Maine House Democrats - We just finished up the second session of the 132nd Legislature in Augusta....Some highlights include:
+Ensuring tax fairness with a millionaire's tax!
+Supporting education and child care by overhauling the state school funding formula to ensure every town receives its fair share, raising starting salaries for teachers, clearing the child care waitlists, and guaranteeing free meals for public pre-K students.
+Making a $68 million investment to build affordable homes and providing annual property tax relief by increasing the Property Tax Fairness Credit from $1,000 to $1,500.
+Protecting women’s rights from the Trump Administration by ensuring funding for reproductive health care centers and starting a program to track sexual assault forensic examination kits.
+Protecting immigrants by prohibiting ICE from accessing dorms, schools, libraries, and hospitals without a warrant from a judge.
+Introducing first-in-nation legislation that will put a temporary ban on data center development, giving the state time to put guardrails in place that will protect Maine’s natural resources and ensure electric costs for consumers aren’t driven up by big corporations.
Press Herald
The small mountain town doesn’t immediately seem like one of Maine’s most vibrant cannabis markets. Bethel, a community of about 2,500 in the White Mountains, has about one dispensary, grow, or manufacturing facility for every 200 residents — the highest concentration of cannabis businesses of any Maine municipality with more than 1,500 residents. To locals, the surprise isn’t the number of shops, but how they all manage to stay in business.
A Maine island airline says the United States Postal Service owes nearly $400,000 for mail deliveries dating back to 2023, prompting it “to make a small stand” Tuesday. Penobscot Island Air says it has ferried mail on 75 days so far in 2026 without payment. A USPS spokesperson said Tuesday that the agency will be reaching out to the airline “to resolve the matter.” But the airline says it has already been in regular contact with USPS, to no avail.
EVENTS
Tidal chart for May in South Freeport
APR 22
Wabanaki Oral History Project, Hawthorne-Longfellow Library 5 Colllege St Brunswick 3pm
APR 23
Business After Hours: with CMP at Goodfire Brewing Co
Thursday, April 23 5:00–7:00
APR 24
Friday, April 24 • 10:30 AM
@ Bradley Room at Freeport Community Center
Age-Friendly Freeport & Pownal is hosting the Art Van every second and fourth Friday. Join us in the Bradley Room to make art and see what the Art Van has in store. Free and open to all!
Business After Hours: with CMP at Goodfire Brewing Co
APRIL 25
Visit Freeport & Meetinghouse Arts present
Saturday, April 25 • 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
@ Various Venues in Freeport!
Visit Freeport & Meetinghouse Arts invite you to join us on a journey through Freeport, Pownal, Durham & New Gloucester to explore the artist & maker studios often hidden on side streets and
country roads. You’ll be invited into their working studios to view their newest projects up close. Learn about their inspirations and process in intimate conversations that are sometimes not possible at art show openings.
Earth Day Festival -Saturday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary, Brunswick
Freeport Folio presents
Pressure Makes Diamonds | Poetry Workshop with Joseph Coleman
Saturday, April 25 • 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM
@ Freeport Community Library
In this workshop, “Pressure Makes Diamonds,” students will use the pressure of workshopping an original poem and then reading that poem at an open mike that same evening. The instructor will provide prompts and each student will get a typewriter if they would like to experience what it was like pre computers. As a Barnum and Bailey Ring Master would yell out when a rogue elephant dashed for the exits: “The Show Must Go On!” or in this case: “Poems Must Be Read!”
APR 26
O’Donoghue’s Pub, 103 Pleasant St., Brunswick: Open mic hosted by Billy The Kid, 3-7
|
|
Shuck Yeah! Oyster Shucking and Cooking Class
Sunday, April 26 • 3:00 PM
@ Wolfe’s Neck Center
Join Chef Malcolm Kelly to learn about how to safely shuck an oyster along with some tasty recipes. Using oysters from Quahog Bay Conservancy, you will learn raw, grilled and baked oyster preparation and enjoy these yummy bivalves.
APRIL 27
Royal River Conservation Trust:
|
April27th 6:00 PM Public Hearings
27th 6:30 PM Select Board meeting28th 6:30 PM Conservation Commission Meeting29th 6:30 PM Capital Asset Plan Funding Committee Meeting
May16th 10:00 am - 2:00 pm Pownal Community Day
APRIL 30
The inaugural Wolfe’s Neck Center “Twilight Meeting” for Freeport community and local partners. Updates on Wolfe’s Neck Center campus stewardship, farm operations, education programs, historical buildings and research. Expect a 45-minute presentation, 15 minutes of small group Q&A, and light refreshments. RSVP here
MAY 1
Maine Democrats Biennial Convention. 1 Thompson Point, Portland. 9 am
Wolfe's Neck Center - Our beloved Farm Cafe opens on May 1 and you’re going to want to see this menu! Chef Macolm Kelly has outdone himself, offering a variety of rotating freshly made pastries, breakfast sandwiches (beginning May 22) and salads, all made with Wolfe’s Neck meats and produce. Hours: 8am-1pm
Sample items:Squash MuffinsEgg & Bacon Breakfast SandwichGarden SaladRoast Beef Sandwich
Climate Solutions Dance Party: Dance your way into climate action! in collaboration with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and SPACE Gallery. The event is a celebration of the paperback release of Dr. Johnson’s New York Times bestselling book What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures —an inspiring collection of possibilities for building a better climate future. The first 200 people to arrive will receive a copy of the new book. Grab your tickets before they sell out. TICKETS
MAY 20
Ambassador Nathaniel Fick and Rachel Wilson, who've seen it all and whose first-hand experience will serve to educate us all, on Wednesday, May 20, at 7 pm at the Freeport Performing Arts Center. Tickets are available for $20 (plus Eventbrite fee) through a link on our website FreeportSpeech.org or on Eventbrite. Ambassador Fick will be available for a book signing after the discussion.