Maine: Maine

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The Maine Heritage Policy Center researches and formulates innovative and proven conservative public policy solutions for Maine in four general areas:

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At the risk of getting too meta, Michele over at Strange Maine has a post on Allen's that sees my, uh, scholarship on Maine's best-selling drink and raises me a couple other sources, including this humorous nugget from an otherwise sober WaPo article:

At Raena's Pub in the northern city of Bangor,
bartender Carrie Smith said she can easily spot the brandy drinkers.
"Bleached-blonde, teased hair. . . They always play the 'Redneck Woman'
song" on the jukebox, she said, describing the typical drinker who orders a
"sombrero," or Allen's mixed with milk. Smith said she once saw a woman dump her
cocktail on the head of a beer-drinking man who referred to the drink by its
nickname, "fat ass in a glass.

Buried within the fine print of many consumer contracts for credit cards, home-building contracts and car purchases are clauses that stack the deck against ordinary Americans and force consumers to give up their rights before a dispute even occurs.  This is called "pre-dispute Mandatory Binding Arbitration."

Rep. Sean Flaherty (D-Scarborough) knows all too well the dangers that Mandatory Binding Arbitration Clauses pose to consumers.  In 2007, Flaherty, worked in Washington, DC to support federal legislation that would ban the use of such clauses in contracts nationwide.
"I was part of my job to research cases and prepare people who had been victimized by these clauses to testify before Congress," Flaherty said, "I met some incredible people who signed contracts for a new home, a new family car, or even employment without even realizing that if a problem was to arise, they would have no recourse whatsoever.

PPH:

An autopsy this afternoon revealed that Kenneth
Taylor killed his wife of 14 years, Belinda Taylor, before stabbing himself.
Their bodies were found Tuesday afternoon by their 12- and 14-year-old
daughters. Belinda Taylor’s death is Maine’s sixth homicide this year and the
third linked to domestic violence, said Department of Public Safety Spokesman
Stephen McCausland.(Update: In keeping with its "break it on the Web, explain it in print" ethos, the PPH has more on the story in today's paper.)

- John C.L. Morgan

Related: Questions Still Surround Taylor Deaths (April 30, 2009)