PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Senators from Maine and West Virginia are calling on federal Education Secretary John King to help expand home and community Internet access to help students with homework.Sen. Angus King, a Maine Independent, and Shelley Moore, a West Virginia Republican, want the secretary to implement changes that were part of education reform legislation last year.King and Moore describe some communities' lack of digital resources as "the homework gap" and say it... Continue Reading »
Sen. Angus King, of Maine, is in Europe with other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee members on a national security-focused delegation. The attacks in Brussels are now a top priority. DAVID GREENE, HOST: People in Brussels and across Europe are struggling to make sense of yesterday's attacks. And the intelligence community is facing a difficult question. How big a failure was this after knowing for some time that Brussels could be targeted? Coincidentally, a U.S. Senate Intelligence... Continue Reading »
PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s two U.S. senators differ on the high-profile conflict between the federal government and Apple over access to data on a cellphone used by a deceased California couple who have been linked to international terrorists. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, said Thursday that Apple should reconsider making the information on the phone available to federal anti-terrorism investigators to ensure national security. But Collins’ counterpart,... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON — Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee have released their plan to balance the federal budget over the next decade. The plan cuts programs and continues the sequester process of across-the-board cuts. U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine says that is the wrong approach to balancing the budget. "Growing the economy is the answer," he says. "But a one-sided response, to say we are only going to grow the economy by cutting taxes, No. 1, I don't think there is evidence to validate... Continue Reading »
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) says he still supports legislation that would let Congress weigh in on a final nuclear deal with Iran but only if his colleagues treat the measure “responsibly.” King, one of the bill’s original co-sponsors, said he had spoken with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and warned him that “if this looks like this is just going to be used as a partisan issue, some way to embarrass the president, to deny him of foreign... Continue Reading »
BANGOR, Maine — U.S. Sen. Angus King spent a portion of his 71st birthday visiting the Maine Veterans’ Home in Bangor, a place he helped to dedicate two decades ago when he was governor. After 20 years, the place is starting to show its age, and King, an independent, said there is just not enough money in the president’s fiscal year 2016 budget to help with renovations. That is why he and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, are advocating for increased construction grant funding to... Continue Reading »
Wednesday found Senator Angus King of Maine attempting just what you might expect of an independent, results-oriented former governor: Looking for some common ground in hyper-partisan Washington. King’s issue — campaign finance reform — is one where there used to be substantial bipartisan consensus, a consensus that really began in reaction to Watergate. But the US Supreme Court has changed all that. Corporations, wealthy individuals, and unions can now spend whatever they want... Continue Reading »
“You can look at the federal budget and see what we spend. There is nothing like that with respect to regulations. I tabulate the annual cost of regulation to be about $1.8 Trillion. Any regulation that is expected to cost over $100 million is supposed to get a cost-benefit analysis. Obama added $20 billion in new regulatory costs just last year. Every year there are over 3,500 new rules that come out of the federal government. Do you know how many rules got a cost-benefit analysis last... Continue Reading »
Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King say they will not back down from their efforts to raise the federal minimum wage despite a setback Wednesday when Senate Republicans blocked further debate on the measure. Democrats tried to win approval for a new minimum wage of $10.10 an hour on Wednesday, but Republicans said that’s too much for employers to absorb and could cause the loss of a half-million jobs across the U.S. The legislation, proposed by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, would have... Continue Reading »
U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine is calling for greater transparency around campaign financing. King, an independent, chaired a Senate Rules Committee hearing Wednesday that examined the influence of the campaign funds known as “dark money.” Dark money refers to campaign funding that is not disclosed to voters. The hearing follows a recent Supreme Court ruling that removed a cap on individual contributions to federal candidates, parties and some political committees. In his opening... Continue Reading »
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s quest to unveil the history of the CIA’s detention and interrogation policies won’t be totally partisan after all. The Senate Intelligence Chairwoman plans to hold a vote Thursday to support the declassification of key findings of a 6,300-page report on the Bush-era policies — and on Wednesday morning she learned that both of Maine’s senators will support her. Sen. Angus King, an independent, and Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, said in a... Continue Reading »
U.S. Sen. Angus King met with Navy officials in a military excursion in the Arctic, where he boarded a submarine that burst through the ice in the style of a James Bond movie. King visited the region with other members of Congress and U.S. defense officials to discuss their ability to operate in the warming Arctic environment, landing Saturday in a single-engine Cessna airplane 150 miles from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. After meeting researchers from the University of Washington, King boarded the... Continue Reading »
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Wednesday to stop tax-exempt nonprofit organizations from influencing elections through anonymous donors. “The increased prevalence of ‘dark money’ in electoral politics has been a troubling development in recent years, and the use of our tax code to shield the identities of donors represents one of its most egregious manifestations,” King said. “It is time for an end to this dark money... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON — Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, warned Tuesday that congressional passage of new sanctions against Iran could scuttle international negotiations and cause the U.S. to miss “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to prevent a nuclear-armed Iranian regime without conflict. “These moments come and go in history but we have got to seize this one,” King said. “Not naively or blindly . . . but realistically with our eyes open and understanding the risks and... Continue Reading »
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Angus King and Rep. Chellie Pingree are urging federal officials to be even-handed and transparent in considering appeals filed by coastal communities in southern Maine over new flood zone maps. In separate letters sent Wednesday to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Pingree and King urged FEMA to allow cities and towns to submit their own reports with more detailed data on which areas are at risk of flooding and which are not. Such reports... Continue Reading »
A partnership between Maine’s composites industry and Southern Maine Community College’s composites technology program illustrates how higher education and industry can work together to the advancement of both, U.S. Sen. Angus King said Tuesday. King made his remarks while touring the Maine Advanced Technology and Engineering Center on SMCC’s Midcoast Campus, where the composites technology program is located. MATEC is also home to the Composites Engineering Research Laboratory... Continue Reading »
WATERVILLE — Since Hayden Breton was two months old, her mother has brought her to Educare Central Maine for early childhood education. Breton’s now 4, and her mother attributed Educare’s work for helping to educate her daughter. “This place just helped bring Hayden out of her shell,” said Megan Knowles. “It helped her socially and her mannerisms — her language is more advanced.” Knowles was one of the guests at Educare Wednesday afternoon when... Continue Reading »
When Sen. Angus King shows up Thursday at a Domino’s pizza parlor in Standish, he will highlight his fight against proposed rules to specify how restaurant chains inform consumers about the number of calories in the food they buy. Andrew Legere prepares pizzas at Domino’s in Standish. Sen. Angus King will visit the store Thursday to highlight his efforts to ensure new calorie-labeling rules are reasonable. The rules, passed as part of the Affordable Care Act but not yet finalized,... Continue Reading »
