Connect with us

Maine

Maine Democratic chair: Republican smears can’t change the reality – Paul LePage failed Maine

Published

on

Maine Democratic chair: Republican smears can’t change the reality – Paul LePage failed Maine


This weekend on the Maine Republican conference, Paul LePage and his marketing campaign are going to placed on a present full of lies. You’ll hear election misinformation, accusations that Democrats are cartoon villains and baseless smears about Gov. Janet Mills. However maybe probably the most ridiculous and least credible lie that they’ll push is that Maine was higher off when LePage was within the Blaine Home.

Whereas some Republicans could really feel nostalgia for the LePage period, Mainers don’t. That’s as a result of LePage’s eight-year tenure as governor was full of catastrophic failures on the problems Maine individuals care about most – failures that now we have not forgotten.

We’ve not forgotten how LePage’s failures put our well being in danger. For eight years, LePage blocked our state from increasing Medicaid, vetoing it 5 instances towards the need of Maine voters and in the end stopping 90,000 individuals from accessing well being protection. He fought tooth and nail towards requiring insurance coverage firms to cowl preventive care and most cancers screening, and forfeited federal funds to assist psychological well being providers within the state. He additionally decimated our public well being system, refusing to fill dozens of public well being nurse vacancies. Throughout his tenure, Maine dropped from the eighth-healthiest state within the nation to sixteenth, and the state noticed a soar within the share of people that averted accessing well being care due to excessive prices.

Mainers additionally is not going to overlook LePage’s failure to steer our financial system. Underneath LePage, Maine struggled to get better from the Nice Recession, rating forty ninth in job development as measured by the share of jobs recovered from the earlier recession and nonetheless had one of many “slowest rising economies” within the nation by 2016. Even because the job market languished, LePage did little to assist Maine employees get by, preventing efforts to broaden job coaching packages and lift wages. He additionally needlessly forfeited near $2 billion in federal sources, which estimates mentioned would have helped create 4,800 jobs yearly. These failures are why the Bangor Every day Information editorial board referred to LePage’s tenure as “eight years of financial stagnation.”

Advertisement

In fact, LePage’s failures weren’t restricted to well being care and the financial system.

He proposed chopping thousands and thousands from public training funding and was dubbed an “enemy of public training” by the Press Herald editorial board after he repeatedly attacked Maine academics.

He did little to guard Maine’s surroundings, vetoing a variety of makes an attempt to fight the local weather disaster, whereas concurrently launching an “assault” on Maine’s environmental protections and inspiring offshore drilling.

Commercial

And because the state was ravaged by the opioid disaster, he stubbornly fought efforts to make life-saving overdose prevention medicine extensively accessible, placing Maine lives in peril.

Advertisement

In 2018, drained after eight years of LePage’s failures, Maine voters despatched Gov. Mills to the Blaine Home to repair the issues her predecessor left behind. On problem after problem, Gov. Mills has delivered. Whereas LePage obstructed well being care entry, she expanded it for greater than 90,000 Mainers and rebuilt our public well being system – main one of many strongest COVID responses within the nation. Whereas LePage left Maine floundering years after the Nice Recession, below Gov. Mills, Maine’s financial restoration from the pandemic has been an instance even Republicans are pointing to as a hit. And whereas LePage failed to completely fund training and did little to cease the local weather and opioid crises from devastating our state, Gov. Mills has made report investments in all three.

It doesn’t matter what lies and smears are spun this weekend in Augusta, Republicans can not change the truth, which is that Paul LePage’s tenure in workplace was an abject failure on problem after problem. After being elected to wash up the mess LePage left behind, Gov. Mills did simply that. Now that she has steered Maine onto a path for a brighter future, we can not afford to show again.


Use the shape beneath to reset your password. While you’ve submitted your account e-mail, we’ll ship an e-mail with a reset code.

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Maine

Denver beats Maine men’s hockey with late goal

Published

on

Denver beats Maine men’s hockey with late goal


ORONO — With two of the top three scoring teams in the country on the ice, of course a low-scoring game was the result.

In Friday’s matchup of top-10 teams, the first of two games went to No. 6 Denver, in heartbreaking fashion for seventh-ranked Maine. The Pioneers scored with 20.7 seconds left, on a shot from the point by Cale Ashcroft that deflected off the shin guard of Maine’s David Breazeale and past goalie Albin Boija, giving the reigning NCAA champions a 2-1 win at Alfond Arena.

It came after Maine (12-4-2) lost a faceoff in its defensive zone, then blocked the initial shot. For Maine coach Ben Barr, it was an another example of not doing all the little things in a close game against a strong opponent. In that regard, it was similar to Sunday’s 4-2 loss to Bentley in Portland.

“Our margin of error, and this has been for the whole time that we’ve been here, our margin of error is very, very small. When you play teams like (Denver), that one faceoff matters. It’s disappointing,” Barr said. “We just didn’t do enough to win.”

Advertisement

Both teams are also among the best in the nation in scoring defense. Only Minnesota State allows fewer goals per game than Maine’s 1.76, while Denver (15-4) is tied for seventh in the country, allowing two goals per game. For most of the game, Maine’s defensive effort was strong. Denver went into the game tied with Minnesota as the top scoring team in the country, averaging four goals per game (Maine is third at 3.88 goals per game). While the Pioneers had just four shots in the third period, the winning goal came when the Black Bears couldn’t clear the puck, and Denver had scoring chances throughout the game that were the result of defensive miscues, only for the Black Bears to be bailed out by Boija (22 saves)

“Our guys played hard. We still have two or three players on the back end that are unplayable, and that makes it really hard on the rest of the guys,” Barr said. “They try, it’s just hasn’t clicked for them for some reason. We’ve got to help them.”

A captain, Breazeale agreed that the Black Bears need to do more.

“There’s definitely some good to take away from it. It’s just that last 1% that we as a collective team have got to take forward,” he said. “We made one block, and the puck’s bouncing around. There’s no excuse for it. We’ve got to be able to respond in those big moments, all five guys on the ice, and we weren’t able to do it tonight.”

Denver took a 1-0 lead with a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 2:53 of the second period. Near the left post, Carter King stuffed in the rebound of a shot by Aidan Thompson that ricocheted off the boards behind the net.

Advertisement

The Black Bears tied the game at 18:37 of the second on Frank Djurasevic’s power-play goal past Pioneer goalie Matt Davis (29 saves).

In the third period, Barr shuffled his top two lines, moving wing Josh Nadeau to play with center Harrison Scott and wing Thomas Freel, while moving Ross Mitton to a line with center Nolan Renwick and wing Taylor Makar – a trio that played well together early in the season.

“We were trying to get Josh going. I thought he was a little stale in the first couple periods, to be honest. I thought he was better in the third,” Barr said.

Barr also moved Owen Fowler from wing to center, on a line with wings Anthony Calafiore and Nicholas Niemo. With captain Lyden Breen out indefinitely because of a leg injury, the Black Bears are short-handed at center, Barr said. Right now, he’s trying to find guys who can take draws and win faceoffs.

The loss stings, Breazeale said, but there’s no time to dwell on it. These teams face each at Alfond Arena again at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Advertisement

“We feel like we’ve got a lot to prove as a team,” Breazeale said, “and tomorrow night we’ve got to come out with that for 60 more minutes.”



Source link

Continue Reading

Maine

Ellsworth veterinarian to settle allegations over controlled substance storage

Published

on

Ellsworth veterinarian to settle allegations over controlled substance storage


An Ellsworth veterinarian has agreed to pay more than $145,000 to settle allegations that he violated the federal Controlled Substances Act.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency was unable to conduct several audits last year at Dr. Alan Toothaker’s registered location because of insufficient record keeping.

An investigation revealed that Toothaker maintained minimal oversight, had improper storage, failed to keep regular inventories and did not keep appropriate records.

U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee said the practice did not have adequate security or oversight, making it very difficult to determine if any substances had gone missing.

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading

Maine

2 dead and several injured in Southern California plane crash

Published

on

2 dead and several injured in Southern California plane crash


FULLERTON, Calif. — Two people died and 19 were injured Thursday when a small plane crashed through the roof of a sprawling furniture manufacturing building in Southern California where at least 200 people were working, police said.

The people who died were believed to have been on the plane, while those injured were inside the building. The deceased victims will be identified after officials have contacted the next of kin, the Fullerton Police Department said in a statement.

Eleven people were taken to hospitals, while eight were treated and released at the scene, police said.

The plane crashed less than two minutes after taking off from the Fullerton Municipal Airport in Orange County, located 6 miles from Disneyland, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Advertisement

Security camera footage from Rucci Forged, a wheel manufacturer across the street, shows the plane was tilted on its side as it dove into the building, causing a fiery explosion and black plume of smoke.

Firefighters and police arrived on scene and battled the blaze and evacuated surrounding businesses, Fullerton police spokesperson Kristy Wells said.

Chris Villalobos, an airport operations worker, came to the warehouse to see what had happened after receiving a phone call about a plane going down nearby. He noted the airplane’s owner was a regular at the airport and has frequently taken off from there.

“He has a hangar here and everything,” Villalobos said.

After taking off, the pilot told air traffic control he was going to turn around to make an emergency landing, but it was unclear what the issue with the plane was, Villalobos said.

Advertisement

The building struck by the plane was occupied by Michael Nicholas Designs, a furniture upholstery manufacturer, according to a sign on a door. There appeared to be sewing machines and textile stock inside.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the accident and identified the plane as a single-engine, four-seat Van’s RV-10. The National Transportation Safety Board said it also is investigating.

The airport in Fullerton has one runway and a heliport. Metrolink, a regional train line, is nearby and flanks a residential neighborhood and commercial warehouse buildings.

The Fullerton City Council posted a statement on social media calling the crash a “solemn tragedy.”

“The City of Fullerton is committed to providing support for all those affected and working with the agencies involved to uncover the details of this incident,” Mayor Fred Jung said in the statement. “We are grateful for the strength of our community and the compassion we show one another in times of crisis.”

Advertisement

Another four-seat plane crashed into a tree a half-mile from the airport in November while making an emergency landing shortly after takeoff, The Orange County Register reported. Both people on board suffered moderate injuries.

Fullerton is a city of about 140,000 people about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

Copyright 2025 NPR





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending