A year after Maine’s top license-plate boss emerged politically wounded from a scandal over faulty tags, a new chapter of Plategate is emerging.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is now recommending to the legislature that Maine stop making its own plates altogether.

After Bellows hired a Canadian company last year to help with a new plate issue, the result became a political nightmare.

The plates feature an image of Maine’s iconic pine tree but the poor tree was misaligned on many of the finished products.

Bellows got a lot of negative publicity over the misplaced tree – not helpful as she geared up for a run at the governorship.

Her office also presided over the botched new license plate rollout, leaving motorists confused, municipalities frustrated, and law enforcement struggling with inconsistent plate designs and shifting deadlines.

WASHINGTON – Early Saturday morning, a joint U.S.-Israel military attack on Iran began, striking 14 sites as the operation got underway. 

President Donald Trump confirmed on February 28, 2026, that the United States and Israel has launched what he described as a “massive and ongoing” military campaign against Iran. In a video message posted to Truth Social, Trump said the primary objective was defending the American people by eliminating “imminent threats” from the Iranian regime. The Department of War is calling it Operation Epic Fury.

LEWISTON — A 22-year-old Lewiston woman is facing multiple felony charges after police say she fired several rounds during a street altercation Thursday evening near Pine and Howard streets.

According to the Lewiston Police Department, officers responded at 5:36 p.m. on February 26 to reports of gunshots in the area. When they arrived, officers located several witnesses who described an argument that had just taken place in the street moments before the shots were fired.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) learned the hard way Friday that President Donald J. Trump was serious about declaring War on Fraud during his Tuesday State of the Union Address.

Mills, unbeknownst to the rest of Maine, had quietly pleaded with the federal government for extra time to comply with a Feb. 6 demand from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for detailed records related to Maine’s administration of the multi-billion-dollar welfare program known in Maine as MaineCare.

MaineCare auditors attempted to recoup nearly $450,000 from the Somali-run Affinity Homecare, co-located with Rep. Yusuf Yusuf’s (D-Portland) shady Care for Everyone and a foreign money transfer station.

According to records obtained by the Maine Wire via a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request, auditors with the Office of MaineCare Services could find no documentation showing that the services for which Affinity billed the taxpayer-funded welfare program actually took place.

The Boston Globe columnist who previously was caught lying about being at the scene of a downtown bombing is now trying to make up for lost time on his latest gaffe.

Gaffe is actually too generous a description of Kevin Cullen’s most recent work of literature.

Cullen, who wrote sympathetically last week about a white Irish guy who was being deported as an illegal immigrant, faced a firestorm once a Boston media watchdog learned about the suspect’s alleged criminal record.

Now Cullen is trying to paper over his malaprops with a new column blaming “leaks” for exposing the truth about the detainee.

A prisoner incarcerated in the Cumberland County Jail on arson charges allegedly called the Portland Press Herald on Wednesday to make a bomb threat against the jail.

[RELATED: Burglar Makes Bomb Threat Against Bangor Non-Profit After Officers Discover Him Inside Their Building…]

The Maine Drug Enforcement Agency (MDEA) arrested a Vassalboro man on Wednesday and seized 2,000 grams of cocaine following an eight-month investigation into drug trafficking operations.

[RELATED: MDEA Arrests Three in New Gloucester Morning Raid…]

Why aren’t Maine lawmakers talking about this?
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Disgraced two-time gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler was recently arrested for allegedly violating probation for the third time. He's currently held in Cumberland County Jail, and has reportedly missed court-ordered treatment as… pic.twitter.com/ekqjDb2cdx

— Maine Policy Institute (@MainePolicy) February 26, 2026

PORTLAND, Maine – Portland Mayor Mark Dion is throwing his support behind Senate President Troy Jackson in the race for governor, framing the endorsement as a call for unified Democratic leadership in Maine.

Dion said the moment calls for leadership capable of bringing together the full spectrum of the Democratic Party,  from liberal Democrats to Democratic socialists and everyone in between. He argued that if Democrats are going to move forward on substantive issues in the state, the party must be willing to “shake hands with itself.”

Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed an emergency bill into law amending the requirements that must be met by nurse practitioners before they gain full practice authority.

State law previously required new nurse practitioners to spend twenty-four months, or two years, practicing under the supervision of a licensed physician or supervising nurse practitioner. Alternatively, nurse practitioners could spend this period employed by a clinic or hospital that had a licensed physician serving as a medical director.

Democrat Gov. Janet Mills may be unwittingly bringing attention to the fact she’s an antique compared to her young opponent.

“Folks, I’m the only Maine Democrat to win a statewide election in the last 20 years,” Mills said Thursday in a campaign-donation request as reported by BiddefordBuzz.com.

By claiming she’s been in public office as long as she has, Mills, 78, merely advertises Platner’s theme – that he’s a fresh new start.

Platner, 41, who polls show is far ahead of Mills in the Democrat primary for the U.S. Senate, has made clear in his campaign that he believes it’s time for a new generation of leadership.

Mills’ donation request begins by stating, “Folks, I didn’t plan to run for Senate. But I could never live with myself if I didn’t do everything in my power to stop Donald Trump’s far-right takeover,” The Buzz reports.

The governor might want to stay away from claims that underscore she’s roughly old enough to be Platner’s grandmother.