Most recent political stories
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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.
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April 17In 2nd District Republican primary, Austin Theriault holds big fundraising lead.
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April 16A federal appeals court found that the law violates Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools.
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April 16It's the first of Trump's 4 criminal cases to go to trial and may be the only one that could reach a verdict before the November election.
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April 16Still, half of Americans would consider Trump unfit to serve as president if he is convicted.
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April 16The House rejected the measure last week and will now reconsider the Senate version, which would exempt sand dunes from environmental protection in a bid to advance Maine's drive to generate offshore wind.
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April 15The House voted 62-78 Monday against a bill that would provide up to $2 million in income tax credits to upgrade the facility.
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April 25The bill now requires second votes in both the House and Senate before it heads to Gov. Mills' desk.
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April 16The proposal now faces votes in the full House and Senate. If it passes unchanged, Gov. Janet Mills' spokesperson says she would not veto it.
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April 16Gov. Mills allowed the proposal, in which Maine joins 16 other states and the District of Columbia in changing how it allocates Electoral College votes, to become law without her signature.
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April 15Many key bills, including the supplemental budget, remain on the table. But lawmakers don't appear poised to call for a special session to give themselves more time.
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April 15A conviction would force the U.S. legal system to wrestle with unprecedented questions.
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April 14While Trump, who did not participate in debates for the Republican nomination, has indicated a willingness to take on his 2020 rival, the Democratic president has not committed to debating him again.
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April 14Amid biting criticism for the department's failings before the tragedy on Oct. 25, incumbent Sheriff Joel Merry and Sgt. Aaron Skolfield forge ahead.
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April 13In Georgia, Democrat Shea Roberts first ran for the state House in 2018 but lost to Republican Deborah Silcox. In 2020, Roberts shared her abortion story while running once again and won.
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April 14The fixes would restore pension tax breaks for retirees, boost pay for ed techs and increase support for dairy farmers, Senate President Troy Jackson said.
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April 12The Senate took up 5 bills that would put stricter gun laws in place and passed 4 of them.
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April 12Donald Trump flashed some criticism over efforts to oust the speaker calling it 'unfortunate,' saying there are 'much bigger problems' right now.
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April 12The law allows the attorney general’s office to file for a court injunction to stop the activity and penalize anyone breaking the law with a Class D crime, which is punishable by fines of $500 to $1,000 and up to a year in jail.
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April 12A Senate version of a bill to ban tobacco sales within 300 feet of a school would allow existing, licensed stores to keep tobacco sales.
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April 12Mike Johnson is set to travel to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club to meet with him and has been consulting him in recent weeks on the Ukraine funding to gain his support – or at least prevent him from openly opposing the package.
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April 12The bill, sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Millett, D-Cape Elizabeth, cleared the House of Representatives last night by a 4-vote margin, with at least 6 Democrats joining Republicans in opposition.
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April 12Both the House and Senate this week passed a bill that lowers state income taxes for low- and middle-wage earners.
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April 11Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told lawmakers he detected 'an undercurrecnt of self-doubt' among Americans about the U.S. role in the world.
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April 12The bill still needs to pass a second round of votes in both chambers and be approved for funding by the Legislature's appropriations committee before going to Gov. Janet Mills.
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April 11Gov. Janet Mills also has asked Senate President Troy Jackson to hold a floor vote on a $60 million proposal to rebuild storm-damaged coastal infrastructure.
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April 12House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross requires Reps. Michael Lemelin and Shelley Rudnicki to read a formal apology on the House floor before restoring their right to speak during floor debates.
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April 11The fight is over a newly revived 1864 Arizona law criminalizing abortion throughout pregnancy unless a woman's life is at risk.
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April 11The legislation to shield providers of legally protected abortion and gender-affirming care from hostile, out-of-state litigation faces more votes in both chambers before going to the governor.
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April 11The move is criticized by union leaders and opposed by Sen. Susan Colllins and Rep. Jared Golden, who plans to introduce legislation freezing the consolidation mail processing centers nationwide.
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April 10L.D. 1929 received initial approval from the House of Representatives and Senate this week, but could face opposition from the Mills administration, which filed testimony against the bill last session.