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| 📷 British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, front, U.S. President Joe Biden, center, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, speak during a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council at the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on Wednesday. (Pool photo by Doug Mills via AP) |
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📣 From the NATO summit, a Maine senator says the alliance is strong.
◉ Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, has been in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week for a NATO summit that featured President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday and has made news due to Sweden's likely admission to the alliance.
◉ Ukraine is another major topic. Zelenskyy wants his country to be admitted, but there is a bipartisan consensus that doing so in the middle of the war with Russia would draw NATO partners into direct conflict and any such move should wait until after the war.
◉ King, a Senate Intelligence Committee member alongside Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in remarks at the conference that Russian President Vladimir Putin has done more for NATO "than any public leader in the history of the world" by bringing the alliance closer together.
◉ He will address the Maine press on his trip at a 12:30 p.m. virtual news conference.
😴 Key lawmakers make scant decisions on additional spending items.
◉ Remember those "zombie bills" we told you about yesterday? Many of them are still zombies, since the Legislature's budget committee made little headway on Tuesday in funding, delaying or killing the massive raft of bills that have cleared the chambers initially but are tabled and awaiting state funding.
◉ There were some highlights, however. Maine is virtually assured now to vote on whether to change the state flag to the 1901 pine tree design after lawmakers cleared it for a final vote in the Senate.
◉ Lawmakers worked for a little while in the afternoon, then adjourned for dinner while saying they were likely to talk amongst themselves about amendments to tabled bills. But they never came back, and the committee clerk emailed interested parties at 12:36 a.m. to say they were done for the day.
◉ They are back in today for a scheduled arrival of 1 p.m., but they were two hours late yesterday. |
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What we're reading
💉 Maine is set to wind down a controversial COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
🖋️ The governor signed a budget instituting paid family leave.
👇 Inside the landmark deal aimed at preserving Maine newspapers.
📋 Another city may start tracking short-term rentals.
🥔 Rain is threatening Aroostook's potato crop. Here's your soundtrack. |
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