Maine
Top Democrat says Maine lawmaker ‘wrong’ to post about convicted police killer
Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau said a Democratic member’s social media post about a woman who was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper was “wrong” but that he will not remove her from a committee after police groups asked him to do so.
In a since-deleted Facebook post made in February in honor of Black History Month, Rep. Nina Milliken, D-Blue Hill, summarized the case of Assata Shakur and how the member of the Black Liberation Army and Black Panther Party was convicted of killing New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973 during a shootout on the state’s turnpike.
Shakur, also known as Joanne Chesimard, was found guilty of murder and given a life sentence before she escaped from a New Jersey prison in 1979. The FBI made her the first woman on its “Most Wanted Terrorists List” and believes she has remained in Cuba after fleeing and receiving asylum there. She has been defended and celebrated over the years as a civil rights activist.
Milliken wrote in her post that there was “lots to unpack with this situation” but that the state has “enormous resources” to come after those who “present a challenge to systems of oppression.” Milliken also quoted Shakur as saying they “convicted a woman with her hands up” and ended her post with a “fun fact” on how Shakur is the late rapper Tupac Shakur’s godmother.
The Maine Fraternal Order of Police and Maine State Trooper’s Association responded by asking Fecteau, the Democratic House speaker from Biddeford, to remove Milliken from her spot on the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
“Rep. Milliken’s defense and support of this cop killer goes well beyond any reasonable bounds of decency and logic,” said the letter signed by Maine FOP leader Mike Edes to Fecteau and House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor. Edes also wrote Milliken “has violated that trust and forfeited any credibility she might have had on the committee.”
Fecteau spoke with Milliken about how her post was “wrong” and “callous” and then told the FOP that Milliken had deleted it, Fecteau spokesperson Victoria Foley said Tuesday. Fecteau also “reiterated he holds everybody to a very high standard” and felt the situation did not need additional action after Milliken removed the post, Foley said.
Edes, the state FOP’s executive director, told a reporter via email Tuesday he appreciated how Fecteau was “honest” and “frank” in his response and that the speaker “has a long history of supporting Maine’s police officers.” But Edes said the law enforcement groups still want Milliken to step down from the criminal justice committee.
“Her blatant bias towards the police makes her basically ineffective in helping improve and increase public safety for Maine’s citizens and does nothing but [put] Maine’s police on the defensive,” Edes said.
Milliken did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. She is serving her second term and represents the Hancock County towns of Blue Hill, Brooksville, Castine, Sedgwick, Surry and Trenton.
Many Maine municipalities will open cooling centers this week with the National Weather Service issuing a variety of heat advisories covering the next few days.
The Maine DEP also issued an air quality alert for Wednesday with ground-level ozone expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
All of York County, interior Cumberland and Androscoggin counties, and the southern half of Oxford County will fall under an extreme heat warning from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Friday.
The warning calls for “dangerously hot conditions” that could feature heat index values of up to 110 degrees, with overnight lows only expected to fall into the 70s, according to the weather service’s office in Gray.
The rest of the state — save northern Aroostook, Piscataquis and Somerset counties — falls under a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. However, the weather service has also placed much of the state under an extreme heat watch for Thursday.
Heat index values, which measure how hot it feels to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature, are expected to reach up to 104 degrees during the heat advisory period, the weather service warns. They could reach 110 degrees Thursday, when the extreme heat watch is in effect.
Northern Oxford and Franklin counties, and central Somerset County, can expect a heat index value of up to 99 degrees Wednesday, according to the weather service.
The weather service advises people to drink plenty of fluids, stay in air-conditioned rooms when possible, avoid extended periods in the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors. It also warns not to leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles, as “car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.”
Cooling Centers
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has also issued an air quality alert from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday along the coast from Kittery to Acadia National Park. The agency warns that ground-level ozone concentrations are expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Ozone levels may reach “moderate levels” further inland, according to the Maine DEP, including in all of Androscoggin and Kennebec counties, as well as parts of Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington and York counties.
Elevated ozone levels can pose a risk to children, older adults and people suffering from respiratory or heart diseases, according to the Maine DEP. Anyone exerting themselves outdoors may also experience health effects, which could include coughing, shortness of breath, throat irritation and mild chest pain.
Ozone levels were already climbing in southern New England on Tuesday, according to the Maine DEP, and winds are expected to bring those conditions to Maine on Wednesday.
The Maine DEP recommends that vulnerable populations avoid strenuous outdoor activities, keep windows closed, and circulate indoor air with fans or air conditioners. Those with asthma are also advised to keep quick-relief medication handy.
Particle pollution levels are also expected to be moderate across the state on Wednesday due to wildfire smoke, the Maine DEP said in its announcement Tuesday. Wildfires in Colorado, which have claimed the lives of three firefighters, had burned nearly 90,000 acres as of Tuesday, according to the Denver Post.
Maine could face up to $50 million in penalties next year due to errors in its payments for federal food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Newly released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture find that Maine’s error rate last year was nearly 11%, the bulk of which were overpayments. That’s in line with the U.S. average. But starting in October of next year, states with error rates above 6% must cover a portion of the SNAP benefits.
Anna Korsen, executive director of Full Plates, Full Potential, said the overpayments aren’t fraud — they’re human error. She said this new cost-shifting policy enacted last year under the Trump administration further complicates the SNAP application process.
“Instead, we could make this program more accessible and more efficient,” Korsen said. “And that would reduce the number of errors and also ensure that Mainers who are eligible for SNAP have access to it.”
She’s urging Congress to delay or reverse the policy under the farm bill that’s currently under consideration.
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services said it’s taking steps to reduce the error rate, including modernizing its systems and hiring an additional 40 eligibility specialists.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
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