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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.

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...

The Maine State Police (MSP) were part of a massive enforcement action Wednesday against Yezi Craft Cannabis, a.k.a. Yezi USA, LLC, on Norridgewock Road in Fairfield, a Chinese-controlled cannabis company with a checkered history and multiple disciplinary actions. Although the details of Wednesday’s enforcement actions at 201 Norridgewock Road are still filtering in, the locations history and ties to Chinese organized crime are apparent from public records from the Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP). Yezi Craft Cannabis and its related companies are a prime example of how Maine’s labyrinthine cannabis rules are no match for sophisticated criminal groups from out...

President Trump’s call for Sen. Susan Collins (R) to be ousted in November tossed a monkey wrench into the high-stakes Maine Senate race, raising further questions about the GOP’s most vulnerable incumbent and whether she will be able to pull off another high-wire act in the blue-leaning state this year. Frustrations at the White House boiled over on Thursday after Collins and four other Republicans sided with Democrats on a war powers resolution that would block further military action in Venezuela. While Republicans were miffed at the attack on the handful of members, it’s Collins they are most concerned with...

A Maine judge's court order prevented a mother from taking her own daughter to Christmas church services. Now the Maine Supreme Judicial Court is set to weigh in on whether the lower court overstepped its limits when it barred Emily Bickford from reading the Bible to her 12-year-old daughter or taking her to church for over a year. The state's high court heard oral arguments last month in the case of Bickford v. Bradeen — a battle between judicial authority and parental rights. Liberty Counsel, a faith-based non-profit legal group, is representing Bickford. She is challenging a December 2024 custody...

GOP lawmakers are fleeing for the exit in droves, with many pointing to a Congress they argue has grown too dysfunctional and a demanding schedule that leaves little time for their families. More than 50 lawmakers in both parties have announced decisions to leave their seats, scrambling the calculus on both sides of the aisle ahead of next year’s high-stakes midterms. The wave of exits could be particularly ominous for Republicans in charge of the House and Senate. The number exiting is nearly on par with 2018, a dismal midterm year for the GOP. Some lawmakers frustrated with inaction on...

A Maine health services company recently accused by a whistleblower of bilking taxpayers out of millions in Medicaid funds saw its spigot shut off this week as the state Department of Health moved to halt payments from MaineCare. Gateway Community Services is a Portland company run by a Somali-born man who ran for president – the U.S. equivalent of governor – of Jubaland, Somalia, for what would have been a four-year term beginning in 2024, according to his campaign website. Ali’s campaign manifesto includes a point saying he would create "robust security infrastructure" to counter Al-Shabab, while reports out of...

The House voted 231-195 on Thursday to pass legislation that would nullify President Trump’s efforts to strip more than 1 million federal workers of their collective bargaining rights, sending the measure over to the Senate, where its prospects are less rosy. Twenty Republican lawmakers broke ranks to support the Protect America’s Workforce Act (H.R. 2550) on the floor. Introduced by Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., the measure effectively nullifies Trump’s March executive order barring unions at more than 40 federal agencies under the guise of national security and bars federal agencies from terminating any union contracts that...

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...

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...

A Kennebunk, Maine, town official has stepped down from her liaison role with the local school board after facing backlash for suggesting that critics of a transgender athlete policy have "pedophilic tendencies." Vice Chair Leslie Trentalange, who serves on the Kennebunk Select Board, made the comments during an Oct. 20 Regional School Unit (RSU) 21 meeting that focused on the district’s transgender-student athlete policy. The policy, consistent with state law, allows students to join sports teams and use facilities matching their gender identity. Parents and community members across Maine have protested similar policies, arguing they violate Title IX protections Trentalange,...

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...

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 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,"...

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, the self-described "working class Mainer," attended an elite boarding school in Connecticut that costs upwards of $75,000 a year. Its alumni include Supreme Court justice Potter Stewart, former CIA director Porter Goss, Clinton family crony Strobe Talbott, MacKenzie Scott Bezos, and the veteran news anchor Chris Wallace. "Graham Platner is enrolled as a first-year student at the Hotchkiss School, located in Lakeville, Conn.," a Maine newspaper, the Ellsworth American, reported in November 1999. "Platner is familiar to many through his role as the Artful Dodger in 'Oliver' and as a 20th Maine Civil War Re-Enactor."...

Graham Platner, a far-left Democratic candidate running for Senate in Maine who has captured the enthusiasm of the party’s grassroots base, sought to preempt rumors circulating in recent weeks that a black skull-and-cross bones tattoo on his chest is a Nazi symbol. Speaking with Tommy Vietor on the “Pod Save America” political podcast, released on Monday night, Platner, 41, confirmed the existence of the tattoo, seen in video he shared displaying his bare chest, but suggested that his opponents in the race have been spreading claims that the symbol is affiliated with Nazism, which he forcefully denied. “I am not...

Sanders-backed Democrat who accuses Israel of 'genocide' has Nazi 'Totenkopf'. Graham Platner, a military veteran and Maine Senate candidate, faces backlash after revealing a Nazi tattoo and denying knowledge of its meaning. Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner sports a Totenkopf tattoo on his chest, in an archival video released by Platner himself. The skull-and-crossbones symbol is commonly associated with the Nazi SS. Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner sports a Totenkopf tattoo on his chest, in an archival video released by Platner himself. The skull-and-crossbones symbol is commonly associated with the Nazi SS. (photo credit: screenshot/via YouTube) By Andrew...

Graham Platner, the Maine Democratic Senate candidate backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), wrote in 2020 that he had an "antifa supersoldier" label on his "armor," according to an archived post reviewed by Axios. Why it matters: Progressives have elevated Platner as one of their top candidates in next year's midterm elections, but his old Reddit posts have thrown his campaign into turmoil. Platner is running to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, Senate Democrats' top Republican target next year. The contest for the Democratic nomination between Platner and Maine Gov. Janet Mills — who's preferred by Democratic Party leaders — already...