NEA Tries to Boot Refugee Student From National Poetry…

A high-school student in Maine is suing the National Endowment for the Arts after the agency disqualified him from a poetry contest because he isn't an American citizen or green card holder. Allan Monga, a junior at Portland's Deering High School, fled Zambia last year and applied for asylum in the United States.

Rural Maine counties to receive aid for economic development

Maine's U.S. senators say the federal government is providing more than $200,000 to three Maine counties to help with economic development in mostly rural parts of the state. Republican Sen. Susan Collins and independent Sen. Angus King say the grants from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration will also help support small businesses and job growth.

United wins bid for Presque Isle air service

The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding United Airlines a federally-subsidized contract to serve Northern Maine Regional Airport with flights to Newark. Starting this July, United will provide 12 round-trip flights per week between Presque Isle and Newark Liberty International Airport with a 50-seat jet, replacing that Boston-Presque Isle service that PenAir has provided since 2012.

Bangor doctor offers to prescribe Narcan to any Mainer who asks

Frustrated and out of patience with bureaucratic stalling in the midst of the opioid crisis, Dr. Noah Nesin, medical director at Bangor-based Penobscot Community Health Care, recently announced that he will personally write a prescription for the life-saving drug naloxone for any adult in Maine who asks for one. Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, reverses the effects of opioid drugs and can save the life of someone who has overdosed on heroin, fentanyl, prescription painkillers or other opioids.

The Latest: 9th death reported following powerful nor’easter

The Latest on the nor'easter that's battering coastal areas from Maryland to Maine : 9:30 p.m. Police in Andover, New Jersey say a man was killed by downed power lines during the storm that rampaged up and down the East Coast. NJ.com reports that the 41-year-old man came in contact with live power lines at about 6:45 p.m. Friday.

DACA sets off finger-pointing

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., flanked by, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., left, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, discuss the bipartisan immigration deal they reached during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018. WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump, on Twitter on Friday, accused Democrats of abandoning "Dreamers" because they wouldn't back his immigration plan.

Maine’s lame duck governor to work until ‘very last minute’

In this Sept. 22, 2017 file photo, Maine Gov. Paul LePage attends a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence to discuss health care and tax reform in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Complex in Washington.

Why it’s so much harder for Maine politicians to get along

In this file photo from January 2016, Rep. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, speaks with House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, at the State House in Augusta. During his first term in office, Gov. Paul LePage became famous - or perhaps infamous, depending on your perspective - for his brash rhetoric and personal attacks, but in light of his success, the question becomes "Is it working?" There's no denying Maine's political discourse has become more uncivil.

Largest power outage in Maine history is top story of 2017

A storm packing hurricane-force gusts roared into Maine, stunning residents and emergency officials by leaving more people in the dark than the infamous ice storm of 1998. It took utility crews more than a week to restore power, raising questions of Central Maine Power's preparedness and the state's ability to withstand a more powerful storm.

NY Times Mounts Sexist Attacks Against Sen. Susan Collins For Her Tax Bill Support

On Tuesday, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins bitterly attacked the press's coverage of her ultimate decision to support the GOP's tax bill. Though Collins didn't name a media outlet in her criticism, the New York Times was primary purveyor of now-popular leftist memes, which Collins characterized as "unbelievably sexist," that she was "duped" by party leadership, and that she was so hard-hearted that she wasn't "brought to tears" by protesting Mainers who met with her last week.

Collins says Trump transition team wrong to reach out to Russia over sanctions

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, makes her way through a crush of reporters after Republican senators met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, on the GOP effort to overhaul the tax code, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 1, 2017. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said on Sunday that it was wrong for the Trump transition team to reach out to Russia over Obama-era sanctions imposed in response to its interference in the U.S. presidential election but that this doesn't prove collusion.

Maine Food Sovereignty Bends but Doesn’t Break After USDA Threats

This past June, Maine legislators passed a law, An Act to Recognize Local Control Regarding Food Systems , which allows cities and towns in the state to adopt laws permitting farmers and other food producers within their borders to engage in a host of direct-to-consumer food sales. The law, intended to bolster local food economies in the state, allows Maine municipalities to "regulate by ordinance local food systems," and requires the state, in turn, to "recognize such ordinances."

Maine puts question of Obamacare subsidies directly to state voters

Maine voters will decide in November whether to expand their Medicaid rolls under Obamacare, offering a major test of the public's appetite for government-funded insurance as Congress decides whether to rein in or build on the 2010 law that swelled the federal footprint in health care. The Maine Legislature has tried five times to grab federal dollars that let states extend the insurance program for the poor to more able-bodied adults.

Collins: Trump should back effort to resume health subsidy

A key moderate Republican is urging President Donald Trump to support a bipartisan Senate effort to reinstate insurer payments, calling his move to halt the subsidies an immediate threat to millions of Americans who could now face rising premiums and lost health care coverage. "What the president is doing is affecting people's access and the cost of health care right now," said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who has cast pivotal votes on health care in the narrowly divided Senate.