Press Herald
Maine and 24 other states are suing the Trump administration over an expected lapse in food assistance benefits next month due to the ongoing federal government shutdown. About 170,000 Mainers use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office said Tuesday that the USDA has billions in SNAP contingency funds that could be used to keep the program running during the shutdown.
As Maine voters prepare to decide the fate of two citizen ballot initiatives, students at dozens of schools across the state tackled the same questions on Tuesday in mock elections. This is the first year that students have gotten to vote in a mock referendum election, run by the Maine Department of the Secretary of State. After the ballots were counted, students at Morse High School in Bath voted ‘no’ on Question 1 and ‘yes’ on Question 2.
As the shutdown drags on, assistance programs in southern York County are fielding more calls for help with food, fuel and utilities from federal workers. On a typical Monday night, about 90 families line up at the North Berwick Food Pantry. This week, 134 showed up. Some of the new families coming in each week are Portsmouth Naval Shipyard employees who have been working without pay since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.
How Bowdoin College Influenced Mamdani’s World View
Finding a Job in Maine (1=Best; 25=Avg.):
- Overall rank for Maine: 9th
- 7th – Job Opportunities
- 19th – Employment Growth
- 13th – Unemployment Rate
- 13th – Avg. Length of Work Week (in Hours)
- 22nd – Avg. Commute Time (in Minutes)
- 13th – Job Security