MSN - Maine and Colorado this week approved ballot initiatives by advocacy groups seeking to ban transgender student-athletes from playing on girls’ sports teams, putting a debate that has become an enduring political flash point up for direct vote in blue states where leaders have resisted such policies.
The states are the latest to take up the issue this election year. Voters in Washington state will also vote on trans athletes in November, and similar measures have been proposed in Arizona, Nevada and Nebraska.
The groups pushing the initiatives, which would bar transgender student-athletes from participating in sports teams of their gender identity, have called them citizen-led efforts to bypass state legislatures. Critics said the proposed bans are discriminatory.
Leyland Streiff, with the advocacy group Protect Girls Sports in Maine, said in an interview that a majority vote would be “the most democratic way possible” to decide on the issue and that the petition sidesteps “elected officials that are clearly out of touch right now with what the rest of the state actually wants.”
Press Herald - Portland will close its shelter for asylum seekers this month due to a rapid decline in use over the past year attributable to the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies. The decision will result in 35 layoffs.
City officials said Tuesday that the closure is necessary to adapt to the realities of the immigration system. This time last year, there were 157 people staying at the 179-bed shelter in Portland’s Riverton neighborhood. This week, city officials said only one individual remains, and they will be leaving March 20
The developers behind the massive Portland Foreside project plan to build a natural gas-fired cogeneration plant to provide electricity, heat and hot water to the property, raising concerns about potential environmental impacts.
ICE surge cost Maine’s economy millions, report says
3 members of Portland family released 4 months after immigration arrest
Maine announces $12M to help fund housing first projects in 3 cities
Portland software firm ranks 3rd in growth among New England businesses
Platner supporters hit Mills over funding for sexual assault cases. Here’s the full story.
Kennebunk Elementary principal placed on leave amid police investigation
Amid war with Iran, military moms hope to start Maine’s first Blue Star Mothers chapter
Leslie Bridgers went on an excursion recently to an Aldi location in New Hampshire in order to find out why the grocery store chain has such a cult following. A Portland location is set to open March 26.
Maine lawmakers signed off Wednesday on emergency funding
for the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services amid a critical shortfall
for private lawyers who represent low-income criminal defendants and parents in
court. The vote came a week after the commission said it would stop
paying those lawyers later this month. The proposal now heads to Gov. Janet
Mills; if she signs it, the funding will take effect immediately.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Thursday she’s backing political
newcomer Graham Platner in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Warren, a
Massachusetts progressive and 2020 presidential candidate, said she
thinks Platner
is the best candidate to challenge five-term Republican incumbent
Susan Collins in November. Warren said Platner "is going to flip Maine and
then actually deliver change for working people.
Maine Public - Maine voters finally learned this week who will appear on the Republican and Democratic primary ballots for governor, absent any successful challenges to their signature-gathering efforts. There were very few surprises.