🎤 The governor's key abortion measure gets a marathon hearing Monday.
◉ Groups on both sides of the stark abortion-rights divide are whipping testimony on Mills' controversial bill that would allow post-viability abortions that doctors deem medically necessary. It is in for what will likely be hours worth of testimony before the Legislature's health committee on Monday at 9 a.m.
◉ An anti-abortion group run by Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, is recruiting people to sign up to testify, as is the political arm of Planned Parenthood on the abortion-rights side.
◉ Almost all legislative Democrats are sponsoring Mills' bill, meaning they already have the votes to pass it over what is likely to be united Republican opposition. They will cite a recent University of New Hampshire poll showing majority support for the measure, while conservatives will emphasizing the governor's reversal from a 2022 campaign in which she said she wanted to no changes to abortion access law.
🏈 Advertising and other concerns mark the pushback to sports betting rules.
◉ Maine's gambling regulator this week published the comments it got from tribes, gaming companies and support industries on its proposed set of sports betting rules, which attracted attention when they were released earlier this year for strict limits on TV advertising and insurance requirements.
◉ Tribes, which will exclusively run the mobile market while casinos and off-track betting parlors, submitted reams of proposed changes to the rules, criticizing them for licensing requirements that do not usually apply to tribes, the broad advertising restrictions and rollout timing and sequencing. The Maine Association of Broadcasters said advertising rules may be unconstitutional.
◉ "The commencement of sports wagering in Maine is already long overdue, but flawed regulations and a haphazard roll out will only serve to counteract the important step the legislature took with this passage of this legislation," Chiefs William Nicholas of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township and Rena Newell of the same tribe at Sipayik, said in a letter. |
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