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| 📷 Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined at left by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, speaks to reporters following Senate passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, at the Capitol in Washington on Nov. 29, 2022. (AP photo by J. Scott Applewhite) |
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💍 Mainers will watch the president sign a landmark LGBTQ-rights bill.
◉ President Joe Biden will hold a White House ceremony celebrating passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, which codifies federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. It also includes religious protections that helped it win the support of 12 Republicans in the Senate and 39 in the House.
◉ It was sponsored by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine leading negotiations on the Republican side. Collins will attend the ceremony. Gia Drew, the executive director of the LGBTQ-rights group EqualityMaine, will also be there and is already apologizing for late Christmas cards as a result. Watch the ceremony at 3:30 p.m.
🔍 Lawsuits alleging priest abuse pile up in Maine in part due to a new law.
◉ Three new lawsuits this week brought the total to 11 by the Associated Press' count after Mills and the Legislature passed a law last year repealing the statute of limitations on civil claims of child sexual abuse.
◉ The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, which argued against the law, has been the focus of the lawsuits. The three new ones filed this week come from men who allege sexual abuse by the late Rev. John J. Curran between 1962 and 1964 when they were between the ages of 11 and 14.
◉ Curran, who died in 1976, has been the subject of sexual abuse allegations for nearly three decades. The Legislature renamed an Augusta bridge in 2009 that had long been named for Curran. |
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What we're reading
🚨 The Castine crash that killed four college students on Saturday was so severe that investigating it could take weeks.
🚫 Political unrest in Peru led Bangor High School to cancel a planned trip.
🐟 This fish has been in Maine lakes since the ice age. Climate change and non-native species threaten it.
🐻 The University of Maine's mascot switched from a bear to a moose and back again. |
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