CAPITOL BREACH-TRUMP-COLLINS
Maine GOP to consider rebuking Collins over impeachment vote
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The chair of the Maine Republican Party says there will be a meeting soon to discuss Sen. Susan Collins’ impeachment vote. Chair Demi Kouzounas told members in a weekend email “to be prepared for an emergency state committee meeting” to discuss the vote by Collins, one of seven Republicans who voted to convict the president of inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol. Kennebec County GOP Chair Helen Tutwiler said county chairs met via Zoom on Monday night but they were told not to talk to the press about what happened. Collins, who just won reelection in 2020, suggested that the big tent philosophy shouldn’t be torched by angry members of her own party.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-MAINE
Collins: Pentagon should eye new gear to prep for pandemics
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s Republican senator believes the Pentagon needs to consider new equipment in preparation for future pandemics. Sen. Susan Collins said she has asked Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to consider some potential upgrades. Specifically, Collins says the defense department should review modular pressure mobile containment systems, which she said could help facilities safely assess and treat patients. Collins says the pandemic has illustrated the importance of treatment containment systems that can address outbreaks. She says the U.S. experienced a surge in demand for modular containment rooms during the coronavirus pandemic.
AP-US-OBIT-ANTI-WAR-CARDIOLOGIST
Cardiologist, anti-war activist Bernard Lown dies at 99
BOSTON (AP) — Dr. Bernard Lown, a Massachusetts cardiologist who invented the first reliable heart defibrillator and later co-founded an anti-nuclear war group that was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, died Tuesday. He was 99. The Boston Globe reports the Lithuania-born doctor’s health had been declining from congestive heart failure. Lown had helped advance cardiac treatment as a professor at Harvard University and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He’d invented the direct-current defibrillator, or cardioverter. He was also an outspoken social activist, founding Physicians for Social Responsibility and later co-founding International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
EMERGENCY ROOMS-PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS
DHHS updating rules for involuntary commitments after ruling
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine is updating its involuntary commitment process following a state supreme court ruling that said psychiatric patients may not be held for extended periods in emergency rooms without a judge getting involved. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court’s decision enforces a limit of five days, with a judge’s approval, after which the clock resets. Jackie Farwell, Maine DHHS spokesperson, said details are still being worked out by the the Office of Behavioral Health on new rules to reflect the new precedent. The court ruled unanimously in favor of a patient who was held for a month against his will last year in the LincolnHealth Miles Campus Hospital emergency room in Damariscotta.