Maine Governor Paul LePage criticised for ‘racist’ remarks:

Mr LePage was asked about a statement he made in January, in which he blamed the state’s heroin problem on “guys by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” who “come from Connecticut and New York”.

“They come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave,” he said.

Speaking on Wednesday, he denied it was racist, but said that since January he had been putting together a binder cataloguing drug arrests in the state, and that “90-plus per cent of those pictures in my book, and it’s a three-ringed binder, are black and Hispanic people”.
…

The Portland Press Herald published FBI statistics which show that 1,211 people were arrested on charges of drug sales or manufacturing in Maine in 2014. Of those, 170 – 14.1% – were black, and almost all the rest were white.

Blacks are 1.4% of Maine’s population, so the 14% figure for drug arrests is in line with a lot of other states, i.e. Blacks are ten times more likely to be arrested for drug offenses than Whites.

A hint for Governor LePage, if you want to hide the fact that you’re a racist, drop the dog whistle “half the time they impregnate a young, white girl”. I grew up with White/Colored signs all over, so I know bigots when I hear them.

Position: 29.6N 54.4W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [320°] near 8 mph [13 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 85 mph [140 kph].
Wind Gusts: 100 mph [160 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 140 miles [220 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 15 miles [ 30 km].
Minimum central pressure: 980 mb ↓.

Currently about 655 miles [1055 km] East-Southeast of Bermuda.

As forecast it is a hurricane again.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]