Free Republic

An op-ed penned this month by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and published online appears to be blatantly plagiarized from an article written days earlier under former rival Ben Carson’s name, The Daily Caller has determined. The similar op-eds were written on the topic of America’s territories and commonwealths. Both pieces appear under the by-lines of the candidates. Carson’s piece, published Feb. 26, was published in the Marianas Variety in the Northern Mariana Islands. Trump’s op-ed — published in the Pacific Daily News in Guam, part of the USA Today Network — was published 12 days later on March 9.

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...