Latest news with #TroyR.Bennett
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
May Day rallies across Maine celebrate labor rights amid federal backlash
Nate Bantan plays euphonium with the Ideal Maine Band during a May Day march in Portland, Maine on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) Labor unions' annual May Day celebrations took on new urgency this year as workers rallied across Maine on Thursday to mark International Worker's Day and protest the anti-labor actions of the Trump administration. In Portland, a march organized by a coalition of unions, community and leftist political groups briefly stopped traffic on Forest Ave. as the crowd progressed from the University of Southern Maine through the city, culminating with a crowd of roughly 1,000 in Congress Square. Scott Adams, president of the American Postal Workers Union Local 458, addressed those gathered outside the post office. He said that President Donald Trump and billionaire advisor Elon Musk want to privatize the U.S. Postal Service. 'We will lose everything we won in the past if we don't fight in the present,' he said. Other speakers highlighted local labor fights. Stephen Bennett of the University of Maine Graduate Workers Union pointed out that they'd been negotiating their first contracts for more than 500 days. 'Why does the University of Maine System refuse to acknowledge that our work is valuable?' Bennett asked. Demonstrators make their way up Forest Avenue during a May Day march in Portland, Maine on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Starting at the University of Southern Maine campus, the pro-union, pro-Palestinian and anti-Trump protestors made stops at the city's main post office and Portland High School before rallying in Congress Square. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) May Day protestors gather in Portland, Maine's Congress Square on Thursday, May 1, 2025. A coalition of left wing organizations came together for the 1,000-person strong demonstration. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) May Day protestors gather in Portland, Maine's Congress Square on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) A woman waves a sign during a May Day march in Portland, Maine on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Starting at the University of Southern Maine campus, the pro-union, pro-Palestinian and anti-Trump protestors made stops at the city's main post office and Portland High School before rallying in Congress Square. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) May Day protestors gather in Portland, Maine's Congress Square on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) May Day protestors gather in Portland, Maine's Congress Square on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) May Day protestors gather in Portland, Maine's Congress Square on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) The graduate workers and their supporters, including the Maine Education Association and Eastern Maine Labor Council, also held a march and rally in Orono. Other events were organized in Bridgeton, Bath, Augusta, Waterville, Auburn and York. On Wednesday, national AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler participated in a listening session with Maine workers that have been impacted by the actions of the Trump administration, including a recent executive order that ended collective bargaining rights for federal unions. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
USDA ordered to unfreeze federal funding to Maine
Supporters march and wave signs after a rally in Cumberland, Maine on Sunday, March 23, 2025, calling on Maine lawmakers, and local MSAD51 school officials, to support transgender student athletes. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) A federal court has ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to restore funding to Maine, granting the state's request for a temporary restraining order. The ruling marks Maine's first legal victory against federal sanctions imposed over its policies on transgender athletes — policies the Trump administration argues violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education. At issue is Maine's decision to allow transgender athletes to participate in girls' sports, which the federal government claims is unlawful under its interpretation of Title IX. After the USDA froze the funds earlier this month, Attorney General Aaron Frey on Monday filed a complaint in U.S. District Court seeking to reinstate access to the money this Monday. Four days later, Justicedge John Woodcock Jr. granted the emergency request, finding that Maine had shown it would suffer 'irreparable harm' and that the USDA had failed to follow legally required procedures before halting the funding. In a statement after the ruling, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said the order 'confirms the Trump Administration did not follow the rule of law when it cut program funds that go to feed school children and vulnerable adults.' 'No one in our constitutional republic is above the law and we will continue to fight to hold this administration to account,' Frey said. Unlike other federal agencies that opened civil rights investigations into Maine's policies, the USDA acted without launching a formal probe. On April 2, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins notified Governor Janet Mills that the department was freezing certain federal funds used for school administrative and technological functions. The move was based solely on the department's view that Maine was out of compliance with Title IX, according to Rollins' letter. The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services had separately found Maine in violation of federal law after short investigations. But the state has pushed back, insisting that its trans-inclusive policies are consistent with both Title IX and legal precedent. In a letter sent earlier today to Bradley Burke, regional director of the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster cited court rulings affirming the rights of transgender athletes. 'Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls' and women's sports teams,' she wrote. 'Your letters to date do not cite a single case that so holds.' Judge Woodcock's ruling does not address the substance of the transgender athlete policy itself. Instead, it but focuses solely on the federal government's failure to follow due process. 'In ruling on the State's request, the Court is not weighing in on the merits of the controversy about transgender athletes that forms the backdrop of the impasse between the State and the Federal Defendants,' Woodcock wrote. 'The Federal Defendants froze the appropriated funds without observance of procedure required by law.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maine, Trump administration ‘at an impasse' after state refuses to comply with trans athlete policy
Supporters march and wave signs after a rally in Cumberland, Maine on Sunday, March 23, 2025, calling on Maine lawmakers, and local MSAD51 school officials, to support transgender student athletes. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) Maine will not be changing its policy on transgender athletes and thus is 'at an impasse' with the federal government, according to a letter from the Maine Attorney General's Office to the U.S. Department of Education Friday. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights set Friday as the deadline for the Maine Department of Education to comply with a resolution agreement proposed last month that requires the state to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order banning trans girls from playing girls' sports. If the state does not comply, the administration has said it will refer the case to the Department of Justice and rescind federal funding. 'We will not sign the Resolution Agreement, and we do not have revisions to counter propose. We agree that we are at an impasse,' wrote Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster in a letter to Bradley Burke, regional director for the agency's Office for Civil Rights. Further, Forster argued that Title IX, the federal law banning sex-based discrimination on which the Trump administration is basing its argument, does not legally preclude transgender inclusion in athletics. 'Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls' and women's sports teams,' she said. Citing several federal court rulings — including a 2024 ruling in New Hampshire, Tirrell v. Edelblut — she added that 'various federal courts have held that Title IX and/or the Equal Protection Clause require schools to allow such participation.' Since Gov. Janet Mills and Trump got into a heated exchange over the state's trans athlete policy, legal experts have watched the case to see how the Trump administration would respond to the state-level pushback. 'We just need an answer at this point as to, 'Does the Trump administration have the authority to do what it's doing when it comes to fast tracking the removal of federal funds?'' said Jackie Wernz, a former lawyer for the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights who now represents school districts nationwide in these types of cases, in a previous interview with Maine Morning Star. 'This is just unprecedented, and we're not following the process that we're used to. So I think it's going to be really helpful for courts to start weighing in on whether or not they have the authority to do this.' While the U.S. Department of Education has not specified how much federal funding is at stake, it awarded $347 million to Maine entities in fiscal year 2024, according to the Maine Center for Economic Policy. Several federal agencies have launched investigations into Maine's alleged violation of Title IX. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture froze funding to Maine school programs over alleged violations of federal law, over which the Maine Attorney General's Office has filed suit. In addition to the Title IX investigations, numerous other federal agencies have cut funding to programs in Maine in apparent retaliation for the state's noncompliance. Earlier this week, the Department of Justice terminated several grants to the Maine Department of Corrections because of the state policy related to transgender detainees, which it approaches on a case-by-case basis. And the former acting director of the Social Security Administration admitted he deliberately sought to punish Maine by temporarily suspending the 'Enumeration at Birth' process, which allows parents to check a box on a form shortly after a child's birth in order to receive a mailed Social Security card. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Another federal probe targets Maine school gender policies, citing parental rights
Supporters yell and wave signs at rally in Cumberland, Maine on Sunday, March 23, 2025, calling on Maine lawmakers, and local MSAD51 school officials, to support transgender student athletes. (Photo by Troy R. Bennett/ Maine Morning Star) District policies that protect students' privacy when it comes to gender identity might be violating federal law by depriving parents of information, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In another directed investigation launched by the department based on reports from right-wing media about Maine districts complying with the Maine Human Rights Act, the department alleged that by developing plans to affirm students' gender, districts may be in violation of the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA). Maine's support of transgender athletes already faced a federal investigation through the department's Office for Civil Rights, with the state being found in violation of Title IX for allowing trans girls to participate in sports aligning with their gender identity. Whether Maine decides to sue or comply with the resolution agreement proposed by OCR remains to be seen, with the Maine Attorney General's office declining to comment. School officials from MSAD 51 and the Maine Principals Association, which were also under investigation, have already said they will not sign the agreement. The FERPA investigation is another example of President Donald Trump's administration targeting Maine for protecting students' access to affirming school environments through the Maine Human Rights Act. In a letter to the Maine Department of Education, Frank Miller, acting director for the Student Privacy Policy Office, highlighted a 2016 memo by the Maine Human Rights Commission that explains the interpretation of the Act: 'In the event that the student and their parent/legal guardian do not agree with regard to the student's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, the educational institution should, whenever possible, abide by the wishes of the student with regard to their gender identity and expression while at school,' the memo states. 'The overall memorandum on its face appears to give school officials discretion that would infringe on the rights of a parent under FERPA,' Miller said in his letter. He also alleged that 'this same rhetoric may lead to Title IX violations if applied in a school environment,' which may warrant the investigation to be referred to the OCR. Miller's letter also highlights that because school counselors or school social workers are not required by Maine law to divulge information gathered during counseling, it may keep parents from 'exercising their right to inspect and review education records relating to their child's counseling with a school counselor or school social worker.' Parents Defending Education, a far-right 'parental rights' group, has been scrutinizing school districts and filing federal civil rights complaints nationwide against school districts — including Portland in 2023 — for several years for their policies protecting students' rights. The USDOE investigation cites the goal of Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neily 'to hold school districts accountable and ensure no child is socially transitioned behind parent's backs by teachers or administrators.' The fight between parental rights and students' privacy rights when it comes to gender identity at school has played out in courts for the past few years, prompted by lawsuits filed in at least six states by parents rights groups. Legal experts working with the school districts have argued that districts are trying to support students by having these policies in place, and are required to protect students' privacy rights over parents' rights to information about their children. In Maine, one such lawsuit stemmed from parent Amber Lavigne suing her child's school district for using affirming pronouns and a school counselor giving her child a chest binder. That lawsuit was dismissed, with Judge John Levy of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine saying that while it is understandable that a parent might want to stay informed, the district and staff did not violate Lavigne's rights as they were following the district's transgender students guidelines. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
