Maine Beacon - Parents, educators, advocates, and lawmakers gathered at the State House on Thursday with a clear message: Maine must raise taxes on the wealthiest individuals and most profitable corporations doing business here, to fund the programs people rely on in the state budget — not make cuts to vital programs. Speakers urged lawmakers to support policies that would raise revenue from the state’s highest earners and most profitable corporations to ensure funding for essential services like health care, housing, and childcare.
Press Herald - School districts across Maine are urging families to be vigilant of online groups that allegedly target children and coerce them into committing acts of self-abuse, though no specific threats have been made against Maine schools, officials say. In letters to families sent this week, superintendents warned of “nihilistic violent extremist” groups, which they say target children from 9 to 17 through social media and online video games. The letters, which came from districts from Brunswick to Portland to Yarmouth, followed a notification by the Cumberland County Emergency Management Agency warning local school districts and community organizations of the groups.
“Cumberland County EMA has received credible information from the FBI and CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) confirming that multiple Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) groups are actively targeting children online,” the letter began, though it did not specify whether any schools or students in Maine had been singled out.
Press Herald - Marijuana that was seized from a ring of illegal grow houses in rural Maine was found to be laden with dangerously high amounts of mold, toxic fertilizers and banned insecticides according to recently released testing. All 21 samples taken and tested were tainted with levels of heavy metals, chemicals or mold. Only three samples would have passed the state’s adult-use cannabis testing regimen.