The coronavirus vaccine is so scarce that a disparate group of interests from Maine’s top judge to groups representing HVAC workers and newspapers have lobbied Gov. Janet Mills’ office to grant priority access to frontline workers and others seen as vulnerable.
Emails and letters to the Democratic governor’s office provided to the Bangor Daily News under the Freedom of Access Act show the breadth of lobbying surrounding priority for the vaccine, which has remained constrained since the program began in mid-December.
More than 65 people or groups representing hospitality, transportation, food sanitization, chemicals manufacturers and organ donor services reached out to the Mills’ administration from early December to mid January, according to the documents. Tim Feeley, a Mills attorney, said the documents provided are just a small portion of the 700 emails and letters the governor received from constituents about vaccination efforts in the time frame. READ MORE
In July of 1750, a short notice appeared in a Boston newspaper calling for help finding an enslaved man who had run away from Ichabod Goodwin of Berwick in the province of Maine. Notices like these of runaway slaves are among the few written documents that describe the reality and brutality of slavery in the early days of the Massachusetts Province of Maine. Largely left out of history books or minimized as an insignificant footnote, slavery remains a nearly hidden aspect of the history of Maine, a state better known as the home of abolitionists than enslavers or profiteers. READ MORE
Molly Donovan enrolled her two school-aged children in the state of Maine’s homeschooling program after they expressed fears and anxieties about going to school during the coronavirus pandemic.
Her children, ages 5 and 6, attended Pittston-Randolph Consolidated School and were not only afraid of themselves getting sick, but were worried that Donovan and her partner would get sick and die from COVID-19.
This led Donovan to look into homeschooling so her children would have some sort of consistency in their lives. However, the children missed the social interactions that came with going to school and constantly asked Donovan if they could see their peers or attend their karate classes again. READ MORE
