His comments came Wednesday, a day after the Maine Department of Health and Human Services halted payments to a provider that allegedly overbilled for interpreter services by more than $1 million. The BDN also published a story detailing a never-before-seen report written by a federal agent that raised concerns five years ago about potential widespread fraudulent billing for interpreter services in Maine.

“I think it’s something that we need to take a serious look at,” Timberlake said.

The 2020 report from a federal agent flagged Maine’s expenditures on interpreter services as entering the territory of waste, abuse or fraud. Claims were rising despite a steady or falling number of newly arrived refugees. The report came about a year after the federal government prosecuted three providers along with two interpreters, who fraudulently billed MaineCare for millions of dollars’ worth of interpreter services that didn’t happen or were overinflated.

Data obtained by the BDN shows the levels of spending that were flagged by the reports have continued. A review of claims submitted and dollars spent on interpreters shows that consistently over the last 10 years, a handful of organizations by far have filed and gotten the most of the $41 million the state has spent.

One of them is Gateway Community Services, the Portland-based company that has faced allegations of overbilling from a former employee, first published by The Maine Wire, the media arm of the conservative Maine Policy Institute.

The move by DHHS came a day after U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House oversight committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury that flagged Gateway along with a host of current and former employees as potential targets of a broader welfare fraud investigation being conducted by the panel. Comer’s letter directly tied for the first time Gateway to the committee’s investigation that has largely been focused on Minnesota.

There was no reaction from top elected Democrats on Wednesday. A spokesperson for Gov. Janet Mills, who is running for U.S. Senate in 2026, did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did Sen. Henry Ingwersen of Arundel and Rep. Michele Meyer of Eliot, the co-chairs of the legislative committee overseeing MaineCare.

Several candidates running to succeed the term-limited Mills have put pressure on her administration over the issue this month. One of them, health tech entrepreneur Owen McCarthy, praised The Maine Wire’s reporting and called for an audit of government agencies in a Facebook post.

Assistant Maine Senate Minority Leader Matt Harrington, R-Sanford, has raised concerns since May about Gateway and more broadly about the state’s spending on interpreting services. He said for months now he’s wanted top state officials to open an investigation into the spending.

As the new legislative session approaches, Harrington said he thinks more calls for action and investigation are coming. However, the calls won’t be new, he said. State republicans have been calling on Mills for months now to look into these issues, Harrington said.

“For me, I would just like to see it taken seriously, from [Attorney General Aaron Frey], from the Mills administration,” he said. “The silence is really deafening.”

Over the past year, Bangor Daily News photographers and reporters took hundreds of photos that captured the myriad of people and places that defined Maine.  

These highlights are just a small slice of the many lives and experiences the BDN documented in 2025.

January

February

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, speaks on the floor of the Maine House of Representatives at the State House in Augusta on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. Libby was a significant figure as Maine battled Trump administration directives to restrict transgender girls from participating on the school team that aligns with their gender, among other policies recognizing transgender people under state law. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN

Read the story…

March

Caribou captain Madelynn Deprey celebrates toward the crowd after an emotional overtime win in the Class B state basketball championship game on March 1, 2025, at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. Credit: Emilyn Smith / BDN 

Read the story…

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Diane Dunn, the adjutant general of the Maine National Guard, answers a reporter’s questions in her office at the Maine National Guard headquarters at Camp Chamberlain in Augusta on March 31, 2025. She was one source that the BDN talked to in an investigation into the culture that allowed sexual assault and harassment in the organization to go unchecked. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN

Read the story…

April

Rebecca Nicolino Parsons and her service dog Otis are photographed on the footbridge in Bangor in April. The Maine Human Rights Commission ruled that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that unlawful discrimination occurred” at Hellas Condominiums by Old Town, Maine, against Rebecca Parsons. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN

Advertisement

Read the story…

May

More than 300 cattle moved through Jeff Tilton’s auction barn in Corinth on May 10 for the annual spring sale, one of the only places Maine farmers can consistently buy and sell livestock. It takes roughly two weeks to line up trucking, buyers, sellers, vaccinations, ear tags and pens, plus sorting, separating and weighing the animals when they arrive. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN

Read the story…

June

A Sargent truck was the first to travel the new I-395/Route 9 connector following a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening. The new connector was a point of controversy, especially for residents of Brewer, Holden and Eddington who had their land affected by the construction of the new highway. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN 

Read the story…

July

The entrance to the Mic Mac Cove Family Campground in Union is sandwiched between a variety store and the public elementary school Sunshine Stewart attended as a child. Stewart’s killing in early July rocked the small town of Tenants Harbor. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN 

Read the story…

Advertisement

University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy poses for a portrait on the University of Maine’s Mall in Orono, July 21, 2025. The university system faced a number of challenges over the past year due to funding cuts implemented by the Trump administration. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN 

Read the story…

August

Kristina Ryberg, 62, and Donald Jewett, 71, can’t afford their Bucksport property taxes this year after a hike that local officials have mostly attributed to using up the stored funds that offset the closure of the town’s paper mill a decade ago. “We’re about to lose what we worked so hard for just because we lost the mill and haven’t adjusted to that,” Jewett told town councilors in August. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN 

Read the story…

September

On March 16, 2024, a Maine state trooper repeatedly punched Justin Savage in the face while he lay restrained in the driveway of his Limerick home, leaving him almost unrecognizable. The beating, captured on video, depicts a use of force that policing experts say is rarely justified. The Maine State Police thought differently. Credit: Courtesy Garrick Hoffman 

Read the story…

Cooper Flagg signs sports cards for kids before the 2025 Maine Sports Hall of Fame at the Gracie Theater on Sunday. Flagg’s mother Kelly Bowman Flagg was one of the inductees for her time as a player and coach at Nokomis High School, where NBA rookie Cooper Flagg would start his soaring basketball career. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN 

Advertisement

Read the story…

October

Dorie Henning, a nurse practitioner at the Islesboro Health Center, has seen an increase in tick-borne diseases — and fears about them — in her 11 years working on the island. Islesboro had a higher rate of these illnesses than any other Maine town between 2018 and 2022, according to state data. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN

Read the story…

November

Bangor’s new councilors from left Susan Faloon, Daniel Carson and Angela Walker are sworn in to the City Council on Nov. 10 at City Hall. Walker, who has a criminal record, drew criticism from right-wing media after she won a seat in the crowded 2025 Bangor City Council election. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN 

Read the story…

December

Alex Emery moves his belongings out of the encampment near Penobscot Plaza in Bangor where he was living when a cleanup crew from the railroad company CSX  arrived early on the morning of Dec. 22 with construction machinery to clean up tents, trash and other remnants of the encampment. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN

Read the story…

Advertisement

Maine has been blanketed with a fresh coat of snow from York to the St. John Valley.

The storm that began Tuesday will wrap up later on Christmas Eve, adding to the already measurable snow that has fallen in places.

Some communities have seen well over a foot of new snow, particularly toward the coast and western hills, while the north has seen but a dusting.

Here are the latest snowfall totals available from the National Weather Service offices in Caribou and Gray on Wednesday morning. These totals are preliminary based on reports filed with the weather service. No reports were available Wednesday morning for Lincoln County.

Androscoggin

— Lisbon, 16.8 inches

— Auburn, 16.5 inches

— Lewiston, 15 inches

— Durham, 15 inches

— Lisbon Falls, 14 inches

— Greene, 13.7 inches

— Canton, 12.5 inches

— Poland, 12.2 inches

— Livermore Falls, 10.5 inches

Aroostook

— Houlton, 1.5 inches

— Castle Hill, 1 inches

— Presque Isle, 0.2 inches

— New Sweden, 0.1 inches

Cumberland

— Freeport, 17 inches

— Cumberland, 14.5 inches

— Gray, 12.8 inches

— North Powna, 12 inches

— Brunswick, 11.8 inches

— Cumberland Center, 11.7 inches

— New Gloucester, 11 inches

— Windham, 11 inches

— North Windham, 9.8 inches

— Falmouth, 9.4 inches

— Raymond, 7 inches

— Denmark, 6.8 inches

— Standish, 6.5 inches

— Sebago, 5 inches

— South Portland, 4.9 inches

— Portland, 4.9 inches

Franklin

— Madrid, 8.6 inches

— Rangeley, 6.5 inches

— New Sharon, 5.5 inches

Hancock

— Orland, 5.5 inches

— Dedham, 5 inches

— Seawall, 5 inches

— Southwest Harbor, 4.7 inches

— East Surry, 4.6 inches

— Trenton, 3 inches

Kennebec

— Gardiner, 11 inches

— Winthrop, 9.7 inches

— Manchester, 9.5 inches

— Farmingdale, 8.5 inches

— Augusta, 8.1 inches

— Waterville, 3 inches

Knox

— Hope, 7.0 inches

— Union, 6.8 inches

— Tenants Harbor, 3.5 inches

Oxford

— Bethel, 10.5 inches

— Newry, 8.3 inches

— Porter, 6.5 inches

Penobscot

— Exeter, 7 inches

— Orono, 6 inches

— Brewer, 6 inches

— Hermon, 5.3 inches

— Levant, 5 inches

— Holden, 5 inches

— Carmel, 5 inches

— Hudson, 4.5 inches

— Bangor, 4.4 inches

— Newport, 3.5 inches

— Bradley, 3.5 inches

— Milford, 2.8 inches

— Passadumkeag, 2.5 inches

— Millinocket, 2 inches

— Medway, 2 inches

— Greenbush, 2 inches

— Kenduskeag, 0.5 inches

Piscataquis

— Monson, 7 inches

— East Sangerville, 7 inches

— Dover-Foxcroft, 6 inches

— Abbot, 5.8 inches

— Sebec, 4.8 inches

Sagadahoc

— Woolwich, 13 inches

— Bowdoin, 12 inches

Somerset

— New Portland, 5 inches

— Anson, 4 inches

— Palmyra, 3.8 inches

Waldo

— Winterport, 4.5 inches

— Belfast, 3.8 inches

— Searsport, 3.8 inches

— Liberty, 1 inches

Washington

— Jonesboro, 2.5 inches

— Baileyville, 1.9 inches

— Pembroke, 1 inches

— Eastport, 0.8 inches

— Whiting, 0.5 inches

— Perry, 0.5 inches

York

— Cornish, 6.7 inches

— East Baldwin, 6.7 inches

— Limerick, 5.6 inches

— Kennebunk, 5 inches

— Ogunquit, 4.7 inches

— Limington, 2.6 inches