By Lauren McCauley | Editor
“I quite honestly don’t even know what DEI means. So I don’t believe that that is a reason to not provide mental health services.” - RSU 12 Superintendent Howie Tuttle, on the Trump administration’s cancelling of a grant that helped several Maine school districts hire much-needed mental health support staff.
A sign assessing students' well-being posted in the hallway of Lewiston Public Schools' administrative headquarters on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Eesha Pendharkar/Maine Morning Star)
EDUCATION
By Eesha Pendharkar
Three years ago, a handful of Maine school districts struggling with student mental health needs applied for a federal grant to help them hire school counselors and social workers. The grant applications included a commitment to hiring staff that represented their particular community and understood its needs.
IMMIGRATION
By Tim Henderson, Stateline
Federal immigration agents are employing new tactics — from arresting academics at airports to setting up a checkpoint at a popular creek in a National Forest — to boost their arrest numbers, leading to more arrests in July than in any previous month of the Trump administration.
HOUSING
By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
A federal judge has again blocked the Trump administration from siphoning federal funds from no-strings-attached housing for formerly homeless individuals in a lawsuit brought by Maine and 21 other states.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Todd Blanche sworn in as attorney general after contentious Senate confirmation | Sam Gauntt, States Newsroom
Trump urges shift in childhood vaccine recommendations, calls for splitting up MMR vaccine | Shauneen Miranda, States Newsroom
Judge orders Pentagon to resume wind energy project reviews | Alex Brown, Stateline
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