News conference set for Monday in case of missing toddler Ayla Reynolds

The lawyer for missing toddler Ayla Reynolds’ mother says he plans to hold a news conference Monday in Portland to talk about what he plans to do next in the case.

William Childs, of the law firm Childs Rundlett Fifield & Altshuler, in Portland, said he and Ayla’s mother, Trista Reynolds, will make brief statements and then take questions.

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Janet Mills Announces Pick To Lead Maine DHHS

A Maine native who worked in health policy in both the Obama and Clinton administrations has been nominated to be the state’s next commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services.

At a press conference in Augusta on Friday, Gov.-elect Janet Mills announced that Jeanne Lambrew is her pick to lead DHHS, which has been racked by controversy over child abuse deaths, Medicaid expansion, welfare reform and the opioid crisis.

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Head of Maine’s botched unemployment system named to top child welfare post

The state employee who led the scrutinized launch of a new unemployment system is Maine’s new top child welfare official.

The Bangor Daily News reports that former unemployment compensation bureau director John Feeney started work Monday as chief operating officer of the state Office of Child and Family Services.

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An idiot in charge of assholes.

Maine lawmaker wants to limit childhood vaccination exemptions

Some Mainers are gearing up for a fight over the future of the state’s philosophical exemption for childhood vaccinations, a battle that is expected to play out during the upcoming legislative session. That’s because many Maine families are choosing against vaccinating their children, and some lawmakers would like to change that. Nationally, nearly 2 percent of parents chose not to immunize their kindergartners for non-medical reasons last year. In Maine, 5 percent of parents of public and private school children decided against immunization, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Winslow and Waterville schools to introduce anonymous threat-reporting system

The around-the-clock app, website and hotline service, called Say Something, could be implemented at area schools by June. The system was developed by families of victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

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Advocacy group sues state for records of suicide attempts at Long Creek

Disability Rights Maine says it received reports of 5 attempted suicides between March and July at the juvenile detention facility in South Portland and has been seeking records from the state with little success.

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Homeless with 4 kids, a Bangor man called nearly 100 landlords to find a place to live

When Lawrence Bergeron and his four teenage grandchildren were evicted from their Bangor apartment in March, they had nowhere to go but their Toyota minivan. For about the next six months, the family slept sitting up in their car seats, as the 52-year-old grandfather searched in desperation for a place that would accept his federally subsidized housing voucher.

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