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Maine cities, nonprofits ask lawmakers to reject proposed limit on housing assistance

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Maine cities, nonprofits ask lawmakers to reject proposed limit on housing assistance


AUGUSTA — Several Maine cities and nonprofits asked lawmakers Thursday to reject a proposal to limit emergency housing support, saying it would put hundreds of families at risk of eviction and lead to higher demand for other safety net programs.

The proposal contained in Gov. Janet Mills’ $94 million supplemental budget plan for fiscal year 2025 would limit recipients to three months of General Assistance housing support in a one-year period. It’s aimed at reducing the ballooning expense of the program, which cost the state $36 million last year, well above the $13 million spent in 2019.

But municipal and nonprofit leaders who testified at a public hearing on the budget plan Thursday said the proposal could harm hundreds of Maine households that rely on the program to pay rent and avoid eviction.

“We cannot stress enough the concerns this raises for those across the state who rely on short-term GA to get through a hard patch while remaining housed, or for those working to achieve self-sufficiency in this extremely difficult housing environment,” Portland Mayor Mark Dion said in written testimony opposing the change.

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Most people who testified on the proposal Thursday were opposed to the change, though the Maine Municipal Association, which advocates for the common interests of towns and cities in Maine, has not yet taken an official position and testified neither for nor against.

The conservative Maine Policy Institute submitted written testimony in support of the change, saying it is “a logical step toward reducing reliance on public assistance and encouraging individuals to seek other housing solutions.”

The Mills administration has defended the proposal as a necessary step to get the costs under control and focus resources on short-term emergency support.

“The department recognizes that General Assistance is a critical temporary support for Maine people, but reforms are needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of the program and to preserve its core mission of supporting basic needs for a short period,” DHHS Commissioner Sara Gagné-Holmes said in written testimony provided to the Legislature’s Appropriations and Health and Human Services committees Thursday.

General Assistance is Maine’s program of last resort to help people pay for basic necessities like food, utilities and shelter when they don’t have the resources to do so themselves. Under the current law, there is no limit on how much housing assistance people can receive per year. Mills’ proposal would cap assistance to 3 months in a one-year period.

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The proposed limits would not apply to emergency shelters and would include hardship exemptions for people with severe mental or physical disabilities and those with a pending application for Social Security Administration assistance.

The proposal also limits municipalities from exceeding the maximum assistance levels the state sets for all assistance categories to no more than 30 days in a 12-month period per household.

While the state funds 70% of GA costs, municipalities cover 30%. Because the program is municipally run, the department is not able to precisely calculate how many people currently receive more than three months of housing assistance, said department spokesperson Lindsay Hammes.

However, the department has estimated that the proposal would affect about 1,400 households, she said.

In Portland alone, 592 households received housing assistance for four months or more in 2024 and would be affected by the proposed cap, a city spokesperson said.

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In addition to Portland, the city of Bangor and the Maine Mayors Coalition also submitted testimony opposing the change, while the city of Auburn voiced concerns and urged the state to carefully consider how the reductions would impact vulnerable residents.

Auburn Mayor Jeffrey Harmon said many residents face challenges to maintain housing, including noncitizens who are not yet authorized to work, residents who have a criminal history that creates barriers to qualifying for housing programs and securing employment, and those with physical and mental health challenges.

AFFECT ON OTHER PROGRAMS

The proposed reduction to General Assistance could increase the demand on other programs, including low-income legal assistance, housing authorities and Social Security, Harmon said.

“While we acknowledge the necessity of addressing budgetary challenges, the proposed reductions to public assistance programs raise concerns for those in our community who depend on these services to maintain housing stability,” Harmon said in written testimony.

Nonprofit groups, particularly those that serve immigrants and asylum seekers, also testified against the change on Thursday.

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Because federal rules prohibit asylum seekers from obtaining work authorizations for at least six months from the filing of their asylum application, families often rely on General Assistance to pay their rent while they await their work permits, said Ruben Torres, advocacy manager for the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.

He said that without the continued support of General Assistance, landlords might be reticent to rent to asylum seekers or others who use the program.

“Asylum seekers come to Maine seeking safety, stability and an opportunity to contribute to our state. With proper support, they can — and do — enrich our communities,” Torres said. “However, (this proposal) penalizes families and communities striving to succeed under difficult circumstances.”

‘REALLY IMPORTANT TO US’

Antonio Tera, a student at the University of Southern Maine whose family came to Maine from Angola as asylum seekers while he was growing up, said they relied on General Assistance for about a year while they adjusted to life in the U.S. “I can tell you this program was really important to us,” Tera said.

Thursday wrapped up three days of public hearings on Mills’ proposed supplemental budget. Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee Co-Chair Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, said committees are now holding work sessions on the budget and will report back to appropriations. Rotundo said it is her goal to have the appropriations committee vote on the supplemental proposal by the end of next week.

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Other major items in the supplemental budget include funding to cover a $118 million gap in MaineCare costs this year and cuts to cost-of-living adjustments for MaineCare rates.

“The sooner we finish with the supplemental budget, the sooner we can get to the biennial,” Rotundo said.

Lawmakers on Thursday also discussed moving the General Assistance proposal from the supplemental budget to the biennial budget, which is a change the administration has said it would support.



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Program doubles enrollment, expands to more Maine schools

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Program doubles enrollment, expands to more Maine schools


Central Maine Power is expanding its Union Trade Internship Program in 2026, increasing opportunities for Maine high school students to gain hands-on experience in the electric utility industry.

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A sign for Central Maine Power, a subsidiary of Avangrid

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CMP expands union trade internship program for Maine students

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Central Maine Power is expanding its Union Trade Internship Program in 2026, increasing opportunities for Maine high school students to gain hands-on experience in the electric utility industry.

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Updated: 11:47 AM EDT Apr 14, 2026

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Central Maine Power is expanding its Union Trade Internship Program in 2026, increasing opportunities for Maine high school students to gain hands-on experience in the electric utility industry.Now in its second year, the 10-week paid program will double enrollment, expand to additional schools in central and southern Maine, and broaden training to include both line and substation operations. The program will serve 10 students ages 16 and older, selected through a competitive recruitment and interview process in partnership with participating schools.The internship runs from June to August and includes classroom instruction at CMP’s training center in Farmingdale, along with supervised field experience alongside union crews. Students will learn foundational skills such as pole climbing, bucket truck operation, breaker and transformer maintenance, and the safe use of tools and protective equipment. Participants will not work on live electrical wires.The program is aimed at strengthening the workforce pipeline for skilled trades while giving students early exposure to careers in the energy sector and supporting partnerships between CMP and Maine schools.

Central Maine Power is expanding its Union Trade Internship Program in 2026, increasing opportunities for Maine high school students to gain hands-on experience in the electric utility industry.

Now in its second year, the 10-week paid program will double enrollment, expand to additional schools in central and southern Maine, and broaden training to include both line and substation operations. The program will serve 10 students ages 16 and older, selected through a competitive recruitment and interview process in partnership with participating schools.

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The internship runs from June to August and includes classroom instruction at CMP’s training center in Farmingdale, along with supervised field experience alongside union crews. Students will learn foundational skills such as pole climbing, bucket truck operation, breaker and transformer maintenance, and the safe use of tools and protective equipment. Participants will not work on live electrical wires.

The program is aimed at strengthening the workforce pipeline for skilled trades while giving students early exposure to careers in the energy sector and supporting partnerships between CMP and Maine schools.

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Carbon removal project supports Maine’s blue economy, broader marine health

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Carbon removal project supports Maine’s blue economy, broader marine health


Oceans absorb roughly 25 to 30 percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is released into the atmosphere. When this CO2 dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid, making the water more acidic and altering its chemistry. Elevated levels of acidity are harmful to marine life like corals, oysters, and certain plankton that rely on calcium carbonate to build shells and skeletons.

“As the oceans absorb more CO2, the chemistry shifts — increasing bicarbonate while reducing carbonate ion availability — which means shellfish have less carbonate to form shells,” explains Kripa Varanasi, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “These changes can propagate through marine ecosystems, affecting organism health and, over time, broader food webs.”

Loss of shellfish can lead to water quality decline, coastal erosion, and other ecosystem disruptions, including significant economic consequences for coastal communities. “The U.S. has such an extensive coastline, and shellfish aquaculture is globally valued at roughly $60 billion,” says Varanasi. “With the right innovations, there is a substantial opportunity to expand domestic production.”

“One might think, ‘this [depletion] could happen in 100 years or something,’ but what we’re finding is that they are already affecting hatcheries and coastal systems today,” he adds. “Without intervention, these trends could significantly alter marine ecosystems and the coastal economies that rely on them over time.”

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Varanasi and T. Alan Hatton, the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering, Post-Tenure, at MIT, have been collaborating for years to develop methods for removing carbon dioxide from seawater and turn acidic water back to alkaline. In recent years, they’ve partnered with researchers at the University of Maine Darling Marine Center to deploy the method in hatcheries.

“The way we farm oysters, we spawn them in special tanks and rear them through about a two-week larval period … until they’re big enough so that they can be transferred out into the river as the water warms up,” explains Bill Mook, founder of Mook Sea Farm. Around 2009, he noticed problems with production of early-stage larvae. “It was a catastrophe. We lost several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of production,” he says.

Ultimately, the problem was identified as the low pH of the water that was being brought in: The water was too acidic. The farm’s initial strategy, a common practice in oyster farming, was to buffer the water by adding sodium bicarbonate. The new approach avoids the use of chemicals or minerals.

“A lot of researchers are studying direct air capture, but very few are working in the ocean-capture space,” explains Hatton. “Our approach is to use electricity, in an electrochemical manner, rather than add chemicals to manipulate the solution pH.”

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The method uses reactive electrodes to release protons into seawater that is collected and fed into the cells, driving the release of the dissolved carbon dioxide from the water. The cyclic process acidifies the water to convert dissolved inorganic bicarbonates to molecular carbon dioxide, which is collected as a gas under vacuum. The water is then fed to a second set of cells with a reversed voltage to recover the protons and turn the acidic water back to alkaline before releasing it back to the sea.

Maine’s Damariscotta River Estuary, where Mook farms is located, provides about 70 percent of the state’s oyster crop. Damian Brady, a professor of oceanography based at the University of Maine and key collaborator on the project, says the Damariscotta community has “grown into an oyster-producing powerhouse … [that is] not only part of the economy, but part of the culture.” He adds, “there’s actually a huge amount that we could learn if we couple the engineering at MIT with the aquaculture science here at the University of Maine.”

“The scientific underpinning of our hypothesis was that these bivalve shellfish, including oysters, need calcium carbonate in order to form their shells,” says Simon Rufer PhD ’25, a former student in Varanasi’s lab and now CEO and co-founder of CoFlo Medical. “By alkalizing the water, we actually make it easier for the oysters to form and maintain their shells.”

In trials conducted by the team, results first showed that the approach is biocompatible and doesn’t kill the larvae, and later showed that the oysters treated by MIT’s buffer approach did better than mineral or chemical approaches. Importantly, Hatton also notes, the process creates no waste products. Ocean water goes in, CO2 comes out. This captured CO2 can potentially be used for other applications, including to grow algae to be used as food for shellfish.

Varanasi and Hatton first introduced their approach in 2023. Their most recent paper, “Thermodynamics of Electrochemical Marine Inorganic Carbon Removal,” which was published last year in journal Environmental Science & Technology, outlines the overall thermodynamics of the process and presents a design tool to compare different carbon removal processes. The team received a “plus-up award” from ARPA-E to collaborate with University of Maine and further develop and scale the technology for application in aquaculture environments.

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Brady says the project represents another avenue for aquaculture to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. “It pushes a new technology for removing carbon dioxide from ocean environments forward simultaneously,” says Brady. “If they can be coupled, aquaculture and carbon dioxide removal improve each other’s bottom line.”

Through the collaboration, the team is improving the robustness of the cells and learning about their function in real ocean environments. The project aims to scale up the technology, and to have significant impact on climate and the environment, but it includes another big focus.

“It’s also about jobs,” says Varanasi. “It’s about supporting the local economy and coastal communities who rely on aquaculture for their livelihood. We could usher in a whole new resilient blue economy. We think that this is only the beginning. What we have developed can really be scaled.”

Mook says the work is very much an applied science, “[and] because it’s applied science, it means that we benefit hugely from being connected and plugged into academic institutions that are doing research very relevant to our livelihoods. Without science, we don’t have a prayer of continuing this industry.”

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New York homicide suspect arrested in Maine

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New York  homicide suspect arrested in Maine


WATERVILLE, Maine (WGME) — A 19-year-old wanted for homicide in connection with multiple gang-related shootings in New York has been arrested in Maine.

Police say they searched a home at 439 West River Road in Waterville on Friday around 11 a.m. and found 19-year-old David McCadney of New York.

According to police, McCadney was wanted in New York for second degree homicide in connection with multiple gang-related shootings.

McCadney was arrested and charged with fugitive from justice and is being held without bail at the Kennebec County Correctional Facility.

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McCadney is expected to be extradited back to New York at a later date.



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