🏳️ Maine could vote on reinstating its original state flag.
◉ What looked at first like an improbable run through the State House for the 1901 Maine flag continued on Wednesday. But there was a wrinkle in the Senate, which voted 22-12 for a change pushed by Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, that would subject switching the flag to a popular vote in November.
◉ It puts the upper chamber in conflict with the House, which voted 64-61 with many absences on Tuesday to approve switching the flag without a popular vote. The measure now faces further votes to settle differences.
◉ Going away from Maine's current flag with the state seal on a blue background was become somewhat of a partisan issue in the House, where Republicans lined up against it. But Brakey won a bipartisan vote on Wednesday to support the change. There is some uncertainty here.
📁 The state's high court considers "bad faith" in public records responses.
◉ Justices on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court are holding Thursday arguments in Bangor on a landmark public records case that could have big implications for governments tasked with responding to requests from the public and media.
◉ The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, which is representing a nonprofit that requested the terms of a settlement in a prisoner-rights lawsuit against Kennebec County. The Maine County Commissioners’ Association risk management pool, which covers settlement costs, said there were no responsive documents.
◉ In a ferocious December ruling, Superior Court judge Daniel Billings said that was not true and ordered the release of documents, finding for the first time in a Maine court that a government entity acted in "bad faith" on a record request. The high court will hear an appeal of the decision today. |
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