South Portland adds mobile cart to breakfast program, ensuring students can go to class without the distraction and pain of hunger.

Emergency homeless shelters are now allowed in business and industrial zones throughout the city, following a unanimous City Council vote Monday night.

“Never in the 50-plus years of Medicaid’s existence has health coverage been conditional to whether you’re working,” said MaryBeth Musumeci of the Kaiser Family Foundation. “This would be breaking new ground, and the question is how far would the Trump administration go in allowing these proposals to move forward.”

The LePage administration wants to require people who receive Medicaid to work or volunteer in order to receive health care. The state imposed a similar requirement for food stamps a few years ago. The administration touts it as a pathway out of poverty, while others call it a roadblock.

In the eyes of the state of Maine, Laurie Kane is an able-bodied adult without dependents, and thus ineligible for most forms of government support. In her own eyes, it is hard to see how she is going to find housing, work, and stability without help.

Reducing assistance for poor people in the U.S. is a centerpiece of the budget the Trump administration unveiled Tuesday. It calls for huge cuts to Medicaid, Social Security disability payments, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, food assistance and other anti-poverty programs.

“If I don’t have health care, I will die."

Judy Bullard says MaineCare is keeping her alive, and she would be in dire straits if she lost her health insurance and could no longer afford her medication.