On Thursday, the Sun Journal published a front-page report on the fees to be paid to private lawyers hired to defend Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention employees in a federal whistleblower lawsuit. Attorney General Janet Mills authorized the expenditure of up to $50,000 for the firm of Kelly, Remmel & Zimmerman to represent […]
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Maine pays lawyers $300 to $333 per hour to defend CDC officials in whistle-blower case
AUGUSTA — The private attorneys hired by the state to defend the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention from a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former employee are being paid $300 per hour. Maine Attorney General Janet Mills has authorized the state’s Department of Health and Human Services to spend up to $50,000 […]
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Committee postpones meeting on CDC review because of weather
AUGUSTA — The Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee postponed its Friday meeting because of the snowstorm that started Thursday morning. The committee will meet at 9 a.m. Friday, Feb. 21, to continue its review of the Report on Healthy Maine Partnerships’ FY13 contracts and funding. It is scheduled to meet again on Friday, Feb. 28. Both […]
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Lawyers ask state committee to suspend CDC shredding investigation
AUGUSTA — Lawmakers on the Government Oversight Committee on Tuesday were asked to suspend their investigation into the destruction of public documents by officials at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention in June 2013. The request came via a letter from private lawyers hired by the state to defend the Department of Health […]
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Maine CDC officials decline invitations to testify
AUGUSTA — A legislative committee wants to hear about a document-shredding scandal from Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention officials, but none of the officials invited to testify has agreed to do so. It was unclear Monday whether the Government Oversight Committee would exercise its power to subpoena the officials at the heart of […]
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Maine Democrats ask LePage for messages around CDC document-shredding case
AUGUSTA — The Maine Democratic Party on Monday announced it has filed a public records request with Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s office asking for information about a change in funding for Healthy Maine Partnerships in 2012. The funding change orchestrated by the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention has come under fire after a […]
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State committee digs deeper into document-shredding case
AUGUSTA — Lawmakers on the Government Oversight Committee decided to dig deeper Friday into a case that involves the mishandling and possibly illegal destruction of public documents by officials at the Maine Center for Disease Control, an agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. Voting 9-2, the panel agreed to invite CDC employees […]
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State’s attorneys general ask to withdraw from CDC whistle-blower case
LEWISTON — Two assistant attorneys general who had been defending the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and its director, Dr. Sheila Pinette, in a federal whistle-blower case have asked the court if they can withdraw as defense counsel. In a joint motion filed Friday, Assistant […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Oversight panel hears comments, postpones decision on CDC
A former Centers for Disease Control division director told legislators Friday that her bosses ordered her and another worker to shred public documents because their bosses expected someone to ask for those documents. A Department of Health and Human Services representative acknowledged there were “flaws” in the way the CDC distributed millions of dollars to […]
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Government Oversight Committee schedules public comment on CDC report
The Government Oversight Committee will meet Jan. 10 to take public comment on a recent state investigation into the destruction of documents and grant funding that may have been manipulated by workers at the Maine Centers for Disease Control. The Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, or OPEGA, completed its review of the CDC […]