“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens.” - Harry Truman

The new MAHA strategy leaves pesticides alone. The plan is a win for the farm industry, which successfully lobbied the White House to temper RFK Jr.'s health agenda.

We, the workers of the statewide Maine Trust for Local News are excited to kick off our new campaign to bring the entire company under One Big Union. As our work grows increasingly unified, so should our representation. It's time to bring the whole company together. Sign out petition here!

NEW: Your local dispo's $40 ounce might've been grown by the Chinese mob Growers warn "gray market" weed is flooding legal weed markets & crushing legit businesses. “They’re not just fighting us, but they’re fighting each other. It’s a race to the bottom.” www.pressherald.com/2025/08/17/h...

BREAKING: GUNMAN AT LARGE IN WINDHAM, MAINE

NEW: Maine rejects Justice Department’s request for a list of local election officials and every registered voter’s personal information. SOS Shenna Bellows told the feds to “jump in the Gulf of Maine.” www.pressherald.com/2025/07/29/m...

Hyde School alumni take out full page ad in the @pressherald.com after the paper reported on the school’s alleged practices of child abuse, manual labor & “attack therapy”

A 'cluster' of HIV cases in Bangor has quietly become one of the largest outbreaks in Maine's history. Local providers expect the county's thin support structure to face more strain as cases rise and the federal government cuts public health budgets. My latest: www.pressherald.com/2025/07/23/h...

7 Chinese nationals have been charged for running a “a multi-million-dollar conspiracy” of illegal weed grows across New England. One man was caught laundering $40k in drug proceeds while wearing a $120 Supreme shirt of an iron laundering money. www.pressherald.com/2025/07/09/s...

Maine Fire Marshal investigating dudes for rocking

Maine woman who allegedly kept and sold "malnourished, lice infested" horses charged with animal cruelty for 2nd time in 15 years www.pressherald.com/2025/07/06/b...

Thanks for the shout in the newsletter last week @ire.org www.pressherald.com/2025/06/04/h...

Cumberland County Jail officer detained by ICE had applied for asylum

Scarborough last had an active student newspaper in 2012. That's a national pattern: between 2011-2021, the proportion of US high schools with a student newspaper dropped from 64% to 45%. In disadvantaged urban neighborhoods and rural areas, just 27% of schools have a student paper.

A building once used by the notorious Elan school for troubled teens is back on the market after being condemned + used as an illegal Chinese-run marijuana farm for the last four years. It was raided by police last year & is being sold "as is" but traces of its past lives are still visible inside.🧵

Neat stuff in Gardiner. Officials specifically cited my investigation while rejecting two cannabis applications at an illegal Chinese-run grow mentioned in the story. The facility was licensed by a former legislator & has since been operating illegally. www.pressherald.com/2025/06/04/h...

How a former Maine lawmaker grew weed with alleged Chinese crime groups He & others in the cannabis industry/lobbying group he leads have helped numerous illegal Chinese grows find legal cover in rural Maine. My latest investigation: www.pressherald.com/2025/06/04/h...

Hundreds of pages of inspection reports, police logs and other documents reviewed by the Press Herald show how Eddie DuGay, a former state lawmaker turned full-time cannabis consultant, helped numerous Chinese nationals get medical marijuana licenses and set up shop across the state.

UMaine’s federal funds have been in limbo since February, when Trump ordered an investigation into the university system and threatened to pull its grant money following a public spat with Gov. Janet Mills over Maine state law allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports.

COMMENTARY: Claims of election rigging will be tested in a courtroom in Colorado next week. Here's why many journalists, Democrats, and Republicans aren't talking about it.

"I have nothing to hide! I don't need digital privacy!" Well... - AI companies are scraping your data - Scammers are using AI to get better at their schemes - And yeah, a new era of government surveillance... A starter guide to protecting you online life:

President Donald Trump announced he is granting a “full and unconditional pardon” to a former Virginia sheriff, Scott Jenkins, who was convicted of conspiracy, honest services fraud and bribery.

Maine's only police partnership with ICE halted after pushback from residents and legislators www.pressherald.com/2025/05/21/w...

X continued to take payments from accounts that appeared to be affiliated with Hezbollah leaders, Houthi officials, and militia leaders in Syria and Iraq, a nonprofit found. The report comes over a year after researchers warned that X may be violating U.S. sanctions by accepting such payments.

Use of the state's law to intervene in gun violence varies greatly between counties and their police departments. But it's unclear why.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-ME, says ‘dark money’ progressive groups are why he won’t hold town halls "Their goal is to beat up on any Democrats who seek to in any way work with and show an openness to compromise with the Republican Party," Golden said. www.centralmaine.com/2025/05/08/r...

Melania Trump has spent fewer than 14 days at the White House since her husband, President Trump, was inaugurated 108 days ago. Officials say she is there more often than the public knows, but when and for how long, these officials will not (or perhaps cannot) say for certain. nyti.ms/3RTIFJG

Senior presidential adviser Kari Lake says Voice of America will rely on coverage from the far-right OAN network. OAN has offered unwavering support of President Trump.

Maine is the only state in the country not to require testing for mold, yeast, pesticides, chemicals or heavy metals in its medical cannabis. The state’s weed industry is fighting tooth and nail against lawmakers’ push to change that. www.pressherald.com/2025/05/05/m...

Maine settles lawsuit against USDA over $3 million in school funds “When confronted by the president of the United States, I told him I’d see him in court. Well we did see him in court, and we won,” Gov. Janet Mills said. www.pressherald.com/2025/05/02/m...

I asked Maine Gov. Janet Mills if the USDA dropping its lawsuit will stop Trump from making similar threats. “I can’t tell what he’s gonna do from one day to the next. Can you?” she said.

Nearly 650 Maine lawyers and 100 law firms took out a full page ad in the @pressherald.com today decrying the intimidation of lawyers & clients "whose interests do not align with those of the government."

As President Trump has threatened to annex Canada and place steep tariffs on its exports, many worry that a mutually beneficial and longstanding cross-border partnership would be threatened. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appeared to cement that new reality after his party’s electoral victory.

Because community paramedicine is still a new field, the majority of programs across Maine are funded through grants.

American police departments are spending hundreds of thousands on Massive Blue’s unproven and secretive technology that uses AI-generated online personas designed to interact with and collect intelligence on “college protesters,” “radicalized” political activists, and suspected traffickers.

The Global Engagement Center, a State Department unit that called out Russian and Chinese propaganda campaigns, has been shut down.

Lil Wayne. Chinese gangs. Illegal weed. A body stuffed into a barrel. My latest: www.pressherald.com/2025/04/14/p...

Effective immediately, the government says it will begin screening immigrant social media for activity that officials think indicates support for antisemitism.

“Hello, the FOIA office has been placed on admin leave and is unable to respond to any emails.” This doesn’t sound like “radical transparency” to us. Check out our latest secrecy newsletter to see which FOIA offices have closed, and which might be next.

Wall Street Journal reporting that Mike Waltz "has created and hosted multiple other sensitive national security conversations on Signal with cabinet members, including separate threads on how to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine as well as military operations" www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Early into President Trump’s 2nd term, supporters in Maine say ‘So far, so good.’

India's use of immigration law to punish a Reuters journalist for investigating corporate wrongdoing may be a preview of where the U.S. is headed.

The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration admitted he specifically targeted Maine after watching Gov. Janet Mills clash with President Donald Trump at the White House. “I was ticked at the governor of Maine for not being real cordial to the president,” Lee Dudek said.

NEW: In a recording obtained by ProPublica, acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek portrayed his agency as facing peril, while also encouraging patience with “the DOGE kids.”

The Republican Maine lawmaker who was censured for her Facebook post about a transgender student has filed a lawsuit against the speaker of the House of Representatives, arguing that Democrats in the Legislature violated her constitutional rights.

Sanford Republican Rep. Lucas Lanigan was indicted on Wednesday after a grand jury found probable cause to charge the sitting legislator on two counts for domestic violence offenses. via @mainemorningstar.com www.newsfromthestates.com/article/gran...

Breaking News: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Pentagon to halt offensive cyberoperations against Russia, officials said.

Trump administration retreats in fight against Russian cyber threats

HuffPost and Reuters were both removed from the White House press pool this week, following press secretary Karoline Leavitt's announcement that the White House Correspondents' Association will no longer control the pool. Read more:

I asked #NHLJets G Eric Comrie about how the 4 Nations may help grow the sport of hockey. He believes it will -- but said "it’s ridiculous how expensive it is and it kind of grosses me out thinking about how hard it is for kids to play this game." His full quote: