Free Republic

The Maine State House has removed a portrait of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell following renewed scrutiny over his reported ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Maine House Republicans posted video of the portrait being taken down on social media Friday afternoon. The move comes after the release of roughly 3 million additional documents related to Epstein, in which Mitchell’s name reportedly appears more than 300 times. Mitchell was a prominent American politician and diplomat. He also served as Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 1995. For years, he has denied any knowledge...

President Trump referred to public benefits fraud in Massachusetts during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, promising a “war on fraud” after several SNAP schemes were uncovered in the Bay State along with recent whistleblower allegations of a lackluster response by state officials. “There’s been no more stunning example than Minnesota. Where members of the Somali community have pillaged an estimated $19 billion from the American tax bill, we have all the information. And in actuality, the number is much higher than that,” said Trump. “And California, Massachusetts, Maine, and many other states are even worse. This is...

BREAKING: SUSAN COLLINS WILL BACK SAVE AMERICA ACT -- WON'T BREAK FILIBUSTER U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is throwing her weight behind the House-passed SAVE America Act, saying the revised bill strikes the right balance between election security and voter access — while making clear she won’t support scrapping the Senate’s legislative filibuster to get it across the finish line. In an exclusive comment to @TheMaineWire, Sen. Collins said she supports the current version of the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote in U.S. elections. Collins said she will support the version of the SAVE Act...

The House this week is set to take up the SAVE America Act (the SAVE Act 2.0), an election-integrity measure that some Senate Republicans can’t seem to get behind even though the vast majority of Americans already have. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s office confirms the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register and photo identification to vote in federal elections, will hit the floor on Tuesday. While Democrats will spend hours making a mockery of truth and reality in opposing it, the legislation is expected to pass mostly along party lines — as the...

The Rev. Suzanne Roberts is an Episcopal pastrix who works for the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, where she serves as the Transition and Deployment Officer. During a sermon at the Cathedral of St. Luke (Episcopal) in Portland, ME, she preached on Reproductive Justice, encouraging women that sometimes the most loving thing to do is have an abortion, while lamenting that her daughters may not have the opportunity to abort their children one day, if that’s what they wish to do. For far too long, clergy from Christian denominations that support reproductive rights have been silent, which has allowed the voices...

Susan Collins (ME) Lisa Murkowski (AK) Rand Paul (KY) Mitch McConnell (KY) Thom Tillis (NC) Todd Young (IN) Chuck Grassley (IA) Jerry Moran (KS)

Why Maine could soon vote on transgender athletes in girls sports Supporters of a ballot referendum on the topic delivered more than 82,000 signatures to the Maine secretary of state Monday afternoon. Posted Yesterday at 3:03 PM Rachel Ohm, Staff Writer Supporters of a referendum that would bar transgender students from sports teams and private spaces that align with the students’ gender identities said Monday that they’ve gathered enough signatures to force a statewide vote on the issue. The group behind the effort said it collected over 82,000 signatures from Maine voters — about 14,000 more than the number required...

Queen’s University Belfast is to remove the name of former US Senator George Mitchell — one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement — from a peace center following the emergence of new information contained in the Jeffrey Epstein files released on Friday. A bust of Mr. Mitchell will also be removed from the university grounds. Mr. Mitchell chaired the negotiations which led to the 1998 peace agreement. The former senator has a long-standing association with the university where he was chancellor from 1999 to 2009. …

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said early Thursday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has ended its enhanced immigration operation in the state of Maine. The Republican senator said she had several “direct conversations” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem since the agency launched its operation over a week ago, which comes after she’d received no information from the agency at the start of its heightened presence. While not saying when the operation ended, Collins said in a statement, “There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here.” It is unclear how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity...

Maine's legendary lobster lady has died at the age of 105 after spending years trapping the seafood with her son and becoming the state's first woman lobsterman. Virginia Oliver died on January 21 at a hospital near her Rockland, Maine home, according to the Boston Globe. 'She was a hard worker and a good mother,' her son, Max Oliver, told the outlet. For years, she and Max would go lobstering three times a week on her late husband's boat named after her. Her days would start at 3am, and she would meet her son to go out and check their...

Portland Police Make Nine Arrests At Protest PORTLAND, Maine – On Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 1:03 p.m., Portland Police responded to Senator Collins’ office on the eighth floor of One Canal Plaza for a report of approximately 50 people protesting. The group was repeatedly told if they did not disperse, individuals would be charged with Criminal Trespass. After several warnings, many of the protesters left the building, while nine remained and asked to be arrested. The following individuals were arrested, charged with Criminal Trespass and transported to the Cumberland County Jail: 65-year-old Norman Allen of Portland 60-year-old Christine Dyke...

The wife of a prominent lawyer was one of six killed in a horror private jet crash on a snowy airport runway. Tara Arnold, 46, wife of personal injury attorney Kurt Arnold, died along with several of her friends on a girls' trip to Paris. The Bombardier Challenger 650 business jet went down during takeoff from Bangor International Airport in Maine about 7.45pm on Sunday. Dramatic footage showed the burning wreckage of the plane upside-down on the runway. Flight data showed it veered right during takeoff and flipped at 175mph. The FAA earlier on Monday incorrectly said there were eight...

The private jet that crashed during takeoff from Bangor International Airport in Maine on Sunday evening is registered to prominent anti-ICE lawyers who were spending tens of millions of dollars to elect Democrats in the upcoming Texas primaries. The crash resulted in seven fatalities and one serious injury. The jet was registered to Arnold & Itkin Trial Lawyers, known for its aggressive litigation and leftist political activism, including substantial financial support for Democrat causes, particularly those opposing strict immigration enforcement and Republican policies in Texas. The victims’ names have not been released at this time, but early reports indicate that...

A private jet carrying eight people crashed on takeoff from Bangor, Maine, Sunday evening, according to the FAA. The extent of their injuries is not known, a source briefed on the incident told CNN. The plane is a Bombardier Challenger 650 business jet.

A reporter from NewsNation went to Maine and discovered that the favored Somali scam in that state is federally subsidized healthcare. "In one building I visited there were ten Somali healthcare offices," the reporter said. "However, no one recalls ever seeing any patients there. The landlord says 'the only time I see anybody is when they pay the monthly rent. When I asked one of them how's business, he said there's more than one teat on the federal subsidy camel.'" This report inspired ICE to schedule an enforcement raid. Gov. Janet Mills (D) called the raid "unwelcome. I have advised...

Maine’s Democrat governor, Janet Mills, is demanding a meeting with President Trump by using the shooting by immigration agents in Minnesota to highlight her anti-ICE stance. Mills posted her “letter” to President Trump on her social media, in which she demanded the federal government stop enforcing federal immigration laws in her state. “In response to Federal agents killing another person in Minnesota, I have requested a meeting with the President of the United States and demanded that his Administration immediately withdraw ICE agents from Maine,” she wrote. She attached her letter to the president, in which decries the “weaponization of...

Office buildings across Maine are packed with home health care companies that rarely have anyone present, raise red flags similar to fraud patterns discovered in Minnesota and, in some cases, have overbilled the state by hundreds of thousands of dollars before vanishing, a NewsNation investigation has found. One Portland office building houses 10 home health care businesses — about half the building’s tenants — with the landlord saying he rarely sees anyone from most of the companies except when they pay rent. “One guy I see coming and going, and the rest of them, I never see them, only when...

LEWISTON, Maine (NewsNation) — Survivors and families of victims from Maine’s deadliest mass shooting say they were promised 100% of donations would go to them, but discovered a year later that nearly $2 million was instead distributed to 29 nonprofits, including organizations serving immigrant communities and one facing fraud allegations. In a network exclusive, NewsNation dug into the bait and switch that has left the community outraged. The Maine Community Foundation established the Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund after an October 2023 shooting at a bowling alley left 18 people dead and 13 wounded. Victims and family members say they were...

A 'Karen' from Maine let it slip to the Daily Mail that she was the one who tried to allegedly stop police from investigating a serious threat to a school because she thought they were Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Mary Conmee, 63, gladly answered the phone on Thursday morning, but instead of greeting the reporter, she appeared to be having a conversation with someone else about what she did. During that discussion, Conmee, a retired New York State Police Sgt. who resides in Orrington, confessed she was the woman who tried to impede the Brewer Police Department's investigation...

A reporter for NewsNation traveled to the state of Maine and uncovered more possible fraud. He highlighted one particular building that is supposedly home to ten Somali-owned home healthcare companies, yet when he interviewed the landlord, he said that there is never anyone there. He then interviews a local newspaper reporter who points out various locations that are also supposedly home healthcare companies, which just so happen to be next door to businesses that can wire money to Somalia. This is all so shady. From NewsNation: Maine building houses 10 health care firms; landlord rarely sees anyone Office buildings across...