Dave Sherwood is a staff reporter for Pine Tree Watch, a nonpartisan, nonprofit investigative news service focused on Maine state government and institutions and operated by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. Email: dave@pinetreewatch.org
Sen. Justin Chenette introducing his bill to ban lobbyists from making contributions to lawmakers. Legislature kills proposal to prevent lobbyist contributions to lawmakers Maine lawmakers have killed a proposal to ban legislators, the governor and...
AUGUSTA — A bill that bars lawmakers from paying themselves or businesses they own from political action committees under their control has become law. The bill, An Act Regarding Political Action Committee Expenditures, passed unanimously through both the Maine House...
AUGUSTA — A Maine bill reinforcing federal requirements for training and certification to do renovation work on buildings containing lead is dead, leaving unresolved questions about the safety of renovating homes in Maine that contain lead paint or plumbing. The Maine...
SCARBOROUGH — Horseracing fan Craig Varney had driven more than 100 miles from his home in Waldo to watch the opening day of Maine’s harness racing season at Scarborough Downs in late March. When he arrived, things didn’t look good. Plow trucks had pushed head-high...
AUGUSTA — There are too many variables to determine conclusively which Maine municipalities and counties spend the most per capita on lottery tickets and no evidence that the state’s $231 million lottery has targeted the poor in its marketing, a study released Friday...
The Legislature’s investigative arm launched a preliminary inquiry of the state-sponsored Maine PowerOptions electricity program Feb. 17, a month after a story by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting raised questions about the group’s transparency, oversight and benefits for its members.
For the first time in 16 years, staff of Maine PowerOptions appeared before lawmakers Feb. 2 to explain how the quasi-state electricity consortium brings together hundreds of municipalities and school districts across the state to help them buy power.
Part 1: Five years after a scandal at the Maine Turnpike Authority landed its director in prison, a quasi-state program — Maine PowerOptions (MPO), which brings together municipalities, school districts and other state nonprofits to purchase electricity in bulk — lacks transparency and effective oversight.
Part 2: Both a confidential state probe and a subsequent independent investigation by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, including a review of a confidential agreement between Maine PowerOptions and its electricity supplier, raise questions about whether the quasi-state program is living up to its original mission of saving Maine taxpayers money.
Part 3: Several northeastern states, including New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts, have formed groups similar to Maine PowerOptions. Boston-based PowerOptions runs an organization nearly identical in mission to the Maine program, though far larger in scale — and with more transparency.
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