January 12, 2026
Steve Robinson is the Editor-in-Chief of The Maine Wire. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
Interview with Jerry Leeman: Today we bring you a story about a handful of fishermen rallying against a billion-dollar green industrial project, shady foreign corporations, and our own federal and state government. All are conspiring to generate a cash cow for…
(Editor’s Note: The following opinion editorial represents the opinion and perspective of the MMCM and its leadership.) Protect Small Businesses: Maine’s Cannabis Industry Needs Fair Policies Gov. Janet Mills’ proposal to impose mandatory testing and tracking on t…
![State of the Budget: 7pm Live Stream [WATCH]](https://themaineanchor.news/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/16691-679936d15ad1c.jpg)
Gov. Janet Mills (D) will deliver her annual address to a joint session of the Maine State Legislature tonight starting at 7pm. The Maine Wire will livestream the address — along with some commentary — here and across our social media platforms.
Maine is at rock bottom. The state is half a billion dollars in the hole, even after receiving an unprecedented injection of some $15 billion in invented-from-thin-air pandemic funds. The roads are like a Zydeco vest frottoir, the schools are so terrible that Mills will…
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) and her finance commissioner have remained silent in the face of bipartisan condemnation of the administration for withholding information from lawmakers. The controversy over the Mills Administration’s closed-door governance spilled into th…
A leading progressive law firm in Maine is advising public school officials on how they can effectively resist potential immigration enforcement actions that may involve the families of minors who attend government-run schools, including by destroying evidence of potent…
Matt Brackley had a sense of foreboding long before the FBI showed up at his home two days after he announced his intention to run for the Maine State Senate in 2022. He was already struck with what he calls a “heavy heart” a year earlier, on January 6, 2021, before…
A self-described independent investigative journalist admitted Tuesday to falsely accusing a pro-Trump activist of providing drugs and alcohol to a minor as part of a ruse to get the activist fired from his job. The alleged journalist — Chris J. Barry, 56, a.k.a. Cras…
Two Democratic lawmakers escalated their efforts to obtain long-overdue reports on Maine’s cannabis industry on Wednesday, writing a letter to the director of Maine’s cannabis regulatory agency demanding that the reports be turned over by Friday. The letter comes ne…
Northern Light Health, the nonprofit that operates some of Maine’s largest health care providers, is bringing back COVID-19 Era mask mandates for all employees. “Beginning Tuesday, January 21, 2025, at 7 am, all staff will be required to wear a Northern Light Health…
Xisen Guo, 68, pleaded guilty Jan. 14 to federal drug trafficking charges, becoming the first individual in Maine to do so as the result of an investigation into a massive rural drug trafficking operation linked to Asian Transnational Criminal Organizations. Guo, a natu…
The Maine Gambling Control Unit (MGCU) reported that sportsbooks in the state accepted $52.7 million in bets during December, a 1.5 percent increase from the previous month. That gambling activity resulted in just $417,000 in taxes from the month’s wagers, according t…
Donald J. Trump, once a twice-impeached political pariah navigating the stormy seas of legal battles, made history Monday by becoming the 47th president of the United States. Taking the oath of office on the hallowed grounds of the Capitol, Trump cemented his return as …
President Donald Trump is expected to issue hundreds of Executive Orders on his first day in office, including several orders aimed at restoring order to America’s southern border with Mexico, combatting transnational criminal organizations, and reversing the Biden Ad…
Just hours before leaving office, President Joe Biden issued presidential pardons for retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “This issu…
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) told House Republicans that if they can’t support raising taxes as outlined in her budget, then they should expect her to sign whatever proposal legislative Democrats put on her desk, including a potential increase in Maine’s income tax. A…
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows provided an update to the Maine Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee regarding the administration of the state’s voter registration systems in 2024 on Wednesday. The letter, addressed to the committee chairs, Sen…
A political cartoonist who developed an online following among anti-Trump readers of the Washington Post has been arrested on charges that he possessed child sexual assault material. Darrin Bell, who has been celebrated in left-wing media for unflattering caricatures of…
A high-ranking official at the cabinet-level state agency admitted Wednesday that she intentionally withheld a report from lawmakers last year to protect the Office of Cannabis Policy’s legislative agenda. Anya Trundy, the deputy director for legislative affairs for M…
Maine’s chief cannabis regulator said Wednesday that the Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) is aware that it’s been issuing licenses to individuals associated with transnational organized crime. However, the agency lacks the authority to deny licenses to those who appl…
The state of Maine is staring down a $450 million “structural deficit” for the 2026-2027 fiscal year. “Structural deficit” is the term government employees use when the state’s economists are predicting money allocated by lawmakers or spent by Gov. Janet Mills…