This week on the Beacon podcast, Taryn, Ben and Mike discuss Maine’s long history of protecting basic constitutional rights for incarcerated Mainers and how the issue seems to have flummoxed many of the Democratic presidential candidates.

Also: testimony from the Green New Deal hearing and updates on a raft of bills heading through the legislature, including on automatic voter registration, changes to the referendum process, Native American mascots and vaccine exemptions.

Plus: Taryn’s new app, Ben’s new book and Mike’s obsession with Canadian provincial politics.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

(Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)

This week on the Beacon Podcast (your only Mueller-free media outlet*) Taryn interviews Rep. Chloe Maxmin about her Green New Deal bill and Rep. Mo Terry about her Maine Work Credit.

Also: Taryn, Mike and Ben break down the amended paid sick days proposal, as the bill gets a bipartisan committee vote and heads toward passage.

Plus: updates on the right to strike bill, dental coverage through MaineCare, paid family leave and Sen. Collins’ billionaire buddies.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

*May contain some traces of Mueller

Photo: Rep. Chloe Maxmin at a press conference launching her Green New Deal legislation | Dan Neumann

Rep. Mike Sylvester of Portland joins the podcast this week to discuss his bill to allow public sector workers the right to strike for better working conditions. There will be a public hearing on the bill before the Labor Committee next Wednesday, April 17th.

Also: Sen. Susan Collins has set new records, both for how much money she has raised and how little of it comes from Maine, taking more cash from the billionaire behind Breitbart than from Maine residents.

Plus: updates on revenue sharing, forced arbitration and holding drug companies accountable for Maine’s opioid crisis.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

Photo: Rep. Mike Sylvester at a State House rally, via Kaitlin Toto of She’s a Teacher Photography

This week on the Beacon Podcast, Taryn interviews employment and civil rights lawyer Valerie Wicks on two bills to protect Mainers from forced arbitration. She explains how many people don’t realize they’ve signed away their rights to a court process if they’re wronged by their employer.

Also: The case for overdose prevention sites to confront Maine’s opioid crisis, an update on Rep. Harnett’s bills to grant farm workers basic labor protections and an examination of the results of the presidential straw poll.

Plus: Rogue librarians, several podcast recommendations and live (tape delayed) updates on the Indigenous People’s Day bill.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

(Photo: Creative commons via Flickr/Michael Coghlan)

This week on the Beacon podcast, we spotlight three bills currently before the Maine legislature that you might not have heard about, but which could make a significant positive difference in Mainers’ lives and need your help to pass.

Rep. Thom Harnett discusses LD 1211 and LD 1251, which would give farm workers the right to organize and advocate for better working conditions and be protected under Maine’s wage and hour laws. In a legacy of slavery, agricultural workers have long been excluded from basic employment protections, which has led to some awful abuses in Maine.

Sen. Eloise Vitelli discusses LD 995, her attempt to create a student loan borrower bill of rights and reign in some of the worst practices of predatory student loan companies.

Plus: Taryn discovers The Great British Baking Show and Mike discovers his new favorite website.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

The bigotry of Waterville Mayor and Maine Republican Party Vice Chair Nick Isgro is once again on full display, and yet most of his party colleagues are avoiding the issue or even backing him up. This week on the podcast, Ben, Taryn and Mike discuss how much of their reaction is reflexive and how much is tactical.

Also: Rep. Richard Pickett is now a national icon following his comments about jails, tampons and country clubs, including in some celebrity tweets.

Plus: Legislative updates on the minimum wage, Indigenous People’s Day, ranked-choice voting for president, health care for Mainers leaving prison, paid sick days and revenue sharing.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

(Isgro official photo)

This week on the Beacon podcast, Taryn, Ben and Mike discuss Sen. Susan Collins’ vote for judicial nominee Neomi Rao, a 45-year old lawyer in the Trump administration who has stood against protections for workers and efforts to address climate change and has authored a series of controversial columns on women, rape and gender roles. She once wrote about women who are date raped, “if she drinks to the point where she can no longer choose, well, getting to that point was part of her choice.”

They recommend reading longtime newspaper editor Hugh Bowden’s reappraisal of his past support for Collins.

Also: lots of legislative updates, including on earned paid sick days, visitation rights and access to menstruation products for inmates, asset forfeiture, vaccine protections and more.

Plus: Ben and Taryn have two very different book recommendations.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

(Sen. Collins official photo)

For every dire prediction made by corporate lobbyists about Maine’s minimum and tipped wage increases, the exact opposite has actually happened. Exactly the sectors they said would crumble are now thriving. That hasn’t slowed them down in predicting the same doom as a result of the earned paid sick days bill that was passed by the Labor Committee on party lines this week.

This week on the podcast, Taryn, Ben and Mike discuss these results and the eight bills attempting to roll back the minimum wage as well as hearings on repealing the estate tax cuts and, reluctantly on Taryn’s part, replacing Maine’s state flag.

Plus: the tax increase that Governor Janet Mills is already backing and some listener mail.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

(Photo via Flickr user ambientfusion)

This week on the Beacon podcast, Taryn, Ben and Mike dig deeper into erstwhile governor Paul LePage’s latest example of saying the quiet part out loud. They dig into the history of the presidential electoral system and discuss the prospects for Maine’s national popular vote bill.

Also: an interview with Sen. Rebecca Millett, a recap of the public hearing for her earned paid sick days bill, and a lighting round of updates on other legislation swirling around the Capitol.

Plus: Ben attacks the Bar Association and Taryn learns where thunder comes from.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

(Paul LePage official photo)

This week on the Beacon podcast, Ben, Taryn and Mike discuss new bills to restrict the referendum process being advanced by Republicans (and some Democrats) in the Maine legislature, including a measure that would prohibit issues affecting state finances from going to the ballot. In a hearing on Wednesday, Assistant Senate Minority Leader Jeff Timberlake argued that Maine voters aren’t sophisticated enough to vote on issues of taxation and that the referendum process promotes “mob rule.”

Also: Did Sen. Collins turn Maine women against Republicans? How does Bernie Sanders’ announcement affect the race for president? And why doesn’t John C. Calhoun have a national holiday?

All that, plus a legislative lightning round and some rays of hope.

You can ask a question or leave a comment for a future show at (207) 619-3182.

Subscribe to the podcast feed right here using your favorite podcasting app or subscribe using iTunes.

(Photo: Senate Minority Leader Dana Dow and Assistant Minority Leader Jeff Timberlake, via official website)