Cheers to Maine Attorney General William Schneider and his staff.
Schneider told us when he took office that he was determined to crack down on those who are defrauding the state’s Department of Health and Human Services by cheating or otherwise exploiting the system. He called it a top priority and he has kept his promise.
On Wednesday, with assistance from the Lewiston Police Department, the AG’s office gained indictments in another round of fraud investigations against five people in Androscoggin and Oxford counties for buying and selling EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards in a scheme that involved trafficking illicit drugs.
In all, Maine taxpayers were bilked of between $3,000 and $30,000, according to the charges.
That’s bad enough, but what really hurts is that those funds didn’t get to the people who really needed them, not to mention the state has a massive budget shortfall in DHHS, upward of $200 million.
Schneider’s office last year uncovered a Norway woman’s scheme that had defrauded the MaineCare system of at least $4 million. That woman is serving time in jail, so it’s clear that Schneider is serious about catching fraudsters.
Not everyone has the same fervor, apparently.
On Friday, a Sun Journal reader complained about the A1, above-the-fold placement of a story in that day’s paper about the fraud investigation.
The prominent placement was “sensationalized” the caller said, because “everybody” in Lewiston knows someone who is cheating the system. The caller compared the news value of DHHS fraud to the news value of reporting how many people were licensed to drive cars in Lewiston, because fraud is that prevalent.
If that’s true, the story is even bigger than we thought. Isn’t it?
Cheers to Schneider for keeping his word, but more important, cheers to the investigators in his office and at the LPD for better protecting the state’s resources and the people that money is meant to help.
But, clearly, there is more work to do.
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It’s sad to think that the past year was the last for the annual Maine Mineral Symposium, a year that set attendance records at the Augusta Armory.
The symposium, held each spring, has been an annual event for the past 22 years, organized by the Maine Geological Survey under the Maine Department of Conservation. But, really, it was organized by volunteers who spent a great deal of personal time and energy to put together a successful event year after year.
The symposium was a rock hound’s dream, with speakers, displays, exhibits, information and inspiration for mining natural treasures. It was an event for experienced and novice hounds, highlighting Maine’s long and important tradition of mineral collecting, particularly in western Maine, home to mines that have produced a tremendous amount of high-quality gems, including the Fourth of July amethyst mine in Stow, the Albany Rose Quarry in Albany Township, and the tremendous find of an 111-carat Eureka Blue tourmaline on Plumbago Mountain in Newry in 2009.
The symposium may be gone, unless a new crop of volunteers steps up to take over the organizing, but we can look forward to the scheduled opening of Maine’s new state mineral museum in Bethel this spring. The museum will augment other, smaller mineral museums across the state, establishing a central location for rock hobbyists and pros alike.
There is, as many Mainers know, gold and gems in them thar hills. Preserving the tales and skills to preserve and capture those treasures is as valuable as the treasures themselves.
The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.
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