A new report from the Maine Center on Economic Policy finds that while Portland and the area surrounding it has been experiencing major economic growth, the western and northern parts of the state are stagnating economically. The report, State of Working Maine 2025: Strengthening Economic Opportunity in Rural Communities and Beyond, examines economic trends across…
Ryan McQueen, a school board member for RSU 21 — a district that consists of Arundel, Kennebunk and Kennebunkport — submitted his resignation on Wednesday after community members initiated a recall effort over social media posts containing racist and transphobic rhetoric. A series of offensive posts on Twitter and Gab — a social media site…
Donald Lloyd, CEO and president of St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead, Kentucky, has spent more than a year dealing with higher costs for food and medical supplies for his regional hospital. Now he’s trying to prepare for another financial hit — the loss of Medicaid reimbursements for treating people in rural Appalachia. “We are all…
Proponents of creating a paid family and medical leave policy for Maine rallied at the State House on Tuesday, calling for lawmakers to enact and fund a strong program that will allow workers to take time off to care for themselves or a loved one. The Maine Paid Leave Coalition, which consists of over 30…
As states plan how they’ll spend the $25 billion remaining in federal COVID relief funds, some also are facing criticism and renewed scrutiny over how they allocated money already received from the American Rescue Plan Act. Of the $198 billion authorized by Congress in 2021, $173 billion already has been appropriated by states, the District…
An estimated 89,000 low-income residents who have had health coverage during the pandemic through MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, could begin to lose their coverage this coming spring when the Biden administration ends the public health emergency. That is because Congress, in an omnibus spending bill passed in December, has initiated the phaseout of a…
The University of Maine is hoping a unique program offering students the chance to do real-world research will help reverse a trend of declining student enrollment. Research Learning Experiences will expose first-year students to both field and lab research opportunities they would normally not take part in until their junior or senior year. John Volin,…
Mainers with long COVID are concerned that the closure of a MaineHealth clinic specializing in helping those with lingering virus symptoms will only add to the difficulty they face in accessing treatment in the state. The decision to close the clinic was announced by MaineHealth in early October. A spokesperson for the hospital network said…
A recent report found that although Maine bounced back quickly from the pandemic-induced downturn, that recovery has masked “continued underlying weaknesses in the economy.” Challenges identified in the Maine Center for Economic Policy’s annual “State of Working Maine” report include that many jobs continue to lack basic labor protections — even as workers increasingly assert their…
A right-wing group with a mission of creating a conservative majority in Augusta has spent over $190,000 in the 2022 election cycle, demonstrating the power of the recently formed PAC, which has ties to politicians who have pushed conspiracy theories about the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers along with myths about election…