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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...

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...

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...

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,"...