Steve Mistler
Chief Political Correspondent and State House Bureau ChiefJournalist Steve Mistler is Maine Public’s chief politics and government correspondent. He is based at the State House.
Steve has been a journalist for nearly two decades, specializing in the coverage of politics and state government. His work has been recognized by the Maine Press Association, Gerald Loeb and regional Murrow awards for investigative projects and accountability journalism. He was named the MPA’s Journalist of the Year in 2011 for his coverage of municipal and state government. He later received a Public Service in Radio from the Society of Professional Journalists and a writing award from the Public Radio News Directors for his retrospective of former Gov. Paul LePage.
He joined Maine Public in 2016 after a career in newspaper reporting. He and his family live in Maine.
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The proposal was designed to match a federal rule banning devices that can allow semi-automatic firearms to fire almost as quickly as machine guns, but the governor argued that the definition in the bill were overly broad and could include devices used by hunters and in target shooting.
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Sagadahoc Sheriff deputy Sgt. Aaron Skolfield says the commission made errors in its timeline and failed to evaluate evidence before "rushing" to blame him for not taking Robert Card into custody about six weeks before the shooting.
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The governor says she was deeply conflicted about the three-day waiting period proposal and that the ban on so-called bump stocks was too broad.
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The governor's bill was a response to the Lewiston mass shootings and one that straddles the competing interests in Maine gun politics.
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An independent commission was hearing Thursday from Army Reservists and victims' advocates on the six-month anniversary of Maine's worst mass shooting.
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The governor's original bill left wage enforcement to the state labor department. The legislature amended it to allow farmworkers to sue their employers.
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The proposal was drafted in response to a prominent neo-Nazi group setting up a training facility in Penobscot County. It has since been abandoned but Democrats in the Legislature wanted to give law enforcement and prosecutors more tools to discourage future operations.
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House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross ruled Rep. Mike Lemelin and Rep. Shelly Rudnicki not be allowed to vote or speak until they formally apologized to their constituents and families of the victims of the Lewiston shooting. Both did and both were censured by the House.
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The vetoed bill would have barred a felony conviction if the third conviction was for property worth less than $500. But Mills said the proposal could make an uptick in retail thefts worse.
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The measure is response to the Lewiston shootings and would allow family members to petition courts to seize a dangerous person's guns without involvement of police or a mental health evaluation.