Author: Nick Murray

(This article was originally posted at Maine Policy Institute’s Pine Tree Beat. Click here to access more of MPI’s policy related research and anlysis.) Several years after Massachusetts imposed stricter tobacco regulations in June 2020—including a ban on all flavored tobacco products including e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes, plus a 75% tobacco excise tax hike—cross-border smuggling is up, tax revenues are down, and state inspectors are busier than ever. That’s the takeaway from the latest annual report from the Massachusetts State Multi-Agency Illegal Tobacco Task Force (ITTF). A year after the ban went into effect in June 2020, regional tobacco usage had not changed;…

In a video posted to Youtube on Saturday, Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) said all income tax cuts are essentially tax cuts for the wealthy. He’s wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSWkWOxA4xg Jackson touts property tax “relief,” which often means giving more tax dollars to towns with no guarantee of lower mill rates, but he declares any reduction in income taxes to be a giveaway to the wealthy. In fact, the tax policy Jackson says he supports over income tax cuts — property tax relief payments — is more regressive than the Maine Policy Institute’s proposal to eliminate income taxes for anyone making less…

SmartAsset recently published its 2022 Cost of Living Calculator which charts the average cost of living and per capita income of every county in the United States. The calculator lets readers compare the cost of living in their county to any other county in the nation by tax rate, housing costs, and food costs. Using data from Bureau of Economic Analysis, MIT Living Wage Study, and Bureau of Labor Statistics, the site developed a Purchasing Power Index (PPI), shown as a percentage of average per capita income left over after accounting for cost of living. Some interesting bits of information…

Up For Growth (UFG), a nonprofit membership organization which was “founded to elevate and amplify the need for solutions” to the housing issue, recently published a report on the state of housing supply in the United States. It was sponsored by numerous entities like the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, Habitat for Humanity, the Walton Family Foundation, and the National Association of Realtors. Summarizing the report’s findings, the authors note that “with 3.8 million homes short of meeting housing needs, double the number from 2012, the nation is in an extreme state of Housing Underproduction™.” Nearly every state in the union faces this…

Last October, public interest journalism outfit The Maine Monitor broke the story of a newly-discovered large—and extremely valuable—lithium ore deposit in Newry, a small town in western Maine which is home to the Sunday River ski resort. The deposit, contained on a gem mining site known as Plumbago North, is considered to be one of the richest in the world. Lithium is a key mineral component in the production of batteries, not only for smartphones, but for electric vehicles (EVs) as well. These uses, critical to 21st century way of life and state EV adoption goals, support the estimated $1.5…

Earlier this month, the Treasury Department approved a plan to invest $110 million “to strengthen or expand broadband infrastructure across the state.” The funds will go through the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA), a state agency set up last year to manage and distribute millions in broadband spending. According to state and federal officials, the funding will be focused on rural and remote areas. This tranche of funds will come from the federal government’s Capital Projects Fund, set up through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a nearly $2 trillion bill passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in March 2021. According to a press release from Governor…

Earlier this month, the Treasury Department approved a plan to invest $110 million “to strengthen or expand broadband infrastructure across the state.” The funds will go through the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA), a state agency set up last year to manage and distribute millions in broadband spending. According to state and federal officials, the funding will be focused on rural and remote areas. This tranche of funds will come from the federal government’s Capital Projects Fund, set up through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a nearly $2 trillion bill passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in March…

In the aftermath of widespread pandemic-era learning disruptions, many parents and community members are seeking more information on what is being taught in Maine’s classrooms. While the administration of Maine Gov. Janet Mills maintains distance from the actions of school boards and teachers, several recent developments highlight the extent to which the state government has sanctioned potentially controversial lesson plans. During the era of remote learning over the 2020-21 school year, the Mills administration and the Maine Department of Education (DOE) commissioned online learning modules to facilitate the sharing of curricula around the state. A lesson plan celebrating “LBGT Activism”…

Is it possible that despite the mounting evidence against them, some lockdown enthusiasts are still unwilling to let go of failed COVID-19 “mitigation” policies? When the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finally updated public data this April on which US counties employed mask mandates and which did not, the picture became much clearer. Government-mandated face coverings do not stop or slow transmission of respiratory viruses, especially evident during the recent Omicron lineage variants of COVID-19. This reality has forced the most lockdowners to contort themselves into a position that states, although mask mandates might not work, masks…

Last month, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it is developing “product standards to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and prohibit all characterizing flavors (other than tobacco) in cigars.” This is trodden ground for Mainers. Even before President Joe Biden signaled this move, nanny-state politicians and west coast activists have tried to import more radical policy into the Pine Tree State, with some success. Just three years ago, Maine lawmakers passed and Gov. Mills signed into law a more-than-doubling of the tax on tobacco products other than cigarettes from 20% to 43% of the wholesale…

A new study recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found that students with greater access to in-person learning versus remote or hybrid learning during the pandemic had reduced learning losses, as measured by state assessments, in Spring 2021. The research team was led by Emily Oster, an economics professor at Brown University, author of several books on pregnancy and parenting, and an administrator of the COVID-19 School Data Hub. Oster and company noted that “the overall picture suggests that districts with more historically underserved students [such as those with higher proportions of Black and Hispanic students]…

Last week, LD 2003, a bill sponsored by Speaker Ryan Fecteau to reform local and state-level housing policy, passed engrossment votes in both the House and Senate, largely along party lines. This Monday, the House voted to enact the bill, and the Senate subsequently placed it on the special appropriations table pending enactment. After weeks of intense debate, behind-the-scenes negotiation, multiple iterations of the bill language, pending its funding from the special appropriations table and a Senate enactment vote, LD 2003 looks like it’s headed for passage. Several provisions of LD 2003 were maintained from the first batch of edits, endorsed by a majority…

Mainers deserve access to high-quality health care with an affordable price tag. Following the events of the last two years, it’s more important than ever to ensure we’re meeting this goal. That’s why policymakers in Augusta should focus on what has been working for Mainers as they continue to work toward this objective. We should be building on the successes of our current healthcare system and making the necessary improvements to keep it working for our families and taxpayers. Legislation was introduced this session in Augusta that would create a new state government-controlled health care system by expanding MaineCare to…

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data now show fentanyl overdose to be the top cause of death among US adults aged 18-45, surpassing those attributed to COVID-19, suicide, and car accidents. From 2018 to 2020, out of 100,000 adults of that age group, 19.4 succumbed to a fatal fentanyl overdose. Source: Families Against Fentanyl A report by the nonprofit Families Against Fentanyl notes that deaths attributed to the substance nearly doubled from 32,754 to 64,178 in the two-year period between April 2019 and April 2021. The United States recorded nearly 79,000 fentanyl deaths over 2020 and 2021 (37,208 in 2020…

Mandatory motor vehicle inspections already cost Mainers $14 million and countless hours of wasted time every single year, but just the other day, a majority of the Maine House voted to double the fee charged per vehicle inspection fee from $12.50 to $25. It’s hard to believe that in the midst of 40-year high inflation seen across the economy in food, housing, and especially energy prices, Maine lawmakers would opt to further nickel-and-dime their constituents. Sadly, they have. On March 24, LD 2032, “An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Motor Vehicle Inspection Working Group,” was printed by the Revisor’s Office and…

Antitrust is a hot topic in Washington lately. The pervasive reach of big technology companies into our personal lives and economy has drawn the attention and ire of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, but for different reasons. Many Democrats are increasingly wary of the size, power and reach of these companies and the effects they have on competition. Meanwhile, many Republicans are more concerned about what they see as aggressive censorship of conservative thought online, some seeing it as a violation of the First Amendment. In response to these concerns, the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)…

The dominoes are falling. In just the last month, public leaders of numerous (though not all) European countries, the nation of Israel, as well as some Republican-led US states such as Virginia and Iowa have moved to remove much or all of their remaining public COVID restrictions. On Monday, a suite of Democrat-led coastal states followed suit. Governors of New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Oregon, and California outlined pathways to remove mask mandates in their states, for school-age children and the general public, but these “off-ramps” vary. New York also joined the chorus earlier this week. Governor Gavin Newsom of California announced that the state’s public indoor mask mandate would expire soon,…

In late November, the Revenue Forecasting Committee (RFC), a branch of the Maine Legislature’s Office of Fiscal and Program Review, released its latest projection of tax revenue expected to reach state coffers by the end of the current two-year biennial budget cycle ending June 2023, as well as the next biennium. Buoyed by higher-than-expected consumer spending and corporate earnings, wage growth, employee tax withholdings, and pass-through income growing significantly over the first three months of the fiscal year, the RFC estimates that the State of Maine will take in about $820 million more in taxes in both the current and…

Last month, inflation in the US reached 6.2%, the highest year-over-year increase in more than three decades. Measured via the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by what’s known as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a basket of selected goods like food, energy, housing and others are chosen to determine the average price. The Producer Price Index (PPI) is also tracked by BLS to find the average change in selling prices of various goods over time as another way to look at price inflation. That rose a whopping 8.6% year-over-year in October. Energy costs rose 4.8% in October alone, with gas prices rising more than 6%. The BLS…

A recent analysis of the data in Maine CDC’s Health Care Worker COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard revealed that, while rates of vaccination among healthcare workers increased since Gov. Mills decreed that all Maine healthcare workers must be vaccinated for COVID-19 on August 12, this is not the whole story. Maine CDC tracks five types of “designated healthcare facilities” related to this data; ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), assisted housing, hospitals, intermediate care facilities (ICF/IID), and nursing homes. Data show that total numbers of hospital, assisted housing, and nursing home staff reporting vaccination status dropped considerably over August and September while overall facility-based…

This past election day, Mainers faced two contentious statewide ballot questions, but many local initiatives faced the scrutiny of voters as well. Residents of Hampden, a town of around 7,500 near Bangor, were asked to weigh in on a proposal to bond $4.5 million dollars to build a government-owned network (GON) tasked with delivering fiber-optic broadband service to the town. According to preliminary results from the Bangor Daily News, voters rejected the proposal, with 1407 voting “No” and 981 voting for it. Maine Civic Action (MCA), a new sister organization of Maine Policy Institute, worked to reach voters through multiple…

Reports across Maine over the last month have detailed the several healthcare facilities forced to curtail services because of staffing shortages. While this rationing of care is due in part to issues which have plagued Maine’s economy for years, as Governor Janet Mills contends, it also comes in response to Mills’ mandate that all healthcare workers be “fully vaccinated” for COVID-19 by October 29. There is little question that this long-term problem has been exacerbated by her recent mandate. Then, in true form, she offered a plan to fix the problem that she helped create. On Monday, the governor held a press conference to shift public…

A new publication from Maine Policy Institute shows which municipalities in Maine allow public K-12 education funding to follow their resident students to a school of their choice. These towns, numbering only 87 out of more than 500 localities, provide greater choice for families than the one-size-fits-all ZIP code-based enrollment system the vast majority of Maine students are offered. The interactive School Choice Map of Maine provides essential information to families on where to reside if they would like more than one publicly-funded schooling option for their children. Through a mechanism known as “town-tuitioning,” school-age children in Maine who reside…

Today, Maine Policy Institute released a new analysis on the scope of educational options available for Maine families based on residency. Accompanying the report is an interactive map visualization of localities across the state and the options available to resident students and their families. From the cities and towns to the plantations and townships, more than 900 localities were surveyed. Among these, Maine Policy was able to identify the choices for students in 575 of these jurisdictions. Among the towns with reported data, 85% do not support alternative choices of students outside of their school administrative unit (SAU). In these…

Since the world learned of a novel coronavirus emerging from Wuhan, China in December 2019, there has been no shortage of research into the risk factors that contribute to contracting SARS-CoV-2, and to severe COVID-19 illness from infection. Published in April 2021, a Kaiser Permanente study of more than 50,000 people found that the highest risk factors of COVID-19 illness for the overall population are advanced age (older than 60), a recent organ transplant, and physical inactivity. Even greater than underlying health conditions like hypertension or diabetes, “patients who were consistently inactive had 1.73-fold greater odds of ICU admission than…

On September 9th, President Joe Biden ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal agency tasked with regulating workplace safety, to promulgate an emergency rule mandating all employees in workplaces with at least 100 people be “fully vaccinated” for COVID-19, or require weekly testing of those who remain unvaccinated. The order also extended the mandate to all federal employees and contractors, but without a testing alternative. Interestingly, the mandate does not apply to members of Congress or legislative staff. Violations of the rule, which are yet to be defined by OSHA, are reportedly punishable by a fine of up to $13,600 per…

On August 12, Maine Governor Janet Mills issued an emergency rule change through the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that requires anyone employed by “designated health care facilities” to be “fully vaccinated” for COVID-19 by October 1. This gives those workers who have thus far declined a COVID-19 vaccine about a month to get their final shot, since two weeks following the final dose is what it takes for one to be considered “fully vaccinated.” This made Maine the fourth state to issue a similar mandate, following California, Oregon, and Washington. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo made his own decree on Monday, making New York the…

At the end of July, Governor Mills and the Maine CDC issued a recommendation that all K-12 students wear face coverings in school, after the federal CDC shifted its guidance to recommend all adults wear masks in counties with high transmission, regardless of vaccination status. The Mills administration is also encouraging schools to use their pooled testing program to try to identify outbreaks early. So far, the only mandate on schools, pursuant to a June 30 Declaration of Public Health Emergency by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, is that they report COVID-19 vaccination rates of school staff…

In its July 5 piece, the editorial board of the Bangor Daily News opines that while Governor Mills’ 15-months-plus-long State of Civil Emergency is finally over, the COVID-19 pandemic is not. The crux of their argument lies with the oft-referenced Delta variant, coined “the Indian variant” before the CDC reassigned Greek letters to its “variants of concern.” The editors describe Delta as “50 percent more virulent than other strains,” linking to an Associated Press (AP) report from the United Kingdom (UK) published July 1. But for those readers who choose to dig just a little deeper, the claim turns out…

This week, Maine lawmakers will vote on LD 221, Governor Janet Mills’ supplemental budget proposal. Also known as the governor’s “change package,” the bill would tack on about $200 million more to the state’s biennial budget out of the more than $900 million in new tax revenue projected for fiscal years 2022 and 2023, which is set to begin on July 1. The group of legislators tasked with marking up budget bills, the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee (AFA), dealt with the measure during work sessions last week and over the weekend. Out of those negotiations, lawmakers on both sides…

A new Harvard analysis of various data points throughout the pandemic shows that poor Americans, those earning under $27,000 a year, have suffered the most over the past year and a half. Between January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, employment among low-wage workers dropped a whopping 23.6% while overall employment fell 6.5% in that time. While everyone was hit hard by the initial shutdowns, the poor continue to bear a disproportionate burden of job losses. In Maine, while overall employment has fared better than the national average, the disparity along socioeconomic lines is stark. Employment rose in Maine from…

A prominent refrain in the pandemic recession-recovery story has been the persistent labor shortage seen across the United States. Coupled with mounting inflation and consumer uncertainty, restoring the economy of 2019 has been tricky for policymakers. Even in Maine, the unemployment rate seems tame compared to the nation, but if everyone who was working or looking for work in early March 2020 was doing so today, unemployment would be nearly double. Some point to generous pandemic unemployment benefits as a reason for the stalled labor market. An analysis by the Foundation for Government Accountability found that a low-income Mainer with…

Many advocates in Maine and around the nation have highlighted the need for more stable and faster internet speeds, especially in the shadow of the remote-learning, work-from-home, socially-distant economy that many Americans have been thrust into as a result of the last 15 months of pandemic-inspired emergency rule. This month, voters in a handful of Knox County towns will vote on a town meeting article to “authorize the Select Board to enter into an Interlocal Agreement with other municipalities for the purpose of creating the Midcoast Internet Development Corporation (MIDC).” Effectively, the voters of Rockport, Camden, and Thomaston have the opportunity to weigh in on…

Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that at least 50% of Canadians have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, but in order for his government to consider a relaxation of border restrictions with the United States, he said that “cases need to be under control and at least 75% of people need to be vaccinated.” As Trudeau has just recently secured sufficient vaccine supply to achieve that milestone, he anticipates that his country won’t reach it until the fall. Unfortunately, his goal is farther away than many would hope. The US-Canada border has been closed…

On Monday, May 24, nearly eight months after it was first ordered, Maine Gov. Janet Mills lifted the state’s universal face covering mandate. Mills announced the change 10 days prior, after the US CDC revised its guidance for vaccinated adults. The agency now suggests this population may no longer wear a face covering in public due to a much lower risk of severe COVID-19 illness. Because of this long overdue move by Mills, Maine businesses can finally set their own mask policies instead of being the state’s “COVID police.” For many Mainers, this feels like the last vestige of pandemic-inspired governmental overreach. But, there remains…

Lawmakers on Maine’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee held a public hearing last Thursday on a bill sponsored by Rep. Seth Berry of Bowdoinham and Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford that amounts to a forcible government takeover of Central Maine Power and Versant Power, the state’s two largest private utility companies, to establish the Pine Tree Power Company (PTPC), a privately-operated nonprofit consumer-owned utility. The public hearing on LD 1708 can be viewed on the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee’s YouTube channel. The electrical grid is truly an incredible feat of engineering, guaranteeing near-instantaneous transfer of energy production and distribution in accordance…

Last week, Heather Johnson, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), announced on a monthly business community video call that the state would be shifting its COVID-19 restrictions for businesses to voluntary recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “Businesses still have the option to require certain activity, but the state will no longer be requiring it,” Johnson said of the shift to a “recommended but not required” model. The state’s overarching business rules, conveyed through DECD’s COVID-19 Prevention Checklists since the beginning of the governor’s business shutdowns, have been part of the administration’s evolving timeline…

Last week, Maine’s Health and Human Services Committee held a public hearing on LD 1550, “An Act To End the Sale of Flavored Tobacco Products”, sponsored by Rep. Michele Meyer, D-Eliot. The bill would prohibit the sale and distribution of flavored tobacco products in Maine, including flavored cigars and e-cigarettes. A ban on certain tobacco products will do very little to affect overall demand or use rates in Maine, but it will redirect valuable tax revenues to New Hampshire, as Massachusetts’ ban has. Maine is doing more than most other states in the country to reduce youth initiation and promote…

On Monday, the US Census Bureau released its first estimate of state and national population numbers for the 2020 Census. Tasked with administering a national count by the US Constitution, the federal government uses this tally for the apportionment of the nation’s 435-member House of Representatives every 10 years. These numbers are also used to determine each state’s total electoral votes for the 2024 and 2028 presidential elections. The Census Bureau reports that as of April 1, 2020, “the resident population of the United States, including the 50 states and the District of Columbia was 331,449,281.” This is a 7.4%…

Maine’s Committee on State and Local Government held public hearings last Friday on two bills that would require a legislative vote for the state to participate in the Transportation Climate Initiative, a regional cap-and-trade program that would force Mainers to pay more for gasoline and diesel fuel. One bill, LD 1366, is sponsored by Rep. Laurel Libby of Auburn and the other, LD 1472, is sponsored by Sen. Stacey Guerin of Penobscot. Under the TCI, gasoline and diesel dealers in participating northeast and mid-Atlantic states would be required to purchase allowances for the carbon emitted by their fuel products. Over…

Lawmakers on Maine’s Judiciary Committee held a public hearing Wednesday on LD 864, “An Act To Protect Teachers’ Privacy While Delivering Remote Instruction,” a bill sponsored by Rep. Janice Dodge of Belfast. The bill would allow public and private schools in Maine to determine who is authorized to view live and recorded remote classroom sessions, and punish with fines (no less than $200 and no more than $500) those who are unauthorized to participate in remote learning if they photograph, copy, record, distribute or retransmit a recorded session of remote instruction. Under the guise of “privacy,” this bill would elevate…

On Tuesday, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont announced that he will lift all business restrictions, except for mandating masks indoors (including schools), by May 19. On a sooner timeline, Lamont said that the state’s outdoor restrictions will lift on May 1. The pressure is building on the remaining governors in New England, including Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker and Maine Governor Janet Mills, to do the same. Medical experts based in the region have recently spoken out about the lack of necessity for mask mandates. Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, explained on CNN that “we’ve known…

On Wednesday afternoon, Maine’s Health and Human Services Committee will hold a public hearing on LD 1344, a department bill sponsored by Rep. Michele Meyer of Eliot that would expand the powers of the Department of Health and Human Services during a state of emergency, giving the executive branch even more authority to assess punishments and unilaterally control our daily lives. LD 1344 would give DHHS the devastating authority to fine, suspend licenses, and ultimately close down businesses if they “directly and repeatedly violate public health control measures” during a declared emergency. These punitive actions would be exempt from the…

So-called “deaths of despair,” those involving drug abuse, alcohol, or suicide, have been the subject of numerous studies over the last year attempting to measure the collateral damage of lockdowns and economic shutdowns in response to COVID-19. Even before the pandemic, this was seen as a growing problem. One study noted the combined death rate from drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, or suicide rose 51% between 2005 and 2016. One tragic aspect of these deaths is that they are made up of mostly younger Americans, those who might have had 40, 50, or 60 more years of life had they not fallen victim…

Members of Maine’s Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services Committee will hold public hearings Tuesday on a number of bills that would repeal or reform Maine’s Certificate of Need (CON) laws, which require healthcare facilities to obtain permission from the state and their competitors before offering certain services or expanding their existing capacity. The bills are sponsored by Rep. Laurel Libby of Auburn. Last spring, Mainers began to understand the value of sufficient hospital and nursing home bed capacity. Preserving this was the original goal of the state’s pandemic response, and to “flatten the curve.” Thankfully, we never faced the worst-case…

On March 11, President Joe Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), a nearly $2 trillion spending bill as a way to provide relief to state and local governments in funding their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This makes $6 trillion spent by the federal government in the last 12 months. The latest batch of federal funds will be disbursed in two parts: the first installment will be transmitted to states and localities sometime in May and the second will likely come a year later. ARPA is unique from most federal spending bills in that local governments…

Over the last few weeks, a central pillar of pandemic-era decision making crumbled. The arbitrary measuring stick for defining whether daily life can be “safe.” Six feet. At first, we were told that as long as you could maintain this distance from someone outside your household, you didn’t need to wear a mask. Of course, eventually it didn’t matter if you were near another person at all. Equally arbitrary, Governor Mills ordered businesses and houses of worship to allocate every visitor a 200 square foot bubble, about the size of a single-car garage, to account for proper, mandatory social distancing.…

As many Mainers question the appropriateness of a year-long state of emergency, in which a sole political official holds the power to unilaterally alter laws, rules, or regulations, with minimal public input, legislators have been equally frustrated. On Monday, the Committee on State and Local Government will hear a dozen bills to reform portions of Maine’s emergency powers law. Currently, Maine law allows the governor to extend an emergency declaration every 30 days, absent a vote from both house and senate to terminate it. The Legislature may step in at any time, but the last year has shown us that…

Lawmakers on Maine’s Transportation Committee held virtual public hearings Thursday on five bills sponsored by members of both parties that would repeal or reform Maine’s vehicle inspection program. Two of the bills, LD 284 and 354, sponsored by Reps. Rich Cebra (R-Naples) and Jon Connor (R-Lewiston), respectively, would reform the program to require a motor vehicle inspection every two years. LD 431, also sponsored by Rep. Cebra, would eliminate the program entirely. Sen. Dave Miramant (D-Knox) is the lead sponsor of LDs 490 and 712. LD 490 would eliminate the inspection requirement for noncommercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles, trailers and semitrailers…

On Tuesday, lawmakers on Maine’s Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement, and Business Committee held a virtual public hearing on LD 612, An Act To Recognize Occupational Licenses and Certifications from Other States To Attract New Residents and Businesses to Maine, sponsored by Representative John Andrews of West Paris. The bill would allow skilled professionals licensed in another state to gain licensure to work in Maine, provided they are in good standing with their state’s licensing board. Ultimately, it would help thousands of workers and entrepreneurs make the move to Maine and build a better life here. Licensure is far and away…

The internet is a critical service — everyone can agree on that — but some go as far to say that it should be a public utility, like water or electricity. This has driven massive public spending in rural broadband development over the last decade at both the state and federal levels, and the chatter has only increased over the last year of remote learning and Zoom meetings. Unfortunately, coverage of the issue is often superficial in Maine. The Bangor Daily News recently published a story on Starlink, a project of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, to deliver high-speed broadband internet service…

In Maine, medical providers like hospitals, out-patient facilities and nursing homes must obtain a Certificate of Need (CON) in order to make significant investments in their offerings. This means that certain healthcare providers looking to build a new facility, offer a new service, substantially increase their capacity, purchase equipment or make other critical investments must seek approval from the state—and their competitors. Yes, you read that right. Under CON, larger, more established hospitals decide how and when to let their competitors into the market, a process known as the “competitors veto.” According to the Division of Licensing and Certification (DLC), the office that…

Last Friday, Democratic state senator John Mannion of New York called for an end to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s emergency powers. Mannion’s call came after it was revealed that the Cuomo administration had kept information from the public about COVID-19 deaths that occurred within the state’s nursing homes. Mannion isn’t the only state lawmaker in the country looking to restore the proper balance between the legislative and executive branches after close to one year of unilateral rule by most U.S. governors under emergencies declared in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, the battle to rein in runaway emergency authority is being waged across the…

This week, the anti-tobacco organization “Flavors Hook Kids” held an online news conference for Maine media. During the event, leaders decried the availability of flavored cigarettes and other tobacco products, claiming their existence is oppressive, specifically to the Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ communities. “It would be difficult to name another widely available commercial product that has caused more deadly harm to African Americans than menthol cigarettes,” remarked Kaylin Kerina, a Portland resident, in the Monday news conference. The campaign is urging Maine to join the ranks of just two other states, California and Massachusetts, in banning the sale of flavored tobacco…

The Paycheck Protection Program, part of the federal CARES Act passed last year, was crafted by Congress to provide loans to businesses that would be forgiven if they spent the funds on qualifying payroll and non-payroll costs. It was created to help incentivize businesses to retain their employees through the economic downturn caused by state and federal efforts to suppress COVID-19. The point of the program was to keep workers’ wages intact even if their employers could not operate due to pandemic restrictions. Conflicting portions of the Maine and federal tax codes presented the Mills administration with a choice: to tax or…

At the peak of state-ordered lockdowns in response to COVID-19, 316 million Americans across 42 states lived under a stay-at-home order. Millions witnessed never-before-seen usage of their governor’s emergency powers, while some wondered how a country built on individual liberty could fall so far from its founding ideals. To better frame this crisis of leadership in America, Maine Policy developed a first-in-the-nation scorecard of every states’ emergency powers law. The analysis found that far too many states fail to strike an adequate balance between the legislative and executive branches to prevent runaway executive authority under declared states of emergency. Every state received a numerical…

On January 20, the World Health organization (WHO) issued an advisory for labs which process polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The Maine Wire has previously covered Maine’s predominant use of a highly-sensitive PCR test and how it could generate lots of positive results from people who are neither sick nor infectious. The recent WHO notice essentially serves as a reminder for technicians administering PCR tests to “read and follow the IFU (instructions for use) carefully to determine if manual adjustment of the PCR positivity threshold is recommended by the manufacturer.” At first…

As I dig deeper into the recent supplemental and biennial budget proposals from Governor Janet Mills, the truth about her so-called “no drama” budget is coming to light. For the next biennium beginning this July, Mills relies on various accounting gimmicks in order to balance her budget, growing spending as the public reels from the worst economic year since 2009. The budget tinkers with tax rates on certain communications and digital media services, gambles on a more than triple public employee attrition rate and shifts staff funding to short-term federal sources. But, given the crafty ways the governor gets to…

Maine Governor Janet Mills released the details of her second proposed biennial budget last Friday following a closed-door media briefing and multiple press releases with minimal detail. It was clear the administration wanted to control as much as possible the initial headlines that would be written about the budget. Just as planned, the Maine media parroted the governor’s talking points that this is a “no drama” budget that does not “change tax rates” and grows the Rainy Day Fund to an “historic” level. As expected, the coordinated, controlled release of the proposal did much to obfuscate the unfortunate truth: the state will continue to kick the can…

The economic shock from the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, exacerbated by the response of many state governors, is just beginning to be understood. As public health officials fixated on a single pathogen, policies enacted to slow transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, have inflicted their own damage on society without effectively mitigating the pandemic. These harms will be felt for many years, not merely in economic terms, but to the overall health and happiness of the general public. How can we determine the full extent of lost potential and growth over the course of 2020? How can we know what of…

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by researchers from the University of Florida and University of Washington found that so-called “asymptomatic” or “presymptomatic” spread of COVID-19 is quite rare. Controlling for differences, the meta-analysis of 54 studies covering over 77,000 participants found that SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—has a “secondary attack rate” of 16.6%, higher than two notable coronavirus epidemics in recent years, SARS in 2003 (7.5%) and MERS from 2012 (4.7%). The secondary attack rate is the number of new cases divided by the number of total contacts from those cases, used…

Earlier this month, the Maine Climate Council released its four-year plan titled, “Maine Won’t Wait”, a proposal covering a multitude of policy areas ranging from transportation to energy infrastructure to workforce development. The plan’s overarching goals focus on how to shift the Maine economy toward significantly decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately delaying the predicted effects of climate change. It is especially significant because it articulates Governor Janet Mills’ broader energy and economic priorities. Unfortunately, the pandemic and government lockdown-induced economic shocks from Spring 2020 continue to ripple throughout Maine. Those fateful months showed us how immensely interconnected Mainers are…

Maine Policy Institute has previously noted the potential pitfalls of relying on a single health authority, especially one subject to political consequences, for diagnosing disease among the people. We have also reported on the highly sensitive testing process that many US states and governments around the world use to identify cases of COVID-19: polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. PCR is a process of amplification. By culturing genetic material present in a patient’s sample, the test effectively doubles the amount of virus in the sample with every amplification cycle. The test runs until it identifies the virus it seeks. The number of cycles needed to register…

In a decision handed down late Thanksgiving Eve, a five-Justice majority of the Supreme Court struck down parts of New York’s recent pandemic-driven emergency orders. Noting that the Gov. Andrew Cuomo had specifically called out the Brooklyn-based hasidic community as a potential hotspot for the spread of COVID-19, and that the governor’s rules specifically targeted houses of worship, the Court ruled that the enforcement of such rules must be prohibited. Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish group, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn sued Cuomo for targeting religious groups more strictly than businesses such as bike shops and…

As COVID-19 case counts rise across the United States and Europe, it is important to understand how we identify active cases, but some scientists are concerned that positive test results conflate active case numbers. Finding an active case of COVID-19 involves a diagnostic test using a technique known as polymerase-chain reaction, or PCR. PCR is a trusted, accurate way to find viral fragments in a patient’s sample. The process occurs by isolating a small segment of RNA, viral genetic code, and amplifying it to a level that it becomes detectable by the test as a positive result. The test is…

Last year, the Maine Legislature and Governor Janet Mills enacted a pair of bills curtailing the growth of the state’s public charter schools. Sponsored by Portland Rep. Mike Brennan, these changes to Maine law will severely limit the educational options available to Maine’s students. In addition to previous limits on charter enrollment enacted in 2015, one bill capped the total number of charter schools allowed to operate in Maine at 10 schools. Rep. Brennan’s other bill specifically targeted Maine’s virtual charter schools, restricting all virtual charter enrollment to 1,000 total students across the entire state. That bill also prohibits virtual…

Governor Janet Mills’ latest batch of doomsday rhetoric is an admission that her coronavirus narrative is falling apart. In describing SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as an “evil genie” which is “attacking babies, teenagers, Millennials and seniors alike in every region of Maine and all across the country,” Mills is knowingly stoking panic over a virus for which most of the infected would never know it. Last week, she issued an executive order requiring all Mainers to cover their faces in all “public settings,” a term her order mentions should be “broadly construed.” There is scant evidence to show…

With more than 90% of the votes counted in Massachusetts, it appears that the initiative to implement Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) for future elections has been rejected by a majority of voters in the Bay State. Tracking this race over the last month, The Maine Wire noted that polls were tightening heading into the final week, showing the measure leading by 5-10 points. In the end, Bay State voters rejected RCV by a 10 point margin, with 55% voting “No.” The “Yes on 2” campaign conceded last night after polls closed in Massachusetts. Interestingly, it is likely that many more votes…

Last Friday, Lindsey Crete, spokesperson for Governor Janet Mills, hinted to the Maine media that more economic restrictions would be coming given the higher daily numbers of new COVID-19 cases being recorded across the state. By Sunday, this notion was fulfilled through the governor’s latest batch of executive orders to reinstate numerous restrictions on travel and social interaction. This accompanies an eighth extension of the state of civil emergency first declared by the governor in March. Mandatory 14-day quarantines for those who travel to Maine from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut are back in effect. The only states exempt…

A poll released Monday by UMass Amherst and WCVB is showing a tightening race among Massachusetts voters on Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV). With 9% of voters still undecided, support for the measure leads the opposition by only 5%. Carrying a margin of error of 4.5%, this is the second poll in a week showing a close race or a statistical dead-heat for the measure, which is Question 2 on Bay Staters’ ballots this year.  Last week, an Ipsos poll showed support for the measure up 45% to 34%, with 21% of voters unsure of their stance. Massachusetts politico Paul Craney of…

A recent Ipsos poll asked 1,001 Massachusetts adults about a number of issues, including their thoughts about ranked-choice voting (RCV). The online poll, conducted in conjunction with Spectrum News, reached voters across the Bay State, finding that 45% support RCV, while 34% oppose it. Considering the authors’ “credibility interval” of between 3.5% and 5%, the race could be within only a few percentage points. Ranked-choice voting is a method of voting in which voters may rank candidates on a grid-style ballot. If no candidate receives over 50% of first choice votes, voters’ second choices are reallocated to the remaining candidates,…

In a recent interview on Lockdown TV, Dr. Scott Atlas, a healthcare policy scholar, medical scientist and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, aired his philosophy and view of how the world has handled the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. In the discussion, Atlas stripped bare the arguments for lockdowns and cleared the air on the assumption that he advocates for “a herd immunity strategy.” He quickly dispenses with the notion that a strategy of mitigation—one similar to that offered by some of the world’s top epidemiologists in the Great Barrington Declaration—is akin to “survival of the fittest” as…

Our relationship with the arts has been severely and permanently altered this year. As every day passes, it appears more and more likely that the heavy-handed policies enacted by governors across the country–including Gov. Janet Mills here in Maine–have made weathering this pandemic much worse than it needed to be. Businesses across Maine and the nation are still reeling from the effects of continued restrictions on daily operations. Many are able to make due with curbside pick-up, online ordering, shipping, remote work and virtual events. But for arts and music venues, the continued mandatory limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings…

Late last week, the Michigan Supreme Court in a 4-3 vote ruled that emergency orders issued by Governor Gretchen Whitmer after April 30 are effectively unconstitutional. In its decision, the court struck down the Emergency Powers of the Governor Act of 1945 (EPGA) that allowed the governor to declare and sustain a state of emergency without the legislature’s backing. Since the end of April, the governor has issued over 100 executive orders mandating mask wearing, expanding unemployment and delaying medical procedures, among other things. In addition to striking down the 1945 law, the court ruled that the governor did not…

When we hear about the challenge of testing for the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), we often hear that tests may take a few days to report a result. Perhaps, as a recent piece in the New York Times suggests, we need tests with a quicker response, even if they are less sensitive. Finding an active case of COVID-19 involves a diagnostic test using a technique known as polymerase-chain reaction, or PCR. These tests detect viruses, such as influenza and the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, by looking for fragments of the virus’s genetic material (RNA) in a swabbed sample from the patient. The…

Last week, Governor Janet Mills issued a “curtailment order,” a tool Maine governors can wield to balance budgets after the legislature has adjourned. Curtailment orders have been issued by previous governors who faced substantial budget deficits following economic slumps, including the most recent governor, Paul LePage, and his predecessor, John Baldacci. In the order, Gov. Mills outlines a series of one-time budgeting fixes to make up the rest of the projected budget shortfall resulting from the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the business closures ordered by the governor in response to it. In July, state economic forecasters…

The BDN editorial board’s recent commentary on the state budget shortfall reminds us how different one person’s reality can be from another. Their reminder that raising taxes is an option for balancing the budget is a vapid lecture on zero-sum governing. Talk about tone deaf. Have they not seen the thousands of Mainers who are struggling as a result of heavy-handed state power? It is as if they believe the people of Maine should pay for the consequences of unchecked government action over the last six months. We already have! Government exists to protect the rights of the people; the…

My colleagues and I have previously written on the State of Maine’s impending revenue shortfall, which is projected to top $1 billion over the next two-year budget cycle due to the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing societal shutdowns. Gov. Janet Mills, in the second and final biennium of her first term, will be pushed to scale back her spending wishlist for state government. After proposing a budget in January 2019 that increased spending by nearly $1 billion over the biennium–an 11% increase–legislators approved (and she signed) a budget that grew spending by 10%. Gov. Mills recently directed state agencies to find…

Recently, some on social media have shared a misrepresentation of an August 26 update to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 data webpage. In the update, the CDC acknowledges that only 6% of the nation’s COVID-19 deaths do not involve any other conditions that lead to death, also known as comorbidities. The data was provided after analyzing death certificates of the over 170,000 people who have passed away with COVID-19. Attention to the CDC’s update has been blown out of proportion due to Twitter’s disproportionate response censoring a tweet from President Trump which advanced a misconstrued…

In mid-August, the board of directors of Regional School Unit 18, a school district spanning five towns just west of Waterville: Oakland, Belgrade, Rome, China, and Sidney voted to proceed with a plan to return students to school this year, which is scheduled to begin Monday, August 31. Nine of the 10 members of the board voted in favor of the plan with one abstaining. Although the district will offer in-person instruction five days a week, parents will have the option to choose remote learning for their children. Any student taking the remote option will be given a laptop or…

Researchers studying sewage samples from southern Brazil found remnants of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, as early as last November. This potentially-groundbreaking study could have massive implications for how people all over the world understand the timeline and severity of the virus that causes the disease, COVID-19. Not only does this suggest that it was present in the Americas at least two months before the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed in the U.S. state of Washington, it also suggests that the virus was present on the other side of the globe at least a month before its official identification by central…

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released a report on the state of mental health among American adults, providing a closer look into the effects of statewide economic shutdowns in response to the spread of COVID-19. The survey was conducted during the last week of June 2020, sparked by a marked increase in symptoms of anxiety disorder and depressive disorder from April to June 2020 compared to the same time frame last year. Of all those surveyed, over 40% reported experiencing at least one adverse mental health condition related to the pandemic. Among the most startling…

The latest report from Maine’s Revenue Forecasting Committee (RFC), published earlier this month, revised its estimate of the state government’s General Fund revenues in FY21 (the fiscal year spanning July 2020 through June 2021) to a whopping 10.8% below last year’s figures. This represents a revenue shortfall of $524 million year-over-year. After accounting for about $100 million in savings leftover at the end of FY19, this shortfall becomes $422 million, or a little more than 10% of the state government’s yearly budget. Mike Allen, Associate Commissioner for Tax Policy, delivered the August report after the Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission (CEFC)…

The last few months have been tense, marked by social distancing and physical isolation amid the outbreak of a new virus. In-person communication and deciphering nonverbal cues is made more difficult by widespread use of facial coverings and plastic barriers. The American public has watched as the chasm between them and their government widens, mostly from ever-lengthening, amorphous states of emergency. Not to discount the persistent issue of violent crime in our cities, among the population, the many accounts of gratuitous violence at the hands of public officials has brought the most hardened supporters of law-and-order to the table to…

These days, in states across the nation, public health officials are discovering more and more cases of COVID-19 among their populations. This is due to a myriad of factors, including the gradual reopening of public-facing businesses in some states, as well as dramatic increases in testing to determine a fuller scope of the caseload. Although these larger numbers may be alarming, it is important to understand the broad array of risks and benefits involved in our policy options as the summer months lead into the fall, when students are supposed to return to school. In recent weeks, many organizations have…

Yesterday, a few dozen people gathered in the parking lot of American Legion Post 19 in Sanford to raise awareness for the many local nonprofits and social clubs that have been forced to close due to the government response over COVID-19. Speakers included Maine state legislators, Representatives Heidi Sampson of Alfred, Beth O’Connor of Berwick, and Matt Harrington of Sanford, as well as leaders of AMVETS, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and American Legion which serve local military veterans. Other Sanford-area groups like WABAN, which serves local children and adults with intellectual disabilities, Grahamtastic Connection, which provides access to educational…

On Tuesday, Scott Sullivan, head of the Maine Brewers Guild, a nonprofit trade association that represents the state’s craft brewing industry, urged Governor Mills to reconsider her rules for when businesses can reopen this summer. Citing new information that the spread of the novel coronavirus is more limited while outdoors, the guild is asking the administration to allow Maine breweries with outdoor seating to welcome customers back. The state’s current rules for reopening place breweries in the same category as bars, meaning they cannot reopen until July 1. This is in contrast to restaurants, which will be permitted to serve…

On Thursday, May 14, Maine Policy Institute hosted an online panel discussion with three Maine-based lawyers of diverse experience and specialty examining the legitimacy of emergency executive power. The first question asked by moderator Matthew Gagnon was one that has been on many minds over the last many weeks, “How is this constitutional?” Governor Janet Mills first declared a Civil State of Emergency in mid-March, followed by stay-at-home orders and numerous other actions that closed businesses and limited travel within the state. Dozens of amateur legal takes emerged from all sides, but Maine Policy wanted to cut through the clutter…

Recent stories of farmers euthanizing livestock and dumping milk have startled many Americans, particularly those of us attempting to weather the economic shutdown by staggering trips to the grocery store every two weeks, or longer. These troubling stories are leaving many to wonder about the state of America’s food supply chains. Arising from the displacement of food supplied to large-scale distributors such as restaurants, hotels, and schools, which have been forced to close or restrict operations during the pandemic, this supply chain is separate and distinct from food stocked by grocery stores and supplied directly to the consumer. Although we…

Last Friday, Maine Governor Janet Mills released a revision to her phased reopening plan, announcing that restaurants, retail stores and some outdoor recreation businesses in 12 of the state’s 16 counties will be permitted to open this month.  Retail outlets in Aroostook, Washington, Hancock, Waldo, Kennebec, Franklin, Oxford, Somerset, Piscataquis, Knox, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties are permitted to open Monday, May 11 with some added sanitation precautions. Restaurants in these counties may open with added health and customer distancing requirements next Monday, May 18, along with some wilderness camping and outdoor recreation activities. Outdoor fitness classes with fewer than 10…

On Thursday, April 9, Maine Policy Institute hosted a panel of veteran homeschoolers and educators for a virtual townhall to answer questions from parents on how to weather the public shutdown over COVID-19 and facilitate learning at home. Last week, Maine’s education commissioner recommended that districts prepare to keep students physically out of the schools until the beginning of the next academic year in September. Whether referred to as “distance learning,” “remote learning,” or “district-directed at-home instruction,” the change has required students to connect with teachers and classmates through video conferencing in order to fulfill lesson plans amid social distancing…

With recent reports of staggering numbers of new U.S. unemployment claims–including over 21,000 in Maine alone–the oft-forgotten segments of the struggling American economy are facing an even steeper climb out of this period of economic malaise and uncertainty brought on by public and private efforts to discourage social contact to help stem the outbreak of COVID-19. Some have endeavored to shed a light on those who have been in a near-constant state of economic struggle since the Great Recession in the beginning of the last decade, and for others even earlier than that.  Christopher Rufo, a documentary filmmaker based in…

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Janus decision in June of 2018, unions have begun to feel the pressure to retain members and confront their political foes in 2020. The Service Employees International Union, one of the largest unions in the United States with almost two million members nationwide, has pledged to spend $150 million to defeat President Donald Trump in the November 2020 presidential election. The union has been quietly rolling out this plan over the last month or so, but it would be the most expensive voter engagement and turnout operation SEIU has ever undertaken. With a…

This upcoming Tuesday will be Maine’s first primary election for president since 2000, and the first ever to occur on Super Tuesday, the day where Maine and 13 other states hold their presidential primary nominating contests.  Any Maine voter may participate in the election on March 3rd, but there might be restrictions based on your current party affiliation. Here’s what you need to know in order to participate in Maine’s next election. Even though, conventionally, March 3rd is a day for presidential primaries, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap designated it a statewide election. He assigned a single statewide ballot question…

A recent report by London Economics International (LEI), a Boston-based financial advisory firm specializing in energy market analysis, commissioned by the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) suggests that under certain scenarios, Mainers could pay less over the long term with a state-owned power company. The MPUC commissioned the report with the goal of gaining a clearer view of the potential risks and benefits of enacting LD 1646, a bill to create the Maine Power Delivery Authority (MPDA) and authorize it to acquire the transmission and distribution (T&D) assets of Maine’s two power companies, Central Maine Power (CMP) and Emera Maine.…

On Tuesday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court struck down a law requiring police officers–without a warrant–to draw a blood sample from individuals on the scene of a deadly crash. Maintaining the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure, the Court ruled that this principle applies to the taking of blood, even in “exigent” circumstances such as the scene of a fatal highway accident, where first responders must react quickly. The question arose when Randall Weddle appealed his conviction on counts of manslaughter, operating under the influence, and other related charges stemming from a serious accident involving multiple…

Last week, the government of China initiated a mandate that every new SIM card registrant submit to a facial recognition scan to be provided to the state. SIM cards are tiny, portable memory chips in cell phones that carry unique information about each user. Most phones have detachable SIM cards so the user can carry his or her phone number, contacts, or other data with them when they change smartphones. This policy will force every smartphone user in China to supply unique personal information to the government. This move marks an enormous intrusion on personal liberty, even for modern China.…

Farmer Randy Canarr of Souder Station Farm has been farming and raising livestock in Winterport for almost 10 years, providing locally-raised meats, cheeses, honey, and maple syrup to the greater Penobscot Bay community. He started the farm after returning from U.S. Army active duty, and the birth of his son, Nate, in 2011. Souder Station is a small, family-operated Maine farm, supporting the beautiful way of life that Maine provides for those of us lucky enough to call it home. According to their website, Souder Station Farm’s mission is to provide the highest quality, ecologically-sustainable foods to the community, with…

In recent weeks, Americans have heard much about the problems with “Big Tech.” National politicians from President Donald Trump to many Democrats running to replace him have been public with their disdain for big companies’ collection and dissemination of personal information, as well as data breaches and censorship. Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, constantly contends with accusations of bias against mainstream conservative accounts for not allowing monetization, deprioritizing videos in its search, and outright banning certain videos from its platform based on vague claims that content conflicted with its policy on “hate speech.” Facebook banned several videos…

Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a rule to no longer allow states to make payments to third parties on behalf of in-home care providers. Under Medicaid, a federal program administered by the states and funded by state and federal tax dollars, elderly or disabled individuals meeting eligibility requirements can receive support at home from a caregiver to assist them with aspects of daily living, a broad range of everyday activities including “eating, bathing, dressing, grooming, and mobility.” These caregivers can either be paid directly from the state or through a company under which they…