NEWS & UPDATES
Hunger isn’t getting the attention it should
The stock market has recovered. Home prices are starting to recover and jobs numbers are creeping back, if at a glacial pace. But for many Mainers, the Great Recession of 2008 has never ended. If you were poor before the recession, you probably still are. If you were middle-income in 2008, you are lucky if
Bill to raise Maine minimum wage gets final House approval
AUGUSTA – Acting without debate Tuesday, the Maine House gave final passage to a bill to raise Maine’s $7.50 hourly minimum wage in stages to $9, and sent it to the Senate for a final vote. While the LePage administration spoke against the bill at a hearing last month, it’s unclear what action Republican Gov.
Homeless Man Killed In Fire Identified
PORTLAND (WGME) — The Maine State Fire Marshals Office has identified the homeless man killed in a fire late Saturday night as 53-year-old Brian Barbour. Investigators believe a candle in Barbour’s tent along West Commercial Street started the fire. An autopsy shows Barbour died from smoke inhalation. The fire started around 11:30 Saturday night. A
City's homelessness response needed now
Brian Barbour, 53, is the latest casualty. The homeless man died Saturday, probably of smoke inhalation after a lit candle set fire to his tent. He is one of dozens of homeless people who have died in Portland in the last few years. This sad report on the unforgiving life on the street makes a
US labor official tells Portland group minimum wage boost would not cause layoffs
PORTLAND, Maine – A top U.S. Department of Labor official told a room full of unemployed or minimum-wage-earning Mainers on Thursday that raising the minimum wage, as President Barack Obama and Maine Democrats propose, would not trigger mass layoffs. The event – led by Latifa Lyles, acting director of the department’s Women’s Bureau – took
Food Drive Kicks-off Community Week; 4/1- 4/5
Donations of non-perilshable food and other items are being accepted all this week at City Hall, Room 312 for Preble Street and other City Shelters. Other donations needed include: clean clothing, backpacks and socks. Donations will be accepted today through Friday, April 5th. This event is the first in a series of activities this week
Welfare fraud is not the problem, poverty is
Some policymakers act as if they would like to make the poor disappear, as if by magic. Gov. LePage’s budget has many versions of the trick, including a plan to cap state support for General Assistance programs, apparently under the belief that if there were less money to meet people’s needs, there would be fewer
More Mainers strain to put food on table
SACO – By the time Eleanor Locey pays her bills, there’s not enough money left over for food. She relies on Social Security but her income is too high to qualify for food stamps. So once a month the 77-year-old retired bus assistant drives to the Saco Food Pantry to load her trunk with the
Rally urges state to accept federal money to expand MaineCare
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine – Thomas Ptacek never expected to rely on MaineCare or the veterans health services he was entitled to after serving as a psychiatric technician with the Navy during the first Gulf War. But after he became homeless four years ago at the age of 40, Ptacek found himself needing government assistance for
Avesta’s Dana Totman named Nonprofit Business Leader of the Year
When Dana Totman was first courted by the board of York-Cumberland Housing in 2000, the then-deputy director of the Maine State Housing Authority saw a struggling, stagnant organization in desperate need of new leadership. "They were not real productive, they were just kind of plodding along," he says. Poor financial health, low workplace morale and
After 100 years in the business, Portland's Hub Furniture still giving strong
PORTLAND – In 1913, two peddlers, Jewish immigrants from the same village in Russia, founded a furniture store on Congress Street, near Franklin Street. They gave it a name that put it at the center of their world: Hub Furniture. Among their sale items was a six-piece dining room set priced at $46.50. Today, that
Homeless Youth: Who They Are and What They Need From Us
Preble Street Teen Services coordinator Chris Bicknell was featured on the Dr. Ross Green podcast ” Issues in Childrens Mental Health.” Listen to the podcast here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rosswgreene/2013/03/04/issues-in-childrens-mental-health.
