Members of Maine’s child and senior care industries joined parents, policy experts and state legislators to unveil the details of a new campaign to create a state Universal Family Care System which would provide universal child care services for families with young children and universal homecare services for seniors and Mainers with disabilities.

Health care advocates delivered more than 67,000 signatures to the Secretary of State today to place a referendum on the ballot to expand Medicaid coverage in Maine. The petitions pave the way for a public vote on accepting federal funding to cover tens of thousands of Mainers who currently can't afford health insurance but have been denied coverage through Medicaid.

103,000 Mainers will see a little more in their paychecks starting next week, as the first increase in the minimum wage goes into effect following the passage of Question 4 in November’s election. Maine’s minimum wage will increase from $7.50 to $9 an hour and the subminimum wage for workers who receive tips will increase from $3.75 to $5 an hour.

With Maine’s minimum wage increasing on January 7th, workers and business owners who are affected by the increase are visiting the State House this week to warn legislators not to defy the clear will of Maine voters.

The office of Maine’s Secretary of State today announced that Mainers for Fair Wages has succeeded in gathering the signatures necessary to place a referendum to raise the minimum wage before voters for the November, 2016 General Election.

Today, Mainers for Fair Wages submitted 75,000 verified signatures to the Maine Secretary of State to place an increase in the minimum wage on the November ballot, far more than the 61,123 required. Supporters marked the event with a rally in the State House Hall of Flags and remarks from more than a dozen Mainers from across the state, many of them making low wages themselves, who helped to collect the signatures.

Members of the Maine People's Alliance hosted a press conference today in Bangor to release the latest figures on the "job gap" - the divide between what Maine workers need to earn to afford basic necessities and what available jobs in Maine actually pay. They were joined by City Councilor Sarah Nichols who advocated for Maine to follow the lead of Bangor and pass a minimum wage increase statewide in 2016 in order to begin to address the gap.

On Wednesday, the campaign to place a minimum wage increase on the ballot in 2016 announced that it had collected more than 30,000 signatures from voters at polls across the state on Election Day. The campaign has now collected more than 90,000 signatures since beginning in June – well over the 61,123 needed to qualify and all but guaranteeing placement on the 2016 ballot.

Tenants in purposefully-neglected residential properties and local housing and health experts joined with advocates from the Maine People's Alliance (MPA) and the Neighborhood Housing League (NHL) outside an apartment building in Lewiston today to release a report exposing the shady practices of three of the city's worst landlords.

Volunteers with Mainers for Fair Wages kicked off Lewiston-area signature collection to place a minimum wage increase on the ballot in 2016. Twenty volunteers gathered at Kimball Street Studios on Lisbon Street to learn about the signature-collection process and receive petitions in order to begin collecting signatures during the Lewiston-Auburn Art Walk and the minimum wage forum and spaghetti supper at the Lewiston Elks Lodge later in the day.