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
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
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
“These four people died needlessly …” – From a psychological autopsy of the triple murder and suicide in Dexter, June 13, 2011 The study rests on a shelf deep in the documents room at the state library. It has been sitting there since September 2006, most of its recommendations going the way of the hundredsMore
CORRUPTION IN SMALL TOWN MAINE COSTS TAXPAYERS $800,000 IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS Last summer, a former deputy clerk and treasurer of the town of Newburgh was sent to jail after pleading guilty to taking the town’s money, nearly $200,000 of it. Last spring, the Pleasant Point police chief pled guilty to taking $33,000 fromMore
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting will look into the material you sent us, including the mailing we received a few days before Thanksgiving Day. Reporting will begin within the next 10 days, but it will likely take a couple months to complete the project. We still need any help you can give us,More
A distinguished editor and a former public broadcasting executive have joined the board of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting (MCPIR) as the Hallowell-based organization nears its second anniversary. Matthew V. Storin, the former editor of the Boston Globe, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Daily News and Maine Times, recently retired to Camden. He said, “I’mMore
Around 3:50 on the afternoon of Wednesday, Oct 12, a state-owned silver GMC Sierra pickup pulled into the parking lot at the Colby College rugby field. A man in a blue windbreaker got out of the truck, took a cardboard box of equipment from the cab and headed down to the field, where members ofMore
