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Maine Wire Monday's · Newsradio WGAN

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  It's a great time to talk to our friends, The Main Wire, who join
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  us every Monday for Main Wire Mondays.
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  Joining me now is John Featherston who is with us.
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  John, how are things? Good morning, man.
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  How are you? Oh, not too bad.
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  You and I were chatting yesterday and I asked you for
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  some thoughts on what you might want to chat about today.
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  I loved, by the way, that there was such a target rich
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  environment of so many different stories that we had plenty to
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  get into. So I'll start off by asking you
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  actually a pretty simple question, John Featherston.
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  What is the big story right now that's in your head, like that's
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  stuck in your head that you're following, you're investigating,
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  you're talking about, you know, for the last, say, like 3 to 4
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  days or so here in Maine. What's the thing that's really
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  sticking out? Lewiston is in crisis mode is
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  really what the big story is is like.
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  I said the last three to five days, John, I'm not.
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  Not the last three to five months.
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  Come on. No, but I mean, as the weather's
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  gotten better, Matt, unfortunately, I've been
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  spending a tremendous amount of time in Lewiston talking about
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  shootings, talking about children, shooting children in
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  the streets. Graham Plattner ignoring me when
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  I asked him questions about gun violence in Lewiston.
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  The mayor, the mayor and the city councillors ignoring gun
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  violence. You know, David Jones, a
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  gubernatorial candidate on the Republican side, did a cleanup
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  in Lewiston over the weekend, you know, and made a made a big
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  difference, you know, you know, a one time difference in the
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  city, but you know, you have to be concerned about a city where
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  you have children shooting children in the daylight hours
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  and leadership in the city just ignoring it.
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  Yeah, they don't even seem to recognize that it's a thing.
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  They're well, and I can understand why, I suppose,
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  because they don't want to be at all responsible for the problem.
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  So not acknowledging it, I guess they're just trying to keep it
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  buried ultimately is I guess their strategy, I suppose.
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  But it's amazing to me that they're not getting more heat
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  for it. I know that there is some, but
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  they, they citizens there should be up in arms about it.
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  Absolutely. You know, when I spend time in
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  Lewiston, you know, I look at the the skyline and you can see
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  the good bones of Lewiston. But then when you drive down the
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  streets and I've done a couple ride alongs with the Police
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  Department and the Police Department go, well, look how
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  many bullet holes are in this building or look at, you know,
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  how how many crack types or needles are out in front of this
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  building. You know, and the average
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  citizen just has to be saying what is going on in my city.
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  And they just did a reevaluation for the first time in 38 years.
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  And some people's tax bills are going to triple.
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  So you're going to pay triple the cost to live in a city
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  that's plagued by gun violence, trash and and crack needles?
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  I mean like what is going on? Yeah, well, that's the thing.
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  And then now you're getting to the point where if you're a
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  citizen to lose and you have to ask yourself, do I want to keep
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  doing this? Do I want to continue to be
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  abused like this for this kind of result?
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  You know, it's one thing to get soaked entirely, but if you're
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  going to be not having to pay the price of living there and
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  the quality of life is going to be significantly degrading, then
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  obviously that's not a good thing and you don't want to do
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  that. So I would not be shocked if
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  Lewiston starts seeing a major outflux of citizens out of that
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  city. You know, Matt is, you know,
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  we've done so much investigation on fraud in Maine and you just
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  walk up and down Lisbon St. in Lewiston and you see money
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  transfer station to home healthcare places and stores
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  that don't have price tags on anything.
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  And you sit there and go, what the heck is going on here?
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  So you've got, you know, health, bogus healthcare, like I'll
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  knock on doors and can't find any human beings in a money
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  transfer station in a place that you can go in and buy food and
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  other things that don't have any price tags.
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  So it just jumps out to you and I'm not accusing anyone of
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  anything. But like is or is is the
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  healthcare transferring the money out And the reason there's
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  no prices on anything because there's EBT and SNAP card
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  benefit fraud. But there the density just on a
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  1 1/2 mile stress of of Luis and you just sit there and go.
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  What is going on here? But the good news is, is it
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  looks like there's finally some accountability coming from the
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  federal government. Yeah, I was going to ask you
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  about that. It sounds like there's there's
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  been rumblings for a while, obviously, but I guess there's
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  going to be some sort of an announcement this week maybe on
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  the fraud front. You have a pretty big push
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  nationally from the administration to try to look
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  into this, investigate it and try to do something about it.
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  And it looks like there might be some action coming.
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  Do you know what ultimately to expect?
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  Well, you know, Doctor Oz has, you know, put the main and
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  specially Governor Mills on blast for the autism
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  overbilling. We have provided so much
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  background on just main care fraud coming and then like, you
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  know, there was a bust in Lewiston for EBT card fraud.
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  I just think it's all going to be systematic.
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  I'm expecting an announcement that you know, the buck is
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  finally going to stop here type thing and people are going to be
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  held accountable. And you know how Maine handles,
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  it's going to be interesting because I don't think Maine has
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  the money to pay back the feds. And when the feds come and ask
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  for the money back, it's going to be interesting to see how
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  people are going to handle it because, you know, there's
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  fingerprints on all of this coming out of Augusta.
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  You know, I mean, it all comes right back to Augusta.
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  And Matt, have you? You know, I know you have, but
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  have you heard anybody ask the Democrats running for
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  gubernatorial race about fraud? Not, not a, not a big topic.
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  Certainly at the debates. I know that when they're asked
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  questions about what they'd like to do for Maine, they just sort
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  of focus in on opposing Trump and defending democracy.
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  And there is not very much of A discussion about potential fraud
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  or abuse inside the inside the system.
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  And of course they don't want to talk about it.
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  So it's not like they're going to bring it up either.
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  So no, the answer is no, of course not.
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  But, you know, shouldn't that be a red flag to everybody?
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  It doesn't even depend on, you know, what side of the political
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  aisle you come down on because Democrats should actually be
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  more mad about the rampant fraud in Maine than even maybe even
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  Republicans because it steals from them being able to do, you
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  know, pet projects or blue ribbon Commission type of, you
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  know, legislation fraud is so bad in Maine that it it's theft
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  from every pocket of any taxpayer in Maine.
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  And it doesn't even affect, you know, your political party.
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  And the fact that it's not a big topic during these Democrat
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  debates should be a red flag to. People, yeah.
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  You know, that's a really good point, John.
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  I mean, if you are a Democratic voter, I mean, you probably
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  believe in the welfare state and, and a, you know, a very
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  generous system, obviously. But if you do believe in that, I
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  hope that the reason you believe in it is because you want to
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  help people with that money. And if you're getting a whole
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  bunch of grifters with their fingers all over it that are not
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  actually getting that money to the intended places, then that's
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  not actually doing it at all. And then on top of it, you're
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  undermining any faith in the system.
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  So, you know, people in the future, when they're asked
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  whether or not they want to keep funding these things, are going
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  to be much more likely to say no.
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  So it's kind of like a bad thing all around if your ideology
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  says, I like having very large and generous welfare programs.
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  So you really should hate it and you really should do something
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  about it. And you know, honestly, the
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  candidates that are trying now to distance themselves from
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  Janet Mills, this is a wonderful place to do that, right?
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  Just, you know, heap the blame on her administration,
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  especially now since she's not even running for Senate anymore.
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  Say that she hasn't managed it well, but you'll do a better job
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  of it and you'll get to the bottom of it.
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  I mean it seems like a ready made answer in my book. 100% You
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  know, Matt, the biggest concern that I see from a personal
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  standpoint is, listen, nobody dislikes fraud more than I do
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  because it's it's it's not fraud, it's theft.
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  But when Steve and I do go to some of these home health care
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  places and we find the most vulnerable of our society being
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  charged millions of dollars in what I call fraudulent building.
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  But then you find these individuals, they're not being
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  properly cared for. They're not being properly
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  bathed. You I have personally found
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  people covered in their own urine and feces, people not
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  getting their prescription medicine because the care
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  providers can't read English to provide them the medication.
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  We found one lady who hadn't had a shower in nine months.
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  So you have all this fraud. But I think the bigger
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  humanitarian crisis is that we're not taking care of the
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  most vulnerable people in our society, and that should outrage
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  everybody. It should indeed.
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  John Feathers and joining us as we get on Mondays, every single
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  week, an opportunity to talk with our friends from Maine Wire
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  to talk about what's going on in the state of Maine and beyond.
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  Before I let you go, John, also, I do understand that there's a
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  ballot hearing on Tuesday over The Maine girl dad's ballot
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  question. This is one of those like little
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  hanging things that's still left out there about whether or not
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  this is actually going to be on your ballot or not.
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  Can you tell me a little bit more about what that hearing is
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  going to be all about and what we may likely hear or see in it?
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  There is a a lawsuit. They're challenging the validity
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  of some of the signatures acquired.
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  And you know, I think that's pretty common practice.
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  You know, people will come out and question some of the
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  validity of it. My concerns in the red flag is
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  that I see is that this all comes back to Secretary of State
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  Shanna Bellows and you know, and she's going to oversee this
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  hearing and decide if the signatures are there.
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  It's a very slim margin of, of, of signatures that will be left
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  if he can make if they can make the ballot on this.
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  So it's the the hearings tomorrow at 10:00.
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  If you can't make it to Augusta, which I would recommend people
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  do if they care about this issue, you can at least watch it
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  on the Secretary of State's YouTube channel.
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  It's it's an important topic because this ballot question
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  will certainly probably be one of the most talked about, if not
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  controversial ballot questions in the November election if it
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  makes the ballot. Yeah, no doubt about it.
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  Well, John, we really appreciate you stopping by the show today
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  and talking to us a little bit about what's going on in the
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  state of Maine. We'll talk again next week.
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  Appreciate it as always Sir and talk to you soon.
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  Have a great. Day.
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  See you later.