A first-in-the-nation compromise bill that would mandate paid leave in 85 percent of Maine’s workforce is sailing for passage through the Democratic-led Legislature after easily gaining initial approval in a Senate vote on Tuesday.
For “big pharma,” a lion’s den might seem more hospitable than the Maine Legislature this year.
The committee tasked with paying for Gov. Janet Mills’ January inaugural festivities still needs to raise just more than $67,000 to settle most of its tab from the Augusta Civic Center. Settling that debt may have to wait until early summer.
In a pressure-packed and surprising Thursday vote, the Maine Senate endorsed an amendment by a one-vote margin that would retain a religious exemption to school vaccine requirements that could throw the passage of a high-profile bill into doubt.
U.S. Sen. Angus King joined a growing chorus on Wednesday blasting the U.S. attorney general’s handling of the Mueller report, saying William Barr is acting more like “the president’s lawyer than the people’s lawyer.”
Wednesday’s public hearing on a Democrat-backed bill that would increase the number of licensed medical professionals who can perform abortions in Maine provided the latest forum for the long-running debate over the legal procedure.
A bill that proposes creating a court advocate for the victims in animal cruelty cases would be named for Franky, the Boston terrier-pug mix stolen from his Winter Harbor home and killed last year, if passed into law.
Maine is projected to beat revenue projections by $66 million in this budget year and nearly $21 million in the next two years, providing a small cushion to a tight two-year budget proposed by Gov. Janet Mills but not enough to fund many Democratic priorities.
All it takes is one bad apple to spoil the bunch.
A bill that could make Maine the first state to reinstate internet privacy rules similar to those nixed by a Republican-led Congress in 2017 was endorsed by a legislative committee on Tuesday in a move that bodes well for its passage.
