Census Workers Visiting

Homes in Yarmouth…

 

The decennial census is now just a year away, and the first field

operation is about to begin. Starting Monday, April 20, people from

Maine communities and neighborhoods will be conducting address

canvassing operations around the state.

What is address canvassing?

• Approximately 800 census takers around the state will use GPS enabled

handheld computers to verify the location of housing units

in your community.

• Addresses will be used to determine where the US Census

Bureau will send questionnaires and enumerators for the 2010

Census.

• Employees can be identified by the official Census Bureau badge

they carry.

• All census information collected, including addresses, are

confidential and protected by law. The Census Bureau cannot

share respondents’ answers with the FBI, the CIA, Welfare,

Immigration, or any other government agency.

• Census data are used to determine representation in Congress as

well as state legislative district boundaries. Approximately $300

billion in federal funding is distributed to communities around the

country each year based on census data.

 

 

 

 

Today I presented my bill, LD 1008, An Act to Increase Consumer Choice in Wine, in front of the Joint Standing Committee on Legal and Veterans Affairs.  This bill is also commonly referred to as the “free the grapes” legislation, allowing Maine consumers to order wine by mail (instead of having to get it through a wholesaler).  The State of Maine is now one out of 15 states that still bans direct shipment of wine.  Should this bill pass favorably out of committee (and there are plenty of opponents, such as the wine wholesalers in Maine), there will likely be lively floor debate in the House Chamber, as there has in previous sessions on bills of the same topic.  I will keep you posted on how it goes, and whether in the future you can order up some great California wine from your home…….