Lawsuit accuses the FDA of ignoring more than a quarter century of science showing that mifepristone is extremely safe March 9, 2023 AUGUSTA – Attorney General Aaron Frey has joined a multistate federal lawsuit against the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) accusing it of singling out one of the two drugs used for medication abortions for excessively burdensome regulation, despite ample evidence that the drug is safer than Tylenol.  The lawsuit, led by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum, was originally filed on February 23, 2023, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.   The original complaint included twelve states: Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, […]

EPA seeks input on Inflation Reduction Act programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with construction materials and products January 19, 2023 WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first opportunities for public input on new programs focused on lower carbon construction materials made possible by a $350 million investment from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The Agency will hold three public webinars and will accept written feedback on establishing new grant and technical assistance programs, and a carbon labeling program for construction materials with substantially lower levels of embodied greenhouse gas emissions. “The Inflation Reduction Act represents a historic commitment to build a new clean energy economy, powered by American workers and manufacturers in partnership with […]

November 4, 2022 Largest-Ever Race Discrimination Verdict in Maine On November 2, 2022, a jury in the Bangor federal courthouse returned a verdict of $3,000,000 for David Ako-Annan against Eastern Maine Medical Center. This verdict found that EMMC engaged in unlawful racial discrimination when it terminated his employment; it also awarded $1,500,000 in compensatory damages and $1,500,000 in punitive damages for EMMC’s reckless disregard for Mr. Ako-Annan’s right not to be discriminated against because of his race. Plaintiff David Ako-Annan has lived in Milford for about ten years and is age 46. He was the practice manager between June 2013 and April 2019 at a primary care medical office in Orono operated by EMMC. Mr. Ako-Annan is a Black immigrant from Ghana who moved […]

11/17/2022  Maine households may order a kit of five rapid COVID-19 tests for home delivery every month from Project ACT AUGUSTA— The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is encouraging Maine people to order free, at-home COVID-19 tests as part of their planning for upcoming gatherings and travel to protect relatives and friends and help limit the spread of COVID-19 this holiday season. Households that order through Project Access COVID Tests (Project ACT) may receive one free kit of five rapid tests mailed to their home address every month. Project ACT, a partnership between DHHS and The Rockefeller Foundation, has mailed 170,897 free, at-home COVID-19 test kits – for a total of 854,485 tests – to Maine households since its launch in January […]

Friday, Nov. 18 Workers at the Woodland Pulp mill in Baileyville, Maine are demanding that the company present a contract offer that provides high enough wage increases to keep up with the cost of living. The members of USW Local 27 will be projecting the union’s “Bat Light” on the side of the tissue machines at the mill today with the message “Essential Workers Deserve a Fair Contract.” Union members are scheduled to take a vote on whether to strike or accept the company’s final after their bargaining session with the company on November 28. “Whenever there was trouble in Gotham City, they would project the Bat Light on a building to summon Batman. The USW Bat Light signals that […]

November 17, 2022 Augusta, MAINE – The Mills Administration announced today that many Maine businesses will see a significant reduction in unemployment taxes next year thanks to strategic investments by Governor Mills in Maine’s unemployment trust fund. In 2020 and 2021, Governor Mills directed that $382 million in Federal COVID relief funding be invested in Maine’s unemployment trust fund to prevent tax increases on Maine’s small businesses caused by unprecedented pressure on Maine’s unemployment compensation system. Because of these investments, Maine’s unemployment trust fund remained solvent during the pandemic, unlike many states that had to borrow and repay billions of dollars with interest to the federal government. As a result of these investments and Maine’s strong economic recovery, the unemployment trust fund currently […]