Gov. Paul LePage has released the text of his legislation to close a loophole in state ethics law that has allowed high-level state officials not to report millions in state payments to organizations run by themselves or their family members. Current law only requires that legislators or high-level state employees report state purchases of goodsMore

  A proposal for a joint venture that would undertake major construction of wind towers across the state and region has encountered more regulatory complications, a week after reports were published that state officials recommended the proposal be turned down.   The state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) was set to decide on Jan. 31 whetherMore

Correction appended below   The sales tax is one of the touchiest political issues.  Unlike the income or property tax, just about everybody pays it: rich and poor, resident and visitor — even the teenager who eats at McDonald’s. Almost every time a change to it is proposed, it sets off controversy. Recently, Gov. PaulMore

Last April, Maine’s largest wind energy developer, First Wind, trumpeted a multimillion-dollar deal that would pay for the company’s ambitious plans to erect more wind turbines throughout Maine and the Northeast. But in just the last week,  the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) dealt a potentially fatal blow to the deal. Faced with what opponentsMore

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage is proposing legislation to close a loophole in ethics laws that has allowed high-level state officials not to report millions in state payments to organizations run by themselves or their spouses. The governor’s legal counsel said the bill was prompted by a Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting story lastMore

Maine is the oldest state in the Union. That simple statement may send an important message about efforts to keep or bring young people to the state. It could be a tough task, and it could be one doomed to fail. When the standard is median age – the age at which half the populationMore

The state has spent millions of dollars to prop up the Old Town pulp mill while steadily fining the mill’s owner for ongoing pollution. And now the biggest fine ever is imminent. The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting has learned that the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is preparing to slap a $497,000More

Between 2003 and 2010, the state paid almost $235 million to private organizations run by legislative leaders or the spouses of high-level state officials. But because of a loophole in state law, not one penny of that spending was ever disclosed to the public in ethics filings. An investigation by the Maine Center for PublicMore

The end of the year is a good time to correct some myths recently in the news. 1. Unemployment has never been so high for this long: For one thing, unemployment has been much higher – about 25 percent during the Great Depression of the 1930s. And back then it was above the current levels ofMore

Sometimes it takes a death. Sometimes it takes four deaths: a mother, her two children and the man who killed them and then killed himself. The deaths of Amy, Monica and Coty Lake at the hands of their husband and father, Steven Lake, may be the tragedy that brings major reform to how the criminalMore