BOSTON — The long-simmering question of whether school districts or the state should determine which sports mascots are acceptable reached a boil on Tuesday, as Beacon Hill lawmakers received an earful of testimony from both Native Americans and non-Native Americans claiming that sports names such as "Redmen" and "Indians" wreak havoc on various individuals' quality of life.
Only one non-legislator spoke out against the bill, introduced by state Senator Barbara L'Italien (D-Andover), "an act to prohibit the use of Native American mascots by public schools in the commonwealth."
The tiny bottles of alcohol get tossed by the roadside frequently, and a supermajority of Maine legislators want to add a 5-cent deposit on the bottles to decrease littering. Governor Paul LePage doesn't, however, and he is threatening to ban sales of nips in Maine on the theory that they're contributing to drunken driving.
