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Maine: Augusta Augusta

April 6, 2009 - 10:01 pm
NEWS FEED: Bangor Daily News

Student privacy bill spurs debate in Augusta

By Mal Leary

AUGUSTA, Maine — Students, parents and school administrators all told lawmakers the Department of Education should stop collecting the names of students disciplined by schools and keeping them in a database, but Commissioner Susan Gendron warned that could jeopardize all federal funds for education that come to the state.

“If we don’t comply with reporting requirements as the federal government specifies, we can in fact be required to return all and any federal dollars,” she told lawmakers. “IDEA [Individuals with Educational Disabilities Act] alone is $50 million a year.”

Gendron said that while the state is collecting the disciplinary information, it reports the information only as aggregate data without the students’ identification numbers.

Read More at Bangor Daily News >
There have been 162 comments posted in response to this story.

April 5, 2009 - 10:31 am
NEWS FEED: Bangor Daily News

Father of Columbine victim to speak in Augusta

By The Associated Press

AUGUSTA, Maine — The father of a student who was among the victims at Colorado’s Columbine High School nearly a decade ago will be in Maine on Monday to make a case for passage of a gun control bill, one of several before the Legislature’s public safety committee.

Tom Mauser will speak in the State House on behalf of a bill to require that all persons purchasing firearms at gun shows undergo a national instant criminal background check. The bill, supported by Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence, is one of several gun-related measures before the committee.

One of the other bills would require that private transfers of firearms be facilitated by federally licensed firearms dealers, who must request a criminal history record check.

Read More at Bangor Daily News >
There have been 102 comments posted in response to this story.

February 15, 2009 - 04:30 pm
NEWS FEED: Bangor Daily News

Traditional marriage supporters gathering in Augusta

By Judy Harrison

AUGUSTA, Maine — Supporters of traditional marriage will gather from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Augusta Civic Center to voice their opposition to a bill that would allow same-sex couples to marry in Maine.

Representatives of the Maine Family Policy Council, formerly the Christian Civic League of Maine, the Maine Jeremiah Project, Concerned Women for America of Maine and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland are expected to participate in the “Stand for Marriage Rally.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Family Resource Council since 2003, is scheduled to give the keynote address. Perkins, 45, served in the Louisiana House of Representatives before taking his current position.

Read More at Bangor Daily News >
There have been 33 comments posted in response to this story.

February 9, 2009 - 09:30 pm
NEWS FEED: Bangor Daily News

Bill to close lobster fishing loophole debated in Augusta

By Kevin Miller

AUGUSTA, Maine — A long-running dispute among Down East lobstermen has spilled over into the State House, where leaders of Maine’s lobster community are lobbying to close what they say is a loophole allowing some to exploit the state’s strict catch rules.

But a Jonesport lobsterman at the center of the dispute said the bill is just the latest attempt by some of his neighbors to harass him and his family.

The Maine Department of Marine Resources has written a bill to clarify the “owner-operator law” to state that a lobsterman may operate only a boat listed on his license. The clarification, which has the support of Maine’s three large lobstermen’s associations, is intended to prevent one person from fishing more than the 800 lobster traps allowed under state law by secretly “setting up” another person with a boat and traps.

Read More at Bangor Daily News >
There have been 24 comments posted in response to this story.