maine
Speaking of weak Democrats, you have no idea how much trouble I've had getting Democrats in #Maine to introduce or otherwise advocate for gun reform legislation. I've written multiple times to the chair of the Democratic Senate Committee, the Executive Director of the Maine Democratic Party, Senate President Mattie Daughtry (my state senator), the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, and more. All of them refuse to answer me. What cowardice. #Politics #Democrats #Guns #GunReform #Democracy #US #USpol
![Headline in the New York Times: "Democrats Must 'Toughen Up' Against [the guy currently in the White House], Obama Tells Donors"](/proxy/post_attachment/126531/49f00e57ab.png "Headline in the New York Times: \"Democrats Must 'Toughen Up' Against [the guy currently in the White House], Obama Tells Donors\"")
Last year around this time (Apr 4 2024) we lost power because of a storm a bit like this one. It snowed much more heavily, and since the temperature hovered near freezing the snow was a heavy wet mess that tore down power lines and trees. Our power was out for around 4 days. If I recall correctly over 300,000 people were without power at some point, around 1/4 of the population of the state. We'd had a 2-day power outage only a week earlier, right at the end of March, and were feeling pretty rough by the time the power came back on. We were putting buckets of ice and snow into the refrigerator to keep the food cold that we hadn't put in the coolers on the porch. It's looking like we're in for some more snow yet but I don't think it'll be like the storm last year.
The tree in the foreground of this picture was crushed by the ice and snow of that storm last year. I had to take off a couple of limbs that were broken almost completely through.
#maine #spring
The USDA failed to follow its own guidance for a rural mortgage program, taking years to foreclose on delinquent loans.
As a result, 55 Maine borrowers racked up, on average, $110,000 in additional debt before the agency moved to take the homes.
https://www.propublica.org/article/usda-maine-foreclosures-rural-homeowners?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Are You a Public Housing Resident Behind on Rent? Received an Eviction Notice? Here’s What to Know.
—
If you’re one of 1.6 million people living in public housing nationally, you have special protections meant to prevent low-income tenants from being evicted when they fall behind on rent. We created a guide to the process.
https://www.propublica.org/article/maine-eviction-safeguards-public-housing?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#Housing #Poverty #Homelessness #Homeless #PublicHousing #Maine
Jasmin Belanger believed the deal was simple: pay off what she owed, and her landlord would let her keep her housing.
It wasn’t until months later that she learned it had left her with a permanent record of an eviction — despite there never being one.
https://www.propublica.org/article/maine-public-housing-eviction-repayment-agreements?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/public-safety/part-of-route-302-in-windham-closed-due-to-police-incident/97-40212da0-d8f9-4fb5-a9cd-5e805e0d00a1
WINDHAM, Maine — The Windham Police Department and Cumberland County Sheriff's Office issued a shelter-in-place order at around 4 p.m. Friday to people in and along the Windham and Raymond town line.
This comes after police closed part of Route 302 in Windham was closed Friday afternoon as police searched for a person connected to a shooting in North Windham.
#Maine USA picks of the day:
➡️ @MaineMonitor - Independent public interest news site run by non-profit in Maine
➡️ @www.centralmaine.com - News feed from Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel local newspapers
➡️ @mainebeacon.com - News feed from Maine Beacon, news service run by local progressive group
➡️ @hikinginmaine.blog - Feed from hiking blog in Maine
➡️ @www.portlandfoodmap.com - Feed of food news from Maine
🧵 1/3
UPDATE! 1.9 magnitude #Earthquake in #LimingtonME!
Yikes! A very loud "BOOM" that shook the neighborhood in the Buxton-Hollis area of York County, #Maine. Did anyone else feel it? WTF is going on?!!
#maine #snow #NorlunTrough #WhiteChristmas
Democratic and Republican lawmakers across the country tried to push through bills to tighten gift limits, toughen conflict-of-interest provisions or expand financial disclosure reporting requirements. But many of the measures were derailed.
#News #Ethics #Law #Government #Virginia #Texas #NewMexico #NorthDakota #Connecticut #Maine
ICE agents shatter window, leave 1-month-old baby, mother in car after Portland arrest
Video shows federal immigration agents leaving behind an infant and broken glass after detaining a Guinean immigrant with no known criminal history.
#maine #ICE #ICEOut #Trump #USPol #StateTerror
#maine #CMP #PowerOutage
This is the text of the question:
Do you want to change Maine election laws to eliminate two days of absentee voting, prohibit requests for absentee ballots by phone or family members, end ongoing absentee voter status for seniors and people with disabilities, ban prepaid postage on absentee ballot return envelopes, limit the number of drop boxes, require voters to show certain photo ID before voting, and make other changes to our elections?
Ban prepaid postage? Besides suppressing voting, this question is straight-up cruel. Frankly, I think that particular clause is a tell that this is a bad faith measure.
#maine #VoteNoOnQuestion1 #Q1 #vote
On the bright side, lately I've been doing a lot of informal thinking while shoveling snow. I'm turning over an informal argument grounded on Chaitin incompleteness that if our physical universe has continuous space-time, then we must make non-computable leaps in our theories in order to increase the fidelity of our understanding. "Artificial scientists" running on computers will always have inescapable limits that don't apply to human beings. It's exactly the sort of wacky thing that makes for good shovel thinking: it passes the time, and there might be something in there that's more than passing theoretical fancy.
#maine #winter #weather #advisory #SnowStorm
I guess I'll be doing some insulating. This is the longest, coldest cold snap I've experienced here and the bright side of it is that it's alerted me to a trouble spot as well as the limits of our current systems!
#maine #weather #cold #FrozenPipes #plumbing #insulating