In today’s Portland Press Herald, seven reporters and I put together a mammoth breaking news story on the effects of President Trump’s proposed budget in Maine. With the president proposing to eliminate low income heating assistance, Meals on Wheels, and federal funding for public broadcasting, Pine Tree Legal Assistance, the University of Maine Sea Grant program, the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, and other programs and institutions, it’s sobering reading.
The good news: if you’re a veteran, work for a military contractor, or would like the nuclear waste stockpiled in Wiscasset to go someplace far away, you’ll find some.
There’s also this sidebar on how Maine’s congressional delegation has reacted. Short answer: badly.
Dig in, and thanks to colleagues Randy Billings, Mary Pols, Eric Russell, Bob Keyes, Ray Routhier, Noel Gallagher, and Jason Pafundi for helping pull this beast together.
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author, historian and award-winning journalist. He is the author of seven books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at Maine's Portland Press Herald, he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a 2016 Pulitzer Prize. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.