AUGUSTA - Statement from Majority Leader Michelle Dunphy D-Old Town and Assistant Majority Leader Rachel Talbot Ross D-Portland in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

"Today, we remember the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the movement he inspired to achieve racial and economic equality. Fifty-eight years ago, Martin Luther King led nearly 250,000 followers in a peaceful march on Washington D.C. King was a man of nonviolence and human dignity, and his words ring as true today as they did then."

As a state and a nation we find ourselves struggling to comprehend the attack on our Capitol last week. I have gone from shocked, to scared, to angry, to sad.

Never in my lifetime would I ever have fathomed something like this would happen in our country. The divisiveness and visceral and utter hatred that some in our society seem to hold for one another is unconscionable, and yet here we are. We are a nation polarized. And while the attack on our republic most certainly impacted the very heart of our democracy, it did not and will not break us.

AUGUSTA - Majority Leader Michelle Dunphy, D-Old Town, and Assistant Majority Leader Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, issued the following statements in response to Governor Janet Mills' proposed budget:

From Majority Leader Dunphy:

AUGUSTA - Majority Leader Michelle Dunphy, D-Old Town, and Assistant Majority Leader Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, issued the following statement in response to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021:

AUGUSTA - Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, and House chair of the Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, and Rep. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, a member of the Energy, Utilities and Technologies Committee, issued the following statements in response to Versant Power's intention to file a request to the Maine Public Utilities Commission asking for an increase in distribution rates.

AUGUSTA - Two new laws sponsored by Rep. Vicki Doudera, D-Camden, went into effect on Friday, Aug. 9. They include a measure to allow natural organic reduction, or body composting, as well as a measure to create a pilot program to develop clean hydrogen.

AUGUSTA - On Thursday, Aug. 8, Rep. Morgan Rielly, D-Westbrook, was the keynote speaker at the Second Annual Symposium for the Advancement of Maine's Blue Economy, hosted by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, Educate Maine, the Maine Aquaculture Association and Southern Maine Community College.

AUGUSTA - A bill sponsored by Rep. Jane Pringle, D-Windham, that will work to ease the administrative burden of on healthcare providers will go into effect today.

AUGUSTA - A new law sponsored by Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport, that will support municipal franchise agreements, goes into effect today.

AUGUSTA - A bill sponsored by Rep. Dan Ankeles, D-Brunswick, that will help protect fishermen's access to Maine's working waterfront goes into effect today.