Free Republic

Top White House officials have reportedly been holding private meetings with lawmakers this week to boost support for the president’s foreign policy strategy, although the outreach effort appears to have left some lawmakers confused and upset. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) described a meeting with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and National Security Adviser Susan Rice earlier this week as “one of the most bizarre I've attended on Foreign Relations on foreign policy in our country.” “I know several of us were involved in a very bizarre discussion last night. This continues a very bizarre discussion,” Corker added, according...

With only two stipulations that do infringe the right to carry, it seems to be the best state law passed this year for 2nd Amendment rights. The two stipulations are that first, you must be at or over 21 years of age, and that you must tell an officer that you are carrying in a traffic stop.

The Pentagon is considering whether to cancel construction of one of the next-generation destroyers being built at Bath Iron Works, a move that would imperil jobs at Maine’s fifth-largest private employer. Several reports said the Defense Department is trying to decide whether to complete construction of the USS Lyndon B. Johnson, the last of three Zumwalt-class destroyers, even though the vessel already is more than 40 percent complete. It’s a topic “to be reviewed in the next few weeks” by teams formed by the Pentagon’s independent cost-assessment office, according to a report by Bloomberg News that cited an Aug. 25...

This problem is crystallized by the present situation is Lewiston, Maine, where African Muslims, many from the Bantu tribe, began arriving in 2001 at the rate of 100 a month. Mohammed Maye, the president of the African Community and Refugee Center in Clarkston, Georgia posted a map of Lewiston on the wall of his office. “Go to Maine,” he advised the Somali immigrants. Abdullahi Abdullahi, the president of the Somali Community Development Organization in Clarkston, upheld this advice by telling his fellow countrymen that, unlike Georgia, Maine has terribly cold winters, but “the welfare system is better.” Lewiston, indeed, was...

It just so happens that climate-changing carbon dioxide, worked up to a semi-liquid state, could play a part in reducing emissions of its gaseous counterpart and helping to solve New England’s energy challenges. And it could create a range of new jobs in Maine, too. David Stapp, president of the Wiscasset-based Peregrine Turbine Technologies, said the properties of carbon dioxide in a “supercritical” state — and its suitability for propelling a turbine — aren’t new. But the circular system his company is developing for heating that supercritical carbon dioxide could be the new take on an old technology that helps...

Beachgoers in Lubec, Maine, near the Canadian border, tried to save a 30-foot-long basking shark that recently washed ashore, according to a video showing the desperate rescue attempt. Onlooker Mark Olsen recorded the video Wednesday morning, when more than a dozen people spent several hours pouring buckets of ocean water into the large shark's gills and onto its skin. The 30-foot-long shark can be seen immobile, lying on its side with a bloodied fin in the video. Despite the efforts to save the shark, it died Wednesday afternoon, according to Lubec Town Administrator John Sutherland. He said the College of...

How bad is Jeb Bush's Bush problem? A new Quinnipiac poll suggests it is very bad. The national survey shows Bush running well behind Donald Trump and Ben Carson, tied for third place in the GOP race with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. But that is not the most serious problem for Bush in the poll. Quinnipiac pollsters asked respondents a simple, open-ended question: "What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of Jeb Bush?" Quinnipiac published a table of all the responses given five or more times. Here is the list of the top eight...

program. A judge on Monday unsealed the court documents of a grisly murder of a Christian man, allegedly at the hands of three Muslim immigrants in Portland, Maine. In those documents, which had been sealed since the three men were charged Aug. 11, police said they found the brutally beaten body of Freddy Akoa lying on the living-room floor in his apartment. He was the victim of a savage attack that took place over several hours. According to the autopsy report, he had cuts and bruises all over his body, with the fatal blows coming to his head. Akoa, who...

A San Diego businessman was one of the largest donors to the National Organization for Marriage's efforts to defeat Maine's gay marriage law in 2009, according to a campaign disclosure report. San Diego business leader Terry Caster donated $300,000 according to the report dated Friday. The group went to court three different times to shield its list of donors who contributed more than $2 million combined, all of which was funneled to Stand for Marriage Maine, the political action committee that led the repeal effort.

IT was snowing in Maine on Jan. 9. I’d been to the dentist’s the day before. The staff there were pleasant enough when I changed genders 12 years ago. “We’ll just change your forms,” the receptionist had said, cheerfully. “It’s no problem.” That day, Papi Edwards, 20, a transgender woman of color, was shot to death outside a hotel in Louisville, Ky. If you’d told me in 2000, as a transgender woman just coming out, that I was a person of privilege, I’d have angrily lectured you about exactly how heavy the burden I’d been carrying was. It had nearly...

Drug-resistant head lice are very likely coming to a school near you, U.S. investigators warn. At least 25 states host lice populations that don't respond to common over-the-counter treatments, a new analysis reveals. Permethrin, part of the pyrethroid class of insecticides, has long been the go-to weapon against head lice, mosquitoes, bedbugs and other insects. But continued exposure to permethrin has caused a huge swath of the dreaded insects to develop genetic mutations that render such drugs useless. "It's a very classic resistance story. ... Head lice, which can't jump or fly, transmit by direct physical contact. They quickly infest...

Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents revealed yesterday that EBT cards (debit cards that are loaded with funds for welfare programs, like SNAP and TANF) are being used as currency to buy drugs. In the past 11 months, MDEA agents have found 40 EBT cards in 25 drug enforcement operations.

House Democrats who are a "no" on the deal (9 of 44 needed to override potential veto): Steve Israel, New York Nita Lowey, New York Ted Deutch, Florida Grace Meng, New York Kathleen Rice, New York Albio Sires, New Jersey Juan Vargas, California Eliot Engel, New York Brad Sherman, California Note: 150 House Democrats signed a May letter supporting the then-unfinished Iran negotiations and none have come out against the deal since it was completed. Senate Democrats who are a "no" (1 of 13 needed to override potential veto): Chuck Schumer, New York Senate Democrats who are a "yes": Tammy...

Why the next seven weeks? Because fiscal year 2015 ends on September 30th and the settlers in the US State Department and in their contracting agencies want to hit the Obama target of 70,000 for the year and they have (as of July 31), 18,470 more to go! Actually that 70,000 figure that Obama announced in his Presidential Determination Letter to Congress last September is meant to be a ceiling, not a goal that they necessarily have to hit. However, since the contractors are paid by the head and they have salaries and office overhead to pay, they always try...

President Barack Obama’s Iran deal looks increasingly likely to survive a challenge from congressional Republicans after several swing Democrats said they would back the deal just as the Senate sped toward recess on Wednesday. Minutes after Senate leaders locked in an agreement to begin debating the nuclear deal on Sept. 8, Independent Maine Sen. Angus King came to the floor to announce his support for the agreement. King’s decision will make it hard for GOP opponents to block the lifting of legislative sanctions when the Senate votes no later than Sept. 17. Story Continued Below “This is the most difficult...

Maine’s highest court has ruled that Gov. Paul LePage waited too long to veto 65 bills. The bills will now become law. The ruling was unanimous. The LePage administration took the fight to Maine’s Supreme Court last month. The governor’s position was that he had more than the normal 10 days to veto the bills because the legislature adjourned on June 30 without setting a specific date to return. Legislative leaders from both parties said that was not the case and that the vetoes the governor tried to return on June 16 came too late. All six justices agree that...

Author Stephen King slammed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday, suggesting the GOP frontrunner is running a racist campaign. "How's this for a Trump campaign slogan: IF YOU'RE WHITE, YOU'RE ALL RIGHT! ANY OTHER HUE, I DON'T TRUST YOU," King tweeted on Wednesday.

AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Democratic Party is in the process of choosing a new name for its annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in an effort to distance itself from two prominent historical figures whose legacies recently became tarnished by intolerance. Jeremy Kennedy, the party’s executive director, said the change has been discussed informally since last year but the topic has taken on new urgency recently in the wake of a racially motivated shooting in South Carolina and the ensuing debate over the display of the Confederate flag. “Over the last year, the conversation has gained some more seriousness and depth and...

Maine’s highest court on Tuesday rejected a national anti-gay marriage group’s latest bid to shield the identities of the donors who contributed to its effort to defeat the state’s gay marriage law in 2009. The National Organization for Marriage had sought permission to delay submitting a campaign finance report that the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices ordered it to file last year when it fined the group $50,250 for its involvement in overturning the law supporting same-sex marriage six years ago. But the Maine Supreme Judicial Court said Tuesday that NOM can’t put off filing the report...

The Maine Wire Maine Leads Nation in Food Stamp Reduction By Patrick Marvin July 30, 2015 According to recently released data from the U.S.D.A, Maine is leading the nation with its reduction in the number of individuals who are utilizing the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as the food stamp program. Between April 2014 and April 2015, 12.4% fewer individuals participated in the food stamp program in Maine, the highest percent reduction of any state in that time frame. Maine’s 12.4% reduction represents a decrease of approximately 28,000 individuals who are no longer enrolled in the program which...