The Maine National Guard is helping long-term care facilities prepare for possible outbreaks by fitting workers with medical-grade masks normally used in hospital settings.
Randy Billings
Staff Writer
Randy Billings is a government watchdog and political reporter who has been the State House bureau chief since 2021. He was named the Maine Press Association’s Journalist of the Year in 2020. He joined the Press Herald in 2012 as the Portland City Hall reporter, where his beat touched on a wide range of topics, including municipal government, immigration, homelessness, housing and social services. Prior to that, he worked at various weeklies as well as business and arts publications. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maine, Orono. He lives in North Yarmouth with his wife and two children and enjoys the outdoors and playing his upright bass.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State
Maine fails to deliver online inspections as restaurants reopen in pandemic
Officials planned to update the state’s inspections database five years ago, but it still hasn’t happened.
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Posted inLocal & State, Maine Crime
Bangor police investigate shooting involving people in 2 cars
They’re looking for the occupants of two four-door sedans in connection with the incident Friday night at York and Essex streets.
Posted inLocal & State
Racial disparity in Maine’s COVID-19 cases deepens
But in one of the whitest states in the country, there is also growing concern about stigmatizing immigrant and minority communities.
Posted inLocal & State
Racial disparity grows along with Maine’s number of virus cases
Blacks and African Americans make up 1.6% of Maine’s population but more than 6% of its coronavirus infections.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Shortage of swabs hampers COVID-19 testing in Maine nursing homes
Most of the facilities that responded to a survey said they lacked the basic tool to detect the disease.
Posted inLocal & State
Newly released data suggest ‘alarming’ racial disparity among Maine’s COVID-19 cases
African Americans account for 1.7% of the state’s population but 3.7% of the state’s infections. The state CDC director says, ‘These disparities are concerning.’
Posted inLocal & State
State rents 115 hotel rooms to create social distancing for homeless Mainers
Hotel rooms in Portland and Bangor are reserved for people awaiting test results or recovering from COVID-19, while rooms in Knox County are used to create physical distance.
Posted inLocal & State
Some taxpayers get shut out of stimulus, prompting challenge to federal law
Anyone who doesn’t have a Social Security number or is married to someone who doesn’t is ineligible to receive payments. That includes many immigrants who have tax ID numbers.
Posted inBusiness
Pandemic has Mainers buying more liquor, but there’s no trickle-down effect for brewers
While liquor sales have spiked since the coronavirus hit Maine, craft breweries, which rely heavily on taproom sales, are struggling.