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John Lewis went to Oxford Hills High School and wanted to leave rural Maine. He had dreams of the big city where the action was and he did not want to go to college. Turns out he graduated from the University of Maine and now runs a business that helps manufacturers and wandering high school graduates looking for a different path to a bright future that side steps a bachelors degree.

My guest this week is John Lewis, former Republican candidate for state senate in District 29 covering Cape Elizabeth and South Portland, Maine, in 2022 who lost that race but remains in the game as a player with a message for Cape residents: It's about the issues! Vote.

Is it a fact the Cape Elizabeth School Board has been underfunding the Capital Improvement Plan to the tune of $7.2M? Yes.

Is it true putting $9.3 M into the CIP budget to cover essential repairs at the high school and elementary school will result in no tax increase? No.

Tim Reiniger has facts and the evidence to back up his position. Too bad the Cape Courier, the local paper with its thumb on the issue, isn't interested. Are you? Listen up!

Former US Senate Sergeant at Arms and local political legend Larry Benoit is voting "no" on the Cape Elizabeth $94.7M school bond come November 5th for a lot of very good reasons. The bottom line? The tax burden for residents far outweighs any educational benefits.

And claims by the local school board that the proposed alternative $42M bond to cover the cost of essential renovations and repairs has not been vetted? "Disingenuous," Benoit says. "Utter nonsense."

Come November, Cape Elizabeth voters will have $94.7M bond on the ballot to build a new middle school - and for the first time thanks to a new law will know who is backing it. What will not be on the ballot is housing at Gull Crest. The American dream delayed but not denied.

Cape School Board Relents - $94.7M bond headed for November ballot by Cynthia Dill

How much money do Cape Elizabeth Schools need to educate kids? And what is it about free speech the Cape Elizabeth Democrats are afraid of?

It's time for the Cape Underground. The latest podcast

"Smoke and mirrors" is what Cape Elizabeth Town Council Chair Tim Reiniger calls the latest legal threats by fanatics in this leafy community who hired a law firm to stop a bond measure of $42M for essential school repairs if the $90M "Middle Ground" proposal fails.

Plus, breaking news! The campaign to re-elect Reiniger begins now.

The Supreme Court decision in Trump v. United States "highlights the hypocrisy of this version of the Supreme Court," legal scholar Marshall Tinkle says. And how about a little Herbie Hancock? An interesting conversation with an interesting guy.

News reporter and editor Gina Hamilton joins the show to give her take on the shooting yesterday of Donald Trump by 20 year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks at a Pennsylvania campaign rally. She's not surprised it happened, and lays the blame partly at the feet of violent rhetoric used by Trump and his campaign.

Joe Biden, she says, reacted presidentially to the incident, and reminded people what leadership looks like. Biden called Mr. Trump, canceled campaign events, acknowledging the victims and their families, and strongly denounced political violence. Trump, on the other hand, continues to be all about himself, Hamilton says.

So what about the conventions in Chicago and Milwaukee? Is past prologue?

Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy. That might do the trick for some swing voters, plus the public safety failure, Maine's Second Congressional District and more. Maine senior political analyst Phil Harriman joins the show the day after Donald Trump was shot. What does it mean for us?