Mal Leary
Maine Public Political CorrespondentJournalist Mal Leary spearheads Maine Public's news coverage of politics and government and is based at the State House.
A lifelong journalist and Maine native, Mal has worked as both a reporter and editor in broadcast and in print, in both Washington, D.C. and in Maine. He has won numerous awards for his reporting on state government issues and politics.
For several years he owned and operated Capitol News Service, which was located in the State House complex providing news coverage to radio stations as well as newspapers.
Mal is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters & Editors and has long been an advocate for open government. He is the SPJ Sunshine Chair in Maine and is currently the president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition based at the University of Missouri Journalism School and is a Vice President of the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition.
Mal is married with three grown children, several grandchildren and lives in Augusta, within sight of the Capitol dome.
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Collins says she has been working with seven other senators, four from each party, on a compromise measure they hope will win the approval of both parties and the President.
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Collins says there has not been a single injury or right whale death caused by Maine’s lobster industry since 2002, but there have been seven fatalities in Canadian waters since 2017.
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Republicans on the legislative council are once again challenging the mask requirement in place at the State House, and the issue could disrupt the session when lawmakers return next Wednesday.
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“Let’s collect the taxes the tax cheats aren’t paying. The estimates are from a half a trillion to a trillion dollars a year,“ King says.
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The delays have created a constitutional crisis that the panel has asked the Maine Supreme Court to help resolve. Apportionments are decided using federal census population figures, which will not be made available to the commission until mid-August.
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The state tax on cigarettes would double to $4 for a pack under a measure recommended by the majority of the legislature’s Taxation Committee.
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Sen. Angus King said he will schedule a hearing later this year focused specifically on park congestion and how to handle it.
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Maine could become one of the first states in the nation to adopt limits on the use of facial recognition software by government agencies.
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The panel voted 6-to-3 for an amended bill that would abolish criminal penalties for the first-time offenders, but it would allow criminal penalties for repeat offenders.
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The legislation would allow a whistleblower to hire their own attorneys to file a lawsuit that would move forward only if the attorney general or the agency took legal action against the employer.