Tag: maine

VILE: Maine Democrat Running for Senate Appears to Blame His Nazi Tattoo and Other Controversies on ‘Culture’ of the U.S. Military

Graham Platner, the far left Democrat running for a U.S. Senate seat in Maine recently appeared on CBS News and appeared to blame his Nazi tattoo and other internet-related controversies on the culture of the United States Military.

Journalist Major Garrett, who amazingly used to work for FOX News, bends over backwards to try to help Platner through this segment, asking him nicely if there are things other than PTSD which might be to blame for his many controversial remarks on Reddit and other sites.

Even in their tweet about this story, CBS News says that Platner’s tattoo ‘resembled’ a Nazi symbol, which is incorrect:

In response to controversy surrounding a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol and comments he made previously on Reddit, Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner says “much of it was because of the culture I had come out of.”

This community note was added to their tweet:

His tattoo was not “resembling” a Nazi symbol. His tattoo *was* a Nazi symbol, specifically the second version of the SS-Totenkopf, used from 1934 to 1945 by German SS.

In the video below, Platner comments:

“When I left the military, I came out of a hyper-masculine, hyper-violent place,” he says. “I did four tours in the infantry. We have a crude sense of humor in the infantry. We certainly have a, I would say, narrow view of a lot of topics, and that colored my opinions and my beliefs.”

Keep reading

Governor Silent as Chinese Cannabis Cartels Swallow Rural Maine — Some With Her Brother’s Help

On April 1, 2025, Somerset County sheriff’s deputies executed a warrant at a South Road property in Harmony and arrested Wenfeng Chen, 51, of Malden, Massachusetts. Inside, they found 1,405 marijuana plants, approximately 100 pounds of processed cannabis, a 9mm pistol, ammunition, and $1,600 in drug proceeds. Chen and his co-defendant, Xinwen Zhang, 71, of Boston, now face Class B felony charges — unlawful cultivation and drug trafficking — the kind of charges that can put you in prison for ten years, or get you deported.

It was the second time law enforcement had hit the same Harmony property. Deputies raided it in May 2024 and seized more than 1,200 plants, but no one was home.

Law enforcement would have to wait another eleven months to find Wenfeng Chen on the premises.

But one year before Chen was arrested with illicit drugs, cash, and a firearm, the Maine Wire photographed a 2017 Mercedes-Benz sedan bearing Massachusetts plates registered in Chen’s name at his Charles St. address in Malden, Mass.

The vehicle was parked at the site of a separate illicit cannabis grow, 51 Cider Hill Road in Corinna, where the local code enforcement officer had repeatedly denied requests from the owners to upgrade the electrical capacity because large-scale cannabis cultivation is illegal in that town.

Chen happened to share an address with Xiling Ou, 44, the man who owned the Corinna property until he gave it away, allegedly to his mother, Xiaoyu Lu of Guangdong Province, China.

The attorney who made that gift happen was Paul H. Mills — better known as the brother of Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D), the woman currently vying for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination and a chance to square off against Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.

Keep reading

Maine Lobsterman Asks the Supreme Court To Strike Down a Rule Allowing the Government To Track His Boat 24/7

In March 2022, a rule was finalized requiring all federally permitted lobster vessels in 10 East Coast states to install GPS tracking. Now one lobsterman is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the regulation.

Last week, Frank Thompson, a fifth-generation Maine lobsterman, filed a petition to the Supreme Court challenging a rule set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). This rule required lobstermen to install a GPS device on their boats, which tracks and sends locations on a minute-by-minute basis to government agencies—even when the boat is being used recreationally. The systems—which are Bluetooth compatible and can collect audio—also record and update the boat’s location every six hours when it is docked or moored. Failing to comply with the rule could lead to fines, forfeiture of fishing licenses, jail time, and even a federal moratorium on lobstering in noncompliant states.

The rule was pitched as a way to save lobstermen time. Rather than using written logs, the GPS device would automatically track their day. It was also proposed to better track and reduce the environmental impact of the industry. However, these fishermen are already ecologically conscious because their livelihood depends on it. The industry has received praise from the state’s fishing commissioner for being a “model of conservation.”

Whatever the motivation, fishermen say the rule violates their constitutional rights. In 2024, Thompson challenged the regulation in federal court, arguing that it violated his Fourth Amendment right to protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Both the district court and appeals court sided with the government, saying that since lobstering was considered a “closely regulated” industry, it did not enjoy the same constitutional protections from warrantless searches that less-regulated businesses enjoy.

But “digital surveillance without a warrant is unconstitutional—regardless of industry,” says the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public-interest law firm that is representing Thompson. “The government cannot exclude licensed professions from the Fourth Amendment’s protections and compel lobstermen to submit to government trespass and around-the-clock” federal surveillance.

Keep reading

Voters in 3 States Gain Ballot Measures to Protect Girls’ Sports from Trans Athletes

Voters in three states will face upcoming ballot measures regarding protecting girls’ sports from transgender-identifying athletes and preventing minors from receiving sex changes, according to multiple reports.

Voters in states such as Colorado, Missouri, and Maine will be able to vote on the upcoming ballot initiatives in the midterm elections.

In Colorado, the organization Protect Kids Colorado got enough signatures for three ballot initiatives — Initiative 108, Initiative 109, and Initiative 110 — to qualify for the ballot, according to the Colorado Sun.

Under Initiative 108, child sex trafficking would be “punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole,” while under Initiative 109, transgender-identifying children would not be allowed to participate in sports that do not “align with their biological sex,” according to the outlet.

Under Initiative 110, “surgery on a child for the purpose of altering their biological sex characteristics” would not be allowed. The use of “state or federal funds, Medicaid reimbursement or insurance coverage” to pay for a minor’s sex change would also not be allowed.

While Rocky Mountain Equality, an LGBTQ non-profit, expressed that “the questions are ‘an attack on Colorado families,’” Erin Lee, who serves as the director for Protect Kids Colorado, said her group was “empowering everyday Coloradans to take action” and “protect children.”

“We’re empowering everyday Coloradans to take actions, protect children, and restore common-sense policies through the citizen-led lawmaking process,” Lee explained.

Keep reading

Another Blue-State Disaster: Maine Lets Fraudsters Feast on Autism Funds

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz has expanded a federal fraud crackdown to Maine, citing significant concerns identified by Health and Human Services investigators in the state’s autism services program.

Oz disclosed the findings in a video posted to X, outlining the results of a recent review conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The announcement follows similar investigations into fraud patterns identified in Minnesota, California, and Nevada involving Medicaid-funded programs, including hospice care and autism treatment services.

In the video, Oz said Maine’s program showed warning signs similar to those previously identified elsewhere.

“We might have another ‘Minnesota’ on our hands,” Oz said.

Oz referenced the earlier Minnesota case involving autism services.

Keep reading

Collins says China-linked Drug Networks are Expanding in Maine as Crackdown Language Heads to Trump’s Desk

Sen. Susan Collins (R) says she secured new funding and legislative language aimed at combating Chinese-linked illicit drug operations in Maine as the Fiscal Year 2026 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs (NSRP) Appropriations Act heads to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law.

The bill passed the Senate last week and was approved by the House of Representatives today, according to Collins’ office. Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the measure is intended to support efforts to disrupt drug and money laundering operations tied to PRC-linked criminal syndicates.

“PRC-linked criminal syndicates continue to expand their illegal marijuana grow operations in Maine while contributing to the flow of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals that threaten communities in our state and across the country,” Collins said. “This legislation strengthens our ongoing efforts to expose and disrupt these networks and provide law enforcement with the information and tools they need to protect public safety.”

Among the provisions highlighted by Collins: the bill includes language directing the Secretary of State, in consultation with the heads of other relevant federal agencies, to submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees on PRC-linked criminal syndicates or nationals who may be directly or indirectly involved in illegal drug and money laundering operations in the United States, including in Maine, California, and Oregon.

The legislation also includes $150 million to counter the flow of fentanyl, fentanyl precursors, and other synthetic drugs into the United States.

Keep reading

“This Is a Warning”: ICE Agents Follow Protesters Home

Federal agents in Maine are now threatening ICE watchers at their homes.

Liz Eisele McLellan, a volunteer ICE watcher monitoring the intensifying federal operations in Maine, told the Portland Press Herald that a federal agent came to her home to threaten her. “It was one of the scariest things that ever happened to me,” McLellan said.

McLellan said she spoke to one agent, while three cars blocked the street outside. “This is a warning,” one agent said, according to McLellan. “We know you live right here.”

McLellan said she called 911 and recounted what had happened to the dispatcher, who told her she should comply with orders from federal agents.

Last week, a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent warned a woman filming their activities in Portland that her information would be entered into a “nice little database” that would label her a domestic terrorist.

This comes just weeks after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of two, while she was observing federal immigration operations in Minneapolis. The Press Herald report came out the day before CBP agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old VA ICU nurse who was attending a Minneapolis protest in the wake of Good’s death.

Two people who work as volunteers in Minneapolis, driving supplies to immigrants hiding in their homes from federal agents and following ICE vehicles, told The Atlantic that agents had gone to their homes to threaten them too.

While legal threats against observers may sound absurd, a recent security threats assessment leaked from the Department of Homeland Security revealed the department’s intention to broaden the definition of domestic terrorism.

Keep reading

MORE FRAUD? Reporter in Maine Finds Building With Ten Somali-Owned Home Healthcare Companies – Landlord Says No One is Ever There 

A reporter for NewsNation traveled to the state of Maine and uncovered more possible fraud.

He highlighted one particular building that is supposedly home to ten Somali-owned home healthcare companies, yet when he interviewed the landlord, he said that there is never anyone there.

He then interviews a local newspaper reporter who points out various locations that are also supposedly home healthcare companies, which just so happen to be next door to businesses that can wire money to Somalia.

This is all so shady.

From NewsNation:

Maine building houses 10 health care firms; landlord rarely sees anyone

Office buildings across Maine are packed with home health care companies that rarely have anyone present, raise red flags similar to fraud patterns discovered in Minnesota and, in some cases, have overbilled the state by hundreds of thousands of dollars before vanishing, a NewsNation investigation has found.

One Portland office building houses 10 home health care businesses — about half the building’s tenants — with the landlord saying he rarely sees anyone from most of the companies except when they pay rent.

“One guy I see coming and going, and the rest of them, I never see them, only when they pay their rent, if I’m here when they pay their rent,” said Ron Nevins, who owns the building. “They’re never here. Nobody’s over here, and then all of a sudden, if it was one or two or three or four, I’d be like, ‘OK.’ But when there’s 10, I’ve had as many as 12 or 13 probably before. You just wonder, what’s up with this health care thing? Why are so many people doing it all from foreign lands?”…

The clustering of multiple health care providers in single locations mirrors patterns identified by the House Oversight Committee as major fraud indicators in Minnesota, where billions in taxpayer funds have allegedly been stolen through shell companies billing for services never provided.

One tenant in Nevins’ building, Five Star Home Health Care, overbilled MaineCare by nearly $400,000 according to state audit documents obtained by The Maine Wire. The owner then abandoned the office.

Keep reading

Somali Refugee in Lewiston, Maine Resigns After Controversial Swearing In Despite Active Investigations and Criminal Charges

Last week, Iman Osman, a Somali migrant and community leader, was sworn in as the Ward 5 Councilor despite facing two felony charges related to stolen property, including the unauthorized taking and receiving of stolen firearms from two estates.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that, according to court documents obtained by WMTW, the alleged crimes involve weapons taken from two separate estates between November 15, 2023, and October 11, 2024.

Although his lawyer initially said he would not resign, in a letter to Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline and City Council President David Chittim, he tendered his resignation.

WMTW-TV reports that in his letter, Osman said he “did not come to the decision lightly.”

The letter reads in part:

“For the betterment of our community and in the best interest of our city, I believe it is time for me to step aside. I hope my resignation serves as a call to action for those who remain — an opportunity to reflect on the values of respect, inclusivity and kindness that should guide our public service,” Osman said.

“I am grateful for the support I have received from my family and friends, my community and my constituents during my time in public office. I remain committed to our city’s progress and will continue to advocate for positive change in Lewiston.”

On Wednesday, Osman was arraigned in Lewiston District Court.

Keep reading

Maine Democrat Gov. Janet Mills’ Administration Gave No-Bid State Contracts to Somali NGO That Allegedly “Registered Migrants to Vote” — Organization Later Caught in Medicaid Fraud Scandal

The walls are closing in on Maine’s migrant-industrial complex — and the trail leads straight back to Democrat Governor Janet Mills and her administration.

According to reporting from The Maine Wire, dozens of federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) swarmed multiple locations in Lewiston this week tied to Somali-run nonprofits, Medicaid billing operations, and political operatives with deep connections to Maine Democrats.

HSI confirmed it is “actively conducting audits of businesses in Maine to protect America from fraud & ensure businesses only employ legal workers,” adding that hiring unauthorized workers “undermines national security.”

Keep reading