News

Masks are back for Maine lawmakers

Masks are back for Maine lawmakers

Photo: 560 WGAN Newsradio


PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Maine legislative leaders are requiring lawmakers to wear masks when they convene next week for a special session.

The Legislative Council voted 7-3 to return to a mask mandate for lawmakers who’ll be gathering amid a growing number of daily infections driven by the delta variant, the Portland Press Herald reported.

The state is dealing with near-record levels of COVID-19 infections as lawmakers gather next week to vote on a redistricting plan. A bipartisan commission faces a deadline of Monday for an agreement on the maps.

“Under every matrix, every metric, every way you would measure this, today we are in a lot worse position than we’ve ever been as far as cases across counties, every county across Maine,” said Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash.

House Minority Leader Kathleen Dillingham, R-Oxford, said she’d comply with the masking requirement but preferred that other lawmakers be allowed to make that choice for themselves.

Latest Headlines

4 hours ago in Local

Westbrook Police Seek Help To Locate Missing Woman

She is known to frequent the Westbrook and Portland area.

5 hours ago in National, Trending

Trump uses government shutdown to dole out firings and punishment

President Donald Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors, by threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting "irreversible" cuts to programs important to Democrats.

5 hours ago in National, Trending

Delta jets have a ‘low-speed collision’ on LaGuardia taxiway, injuring 1

Two Delta Air Lines regional jets collided on the taxiway at LaGuardia Airport in New York, injuring a flight attendant, damaging a cockpit and tearing off part of a wing in what the airline described as a "low-speed collision."

5 hours ago in Lifestyle, Trending

Gatorade and Cheetos are among the Pepsi products getting a natural dye makeover

PepsiCo, which also makes Doritos, Cap'n Crunch cereal, Funyuns and Mountain Dew, announced in April that it would accelerate a planned shift to using natural colors in its foods and beverages.

5 hours ago in Trending, World

Schwarzenegger downplays Trump and backs Vatican initiative to ‘terminate’ global warming

Arnold Schwarzenegger downplayed the Trump administration's climate skepticism Tuesday and threw his weight behind the Vatican's environmental initiative, saying individual choice, local regulations and the Catholic Church's moral leadership were far more important to "terminate" global warming.