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| 📷 Crime scene tape surrounds Geneva Presbyterian Church on May 17, 2022, in Laguna Woods, California, two days after a gunman opened fire during a luncheon at the church, killing one and injuring five other members of a Taiwanese congregation that met there. (AP photo by Ashley Landis) |
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🔒 Federal officials call a Maine meeting on securing places of worship.
◉ Next Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice, along with the state's emergency management agency, is leading a public meeting in Augusta on securing churches and other places of worship. RSVP here.
◉ The federal effort comes on the heels of churches across the country increasing security after the FBI reported hate crime incidents increased by 34.8 percent between 2014 and 2018 at places of worship.
📃 A ex-defense contractor who figured into Maine politics is in trouble again.
◉ Martin Kao, the former CEO of Navatek, a company that has since changed names and designs Navy ships, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in his home state of Hawaii on a federal charge of mortgage fraud, according to Honolulu Civil Beat, a nonprofit news agency that has dogged his political giving.
◉ Kao has been in the Maine and national news since 2020, when he was accused of defrauding a small business loan program championed by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. He was one of three people indicted for a "straw donor" scheme that funneled contributions to a pro-Collins political committee during her reelection bid in 2020. He has pleaded guilty in those cases.
◉ Neither Collins nor her staff have been accused of wrongdoing in these cases. Her office has said neither the senator nor her campaign had knowledge of misconduct by Kao until it was reported and that nobody in the office had discussed the Paycheck Protection Program with him. |
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What we're reading
🔑 South Portland's approach to rent control is a lighter one than its neighbor's.
📙 Hermon might spend $5,000 to survey residents on a library book policy.
🎈Bangor students will help NASA track air pollution.
🪵 This new wood product may help an Aroostook County mill reopen.
🐝 Maine bees are dying at an alarming rate, and things will get worse. |
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