Colorado, Maine, Mississippi | August 20, 2021
Three US Senators Get COVID-19 Despite Being Fully Vaccinated
Colorado, Maine, Mississippi | August 20, 2021
Three U.S. senators on Thursday said they tested positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated against the virus that causes it.
Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), 70, Angus King (I-Maine), 77, and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), 69, are the latest prominent U.S. officials to contract so-called breakthrough infections of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Wicker’s spokesman, Phillip Waller, said the senator tested positive on Thursday morning after seeking a test due to mild symptoms.
“Senator Wicker is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, is in good health, and is being treated by his Tupelo-based physician. He is isolating, and everyone with whom Senator Wicker has come in close contact recently has been notified,” Waller said in a statement.
King said he’s been taking precautions since March 2020, including wearing a mask, social distancing, and driving back and forth to Washington instead of flying…. (Excerpts from the Epoch Times)
District of Columbia, Maine | August 1, 2021
Sen. Collins: ‘Bipartisan’ Infrastructure Bill Has Support of at Least 10 Republican Senators
District of Columbia, Maine | August 1, 2021
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said on Aug. 1 that the $1 trillion infrastructure bill backed by the White House has the support of at least 10 Republican senators, suggesting the measure will clear the 60-vote filibuster.
Collins, in a comment on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the legislation has enough backing to pass in the chamber this week.
“I think we will be able to lay down the bill later today and begin perhaps consideration of some amendments,” Collins said. “My hope is that we’ll finish the bill by the end of the week.”
For weeks, some Republican and Democrat senators have negotiated over the legislation after President Joe Biden publicly backed the measure, which includes funding for new bridges, roads, public transportation, water pipes, and broadband Internet…. (Excerpts from the Epoch Times)
District of Columbia, Maine | July 9, 2021
Supreme Court Will Hear Potentially Landmark Maine School Choice Case
District of Columbia, Maine | July 9, 2021
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a potentially landmark case challenging a Maine law that bans families from participating in a student-aid program if they choose to send their children to religious schools.
The Institute for Justice (IJ), along with First Liberty as co-counsel, represents the parents in Carson v. Makin, and will argue the case in the Supreme Court’s 2021-22 term.
Let’s quickly recap what this case is about, including what implications the final decision could have for the liberty of students (as well as their parents) to choose which school they attend and whether they’ll face discrimination for pursuing a faith-based education.
Choose Your School—Unless it’s Religious
Maine has a 200-plus year tradition of using government funds to ensure education for its residents. Historically, some towns would provide for families to send their children to private academies, often run by religious organizations..
(Excerpts from First Liberty)
Maine | July 2, 2021
Supreme Court Will Hear Potentially Landmark Maine School Choice Case
Maine | July 2, 2021
Arlington, Virginia—Today, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a potentially landmark case challenging a Maine law that bans families from an otherwise generally available student-aid program if they choose to send their children to schools that teach religion. The Institute for Justice (IJ), which represents the parents in Carson v. Makin, will argue the case in the 2021-22 term before the justices.
In 2020, the Institute for Justice won the landmark Supreme Court victory in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, in which the High Court held that states cannot bar families participating in generally available student-aid programs from selecting religiously affiliated schools for their children. The Court held that discrimination based on the religious “status,” or identity, of a school violates the Free Exercise Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Despite that ruling, in October 2020 the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a religious exclusion in Maine’s tuition assistance program for high school students. Under that program, if a school district does not maintain its own public school or contract with a school to educate its students, it must pay for students to attend the school of their parents’ choice—whether public or private, in-state or out-of-state. Parents, however, may not select a school that Maine deems “sectarian,” which the state defines as a school that provides religious instruction….
(Excerpts from First Liberty)
Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee | June 7, 2021
Migration Study Shows Big Cities Continue Losing Population During First Quarter
Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee | June 7, 2021
Americans in the first quarter of 2021 continued their 2020 pattern of moving from expensive, densely populated areas to warmer, more tax-affordable states, according to a new study from Updater Technologies.
Updater Technologies is an online platform that allows people to use a centralized hub for moving, including finding a moving company, connecting internet and utility services and updating their address. The company says the inbound and outbound data it uses is more reliable than tabulating mail forwarding forms because it captures fully completed permanent moves in real time. It also indexes cities and states based on population, since using raw numbers would skew toward the most populated areas based on sheer volume.
Out of roughly 300,000 household moves during the first quarter, only 16 states had a greater percentage of inbound moves than outbound: Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Arizona, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Colorado, Georgia and Maine.
Half of those states are considered to be year-round warm weather states. In addition, four of them – Nevada, Florida, Tennessee and Texas – do not levy a state income tax.
“It’s been fascinating to watch migration patterns shift away from cities and to warmer weather climates during the pandemic,” said Updater CEO David Greenberg. “With vaccinations underway, restrictions lifted in some of our hardest-hit cities, and companies rolling out permanent hybrid working solutions, we’re anticipating a summer moving season unlike any other with a series of new, atypical patterns.”
Updater said its first quarter data for 2020 showed a higher-than-expected volume of moves, but that plummeted in March as the coronavirus pandemic hit and many states issued shelter in place orders. Move volume did not reach expected summer levels until the third quarter, and the fourth quarter of last year showed typical volumes that would be expected in a non-pandemic year…
(Excerpts from the Virginia Star)
Maine | May 27, 2021
Maine House Speaker Replaces Republicans on Committees Over Mask Rule Violation
Maine | May 27, 2021
The speaker of the Maine House of Representatives this week stripped seven conservatives of their committee assignments, replacing them with Democrats.
House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat, made the move after the group, comprised of six GOP lawmakers and a Libertarian, entered the state Capitol without masks.
Video footage posted by one of the legislators, state Rep. Laurel Libby, showed law enforcement stopping the group just inside the entrance.
“In order to be in legislative space, your leadership said that you need to wear a mask. So we are asking you to wear a mask beyond this point,” one officer said…
(Excerpts from the Epoch Times)