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Campaign news and notes
— Maine's 2022 legislative races are on another short list rating them the most competitive in the country. Sabato's Crystal Ball put both the House and Senate on a list of only four toss-up legislative chambers across the country. It noted that Maine's penchant for ticket-splitting could lead to legislative gains for Republicans even if Gov. Janet Mills fends off former Gov. Paul LePage. Other forecasts over the last two months have made similar conclusions.
— Mills continues a busy week of public events. She will be at a Vassalboro ribbon-cutting ceremony this afternoon on a project that will restore alewives to China Lake for the first time since the 1700s.
— As for her rival, LePage has not given notice of any public events since the Republican convention nearly three weeks ago. Last week, he was in eastern Hancock County on business and other visits with Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor. |
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What we're reading
— The Maine Republican Party's first ad against Gov. Janet Mills attacked a lesson explaining transgender identity to children that was posted on the Department of Education's website. The video was removed by the department this week after officials determined it should not be recommended as part of kindergarten instruction.
— A frustrated group of Maine lawmakers raised the idea Wednesday of gaining access to confidential child welfare case files as part of an ongoing review of the system. The state looked resistant to such a proposal.
— "No, Maine students aren’t using litter boxes in school." You're just going to have to read the story to find out why it was necessary to write.
— Rising housing costs were one of the top causes of record homelessness found in Maine's annual survey. Read our housing coverage.
— A magazine called Auburn the "the YIMBYest city in America." If you applied its housing goal to New York City, it would mean 2 million more residents. |
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| The Royal River flows over the Bridge Street Dam on Wednesday in Yarmouth. The Army Corps of Engineers will decide this year on the viability and cost of removing this and one other nearby dam which have impacted the ability of migratory fish to gain access upstream. The river has been dammed since the 1700s. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty) |
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📷 Lead photo: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, center, and from left, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, John Cornyn, R-Texas, and John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, prepare to meet with Swedish media at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm on Sunday, May 15, 2022. (TT News Agency photo by Anders Wiklund via AP)
❌ Corrections: The Wednesday newsletter misdefined a state measure of child deaths. It tracks those associated with abuse or neglect and those that come after a history of family involvement with the child welfare system. It also had an incorrect photo caption. |
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