Latest news with #MaineMorningStar
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Maine lawmakers pass $1.6 billion ‘messaging bill' to reverse cuts to state pension system
Passersby honk at Winnie Malia (right) and other state employees chanting along State Street in Augusta on Sept. 26, 2023. (Photo by Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star) Maine Legislators said they hope to send a message about the importance of public service with the passage of a bill that would undo previous cuts to the state pension system — to the tune of more than $1.6 billion. In 2011, the Legislature and former Gov. Paul LePage made changes to the state pension system that capped cost of living adjustments at 3% and restricted that increase so that it would only apply to the first $20,000 (which has now increased to $24,000) of pension income. At the time, those cuts helped the state lower the top marginal individual income tax rate from 8.5% to 7.15%. The House voted 81-66 on Wednesday following the Senate's 22-12 vote on Tuesday in favor of legislation (LD 900) that would undo some of those changes and tie the Public Employees Retirement System to the Consumer Price Index in an effort to help retirement accounts keep pace with inflation. Speaking from the chamber floor Tuesday, Sen. Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot) noted the bill has a fiscal note of more than $1.6 billion due to the state pension system not having enough assets to cover the future cost of those changes. 'I have every confidence that my colleagues on the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee will find that money,' Tipping joked, 'but regardless of how it works out, this is an important reminder of how much we've taken from retirees to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy.' However, critics said passing a bill with such a price tag would be irresponsible. 'We must legislate responsibly, balancing our obligations to retirees with a broader need for Maine's working families, businesses and public services,' Rep. Mike Soboleski (R-Phillips) said during the House debate, adding that if funded the bill would likely divert resources from education, health care, and other priorities. Rep. Amy Roeder (D-Bangor) said although the bill is likely going to die on the appropriations table, where legislation not included in the budget vies for remaining funds at the end of session, she won't stop fighting for pensions. 'Every year we fail to restore these pensions, we are complicit in perpetuating the injustice,' she said. Bill sponsor Sen. Joe Baldacci (D-Bangor) said over the last 15 years 'employees of the state have been shortchanged significantly,' noting the thousands of retired teachers and public workers impacted by the current structure. His hope is that over successive legislatures, this issue becomes a priority. Before advancing to either the governor's desk or the appropriations table, the bill will go back to both chambers for final enactment votes. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
How one school district worked with researchers to stop restraining kids
The Maine Department of Education touts the approach taken by the Topsham-area school district, MSAD 75, to reduce the use of restraint and seclusion. Amy Hall, left, special education director, and Samantha Lapointe, elementary special education coordinator, helped implement the alternative approach. (Troy Bennett/Maine Morning Star) About a decade ago, a Maine school district became concerned about how often staff members physically restrained students who were acting out and put them in seclusion rooms, especially the district's 500 or so special education students. Those tactics are only supposed to be used in emergencies under state law, but at the time, Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 75 recorded 176 restraints and 152 seclusions on just 15 students, according to district-level data shared with Maine Morning Star. Staff were routinely scratched and bruised in the process, said Amy Hall, the district's special education director. 'We started to get very concerned about the level of staff injuries, student injuries, and just the level of crisis we were dealing with in our schools,' Hall said. So in 2018, the district decided to pursue an alternative. Today, because staff members now view student behavioral issues as a problem to prevent and solve, rather than an infraction to punish — and because of a significant investment in training to execute that shift in mindset — the 2,350-student district's use of restraint and seclusion is down to the single digits: two restraints and seven seclusions in the 2022-23 school year. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Maine Department of Education is touting that success story in the hope that more districts will sign onto MSAD 75's approach and rely less on restraint and seclusion — when a staff member temporarily immobilizes a student and places them alone in a room until they calm down. Research has shown that the tactics 'are not effective in altering a student's behavior and that the experience of being restrained and secluded can be traumatizing and cause lasting effects for students,' according to the Maine DOE website. The state and some school districts have worked to reduce their use for years due to staff and student injuries. The model MSAD 75 turned to was developed by a Maine-based nonprofit, Lives in the Balance, that works nationally and has been adopted by a handful of other districts — including the much larger Fairfax Public Schools in Virginia — to dramatically reduce their use of restraint and seclusion. But despite that model's success, it has not been widely adopted across Maine, according to Ben Jones, director of the organization's legal and policy initiatives. Although Lives in the Balance has offered free technical assistance to districts since 2022 through a state Department of Education partnership, Jones said only two districts have followed up on the offer. Sarah Wilkinson, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Southern Maine who recently co-authored a report on student behavior, said the state is failing to provide adequate assistance to districts to make sure these tools can be implemented properly. 'Any one of these programs would decrease the behavioral crises, and then need for seclusion or restraint. But part of the issue there is that the state doesn't really have the infrastructure to support implementation,' Wilkinson said. In response to questions about state support, Chloe Teboe, a spokesperson for Maine DOE, said the department provides resources such as monthly office hours, one-on-one consultations, mentoring and regular training, available for districts that want them. 'What works in Falmouth isn't going to work in Machias or Fort Kent, and that's where folks at the district level need support to implement these approaches in a way that works for their population,' Wilkinson said. Since 2021, Maine has limited the circumstances under which school staff can restrain and seclude students through a change in state law that aimed to nudge districts away from their frequent use. But recent complaints of worsening student behavior since the pandemic led to an effort to loosen those restrictions, which disability rights advocates fear could result in a spike. The Topsham-area district, MSAD 75, is seeing that same increase in extreme behavior among younger students, Hall said, but relaxing the law on restraint and seclusion is not the answer. 'The mental health needs of our population of students have increased, while restraints and seclusions have dramatically decreased,' she said. Instead, Hall advocates for educators to rethink how they view behavior. Most kids will do well in school if they can. Problems with behavior often signal a response to an underlying problem that educators need to uncover and address, she said. 'If a kid is not doing well, then we need to shift the way that we're working with that student,' Hall said. 'Once we get to a restraint or in a seclusion, you're way too late.' The founder of Lives in the Balance, Ross Greene, a child clinical psychologist and former Harvard Medical School faculty member, came up with the model based on a mindset shift that MSAD 75 adopted. Greene's approach helps schools address what he calls 'concerning behaviors' without resorting to punitive measures, based on the idea that when children struggle with frustration, refuse to follow instructions, or can't keep up academically or socially, their response is to act out. 'I get it, those behaviors are dangerous and scary and disruptive, but they're communicating the exact same thing — they're having difficulty meeting a particular expectation,' he said. Rather than respond with punishment or continue to demand compliance, educators can work with the child to identify and address the underlying problems. By temporarily adjusting expectations and focusing on solving problems, educators can prevent behavioral issues from escalating and build students' skills so they can meet expectations in the future, Greene said. 'The problem is that a lot of adults, not just in schools, see a kid who's having difficulty meeting an expectation as being noncompliant, and what they do is they shoot for compliance,' he said. Greene's Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model has been studied in students with significant behavioral challenges, including nonverbal students and students with oppositional defiant disorder, and those studies have found the model leads to notable improvements. One district that's advocating to loosen the state's restraint and seclusion law, MSAD 11 in Gardiner, said it considered Greene's model but worries that the approach is not enough to address increased reports of aggressive student behavior. 'Given that we've almost never experienced the type of dysregulation we're seeing in very early learners, I am not confident that only going down the proactive pathway is a solution to the current context and climate that we are in,' said Angela Hardy, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. In the upcoming school year, Hardy said the district will try to implement some strategies that worked for MSAD 75 and that Greene advocates for, such as designing a learning environment that helps prevent incidents. A special education teacher at the time, Samantha Lapointe started thinking that restraints and seclusions were no longer an option when MSAD 75 first made the change, even though the law permits their use in emergencies. 'It's hard to imagine how you would do business without those tools, until you commit to thinking about not having them,' said Lapointe, who is now the district's elementary special education coordinator. 'That leads to a lot of thinking about what to do instead — and that leads you into new territory, right around what new skillsets need to be stronger, what prevention strategies need to be stronger.' Classroom design is one element of prevention, Lapointe said. The idea is to minimize any danger in case a student acts out — and reduce the need for staff to physically intervene. She started working with students on the floor, then brought in a sofa. When the school got new furniture, she requested two heavy, communal tables instead of individual desks that students could easily move or overturn. The tables also had to be low to the ground so students climbing atop them would not be in danger. And Lapointe hung all the posters high enough so elementary students couldn't rip them off the walls. Staff also locked the closet that stored toys and activities. 'I've still had kids climb on tables, and I've had to ask myself, how dangerous is this really?' she said. 'Is it an extreme, imminent risk of harm if they fall? You should be constantly weighing out what really constitutes danger to the extent that you would need to go hands-on.' The other piece was training ed techs — aides who often work one-on-one with students — in the new approach. 'Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand,' Lapointe said. 'The way you talk to kids matters a lot.' Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand. The way you talk to kids matters a lot. – Samantha Lapointe, MSAD 75 elementary special education coordinator If a student tries to leave the classroom, for example, instead of stopping them, staff can start a conversation by asking them where they're going, what they need to leave for and what their plan is after leaving, she said. Meanwhile, she also trained her staff to ask themselves: 'What can I tolerate? Why can't they leave the classroom? What's the worst that's going to happen?' 'The level of thinking and intentional decision-making needs to be very high, and that's one thing also that I train my staff in: intentionality,' Lapointe said. 'You must ask yourself, before you say anything, before you do anything: What is it you're going to say or do and why? What outcome are you hoping to get?' That's the kind of training Maine teachers are asking for and largely not receiving, said Wilkinson with the University of Southern Maine. 'Teachers or ed techs will report, 'We've been safety-care trained, we've had de-escalation training' … all of these things that really only happen when a behavior gets to a certain point,' Wilkinson said. 'That means that the behavior has to get to that point before they have the skills to deal with it. Teachers are not reporting that they're confident with all of the things you would do before the behavior escalates.' Even in the Topsham-area district, the training in Collaborative and Proactive Solutions isn't complete. Lapointe said it's now a priority to expand beyond special education to general education classroom teachers and higher grades. The Topsham-area district combines Greene's model with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS — a research-based model used in schools across the country that's built around positive reinforcement of good behavior and gradually increasing levels of intervention and consequences for kids who misbehave. This is how the combination of the two models could look. In the library, the expectation for all students is that they keep their voices low and read, Hall said. PBIS lays out a system to reinforce positive behavior, often through small rewards, and address infractions. But Greene's approach would come into play if a student can't keep quiet in the library, she said. It may be that the child can't focus, keep still, has sensory issues, or is too stimulated in that setting. Instead of punishing the child, teachers try to problem solve: They might offer them headphones, move their reading time to a quiet classroom, or even allow the child to leave the library, Hall said. Moving away from demanding compliance from students helps educators understand and work with them to solve the issue underlying the behavior, instead of an outburst or aggression stemming from it, she said. 'Instead of just asking them to do the same thing over again and sustain in an environment that they can't, you try to figure out what's behind the behavior,' Hall said. 'We still have rewards, and kids still have consequences, but the consequences just aren't, 'We're going to put you in a seclusion room.' Because that's not a consequence, that's a crisis response.' The series was produced as a project for the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism's National Fellowship Fund for Reporting on Child Well-being. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Maine Morning Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maine Morning Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Lauren McCauley for questions: info@
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
How one Maine district worked with researchers to stop restraining kids
The Maine Department of Education touts the approach taken by the Topsham-area school district, MSAD 75, to reduce the use of restraint and seclusion. Amy Hall (left), special education director, and Samantha Lapointe (right), elementary special education coordinator, helped implement the alternative approach. (Photo by Troy Bennett / Maine Morning Star) About a decade ago, a Topsham-area school district became concerned about how often staff members physically restrained students who were acting out and put them in seclusion rooms, especially the district's 500 or so special education students. Those tactics are only supposed to be used in emergencies under state law, but at the time, Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) 75 recorded 176 restraints and 152 seclusions on just 15 students, according to district-level data shared with Maine Morning Star. Staff were routinely scratched and bruised in the process, said Amy Hall, the district's special education director. May 21: Restraint and seclusion are only supposed to be used on students in emergency situations. Accounts from families and educators show how districts' interpretation of state law vary widely and how traumatic the experiences can be. May 22: State data reveals only a fraction of Maine's schools and districts are consistently reporting incidents of restraint and seclusion in violation of state law. Even with the underreporting, Maine schools are relying on these practices thousands of times per year. May 23: How one district worked with researchers to change its approach to student behavior and significantly reduced the use of restraint and seclusion 'We started to get very concerned about the level of staff injuries, student injuries, and just the level of crisis we were dealing with in our schools,' Hall said. So in 2018, the district decided to pursue an alternative. Today, because staff members now view student behavioral issues as a problem to prevent and solve, rather than an infraction to punish — and because of a significant investment in training to execute that shift in mindset — the 2,350-student district's use of restraint and seclusion is down to the single digits: two restraints and seven seclusions in the 2022-23 school year. The Maine Department of Education is touting that success story in the hope that more districts will sign onto MSAD 75's approach and rely less on restraint and seclusion — when a staff member temporarily immobilizes a student and places them alone in a room until they calm down. Research has shown that the tactics 'are not effective in altering a student's behavior and that the experience of being restrained and secluded can be traumatizing and cause lasting effects for students,' according to the Maine DOE website. The state and some school districts have worked to reduce their use for years due to staff and student injuries. The model MSAD 75 turned to was developed by a Maine-based nonprofit, Lives in the Balance, that works nationally and has been adopted by a handful of other districts — including the much larger Fairfax Public Schools in Virginia — to dramatically reduce their use of restraint and seclusion. But despite that model's success, it has not been widely adopted across Maine, according to Ben Jones, director of the organization's legal and policy initiatives. Although Lives in the Balance has offered free technical assistance to districts since 2022 through a state Department of Education partnership, Jones said only two districts have followed up on the offer. Sarah Wilkinson, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Southern Maine who recently co-authored a report on student behavior, said the state is failing to provide adequate assistance to districts to make sure these tools can be implemented properly. 'Any one of these programs would decrease the behavioral crises, and then need for seclusion or restraint. But part of the issue there is that the state doesn't really have the infrastructure to support implementation,' Wilkinson said. In response to questions about state support, Chloe Teboe, a spokesperson for Maine DOE, said the department provides resources such as monthly office hours, one-on-one consultations, mentoring and regular training, available for districts that want them. 'What works in Falmouth isn't going to work in Machias or Fort Kent, and that's where folks at the district level need support to implement these approaches in a way that works for their population,' Wilkinson said. Since 2021, Maine has limited the circumstances under which school staff can restrain and seclude students through a change in state law that aimed to nudge districts away from their frequent use. But recent complaints of worsening student behavior since the pandemic led to an effort to loosen those restrictions, which disability rights advocates fear could result in a spike. The Topsham-area district, MSAD 75, is seeing that same increase in extreme behavior among younger students, Hall said, but relaxing the law on restraint and seclusion is not the answer. 'The mental health needs of our population of students have increased, while restraints and seclusions have dramatically decreased,' she said. Instead, Hall advocates for educators to rethink how they view behavior. Most kids will do well in school if they can. Problems with behavior often signal a response to an underlying problem that educators need to uncover and address, she said. 'If a kid is not doing well, then we need to shift the way that we're working with that student,' Hall said. 'Once we get to a restraint or in a seclusion, you're way too late.' The founder of Lives in the Balance, Ross Greene, a child clinical psychologist and former Harvard Medical School faculty member, came up with the model based on a mindset shift that MSAD 75 adopted. Greene's approach helps schools address what he calls 'concerning behaviors' without resorting to punitive measures, based on the idea that when children struggle with frustration, refuse to follow instructions, or can't keep up academically or socially, their response is to act out. 'I get it, those behaviors are dangerous and scary and disruptive, but they're communicating the exact same thing — they're having difficulty meeting a particular expectation,' he said. Rather than respond with punishment or continue to demand compliance, educators can work with the child to identify and address the underlying problems. By temporarily adjusting expectations and focusing on solving problems, educators can prevent behavioral issues from escalating and build students' skills so they can meet expectations in the future, Greene said. 'The problem is that a lot of adults, not just in schools, see a kid who's having difficulty meeting an expectation as being noncompliant, and what they do is they shoot for compliance,' he said. Greene's Collaborative and Proactive Solutions model has been studied in students with significant behavioral challenges, including nonverbal students and students with oppositional defiant disorder, and those studies have found the model leads to notable improvements. One district that's advocating to loosen the state's restraint and seclusion law, MSAD 11 in Gardiner, said it considered Greene's model but worries that the approach is not enough to address increased reports of aggressive student behavior. 'Given that we've almost never experienced the type of dysregulation we're seeing in very early learners, I am not confident that only going down the proactive pathway is a solution to the current context and climate that we are in,' said Angela Hardy, the district's director of curriculum and instruction. In the upcoming school year, Hardy said the district will try to implement some strategies that worked for MSAD 75 and that Greene advocates for, such as designing a learning environment that helps prevent incidents. A special education teacher at the time, Samantha Lapointe started thinking that restraints and seclusions were no longer an option when MSAD 75 first made the change, even though the law permits their use in emergencies. 'It's hard to imagine how you would do business without those tools, until you commit to thinking about not having them,' said Lapointe, who is now the district's elementary special education coordinator. 'That leads to a lot of thinking about what to do instead — and that leads you into new territory, right around what new skillsets need to be stronger, what prevention strategies need to be stronger.' Classroom design is one element of prevention, Lapointe said. The idea is to minimize any danger in case a student acts out — and reduce the need for staff to physically intervene. She started working with students on the floor, then brought in a sofa. When the school got new furniture, she requested two heavy, communal tables instead of individual desks that students could easily move or overturn. The tables also had to be low to the ground so students climbing atop them would not be in danger. And Lapointe hung all the posters high enough so elementary students couldn't rip them off the walls. Staff also locked the closet that stored toys and activities. 'I've still had kids climb on tables, and I've had to ask myself, how dangerous is this really?' she said. 'Is it an extreme, imminent risk of harm if they fall? You should be constantly weighing out what really constitutes danger to the extent that you would need to go hands-on.' The other piece was training ed techs — aides who often work one-on-one with students — in the new approach. 'Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand,' Lapointe said. 'The way you talk to kids matters a lot.' Adults spend a lot of time directing and correcting, and they need to spend time asking questions, seeking to understand. The way you talk to kids matters a lot. – Samantha Lapointe, MSAD 75 elementary special education coordinator If a student tries to leave the classroom, for example, instead of stopping them, staff can start a conversation by asking them where they're going, what they need to leave for and what their plan is after leaving, she said. Meanwhile, she also trained her staff to ask themselves: 'What can I tolerate? Why can't they leave the classroom? What's the worst that's going to happen?' 'The level of thinking and intentional decision-making needs to be very high, and that's one thing also that I train my staff in: intentionality,' Lapointe said. 'You must ask yourself, before you say anything, before you do anything: What is it you're going to say or do and why? What outcome are you hoping to get?' That's the kind of training Maine teachers are asking for and largely not receiving, said Wilkinson with the University of Southern Maine. 'Teachers or ed techs will report, 'We've been safety-care trained, we've had de-escalation training' … all of these things that really only happen when a behavior gets to a certain point,' Wilkinson said. 'That means that the behavior has to get to that point before they have the skills to deal with it. Teachers are not reporting that they're confident with all of the things you would do before the behavior escalates.' Even in the Topsham-area district, the training in Collaborative and Proactive Solutions isn't complete. Lapointe said it's now a priority to expand beyond special education to general education classroom teachers and higher grades. The Topsham-area district combines Greene's model with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS — a research-based model used in schools across the country that's built around positive reinforcement of good behavior and gradually increasing levels of intervention and consequences for kids who misbehave. This is how the combination of the two models could look. In the library, the expectation for all students is that they keep their voices low and read, Hall said. PBIS lays out a system to reinforce positive behavior, often through small rewards, and address infractions. But Greene's approach would come into play if a student can't keep quiet in the library, she said. It may be that the child can't focus, keep still, has sensory issues, or is too stimulated in that setting. Instead of punishing the child, teachers try to problem solve: They might offer them headphones, move their reading time to a quiet classroom, or even allow the child to leave the library, Hall said. Moving away from demanding compliance from students helps educators understand and work with them to solve the issue underlying the behavior, instead of an outburst or aggression stemming from it, she said. 'Instead of just asking them to do the same thing over again and sustain in an environment that they can't, you try to figure out what's behind the behavior,' Hall said. 'We still have rewards, and kids still have consequences, but the consequences just aren't, 'We're going to put you in a seclusion room.' Because that's not a consequence, that's a crisis response.' The series was produced as a project for the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Health Journalism's National Fellowship Fund for Reporting on Child Well-being SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Citing Maine Morning Star reporting, Pingree presses EPA on PFAS grant terminations
Rep. Chellie Pingree outside the U.S. Capitol. (Rep. Chellie Pingree via Facebook) Citing Maine Morning Star's reporting, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine pressed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on conflicting statements about why it cut grants for forever chemical research in Maine. Earlier this month, the EPA terminated all of the grants it had awarded for research into reducing per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as PFAS, in the food supply, including to three Maine-based teams led by the Mi'kmaq Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe and the University of Maine. The three grants for Maine projects amounted to almost $5 million. The termination notices read, 'The objectives of the award are no longer consistent with EPA funding priorities.' In a statement to Maine Morning Star, the EPA Press Office equated the grants to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion measures. However, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin publicly stated the grants were important and already congressionally appropriated when questioned by Pingree. Overall, the agency has highlighted combating PFAS contamination as a priority in recent weeks. Despite saying PFAS contamination is a priority, EPA cut millions in funding for research in Maine In a letter to Zeldin on Thursday, Pingree requested he address these inconsistencies and clarify EPA priorities by May 30. 'Do you and the EPA consider tribes – which are sovereign governments to which we have trust and treaty responsibilities – 'DEI?' If so, under what basis do you make that claim?' one of Pingree's questions to Zeldin in the letter reads. When asked why the grants no longer aligned with agency priorities, the EPA Press Office sent a statement on May 16 to Maine Morning Star, which read:, 'As with any change in administration, the EPA has been reviewing all of its grant programs and awarded grants to ensure each is an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and to understand how those programs align with administration priorities. Maybe the Biden-Harris administration shouldn't have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and 'environmental justice' preferencing on the EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment treating tribes and Alaska Natives as such.' Pingree and several of the researchers pushed back on this response, pointing out that the research objectives do not involve DEI or environmental justice and are about protecting public health. PFAS have been linked to long term adverse health outcomes, such as cancers and weakened immune systems, and their pervasiveness in agriculture is not fully understood. The statement is also directly at odds with the response Zeldin gave to Pingree about the grant terminations during an Appropriations subcommittee hearing on May 15. After Zeldin told the subcommittee that addressing PFAS contamination is a priority for the agency and him personally, Pingree asked, 'Since these grants are consistent with the EPA priorities, do you know why they were terminated?' Zeldin responded, 'It's an important program. It's something that's congressionally appropriated. The agency's going through a reorg, so the way that the program and these grants are administered are going to be different going forward. But these are important grants. I look forward to working with you, and your team as we're able to continue that good work going forward.' In light of these conflicting responses, Pingree asked Zeldin in her letter to confirm that addressing PFAS is a priority for the agency. 'If PFAS is a priority, which I believe you have stated many times, please provide more information about why the above listed grants were terminated,' the letter reads. 'They are not 'DEI' grants and they meet a key priority of the Agency so I would like some clarity as to the exact reasoning for these grant terminations.' The grantees have 30 days from their termination notices to make the case that their work is in compliance with the EPA's priorities. The team headed by the Mi'kmaq Nation filed its appeal on Wednesday. If the agency determines the grants are in line with agency priorities, Pingree also requested information on how and when the awards will be reinstated. Referring to the agency's work as a whole, Pingree additionally pressed Zeldin about the agency's plans for PFAS research beyond these grants. 'Without grants that fund research and scientific advancement for PFAS remediation, how will the EPA make determinations about effective remediation for PFAS in agriculture, water systems, and contaminated lands?' she wrote in the letter. Read more about the grants here. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Republican state senator enters race for governor
The Blaine House, residence of Maine's governor, in Augusta. Sept. 5, 2023. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) State Sen. James Libby is running in the 2026 gubernatorial race. Libby, who represents parts of Cumberland, Oxford and York counties, is one of five Republican candidates contending for the Blaine House, according to filings with the Maine Ethics Commission. The race is already starting to get crowded, with the Democratic ticket drawing notable names including Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who announced her bid in late March, as well as Angus King III, the son of independent U.S. senator and former governor Angus King Jr., who announced his run earlier this month. And Libby won't be the only candidate with recent experience in the Maine Legislature's upper chamber. Former Senate President Troy Jackson announced his run for the Democratic primary earlier this week. The other Republicans currently running are Kenneth Capron of Portland, Bangor resident Bobby Charles, who previously worked in the federal government during the George W. Bush administration, and Navy veteran Steven Christopher Sheppard, also of Bangor. Unenrolled candidate Alexander Kenneth Murchison of Dover Foxcroft is also running. Libby is in the middle of his second consecutive term in the Senate, but he has also spent time as a state representative after being first elected to the Legislature in 1992. He also ran in the 2002 Republican gubernatorial primary. Among the bills Libby introduced this legislative session are measures to add political affiliation as a protected class under the Maine Human Rights Act and reinstate the failed Property Tax Stabilization Program. Libby, who is also a professor at Thomas College, serves on the Legislature's Education and Cultural Affairs Committee. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
