board of regents. “I have the perfect background,” she told the audience at the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) “Women Lead” summit meeting on June 4, 2015. “I have a background in business and they are in financial difficulty.” But first she had to get past the state assembly....

The Maine House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons without a permit. L.D. 652, which would eliminate the permitting requirement to carry a concealed weapon (and also permit people to carry a weapon in a car), passed with bipartisan support in a 83-62 vote. The bill passed through the Senate on May 28. Gov. Paul LePage has indicated that he will sign the bill into law. Maine, a "shall-issue" state, has issued over 36,000 concealed weapons permits, including permits to out-of-state residents. Maine has exceptionally low crime rates, and a relatively high...

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Republican Gov. Paul LePage vowed Friday to veto every Democratic-sponsored bill that gets to his desk for the rest of the time he's in office unless the Legislature agrees to let residents weigh in on whether to get rid of the income tax. "The Maine people deserve to have a say on the income tax and until they lift it, that's my leverage," LePage said during a wide-ranging and spirited news conference at the Blaine House. "And yes, is that politics? I'm playing their game. I'm finally learning to play the game of the politician." LePage...

The Maine Senate has passed a "Constitutional Carry" bill with a vote of 21-14. The bill would permit gun owners to legally carry their weapons concealed without a permit. This is the second time in two years that the Senate has considered this type of bill. While the votes were mostly split along party lines, three Democrats sided with the Republicans in voting for the measure. The Senate voted 21-14 to approve the bill, L.D. 652, a heavily lobbied measure that pits gun rights activists against groups seeking more oversight over individuals who carry firearms. Three Democrats joined the Republican...

[full title] GOP’s demonic new crusade: Right-wing zealots look for even crueler ways to treat the poor like garbage Happy Memorial Day! But if you’re in Wisconsin, and relying on food stamps, remember that Republicans don’t want you to have ketchup on your hamburger. They’d probably rather you didn’t have a hamburger at all, but Wisconsin farmers and ranchers have clout, and so proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program made room for Wisconsin products. But they still don’t want you to have “crab, lobster, shrimp, or any other shellfish.” Or ketchup. Or spaghetti sauce. Really. For now, that’s...

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — Jeb Bush, who has a longtime relationship with this seaside town where generations of Bushes have vacationed, is having a house built for him at the family compound on Walker’s Point, with a wraparound porch and expansive views of the Atlantic Ocean. The home, on a 1.3-acre site assessed by the town at $1.4 million, was initiated for him by his mother and father, who have tried to preserve the family ties to the picturesque property. But as he tries to appeal to middle-class Americans in his likely Republican presidential campaign — and distinguish himself as his...

KITTERY POINT, ME, May 1, 2015, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Parents at one Maine school are upset that children as young as six were exposed to a book promoting transgender issues, in the name of "acceptance."Parents were not only not consulted, they were never even notified of their children's exposure to transgenderism.Horace Mitchell Primary School read the book I Am Jazz to first-grade students. The book is about a boy who identifies as a girl from the age of two, "with a boy's body and a girl's brain." He eventually finds a doctor who tells his parents, "Jazz is transgender."Parents began to...

New England fishermen of important food species like cod and haddock say the looming cost of paying for at-sea monitors could put them out of business this year. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service said the money it had been using to pay for the monitors — trained workers who collect data on fishing trips — will be needed for other obligations. That means groundfishermen who catch fish like cod, haddock and pollock in New England waters will likely have to start paying the cost around August. The new expense is coming at a...