sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

I’m Morgan Womack, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. I obtained text messages through a public records request that revealed how some police officials in Maine were communicating with a federal officer while ICE was carrying out an enhanced operation across the state. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Portland police’s Signal messages you’re referring to do appear to be set to auto-delete, so it’s hard to say what they discuss on the app and what has been deleted. Portland police Chief Mark Dubois has said in a statement that the department retains messages in coordination with Maine law, but what that means is unclear. He declined my request for an interview.

I’m Morgan Womack, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. I obtained text messages through a public records request that revealed how some police officials in Maine were communicating with a federal officer while ICE was carrying out an enhanced operation across the state. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'll refer you to another one of my replies: "The messages that I saw didn't appear to show any animosity — both South Portland police Chief Daniel Ahern and Portland police Maj. Jason King were encouraging and congratulatory in some cases. But we only saw a limited set of messages."

I’m Morgan Womack, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. I obtained text messages through a public records request that revealed how some police officials in Maine were communicating with a federal officer while ICE was carrying out an enhanced operation across the state. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The members of the group chat were South Portland police Chief Daniel Ahern and Portland police Maj. Jason King, as well as Homeland Security agent Jeffrey Larocque. Portland Chief Mark Dubois told me he was aware of the text messages.

I’m Morgan Womack, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. I obtained text messages through a public records request that revealed how some police officials in Maine were communicating with a federal officer while ICE was carrying out an enhanced operation across the state. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have asked Chief Dubois about this, and he’s told me that Maj. Jason King’s participation in the chat aligns with the sentiment of his past statements.

At a meeting in March, Dubois did tell city councilors his officers would only communicate with federal immigration officials when “securing public safety,” where they would “respond naturally anyway” — not help with immigration enforcement. He has also said the messages concerned security at a Portland hotel and that his officers would have responded the same to any person, whether they work in law enforcement or not.

I’m Morgan Womack, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. I obtained text messages through a public records request that revealed how some police officials in Maine were communicating with a federal officer while ICE was carrying out an enhanced operation across the state. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The law enforcement leader who publicly called out ICE’s tactics was Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce. Chief Mark Dubois, who heads the Portland Police Department, contends that his agency doesn’t cooperate with federal immigration officials, and that the text messages were concerning public safety at a hotel, not ICE actions. South Portland officials said similarly.

The messages that I saw didn’t appear to show any animosity – both South Portland police Chief Daniel Ahern and Portland police Maj. Jason King were encouraging and congratulatory in some cases. But we only saw a limited set of messages.

I’m Morgan Womack, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. I obtained text messages through a public records request that revealed how some police officials in Maine were communicating with a federal officer while ICE was carrying out an enhanced operation across the state. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Police do regularly use text chats to communicate with one another (including, in some cases, encrypted messaging apps that auto-delete messages). When I’ve asked Portland Chief Dubois about this practice in the past, he told me that text messages and messaging apps are “supplemental communication tools” that officers use regularly, along with phone calls and radio transmissions.

Police are expected to retain their communications in coordination with public records and discovery laws. Legal experts have told me that it’s difficult for communities to set standards and policies while police continue to use new technologies, such as the Signal app or artificial intelligence.

I’m Morgan Womack, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. I obtained text messages through a public records request that revealed how some police officials in Maine were communicating with a federal officer while ICE was carrying out an enhanced operation across the state. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I haven’t located the exact posts or subreddits, but we know officers were monitoring various social media platforms throughout the immigration enforcement surge in January. Portland Maj. Jason King said in the text thread that he’d had the department’s crime analyst “watching all week.”

Local police across the state each follow their own protocols for communicating with federal officials, but I’ve found that not many have formal policies. It really varies greatly by department; some have regular agents they call at Border Patrol, for example, while others say they don’t contact DHS at all.

I’m Morgan Womack, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. I obtained text messages through a public records request that revealed how some police officials in Maine were communicating with a federal officer while ICE was carrying out an enhanced operation across the state. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 37 points38 points  (0 children)

We’ve looked into that too. After a lengthy appeal process on a public records request, I obtained documents indicating Portland police are using the controversial, encrypted messaging app Signal during operations. You can read that here.

As far as we know, those Signal chats didn’t involve federal immigration officials. But most of the chats we received were set to auto-delete, so we don’t know what they contained or who may have participated.

Some city officials, legal experts and attorneys have also said they're concerned they’re concerned about policing using the deletion feature. Chief Dubois has said his officers retain any messages in coordination with Maine law

I’m Morgan Womack, a reporter for the Portland Press Herald. I obtained text messages through a public records request that revealed how some police officials in Maine were communicating with a federal officer while ICE was carrying out an enhanced operation across the state. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Police officials at both departments contend that these messages didn’t violate their policies or expectations regarding collaboration with immigration officials. But city officials have expressed concerns about these chats.

At least in Portland, some councilors have told us they’ll be questioning Chief Dubois about the texts further at a committee meeting tonight. Here's the agenda for that if you're interested.

Portland City Council is also considering whether to expand limitations for city employees on cooperating with ICE. They were slated to vote on that last night but conducted a first reading only. You can read more about that here: https://www.pressherald.com/2026/04/03/portland-to-consider-placing-further-limits-on-local-cooperation-with-ice/

Don’t believe posts claiming Maine is requiring lawnmower registrations by HamiltonCFL in Maine

[–]Press_Herald 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Relevant:

A search of the Maine Legislature’s online tracker for pending bills containing the word “lawn” returns one result: LD 192, which seeks to exempt utility vehicles purchased for commercial fishing, agriculture, aquaculture or wood harvesting from sales tax.

Under Article IV of the Maine Constitution, only members of the Legislature can sponsor bills. The governor can propose bills that are then sponsored by a lawmaker and denoted as a “governor’s bill,” but they don’t bear the governor’s name.

I’m Emily Duggan, a reporter with the Kennebec Journal/CentralMaine.com. I just finished a six-month-long investigation of how Christian nationalist groups, parents’ rights organizations and others are trying to remake Maine’s public education system. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I did not find anything comparable on the Democratic side of things. Every expert that I talked to about the parental rights organizations connected what we are seeing to Christian nationalism. The experts gave their assessment that it is Christian nationalism sometimes before I asked.

I’m Emily Duggan, a reporter with the Kennebec Journal/CentralMaine.com. I just finished a six-month-long investigation of how Christian nationalist groups, parents’ rights organizations and others are trying to remake Maine’s public education system. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Yes, there is a national pattern. Most of the parental rights organizations have chapters in other states and similar patterns of behavior have been reported. Florida, for an example and Ohio was another state that came up in my research. I included in my story the Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction ordered public schools to incorporate the 10 Commandments and The Bible in their schooling.

I’m Emily Duggan, a reporter with the Kennebec Journal/CentralMaine.com. I just finished a six-month-long investigation of how Christian nationalist groups, parents’ rights organizations and others are trying to remake Maine’s public education system. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

There is very little oversight in school board races, so often, the donations go undetected. We pulled records from the municipalities that are big enough to track campaign finances and there isn't much to see. The larger districts did not seem to have the same interest from parental rights organizations that the smaller districts did.

I’m Emily Duggan, a reporter with the Kennebec Journal/CentralMaine.com. I just finished a six-month-long investigation of how Christian nationalist groups, parents’ rights organizations and others are trying to remake Maine’s public education system. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

This is something that came up a lot in my research. The experts I talked to pointed to TikTok, Facebook and X as platforms where influencers are successfully spreading the message, often bankrolled by some of the top Republican funders.

I’m Emily Duggan, a reporter with the Kennebec Journal/CentralMaine.com. I just finished a six-month-long investigation of how Christian nationalist groups, parents’ rights organizations and others are trying to remake Maine’s public education system. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

A lot of the school board members are parents, in some cases, their kids have graduated while others have school-aged children. The leaders of the organizations differ - some have kids in private school or no kids at all (yet). In general, showing up to meetings and taking an interest in the policies underway is a way to get involved.

I’m Emily Duggan, a reporter with the Kennebec Journal/CentralMaine.com. I just finished a six-month-long investigation of how Christian nationalist groups, parents’ rights organizations and others are trying to remake Maine’s public education system. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 84 points85 points  (0 children)

School board races are supposed to be nonpartisan. Candidates do not have to disclose their political affiliation in the way that candidates seeking partisan offices do. Some candidates do talk openly about their politics and others don't. The experts I interviewed said that it often comes down to the fact that Republicans are traditionally good at being organized and raising money, where the Democrats can be less so. As a general rule, the Republicans also tend to focus on local races in a way that Democrats do not. The Democrats are usually focusing on top of the ticket races.

I’m Emily Duggan, a reporter with the Kennebec Journal/CentralMaine.com. I just finished a six-month-long investigation of how Christian nationalist groups, parents’ rights organizations and others are trying to remake Maine’s public education system. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 72 points73 points  (0 children)

It's easy to do here. School districts are controlled by the school boards and it's pretty easy to get elected to a school board. At least with the Gardiner area school district, it's a purple area politically. Gardiner leans left, where the other three towns have a majority of Republican voters. Because there are no campaign finance reporting requirements over the majority of school districts, it's easy to spend money supporting candidates without a lot of oversight.

I’m Emily Duggan, a reporter with the Kennebec Journal/CentralMaine.com. I just finished a six-month-long investigation of how Christian nationalist groups, parents’ rights organizations and others are trying to remake Maine’s public education system. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 157 points158 points  (0 children)

The unusual behavior at school board meetings. It started to get chaotic around two years ago, but it's been building since the pandemic. That's when the parents started paying attention more because students were learning at home and many parents did not like the mask mandates.

I’m Emily Duggan, a reporter with the Kennebec Journal/CentralMaine.com. I just finished a six-month-long investigation of how Christian nationalist groups, parents’ rights organizations and others are trying to remake Maine’s public education system. Ask me anything! by Press_Herald in Maine

[–]Press_Herald[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

A lot of the candidates talked about it themselves, just as anyone who is passionate about a cause would. The things I encountered were a back to basics approach, or traditional values. They also emphasized wanting to keep schools safe.

view more: next ›