Maine Credit Unions donate $25,000 to fight childhood hunger

For the third year in a row, Maine's Credit Unions have made a significant donation toward feeding hungry children. 

More >> Maine Credit Unions donate $25,000 to fight childhood hunger

Gee, I hope they don't have too many of these anti-welfare people as members of these credit unions.  They might get mad.

Bucksport man writes memoir about custody dispute

A local man has written a book about a custody battle between himself and the Child Protection Division of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

“Sky: Child, Interrupted,” is a memoir by William Dale West.

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Mayor Robert McDonald from Lewiston: ‘Name and shame’ welfare recipients so special needs kids will stay out my state

Robert MacDonald, (ie. Mayor McDickhead) mayor of Lewiston, said on Sunday that he wanted to publish a registry of welfare recipients because he was annoyed by disabled children coming to the state for help. 

More >> Maine mayor: ‘Name and shame’ welfare recipients so special needs kids will stay out my state

Leaving aside the asinine notion to publish the names of people on welfare to a website...

As the parent of a special needs kid, who has gone through all the hell of dealing with public schools, special education, physical restraints, social workers, IEP's, complaints against top administrators, cover-ups of child abuse, falsified documents, arm twisting and threats to report me to DHHS for refusing to drug her on several different pills and as retaliation for complaining about an incident where my daughter had to be checked for a concussion, etc, I gotta ask where this idiot gets his information?  There is nothing great about any special education system in Maine.  Especially Lewiston's.

Sure they mean well and think that they're only trying to help, but having lost sight of the fact that kids are kids, it's now all about medicating the kids to keep them quiet and docile during all day kindergarten time and identifying families where trouble could be brewing to feed the states cash cow of a child welfare system.

Mayor McDonald is obviously out of touch with the current educational financial trends as well.  Just think about how much money the schools would loose if he got all the special needs kids out of his state which is in direct opposition to the current trend of diagnosing more kids with special needs so the schools can qualify for more federal funding through the DOE and Medicaid which pays for more normalization services such as occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, etc, thus pumping more federal money into the schools which isn't all dispersed to the welfare sucking parents of the special-ed student, as Mayor McDonald would have you believe.  The loss would be tremendous to any town and many schools couldn't survive without this extra money, and many professionals who work with these kids would be out of a job.

You are a bad parent if you question their "state as parents" authority.  They prefer parents who will just give their kids the meds and kids on Medicaid are much more likely to be diagnosed, go figure.

And my special needs kid was born here.

Therefore if, like Mayor McDickhead says, you are a parent of a special needs kid coming to Maine for the special education services, then you are just as ignorant and stupid as he is.

And you're feeding your kid to the dogs.  So there.

Advocates: Health Insurance Eligibility for Maine Kids 'Not a Very Clear Process'

According to U.S. Census Bureau data released last week, Maine is the only state in the nation where the number of uninsured children has increased significantly since 2010.

More >> Advocates: Health Insurance Eligibility for Maine Kids 'Not a Very Clear Process'

Portland school officials hear parents’ concerns about bus route safety

Changes to Portland’s new school bus routes are unlikely, according to some of the roughly 25 parents who met with Portland School Department officials on Wednesday.

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Maine schools vulnerable in vaccine debate, but hands tied

Parental rights to opt out remain strong after a bill to make it harder was vetoed, leaving districts with few options for getting more students inoculated.

More >> Maine schools vulnerable in vaccine debate, but hands tied

They should make up their minds.

• Maine No. 1 in toddler vaccinations
• Fewer Maine parents opt out of vaccinations for kindergarten-age children

Questions Mainers should be asking about explicit Facebook posts

As Maine State Police detectives continued to search this week for the person or persons who posted dozens of naked photos of underage girls from across Maine on Facebook, advocates for victims of sexual assault encouraged the teens and others to remember they were victims of a crime and should seek support if necessary.

More >> Questions Mainers should be asking about explicit Facebook posts

Maine Voices: Maine has the tools, grit to eliminate state’s quiet crisis of child hunger

It’s fall, and schools across our state have welcomed students back to the classroom. The start of the school year is an exciting time for every community, a time many of us look upon fondly. But while most students are ready to learn and do their best, some are facing a monumental challenge: hunger.

More >> Maine Voices: Maine has the tools, grit to eliminate state’s quiet crisis of child hunger

Law enforcement provides free car seat checks to parents

Dozens of children are riding safer thanks to free car seat checks provided by Maine law enforcement agents.

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Anti-vaccine trends revealed in Maine's coastal clusters, private schools

Laura Blaisdell’s youngest son just started second grade at their local school in the Willard Square section of South Portland. He’s her second boy to head off to the Dora L. Small Elementary School in this comfortable coastal neighborhood, about a mile from the beach. 

More >> Anti-vaccine trends revealed in Maine's coastal clusters, private schools

Maine Voices: Civil disobedience begins at school

This month has brought the start of another school year in Maine and, on that momentous occasion in all guardians’, parents’ and children’s lives, the annual newsletter, handbooks and expectations welcoming students back.

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Are parents refusing vaccines at your child’s school? Now you can check.

For the first time in Maine, parents can easily look up vaccination rates at their local elementary school. The Maine Center for Disease Control publicly released the data for the 2014-15 school year, revealing how many children were exempted from school-required vaccines — and for what reasons — in kindergarten and first-grade classes.

More >> Are parents refusing vaccines at your child’s school? Now you can check.

Maine DHHS to hold sham seminar to discuss impacts of prenatal substance abuse

So here comes the LePage Administration all concerned for families now after cutting successful drug treatment programs under the guise of welfare reform and trying to do away with treatment options such as Methadone and replace it with Soboxone instead of adding it to the states arsenal of tools to help people.   Here he comes concerned for the babies born addicted while piss testing parents in an effort to boot them off welfare.

The conference is the latest initiative by the LePage administration as it grapples with Maine's drug epidemic. 

More >> Maine DHHS to hold seminar to discuss impacts of prenatal substance abuse

I'm sure anybody who attends this seminar will hear about how the state is adding more police and making jail cells available for addicts.  

You'll hear talk about the need for more foster homes but little about helping the kids by helping their parents by making treatment options and good supports available or anything.  You'll hear nothing about how much more this approach costs, just that the legislature should provide more funding to support policies that punish rather than treat addicts and destroy families rather than help the children.

The event will take place on September 30th at the Seasons Event & Conference Center in Portland.

Seasons Event & Conference Center in Portland

155 Riverside St. 

Portland, Maine 

Contact Nikki Busmanis at Nikki.busmanis@maine.gov or (207) 287-2816.

New standardized test results for Maine public schools are in, but they reveal little

Scores were down last year, but because the Smarter Balanced test was only used once, comparisons with results from other years are largely meaningless. 

More >> New standardized test results for Maine public schools are in, but they reveal little

They should do away with standardized testing altogether.  

Schools release early due to hot classrooms

School districts across the state released students early from school Wednesday because school officials deemed the temperatures in the classrooms were too high for student and teacher safety.

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Some Maine schools close early because it's too hot

Kids today have it too easy.

Senators question FDA decision on Oxycontin for kids

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Maine Sen. Angus King, and New Hampshire Sens. Jeanne Shahaeen and Kelly Ayotte, are calling for an investigation into the Food and Drug Administration's recent decision to approve the use of the painkiller OxyContin by children as young as 11-years-old.

More >> Senators question FDA decision on Oxycontin for kids

Don't do drugs... Here take this...

Biddeford mayor vows to stop disruptions of council meetings

Biddeford’s mayor is vowing to crack down on disruptions of City Council meetings by critics of the city’s response to sex abuse allegations, and has accused them of using the issue to further their own political aims. 

More >> Biddeford mayor vows to stop disruptions of council meetings

Yes we know.  They'll do whatever they want to our kids and we can't do a damn thing about it.

Parents’ lawsuit says Maine DHHS failed to protect children from abuse in Lyman day care center

Legislative approval is needed for the lawsuit filed last month by parents whose children attended the now-closed Sunshine Child Care and Preschool. 

More >> Parents’ lawsuit says Maine DHHS failed to protect children from abuse in Lyman day care center

It's probably a good thing that the legislature has to approve any lawsuits against Maine's Child Protective Services.  God only knows how much the taxpayer would be paying out for the fraud, incompetence, corruption and abuse of families and children that Maine's most easy targets often suffer at the hands of sadistic, power hungry and very often clueless social workers.  

On the flip side, this will just make CPS Workers more likely to crack down on innocent daycare providers, because they're paranoid and will rather be safe than sorry.

Explicit photos of girls reappear repeatedly on Facebook pages

Police say the use of the social media site for this purpose, which in this instance includes at least some girls from Maine, is rare and has magnified the problem.

More >> Explicit photos of girls reappear repeatedly on Facebook pages

• Facebook page threatens to release hundreds of images of underage Maine girls

New push to crack down on school bomb threats in Maine

In December 2014, an e-mailed threat closed Windham schools for three days. A 16-year-old student was charged with eight counts of terrorizing. 

More >> New push to crack down on school bomb threats in Maine

The next step will be like in England where the schools have to report potential terrorists just because a teacher doesn't like the parents political beliefs.

Lyman daycare parents sue Maine DHHS

Several parents who sent their children to the now-defunct Sunshine Child Care and Preschool in Lyman have filed a civil complaint against Maine Department of Health and Human Services and several of its bureaus, alleging the agency was negligent in how it handled reports of abuse, licensing violations and other complaints against the daycare and its owners, Cheryl and Dan Dubois.

More >> Lyman daycare parents sue Maine DHHS