23 Apr Midcoast News April 23, 2015

Unrest At The Shipyard

Simmering labor tension at Bath Iron Works. Local S6 of the Marine and Shipbuilding Workers is asking a judge to rule that a contract dispute should not be settled by arbitration. The union is at odds with management over a company plan to reclassify jobs and achieve greater flexibility in the assignment of workers as the shipyard seeks to cut costs and heighten its chances of winning a contract to build cutters for the Coast Guard.

Revenge Porn–What To Do?

In Augusta, advocates for victims of domestic violence and law enforcement are speaking out in support of a legislative proposal aimed at criminalizing so-called revenge porn. One legal assistance grup says of the more than one thousand women seeking protection from abuse and harassment this spring, 44 said their former partners had threatened to post intimate or nude photos of them on the internet without their consent. But the American Civil Liberties Union argues that the current bill is written so broadly that it could criminalize the display of photos and videos that are neither obscene or harmful.

Home Prices Slide

The median price for existing single-family homes in Maine is slightly higher for the three-month period ending in March at $165,000, after a long period of decline. That’s a gain of more than one percent from the same period last year.