Alyce McFadden

A deep-pocketed “dark money” group is spending “well over $1 million” on an ad campaign against the inclusion of racial justice topics in K-12 curricula. The Concord Fund is a conservative dark money group better known as the Judicial Crisis Network. It registered Free to Learn Action as a “fictitious name” — or legal alias — on June 21, the Daily Poster reported Thursday.

Since the start of the school year, in September, Rhonda Israel has been teaching in person, sharing a classroom with kindergartners and first graders in a New York City neighborhood that was once among the hardest hit by the coronavirus. On Feb. 11, she got her second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, joining the ranks of just over 500,000 New Yorkers inoculated against the virus. She knows she’s lucky.

President Joe Biden launched his third bid for the White House from a Teamsters’ hall in Pittsburgh, two years ago this April. “I make no apologies. I am a union man. Period,” he said. Over the next 19 months, Biden also became the union candidate. Labor organizations contributed $27.5 million to his campaign and other groups that supported him. His opponent, former President Donald Trump, took in less than $360,000 from those with labor ties.

Congressional Democrats are prioritizing campaign finance reform and voting rights with a sweeping bill being praised by progressive groups and advocates for electoral reform. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Tuesday that the upper chamber will consider the For the People Act before any other bill, designating it as S.1. Democrats in the House made a similar move earlier this month.

A new anti-Trump group helmed by Republicans announced Tuesday that it would raise $50 million to encourage lawmakers to break with President Donald Trump. Behind the project is Defending Democracy Together, one of the top-spending “dark money” groups in the 2020 election cycle.

On Jan. 6, 147 Republican members of Congress voted against certifying President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory, supporting baseless claims of election fraud, a false narrative pushed by President Donald Trump that stoked an angry mob that invaded the Capitol, resulting in five deaths. In the wake of the attack, a growing list of America’s most powerful corporations are pledging to amend their policies on contributions made by their PACs. OpenSecrets compiled a list of the corporations that have mad

Governor Janet Mill’s Economic Recovery Committee (ERC) lays out a roadmap to rebuild Maine’s economy with equity and justice at its core. A report delivered to the governor on Tuesday recommends investments in housing, child care and broadband internet to help Mainers recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession.

Fred Follansbee is a social studies teacher at Kennebunk High School and father to two children, one entering pre-K and the other a rising second grader. This week, his employer, Regional School Unit (RSU) 21, voted to implement a hybrid return model for the fall, a decision that means that Follansbee must now face the difficult task of balancing his responsibilities as an educator and as a parent.

Joanna Breen, executive director of Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library, joked that the restrictions on public gatherings in place due to COVID-19 have almost been a dream come true for librarians – the shelves are neat, the reading rooms are quiet. Almost, but not quite.

James “Jes” Staley ’79 P’11, a member of Bowdoin’s Board of Trustees and the CEO of Barclays, is under investigation by British authorities for his relationship with the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to a statement released Thursday morning by the bank.