The Maine Downtown Center (MDC) is pleased to announce it has received a $50,000 grant to support its Green Downtowns program, now in its third year. This funding has been made possible through the Environmental Funders Network’s (EFN) Initiative: “From Vision to Action: A Commitment to Maine’s Quality of Place.”

MDC’s Green Downtowns program was created to strengthen the link between the natural and built environments in Maine’s downtowns, making them more environmentally friendly and ecologically conscious and building local leadership and capacity to support sustainable green initiatives.

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A measure that would protect students from bullying in Maine schools was stalled today during a work session of the Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee. The bill nearly passed into law in 2011 but was sent back to the Education Committee at the last minute in the face of opposition from the Christian Civic League.

“Maine students can’t afford for this bill to be delayed any longer,” said Rep. Terry Morrison, who sponsored the bill and has strongly advocated for it after hearing from hundreds of students and parents in his district. “While this measure gets held up by unnecessary political wrangling, students in schools across our state are being threatened and bullied by their peers.”

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Democratic State Rep. Anna Blodgett of Augusta introduced a bill to help protect children by making it a crime to fail to report a missing child under the age of 13 within 48 hours or to fail to cooperate with an investigation into the death of a child. She presented her legislation before the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on January 19.

“I submitted this bill and proposed amendments because it is a tragedy that children go missing every day and we should be doing everything we can to try and find them,” said Rep. Blodgett. “I was contacted by over 100 constituents who shared my concerns and asked me to submit a bill.”

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A letter from the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal and Program Review (OFPR) to Senate Democratic leadership confirms Democrats’ ongoing concerns that Governor LePage’s Department of Health and Human Services budget is not based on substantiated facts or data.

“It is crystal clear that the Governor’s budget doesn’t add up,” said Senate Democratic Leader Barry Hobbins of Saco. “It is frustrating that Democrats are ready to work on solving our state’s budget issues but we cannot talk about a solution if we don’t yet understand the problem. Rushing in to policy changes or program cuts without real numbers would be irresponsible.”

Highlights of the one and half page letter by Grant Pennoyer, Director of OFPR, include:

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Lawmakers on the Maine Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee voted largely along party lines today to gut parts of the Fund for a Healthy Maine, which uses tobacco settlement money to provide preventative health care and early childhood education programs. Democrats on the committee rejected the proposal.

“Republicans rubber stamped these short-sighted irresponsible cuts,” said Rep. Mark Eves, the lead House Democrat on the Health and Human Services Committee. “The governor has given us a set of short-term solutions that will have terrible long-term costs for our state. Worse, the administration confirmed they have no plan to deal with the consequences.”

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In December attorney Joe Baldacci filed suit for Russell and Dr. Ellie Handler against officials of Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services and the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office. Almost immediately the state had the documents of the suit – which alleges DHHS and Waldo Sherriff Department negligence, misconduct and fraud – sealed.

On January 12, 2012, Baldacci filed a Motion to Unseal the suit against Maine DHHS with the US Federal Court in Portland, Maine. The State Attorney General’s Office is expected to continue to adamantly oppose any public access to information about the lawsuit.

“For us this matter has been the child welfare equivalent of a death penalty case,” stated the Handlers. “We lost our child due to negligence and wrongdoing, which we lay out in detail in the lawsuit. This case is the embodiment of why Freedom of Information Act and Sunshine in Government statutes exist. And that is why we believe there is a need for more, not less, transparency in this matter.”

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Kestrel Aircraft Corp. will move its manufacturing operations and headquarters to Superior, Wisconsin, taking away at least 600 potential new jobs which had been destined for Maine. Kestrel has been operating at Brunswick Landing since 2010 and employs 25 people.

Gov. Scott Walker’s administration crafted a special incentive package for the airplane manufacturer.

Most of the incentives offered from Maine came from the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, the local municipality, and the federal government.

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Minority Leader of Maine's House, Emily Cain in her office photo by Ramona du Houx

The Aspen Institute has selected state Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono, the House Democratic leader to participate in the Institute’s prestigious bipartisan Aspen-Rodel Fellowship program. The fellowship program, now in its seventh year, is focused on transcending political partisanship and focusing attention on over-arching questions of leadership and governance.

“I’m honored to be selected among this impressive group of leaders from across the country,” said Cain. “This is an exciting opportunity to explore the values and beliefs that are the foundation of US democracy, and to dig-in to the many challenges facing elected leaders today. I know I will share what we do in Maine, and learn new skills that I can apply to my work in Augusta. I am grateful to have this opportunity.”

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“In my 22 years following the Legislature, I have never seen a committee hand over drafting of a committee bill to unelected citizens,”said Cathy Johnson, North Woods Project Director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

Members of a broad coalition of conservation and planning groups are raising concerns about reforms proposed for the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) and how those reforms are being addressed in the Legislature. Maine’s legendary North Woods – the anchor of our forest products and tourism economies and our natural outdoors heritage – stands to pay a high price.

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Well, I’m back from the State House, having delivered our petition directly into the hands of Representative Patrick Flood, the Chair of the Appropriations Committee, a Republican, and by all accounts a decent man. (In fact, last year the National Association of Social Workers awarded him Representative of the Year for his even-handed approach to the 2011 budget crisis.) Representative Flood and I sat down together for a few minutes before yesterday’s meeting of the Committee, and he asked me to tell him about my concerns and listened carefully to what I had to say.

I need to tell you something: I started this petition because I knew how devastating Governor LePage’s proposed cuts would be for Mainers all across the state, and I felt powerless. Now, two and a half weeks and 8732+ signatures later, I feel my hope restored.

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