Most recent political stories
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35 mins agoRepublican officials who believe in the legitimacy of elections have formed a group that's pushing back on the election lies and conspiracy theories that have persuaded a large share of their party that elections can't be trusted.
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35 mins ago
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May 3'Dreamers' will be able to access tax breaks when they sign up for health care this fall.
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May 3Protests have mostly been small and peaceful on Maine campuses, where students have joined the call to end to the war in Gaza and for their schools to divest from defense funds.
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May 3The outdoor sports retailer said the law will have 'irreversible consequences' for its business, which relies heavily on tourism.
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May 2The effort to repeal the long-dormant law, which bans all abortions except those done to save a patient’s life, won final legislative approval on Wednesday.
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May 2Alabama has one of the earliest candidate certification deadlines in the country, which has caused difficulties for whichever political party has the later convention date that year.
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May 2The trial, now in its second week of testimony, has exposed the underbelly of tabloid journalism practices and the protections, for a price, afforded to Trump during his successful run for president in 2016.
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May 1Johnson has come under heavy criticism from some Republicans for moving forward with aid for Ukraine as part of a $95 billion emergency spending package that passed this month.
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May 1Maine's Legislature will reconvene May 10 to take up override votes on a handful of bills rejected by Gov. Janet Mills.
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May 1The program, which is set to expire at the end of May, helps people with limited means pay their broadband bills.
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April 30Critics of the new law hope to block it in court, saying it is unconstitutional. Supporters of the waiting period are confident it would be upheld.
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April 30Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., filed a motion to vacate last month and told reporters she's laying the groundwork for future consideration.
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April 30After court adjourned, the former president called the gag order 'totally unconstitutional.'
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April 29Israel-Hamas war protesters and police clash on Texas campus, Columbia University begins suspensionsColleges around the U.S. implored pro-Palestinian student protesters to clear out tent encampments with rising levels of urgency Monday.
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April 30The governor let the 72-hour pause pass without her signature, saying she was ‘deeply conflicted.’ She vetoed a second bill that would have banned rapid-fire devices.
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April 28An evening normally devoted to presidents, journalists and comedians taking outrageous pokes at scandals and each other often seemed this year to illustrate the difficulty of putting aside the election and the troubles in the Middle East and elsewhere.
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April 28The jokes are the latest attempt to crack the code on how to clap back at Trump, whose own insult comedy schtick has redrawn the boundaries of what is acceptable in modern politics.
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April 28'Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, worse than Jimmy Carter by a long shot,' Trump said in a variation of a quip he has used throughout the 2024 campaign.
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April 29Some approved legislation still awaits action by the governor, and lawmakers will return for at least one more day to address vetoes.
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April 28On the second day of the party's convention, the GOP adopts a platform that takes positions on school curriculum, foreign policy and news coverage.
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April 27The Guardian obtained a copy of Noem's soon-to-be-released book, 'No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.'
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April 27The week began with a moment for the history books, with prosecutors for the first time presenting a jury with a criminal case against a former American president.
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April 26The bill would have required companies leasing state land for clean energy projects to enter into contract with labor unions.
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April 28The bill aimed to reduce the tax burden for middle-income residents while also raising taxes on the wealthy, but Gov. Janet Mills said it would not provide meaningful relief and could create challenges for state budgeting.
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April 26Most economists say the underlying momentum of the U.S. economy remains strong. But growth and jobs – which have been surprisingly sturdy – have generated little tangible benefit to Biden’s hopes for reelection.
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April 26After 12 years in the Legislature, Sen. Matt Pouliot, an Augusta Republican, is looking forward to fatherhood, and to helping end Maine's housing shortage.
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April 26Maine state House majority leader says if Nebraska tries to help Donald Trump, Maine may act to boost Joe Biden
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April 30The newly signed law, which the governor proposed in the wake of the Lewiston mass shooting, expands requirements for background checks to include private, advertised sales and also updates the existing yellow flag law.
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April 26Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, got a mixed welcome before speaking to party faithful, many of whom displayed support for former President Donald Trump.
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April 25The indictment names 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Trump won Arizona in 2020. The identities of the seven other defendants were identifiable based on descriptions.
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April 24The breakthrough came Wednesday when a second Republican joined all Democrats in voting to overrule the Republican House speaker, who has steadfastly blocked repeal.
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April 24States’ efforts are largely focused on identifying content produced using AI as opposed to controlling that content or prohibiting its distribution.
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April 24The appropriations committee is estimated to have as much as $11 million that still could be allocated, but it's unclear if it will meet again and if lawmakers could then act on the bills that get approved.
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April 23Senate passes bill forcing TikTok’s parent company to sell or face ban, sends to Biden for signatureThe bill now goes to President Biden, who has backed the TikTok proposal and has said he will sign the bill as soon as he gets it.
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April 23Members of the public who oppose the bill harangued Republican lawmakers after the vote, leading House Speaker Cameron Sexton to order the galleries cleared.
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April 23The House and Senate will come back to vote on any vetoes, which require two-thirds support to overturn.
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April 24The proposal drew significant debate in the Legislature this session as well as opposition from out-of-state Republican attorneys general who called it 'constitutionally defective.'
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April 23Prosecutors called the messages a 'deliberate flouting' of the court’s prohibition and requested a $1,000 fine for each one.
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April 23David Pecker is the first witness in Trump's historic hush money trial in Manhattan, where he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with payments meant to prevent harmful stories from surfacing.
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The measure passed the Senate in a bipartisan 22-8 vote but was never taken up in the House. 'We could have at least had the conversation,' said the bill's sponsor.
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April 23The budget bill includes funding for storm relief, investments in affordable and emergency housing, a new minimum wage for education technicians and school support staff, and more.
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April 22The opening statements in the first criminal trial of a former American president provided a clear roadmap of how prosecutors will try to make the case that Donald Trump broke the law, and how the defense plans to fight the charges on multiple fronts
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April 22Threats to election offices that have been an alarming consequence of Trump's false claims about his 2020 loss loom as a perilous wildcard for the thousands of local government workers who will oversee the election this fall.
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April 22Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and could face four years in prison if convicted, though it’s not clear if the judge would seek to put him behind bars.
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April 22The $18 million pilot initiative is meant to curb evictions. About 2,400 people and families will qualify.
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April 20Maine's senior senator extended her unbroken voting streak – which dates back to the very beginning her entire Senate career – with her 9,000th straight roll-call vote.
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April 20White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden 'will swiftly sign the bill.'
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April 20She plans to attend a fundraiser Saturday for the Log Cabin Republicans, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ members of the Republican party.
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April 20The whole package will go to the Senate, where passage in the coming days is nearly assured. President Biden has promised to sign it immediately.
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April 21The legislation died Thursday, and proponents would have to introduce a new version next legislative session.
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April 25But the full Legislature never took up a proposal for a red flag law that would give families, in addition to law enforcement, the ability to restrict a person's access to weapons without a mental health evaluation.
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April 18It’s the latest legal setback for the presumptive Republican nominee, whose trial in a separate case related to hush money payments began this week.
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April 18The $95 billion package has been held up since October by Republican lawmakers resistant to approving more funding for Ukraine's fight against Russia.
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April 18As the USPS plans to consolidate mail processing centers, it's getting pushback from legislators who say they're hearing from constituents unhappy with the proposed changes.
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April 19Lawmakers rejected an effort by the Mills administration to scale back the expansion, preserving benefits for an estimated 45,000 newly eligible low-income Mainers.
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April 18If Congress passes the TitkTok legislation, it would be an extraordinary and unusual moment in which both parties unite against one company – something lawmakers are usually reluctant to do.
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April 18Gov. Janet Mills says she plans to sign the $430 million budget into law and hopes to distribute the winter storm damage relief as soon as possible.
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April 18The jury includes a sales professional, a software engineer, a security engineer, an English teacher, a speech therapist, multiple lawyers, an investment banker and a retired wealth manager.
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April 18Both chambers of the Maine Legislature voted to add $60 million in storm relief into the budget proposal, but the Senate also added $7 million in additional spending on other items.
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April 18A dozen House members reversed themselves from an April 9 vote that rejected changes in environmental rules, in order to allow an offshore wind terminal to be built.
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April 18The proposal would give family members a path toward restricting access to weapons for a person in crisis without a mental health evaluation.
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The effort is nationwide, and in February, a federal appeals court ruled that Maine had to release its voter rolls to the Public Interest Legal Foundation.
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April 18The state's business leaders fiercely opposed the restrictions they said would have limited their ability to target ads to potential customers.
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April 17The Republican speaker is expected to start a dayslong push to vote on 3 funding packages for Ukraine, Israel and allies in the Indo-Pacific, as well as a several other foreign policy proposals in a 4th bill.
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April 17Four U.S. senators offer framework to guard against 'bad actors looking to cause harm.'
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April 17The governor sent a letter to lawmakers outlining a path forward on two of the most significant items still before the Legislature, which is scheduled to adjourn Wednesday.
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April 16A law signed by Gov. Janet Mills allows the public to access records about hazardous materials moving along Maine tracks, but only after a derailment or spill.
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April 16The legislation aims to regulate the collection, use, processing, transfer, sale and deletion of non-publicly available personal data. Business groups say the bill would detach Maine's businesses from the global online marketplace.
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April 16The speaker is considering a complicated approach that would break apart the Senate's $95 billion aid package – for separate votes on Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region.
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April 16The speaker is considering a complicated approach that would break apart the Senate's $95 billion aid package – for separate votes on Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region.
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April 16While the Senate is obligated to hold a trial under the rules of impeachment once the charges are walked across the Capitol, Democrats are expected to try to dismiss or table the charges.
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April 16The bill had been rejected in the House and Senate, but Sen. Mattie Daughtry asked that it be reconsidered Tuesday. It passed in the Senate only to fail again hours later in the House.
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April 16The House voted in support of a bill that would give the team a tax credit of up to $133,000 per year, or $2 million total, over 15 years for upgrades at Hadlock Field.
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April 16Maine's 2nd District congressman says the USPS' plan, which includes shifting some mail processing operations from Hampden to Scarborough, would be detrimental to reliable mail delivery.
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April 17Both proposals also received initial support from the Senate last week and now head to another round of votes in each chamber.
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April 17In the latest vote, the House stripped the bill's emergency status, meaning that the $60 million in funding wouldn't be available for 90 days, delaying repairs to areas of Maine's working waterfront that were damaged by winter storms.
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April 16The high court case focuses on whether the anti-obstruction provision of a law that was enacted in 2002 in response to the financial scandal that brought down Enron Corp. can be used against Jan. 6 defendants.