LePage Hires Madison Avenue Law Firm

Bangor Daily News:  

Maine Gov. Paul LePage is getting some outside help negotiating a new labor contract for nearly 10,000 state workers.

Louis DiLorenzo, a managing partner in the firm Bond Schoeneck & King, which has offices in New York, Florida and Kansas, will be paid $295 an hour to help administration officials in their negotiations with the Maine State EmployeesAssociation.

A Wednesday meeting will discuss ground rules for upcoming negotiations.

Large Stores Must Be Closed on Easter

If you are wondering why all large store will be closed this Sunday, it is because of a Maine ‘blue law.’ Easter, along Thanksgiving and Christmas are the three days the State requires stores over 5,000 sq. ft. to be closed.

Title 17, §3204(2)(HH):

In no event, however, may any store having more than 5,000 square feet of interior customer selling space be open on Easter Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

tip @WFMportlandME

Court Rejects Plum Creek Approval

Mainebiz:

The Maine Superior Court has overruled the state’s September 2009 approval of Plum Creek Timber Co.’s massive development in the Moosehead Lake region.

Chief Justice Thomas Humphrey yesterday ruled in favor of conservation groups Forest Ecology Network, Natural Resources Council of Maine and RESTORE: The North Woods, saying that the Land Use Regulation Commission broke its own rules in approving the development, according to a press release from RESTORE. The court found that LURC violated rules by failing to vote on the petition as it was presented, instead offering amendments, and by failing to hold another public hearing on Plum Creek’s final petition. “Because LURC disregarded its Chapter 5 rules and engaged in an unauthorized, ad hoc procedure that prejudiced Petitioners’ rights, the court must vacate the Decision of the Commission and remand for a public hearing on Plum Creek’s fourth and final amended petition,” Humphrey wrote in the ruling.

 

Brooklin News

Three new public officers were sworn in. The people voted to have a Hancock County Sheriff patrol the town and passed a land use ordinance that will restrict the construction of cell towers and wind turbines.

via The town of Brooklin gets a new start | wcsh6.com.