municipal

Housing advocates say Portland co-op plan could be model for other communities

Housing advocates hope that a plan approved this week in Portland will serve as a model for how other towns in Maine can build tenant power, control real estate speculation and create permanent affordable housing.  On Monday, the Portland City Council voted 5-4 to approve a plan by Maine Cooperative Development Partners and Szanton Company to build “Douglass Commons,” a limited-equity

Maine AllCare

Maine group launches campaign to put universal health care on the ballot

With many Mainers going without health insurance and an unemployment crisis throwing even more off their plans during a pandemic,

Andy O'Brien

‘People are in survival mode’: Unemployed Mainers face financial cliff as benefits end

Jennifer Knapp tries not to focus on the negative. But lately, that’s become more challenging.  After her extended unemployment benefits

Shenna Bellows

Who will be Maine’s next Secretary of State?

This week, Esther, Ben and Mike handicap the behind-the-scenes race for Secretary of State and recap a recent public forum

AFL-CIO

Maine postal workers warn cuts to USPS will continue, impairing service

Maine postal workers are celebrating the record-setting votes cast in the election as a resounding success for the United States

Erik Jorgensen

Maine secretary of state candidates back voting access reforms in public forum

Six candidates for Maine secretary of state largely agreed during an online public forum Tuesday evening that while the state

drug policy

Friends of late activist Jesse Harvey take up fight for overdose prevention sites

A push to renew the campaign for safe consumption sites in Maine began between friends and organizers at a Portland

public health

Shah concerned about COVID-19 vaccine skepticism

Maine’s top public health official said during a media briefing Monday that he’s concerned about vaccine hesitancy and outright anti-vaccine

racial justice

Report: Addressing systemic racism in economy would benefit all Mainers

Under the state’s current economic system, white residents are advantaged over Black, indigenous and other people of color. A new report

ACLU

Residents, ACLU urge Bangor to end sweeps of homeless encampments

Bangor residents, impacted people and civil liberties advocates are speaking up in defense of unhoused neighbors who are being pushed

Janet Mills

Activists renew demand for release of Maine’s incarcerated youth as COVID spreads in prisons

A group of young people opposed to juvenile incarceration are renewing their call to empty the Long Creek Youth Development

Donald Trump

Sen. Collins raises funds for ultra-conservative Georgia senators in run-offs

Sen. Susan Collins may have won her fifth term in Congress, but she isn’t done fundraising. In emails to supporters

democracy

Maine’s new legislative leaders to focus on COVID relief, economic and racial justice

State Rep. Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) is set to become the next speaker of the Maine House of Representatives after being

health care

With focus on public health and poverty, Democrat wins in Maine’s reddest county

Dr. Richard Evans knows what it’s like to struggle, having grown up in an impoverished area of Houston, where his

Ethan Strimling

High voter turnout, increased inequality spur local minimum wage victories

In 2015, voters in Portland rejected a referendum to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by a

Ned Claxton

Maine leaders back Obamacare as Republican lawsuit reaches Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Susan Collins