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What we're reading
— In Presque Isle on Thursday, Collins called on Congress to unite against Russian leader Vladimir Putin's "heinous" invasion of Ukraine and said she would support stronger sanctions. It comes after congressional negotiations around sanctioning Russia broke down over quibbles about timing and order, leaving U.S. policy in the hands of the Biden administration.
— Senate President Troy Jackson of Allagash, the state's best-known labor Democrat, broke with the state employees' union on Thursday to delay consideration of a bill aimed at stopping the closure of a Department of Health and Human Services call center in Wilton. Sen. Russell Black, R-Wilton, who is sponsoring the measure, said he was told by his party leaders that Jackson was having trouble supporting the bill because of their past dispute on a logging issue. A Jackson spokesperson said to take such Republican characterizations with "a grain of salt," but she did not directly dispute this one.
— Workers at Maine's biggest hospital say patients are assaulting them more than ever. It is an another side effect of an interconnected health care system with weaknesses laid bare during the pandemic. Alongside hospitals, behavioral health agencies have struggled under worker shortages leaving people needing psychiatric care in emergency rooms longer. Workers at Maine Medical Center in Portland called on administrators to increase staffing after a recent spate of assaults. The hospital advocated for state policy changes.
— Maine reached what Gov. Janet Mills called an "unwelcome milestone" on Thursday, crossing 2,000 COVID-19 deaths. The last 1,000 came much faster than the first 1,000, but deaths have sharply declined this month in a trend that is expected to continue for the foreseeable future with transmission tracking downward across the state and country. |
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Follow along today
11:30 a.m. Collins and independent Sen. Angus King will be at the University of Maine in Orono for an event celebrating an engineering lab's production of a 3D-printed vessel for the U.S. Department of Defense.
1 p.m. King will speak about leadership in a campus event sponsored by UMaine Student Government in Williams Hall.
7:30 p.m. The European Union's ambassador to the U.S., Stavros Lambrinidis of Greece, will be speaking as part of the Camden Conference, a Maine foreign policy summit that is all virtual this year. His address on diplomacy coincides with Russia's escalating Ukraine invasion. Register here. |
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| 📷 Lead photo: President Joe Biden calls on reporters for questions while speaking about the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the East Room of the White House on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022, in Washington. A portrait of George Washington is in the background. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) |
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