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(NewsNation) — Taxpayers in Maine have been bilked out of millions of dollars from the state’s Medicaid program, according to a whistleblower who in an interview with NewsNation likened the case to a burgeoning scandal in Minnesota, where people in the Somali community are accused of defrauding taxpayers of $1 billion meant for social services. The whistleblower, Christopher Bernardini, describes himself as a former “billing guru” of Gateway Community Services — a health services contractor that he says defrauded Maine’s Medicaid program. Bernardini worked for Gateway from May 2018 until April 2025 as a program coordinator. Bernardini alleges that Gateway...

Post See new posts Conversation Wall Street Apes @WallStreetApes A man from Somalia came to America, started a nonprofit and opened a “multimillion dollar migrant care service agency” He’s getting over $5 million per year from American taxpayers, being given no-bid contracts from Maine Governor Janet Mills, and is building a military in Somalia He has been funneling money back to Somalia to build a military in Somalia “The guy is running a migrant services agency that bills MaineCare, which is what we call Medicaid, about $5 million a year” “He said he raised money in the US to buy...

A prominent national conservative group is prepared to help fund the legal defense for Maine school boards that are bucking state law to bar transgender students from playing on sports teams and using private spaces that align with their gender identities. Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal advocacy group, will cover legal fees incurred in lawsuits filed by the Maine Human Rights Commission last month, the Livermore Falls-area school board chair told fellow board members at a Thursday meeting.

Bangor Daily News Susan Collins says Maine should be ‘transparent’ with SNAP data amid Trump’s threat by Billy Kobin December 3, 2025 U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Maine should be “transparent” with data on food stamp recipients and their immigration status but expected a threat from President Donald Trump’s administration to withhold aid to states over the issue to be blocked in court. The president initially asked states earlier in the year to provide the data on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Most Republican-led states did so. Maine was among the 21 Democratic-led states that partnered on a lawsuit that...

bout two years ago, an HIV outbreak was first identified in Penobscot County, Maine, home of Bangor. In recent weeks, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed another case, bringing the total of new HIV diagnoses in the cluster to 30. Of note, 29 of those people were coinfected with hepatitis C virus; 29 reported injection drug use within a year of their HIV diagnoses; 27 have been unhoused within a year of diagnoses; 20 were linked to care within 30 days of diagnoses; and 16 of the 27 people currently living in Maine were virally suppressed at...

A single mother is challenging a custody order that prohibits her from taking her 12-year-old daughter to a Calvary Chapel church in Maine after a lower court accepted the claim that the denomination is a "cult," granting the girl's father the power to determine which religious activities she's allowed to attend. In combating the December 2024 custody order, the mother, Emily Bickford, is receiving legal assistance from the Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group that has helped bring the mother's case before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. "Calvary Chapel is not a cult. This custody order banning Emily Bickford from...

WINDHAM, Maine—Senate candidate Graham Platner (D.) urged his supporters to publicly harass members of Maine’s congressional delegation who oppose Medicare for All. “In the future, when we’re trying to vote on something like Medicare for All, if there are other members of the Maine delegation that don’t want to come along, we need to be able to impose costs,” he said during a Saturday town hall in the southern Maine town of Windham. “We need to be able to turn people out to flood their offices. Frankly, I want people to follow them around and don’t let them have a...

The Maine Supreme Court heard arguments last week in a case challenging a lower-court order barring a mother from taking her daughter to church because the girl’s father, who never married her mother, claims it is causing her “psychological harm.” Unholy Father Eleven months ago, Matthew Bradeen secured an order from the Portland District Court giving him the exclusive power to decide which religious activities his 12-year-old daughter, Ava, may participate in. Bradeen’s relationship with Ava’s mother, Emily Bickford, ended before Ava was born. Bickford has primary custody of Ava; Bradeen has visitation rights. Bickford and her daughter have been...

The fight is between two people who never married but whose daughter now is nearly a teen. And the coming decision by the Maine Supreme Court will determine if judges in that state can simply overturn the constitutional religious rights of parents. The battle has been outlined by Liberty Counsel, which explained the judge’s trial court ruling in the dispute between mother and father is well into the extreme range, or beyond. For example, the judge ruled that the custodial mother “is a fit parent EXCEPT for the fact that she is a Christian.” The war erupted over the non-custodial...

Maine's Graham Platner is hardly the most extreme Democrat candidate running for office. Graham Platner, the oyster farmer running for the U.S. Senate in Maine, was exposed last month for making a number of damning comments on social media — including posts where he apparently identified as a communist, branded rural white Americans as racists, suggested that service members worried about being raped should buy "Kevlar underwear," and smeared all police officers as "bastards." Although he has since covered it up, Platner was also outed for having a tattoo of a skull image similar to that popularized by Adolf Hitler's...

In a long vote made longer by Texas Senator John Cornyn's absence from D.C. until late Sunday night, a new funding bill has passed the U.S. Senate and heads for the House of Representatives.The deal, which got support from eight Democrats, is part of a package meant to reopen the government, fund SNAP benefits, begin the appropriations process, and even secure a future vote for extending Affordable Care Act subsidies. The text of the bill can be found here.What's in the Deal?In exchange for their support of a bill to re-open the federal government, the seven Democrats were promised a...

Tucker Carlson has crossed the line, but is he taking conservatives with him?...

Gun-control advocates in Maine have a new reason to celebrate following the 2025 off-year election. Pine-Tree State voters officially approved ballot Question 2 Tuesday night by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent, according to the Associated Press. The measure will expand the authority of state authorities to temporarily confiscate firearms from people deemed a threat to themselves or others, in the form of a so-called red flag order. “Do you want to allow courts to temporarily prohibit a person from having dangerous weapons if law enforcement, family, or household members show that the person poses a significant danger...

A convicted killer who was sentenced to a decade behind bars for suffocating a Canadian tourist with sand was elected to the city council of a Maine city that inspired Stephen King’s “It.” Angela Walker was elected as a Bangor councilmember on Tuesday, over two decades after she pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges alongside her brother, Benjamin Humphrey, in the 2002 death of Derek Rogers, the Bangor Daily News reported. Walker, who’s not affiliated with a political party, was one of three councilmembers elected to serve a three-year term. She was sponsored by the politically progressive Maine nonprofit organization Food...

Bangor voters have elected Angela Walker, who was convicted of manslaughter nearly a quarter century ago, as a new city councilor. Walker joins Susan Faloon and Daniel Carson, among the three councilors-elect to emerge from the nine-way race in Tuesday’s election. Walker received the fewest votes – 2,231 – of the three. Faloon, a life coach, led the pack with 3,951 votes, and Carson, a labor and community organizer, earned 2,512. Walker is the “peer services coordinator” for the Bangor Area Recovery Network. She’s reportedly in recovery herself from addiction. Walker was imprisoned after being convicted of manslaughter in 2003...

Remember these guys? Believe it or not, these are the people who are going to "overthrow our government": D.C. (Nov. 5) — Leftist protesters marched in the communist-organized "Refuse Fascism" direct action in the capital. pic.twitter.com/8IXevTBgyt— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) November 6, 2025I promise I'm not making any of these with AI. MULTIPLE VIDEOS AT LINK!................... Look at all these people! Gotta leave this random speech here too. Pretty sure Trump is doing a better job of overthrowing the federal government than these commies!

A House Democrat representing a district that President Donald Trump won in 2024 is not seeking re-election next year. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, announced his plans in an op-ed for the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday, a day after Democrats' sweeping electoral victories in Virginia, New Jersey, California and New York City. "I have never loved politics. But I find purpose and meaning in service, and the Marine in me has been able to slog along through the many aspects of politics I dislike by focusing on the good work that Congress is capable of producing with patience and determination,"...

A school board member in Maine has been slammed for saying that parents with concerns about trans-identified male students playing on their daughters' sports teams have "pedophilic tendencies." She made the comments during a school board meeting earlier in October. Kennebunk Select Board Member Leslie Trentalange spoke up at the meeting, saying that critics of allowing boys to play in girls' sports have an "obsession" with the "private parts" in between students' legs. She said that parents who have "creepy obsessions" about the issue are not the "majority opinion." She added in her comments that the parents are a "group...

Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s national finance director announced his resignation on Friday, marking the latest departure an exodus of personnel from a campaign dogged by controversy at every turn. Ronald Holmes, who started working for Platner’s campaign in August, announced his immediate exit in a LinkedIn post, saying he is “no longer fully aligned” with the campaign’s standards. The exit comes just days after Platner’s campaign manager, Kevin Brown stepped down after less than a week on the job, and two weeks since the campaign’s political director, Genevieve McDonald, left. “I joined this campaign because I believed in...

Candidate for the Democrat nomination for US Senator from Maine Graham Platner's Nazi SS tattoo has stirred up some controversy. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), who has endorsed Platner, urged voters "to not fall victim to those who would unfairly judge this solid fighter for socialism. Remember, Nazi is short for National Socialist German Workers' Party. While Hitler took a wrong turn when he reneged on his deal with Stalin to carve up the smaller nations of eastern Europe between them during World War II, his previous program of socialist investment in German factories helped rescue the country from the Great...