Mount Airy’s Autumn Leaves
Festival was ranked second in a national USA Today readers’ poll, and
Freeport’s own Fall Festival also made the top‑10 list of fall events. That
recognition puts Freeport alongside major festivals
nationwide, offering extra visibility for the town just weeks before the
October celebration draws visitors to its waterfront and downtown.
Press
Herald - A new report says
federal immigration enforcement could lead to the loss of up to 7,000 workers
in the state and $3.3 billion in annual economic output, according to the Maine
Office of New Americans.
The state-commissioned report,
released Thursday, analyzes the contributions of over 30,000 foreign-born
workers in Maine and explores the potential impacts of federal immigration
enforcement on the state’s workforce and economy.
Prepared by Maine-based Wallace
Economic Advisers, the report shows the loss would affect businesses across the
economy — including food production, housing, hospitality, construction and
healthcare — as well as the people who rely on them.
“This report is the first of its kind to examine what
Maine’s economy could look like if immigrants continue to disappear from our
workforce,” Gov. Janet Mills said via email. “President Trump’s cruel and
dangerous immigration agenda is forcing us to contemplate this reality, from
the immediate moral and humanitarian harm to the undeniable consequences for
Maine’s workforce”
Maine
Morning Star - Maine Attorney
General Aaron Frey is urging residents to check if they bought certain generic
drugs, in which case they may be eligible for new settlement funds. Maine and 47 other states and territories plan
to use settlement funds from drug manufacturers to refund consumers that paid
inflated prices for certain generic drugs from May 2009 and December 2019,
according to a press release from the Office of the Maine Attorney General.
The coalition filed a series of
antitrust lawsuits against drug manufacturers, starting in 2016, arguing the
companies conspired to raise the prices of generic drugs. The coalition has
reached settlements with several manufacturers, totalling roughly $96.5
million.
This month a federal judge gave
initial approval to the coalition’s plan for the settlement funds.
Consumers can check the list of
eligible drugs here or at https://aggenericdrugsclaims.com/, or call
1-866-290-0182 and email info@AGGenericDrugs.com. Consumers can then submit a
claim for the drug purchase until March 8, 2027.
The
Nation - - [Susan] Collins's undeniabl gift for pork-barrel
spending could now come back to haunt her, thanks to a new pay-for-play scandal
broken on Tuesday by ProPublica. The ProPublica story focuses on Collins's
links to Martin Kao, the former CEO of a defense contractor called Navatek.
Last year, Kao was sentenced to 87 months in prison for bank fraud and Covid
relief fraud.
Prior to his conviction, Kao had
provided damning testimony to the FBI about a political quid pro quo scheme he
was working. Legally, defense contractors are not allowed to donate to
campaigns, so Kao used shell corporations to donate to super PACs supporting
politicians who promoted Navatek projects to the Pentagon. Collins and her
office were in the crosshairs of the FBI investigation into Kao's activities,
but the senator was saved from possible criminal charges by Donald Trump's
reelection, which led the president to fire FBI agents working on the
investigation (some of whom had also investigated Trump's efforts to overturn
the 2020 election).