The US Department of Education announced it would terminate Maine’s federal funding for K-12 schools due to a violation of anti-discrimination laws by allowing transgender girls to participate in girls’ sports. The investigation followed a dispute between Governor Janet Mills and President Trump. Maine received $358 million in federal funding in 2021-2022, 10% of its budget. Senator Susan Collins supported the federal interpretation of Title IX. The Maine Human Rights Act, which includes gender identity, was cited by Mills as a mandate, but Matt Gagnon argued it does not dictate specific policies. The state could face legal challenges if it changes its policy.
A recent report by the Maine DEP found that air samples near the tanks measured drastically higher than the area's normal background levels in terms of toxic chemicals.
The bills would require Mainers who earn over $1 million and corporations that earn over $3.5 million to pay slightly higher taxes, and would also see tax brackets adjusted.
Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill. This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash has already hit much of the East.
An inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved higher in January in the latest sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs.
A man with a rifle who crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials are saying was an attack had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official said Friday.
House lawmakers were digging into Jeffrey Epstein's sprawling financial portfolio on Wednesday as a committee deposed his former accountant and tried to understand his connections to some of the world's wealthiest men.
