Free Republic

A top Maine state environmental agency delayed a highly-anticipated vote to approve a sweeping electric vehicle (EV) mandate amid a storm that caused widespread power outages. The Maine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) announced that it had indefinitely postponed the meeting, which was slated for Thursday afternoon, until further notice following the storm. Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who has pursued an aggressive green energy agenda, declared a state of emergency this week, an action that closed state government offices. "Governor Janet Mills declared a State of Civil Emergency for 14 Maine counties following a significant wind and rain storm...

Leroy G. Walker Sr. (R), is a city council member in Auburn, Maine, and he wants to see limits on firearms which can “rapidly fire.” Bangor Daily News (BDN) reported Walker’s son was killed in the October 25, 2023, Lewiston attacks in which the gunman allegedly used an AR-10 and an AR-15. An AR-10 is traditionally chambered in .308 and an AR-15 in 5.56. Since the attack, Walker has pointed the finger at Republicans who have long opposed additional gun controls, claiming they are “prolonging what needs to be done to slow these weapons down.”

Thursday marks five years since the death of Maine’s most famous part-time citizen, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush. Bush was born in Massachusetts, grew up in Connecticut and made his fortune in Texas but he also had a life-long connection to Maine. Specifically, his family's home in Kennebunkport at Walker's Point. During his White House years, from 1989 to early 1993, he turned Walker's Point into his summer White House.

Hundreds of illegal Chinese-owned marijuana growing operations have been popping up across Maine over the past three years.A criminal marijuana growing operation in Henryetta, Oklahoma. Illegal grow operations are a nationwide problem, responsible for billions in revenue. (Picture courtesy Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics)On Tuesday, Nov. 28, local law enforcement shut down an illegal marijuana grow that was being operated in a building located behind a licensed marijuana cultivation facility in Franklin County.Officers from the Wilton Police Department were assisting investigators from the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) during a routine follow-up inspection of a licensed facility in Wilton when...

A suburb of Portland, Maine removed a Star of David from its annual holiday lights display. A local Arab-American organization complained and called it “offensive.” The reason is the Israel-Hamas war. How convenient for the normalization of antisemitic sentiments. Unlike most Arab countries, there is religious freedom in America. There is, however, a separation between church and state. Mayor Michael Foley is using the excuse of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause for the removal. Religious displays are forbidden on public property. Here is the kicker – local Jewish groups agreed and want the Star of David removed and replaced with a...

In the state of Maine, the deadline for candidates for president to turn in a sufficient number of signatures to be on the March 5, 2024 Primary Election ballot was 5 p.m. on Friday. The candidates needed 2,000 valid voter signatures to appear on the ballot. According to the Secretary of State, candidate Chris Christie did not make the cut. [Source Link]Dec. 2 (UPI) — Former New Jersey governor and Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie will not be on the Maine primary election ballot after failing to obtain the required number of in-state petition signatures.In order to be on the...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is in danger of not appearing on Maine's primary ballot after he fell short of the minimum 2,000 signatures needed from Maine voters to qualify for the state's Republican presidential primary, state officials said Friday. A letter from Maine's Director of Elections Heidi M. Peckham said Christie's campaign only submitted "844 names certified by municipal registrars." Candidates had to file signatures with the municipal clerks for certification before submitting them to the Secretary of State's office by 5 p.m. Friday. Christie has five days to appeal the decision in Maine Superior Court. "The campaign...

A Maine driver out on bail crashed his vehicle into an Amish horse and buggy in Exeter, Maine, on Thursday. The Penobscot Regional Communications Center received a call reporting the crash around 3:05 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, according to the Penobscot County’s Sheriff’s Office ... The driver, 31-year-old Shane Milliard from Thomaston, Maine, rear-ended the horse-drawn carriage in his Jeep ... According to the sheriff’s office, Milliard was out on bail at the time of the crash. ... Milliard was currently out on 10 different sets of bail. His actions during this crash violated active conditions of his bail. He...

Houlton Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 20 Romanian migrants who rushed a border crossing from Canada into Main on Tuesday. The migrants illegally crossed the border in four human smuggling vehicles. Agents patrolling the border near Hodgdon, Maine, received information about four vehicles crossing the international boundary between Canada and the United States on November 21. Agents responded to the area and encountered the four vehicles on Lincoln Road.

PORTLAND, Maine — Illegal marijuana grows run by Chinese nationals have sprung up all across the state of Maine, and residents say law enforcement isn’t doing enough to stop their spread. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified 270 suspected Chinese illegal marijuana grow operations in the state that could be making an estimated $4.37 billion in revenue, which are often used for more criminal activities or are sent back to China, the DCNF exclusively reported in August.

Illegal Chinese marijuana grows have taken over much of rural Maine. The government is either incapable — or unwilling — to do anything about it. The Maine Wire has identified more than 100 properties that are part of a sprawling network of Chinese-owned sites operating as unlicensed, illicit cannabis growing operations in rural Maine. According to an unclassified memo from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) obtained by the Maine Wire, the illicit grows are operated by Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). The properties cover Somerset County, Penobscot County, Kennebec County, Franklin County, Androscoggin County, and Oxford County. The...

Voters in Maine overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure Tuesday that enshrines the right to repair cars, a major win for consumers and a blow to auto manufacturers who have spent millions lobbying against similar legislation and fighting against it in the courts. “Question 4,” which enshrines consumers’ data access to car diagnostics for the purposes of repair, passed by a margin of 84.3-15.7 in Tuesday’s election with 94 percent of the votes tallied. The yes/no question was simple: “Do you want to require vehicle manufacturers to standardize on-board diagnostic systems and provide remote access to those systems and mechanical data...

Maine voters rejected a ballot initiative Tuesday that would have replaced the state’s electric utilities with the first state consumer-owned utility. The initiative, Question 3, would have created the Pine Tree Power company through a takeover of Maine’s two investor-owned utilities, Versant and CMP. The Associated Press called the race Tuesday night with about 68 percent of the vote counted, indicating only about 30 percent of voters supported the proposition.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited Maine to grieve with a community reeling from a mass shooting that left 18 people dead and 13 others wounded. The Bidens arrived in Lewiston on Friday afternoon, where they met with survivors, families of the victims and first responders. They were greeted upon their arrival by Governor Janet Mills, Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline and other local officials. Their first stop was Schemengees Bar, one of the locations of last week's mass shooting. Biden carried a bouquet of white flowers in one hand and held the first lady’s hand in the...

Criticism of the state’s "yellow flag" statute is doubly misguided.Five months before an Army Reserve sergeant killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine, his relatives told police he was increasingly paranoid, erroneously complaining that people were describing him as a pedophile. Two months later, he underwent a psychiatric evaluation after service members who were training with him at West Point reported that he was behaving erratically, and last month he told a friend he was "going to shoot up the drill center" at his base in Saco, Maine. The fact that the 40-year-old petroleum...

An 18-year-old former Walmart employee from Maine has been arrested over a Snapchat post that showed him posing with a hunting rifle and ammunition outside his ex-workplace with the caption, “Lewiston part 2.” The baby-faced suspect, identified by the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office as Michael Bowden, was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence terrorizing and felony aggravated reckless conduct. Bowden’s selfie showing him brandishing a Savage bolt-action rifle was taken in the parking of the Palmyra Walmart, officials said. “He took a picture of himself in a vehicle in the Walmart parking lot, and in that picture you can see a...

Sen. Angus King (I-ME) is working on “assault rifle” gun control this week after a suspect with a sniper rifle shot and killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine. The Portland Press Herald noted that King is not ready to reveal details about his gun control bill, The Herald indicated King’s intention is to “ban the most dangerous and lethal aspects of military-style assault rifles.” King provided a clue into what these “aspects” of certain firearms might be when he spoke to KTLA and said, “I want to do what’ll work and to me, the most clear danger are these high...

Mass shooter Robert Card was turned away from a Maine gun store when he tried to buy a silencer for his assault rifle months before he launched a massacre at a bowling alley and bar — a move that possibly saved countless lives. Card, 40, went to Coastal Defense Firearms in Auburn on Aug. 5 to pick up the accessory he ordered online — but was turned down when staff learned about his mental history, ABC News reported. “He came in and filled out the form. He checked off a box that incriminated himself saying he was in an institution,”...

Facts are now emerging in the case of Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card which suggest a string of failures, at least to follow through, and at least one success on the part of a firearms retailer, preceded the Oct. 25 tragedy in Lewiston, Maine that left 18 people dead and 13 injured.And there is something else: Maine is a gun rights friendly state, yet none of the victims was apparently able to fight back. CNN is reporting that the Maine National Guard “asked local police to check on” Card back on Sept. 16, after another soldier reported the suspect’s...

A report from CNN indicates the Maine National Guard asked police to check on Robert Card in mid-September out of concerns that he could “snap and commit a mass shooting.” Personnel from “the Sagadahoc County and Kennebec County Sheriff’s Offices” responded to the Maine National Guard request by trying to make contact with Card on September 16, 2023. A sergeant from the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office was alerted, “When [he] answers the door at his trailer, in the past he usually does so with a handgun in hand out of view from the person outside.” The personnel from the sheriff’s...