Tomorrow, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Rowe v. New Hampshire Motor Transport, a case filed against the State of Maine by motor transport associations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.? The associations challenged the 2003 Maine law that requires that internet tobacco retailers utilize carriers who take specific actions to ensure that packages containing tobacco products are not delivered to minors.?

Maine, along with a coalition of eleven other states, is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over new regulations denying the public access to information about toxic chemicals in their communities.?

The EPA will allow thousands of companies to avoid disclosing information to the public about the toxic chemicals they use, store, and release into the environment by rolling back chemical reporting requirements.? The suit seeks to overturn the weakened reporting requirements and provide the public with the access they had in the past.

Today, Attorney General Steve Rowe filed a motion to enforce the Maine Courts Consent Decree against R.J. Reynolds (RJR). RJR recently ran an advertisement in Rolling Stone Magazine?s 40th Anniversary edition, dated November 15, 2007, the content of which violated the Consent Decree dated December 3, 1998.? The Attorney General is seeking to permanently enjoin RJR from using cartoons in the advertisement or promotion of tobacco products.?

The Attorney General is pleased to announce the beginning of a 6-month claims period during which the Office of the Attorney General will accept claims for reimbursement, or restitution, from consumers who purchased any “healing instrument” from The Gentle Wind Project between January 1, 2003 and September 14, 2006.

Today's technology provides us with extraordinary benefits. It has given us the ability to conduct business online, share information about ourselves with those who live thousands of miles away and access information at the "speed of light." Unfortunately, it has also provided the same benefits to identity thieves who use someone else's personal financial information to access bank accounts and obtain credit, often destroying the life savings and good credit history of innocent victims.

York County Superior Court Justice Paul Fritzsche sentenced Peter Throumoulos to four years in jail with all but 60 days suspended and three years probation. In August, a jury found him guilty of stealing $18,000 from the Maine Clean Elections Fund in connection with his 2004 state Senate race, and of attempting to steal a similar amount during his 2006 state Senate race. Jurors also found him guilty of three counts of aggravated forgery.

Maine Attorney General Steve Rowe announced today that his office has settled a case involving an antitrust challenge to the merger of the two largest school bus contractors in the nation, FirstGroup (also known as First Student, Inc.) and Laidlaw International, Inc. Over the past decade, Maine school districts, like their counterparts around the United States, have increasingly turned to private contractors to provide transportation to the students and families they serve.