Click on the photo to watch video from the ceremony.

Pictured: Senator Collins congratulates retired U.S. Army Air Corps 1st Lieutenant Edwin Waite of Millinocket, 89, after presenting him with a Purple Heart Medal. 

Pictured: Senator Collins helps U.S. Air Force John Thomas, Commander at the Maine Air National Guard 101st Refueling Wing in Bangor, pin the Purple Heart Medal on Waite's sweater during the ceremony at his home in Millinocket. 

Senator Collins recently presented 90-year old WWII veteran Edwin Waite with replacement medals, and a Purple Heart Medal, at his home in Millinocket.  COL John Thomas, Commander at the Maine Air National Guard 101^st Refueling Wing in Bangor assisted Senator Collins in presenting the medals to Mr. Waite. 

Mr. Waite’s daughter, Kathy Sheridan, contacted Senator Collins last year for assistance in getting replacement medals for those her father received for his service.  She also wrote in the letter that her father never received the Purple Heart Medal he was awarded for wounds he suffered in a plane crash over Germany during WWII. 

“I am the daughter of a veteran, so I really enjoyed the honor of helping this to happen,” Senator Collins said. “He really is a wonderful man.”

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Watch video from the ceremony here…

New Medical Center Opens in Livermore Falls

Pictured from left to right: Rebecca Ryder, president and CEO of Franklin Memorial Hospital; Senator Collins, board member Darryl Brown, and hospital board president Joseph Bujold.  (Photo courtesy of the Daily Bulldog.)

Senator Susan Collins agreed it was a "very special day for Livermore Falls and Androscoggin and Franklin counties” on Saturday as people gathered to celebrate the opening of the Androscoggin Valley Medical Arts Center. 

“Celebrate is the appropriate work to describe this event," Senator Collins said and noted that health care centers located in small towns allow people to live where they want to live. It's important to keep health services rooted in our communities."

The 13,500 square-foot Androscoggin Valley Medical Arts Center located at 21 Main Street in Livermore Falls is owned by Franklin Memorial Hospital and brings together personnel and services previously provided at Franklin Health Livermore Falls Family Practice on Union Street and at Franklin Memorial Hospital Outpatient Services on Main Street in Livermore Falls.  The Androscoggin Valley Medical Arts Center will be open to the public on Monday, January 23.

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Senator Collins Visits Schools in Hallowell and Houlton

Pictured: Senator Collins reads "Antlers Forever" to the 2nd grade class at Hall-Dale Elementary School.

Pictured: Senator Collins addresses the 4th and 5th graders at Hall-Dale Elementary. 

From the Bangor Daily News: For years, David Stone traveled the world as a high-tech business consultant, often missing his five children’s birthdays and other life events.

Like many business travelers, he’d buy gifts at airport malls and eventually turned to ordering plastic gift cards for his kids. But the cards often arrived late and weren’t terribly personal, said Stone.

“That was my ‘a-ha’ — there had to be a way to make it more personal and efficient,” said Stone.

Stone worked on the idea in the attic of his Falmouth home, and in 2008 founded the company CashStar Inc.

The company has challenges ahead as it seeks to get to the next level, said Stone, and he discussed some of those issues with Sen. Susan Collins on Thursday when she visited the downtown business.

Collins suggested CashStar work more closely with the University of Maine to develop programs that graduate students with the skills the company needs. She said a jobs bill she proposed last spring contained proposals to tailor job-training programs so federal agencies work more closely with local colleges and companies to provide skills that actually are needed in the market.

“CashStar is the kind of company that the state of Maine needs to attract,” said Collins. “They could have located anywhere — they’ve chosen to be here.”

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Senator Collins announced that Maine will receive an additional $9.9 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) fund. The funding will come from the remaining resources of the Fiscal Year 2012 budget.  Earlier this year, Maine received $29.9 million through the same program to help low-income households with their heating and other home energy costs. 

"I was disappointed that the President proposed to cut LIHEAP funding by nearly half last year and I have worked to try and restore this critical funding,” said Senator Collins.  “We were successful in rejecting the President’s proposal, but the FY 2012 funding still represents a substantial cut for some of our neediest families, which I will continue working to restore. “Maine’s low-income senior citizens and families are already struggling with high energy costs and no one should ever be forced to choose between heating their homes and other vital necessities such as food and medications."

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Senator Collins Addresses York Community Leaders and Visits Local Bakery

Pictured: Retail sales employee Arlene Hansberger helps Senator Collins choose bread to sample, at When Pigs Fly in Kittery, Maine, Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. When Pigs Fly owner Andrew Siegel looks on. (Photo by Susan Morse, courtesy of the Portsmouth Herald.)

From the Portsmouth Herald: Sen. Susan Collins said, despite the battle between Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., she has accomplished significant things for Maine, including helping to secure money for the Memorial Bridge project.

"Despite the gridlock, the partisanship and the disappointments (in Washington), I'm pleased to report that I was able to achieve some priorities that are making a difference to our state," said Collins, R-Maine, speaking Friday, Jan. 13, at York County Community College's Eggs and Issues forum.

Collins was the featured speaker at the Wells event.

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From the Bangor Daily News: Senator Susan Collins emerged from a closed-door meeting with owners of the new Great Northern Paper Co. LLC mill confident that company plans to produce biocoal would result in big dividends for the Katahdin region, she said Thursday.

Collins, R-Maine, reviewed the mill’s papermaking operations, plans to manufacture torrefied wood at the Millinocket mill starting in November, and both mills’ need for a natural gas line proposed by Gov. Paul LePage.

She promised to help the company realize its plans and diversify its products by helping it secure federal funding for the pipeline and its biocoal production.

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Senator Collins’ Weekly Column: “Achieving Bipartisan Success”

The New Year is always a good time to look back with a feeling of accomplishment at the challenges we have met, and to look forward with hope to those that lie ahead. Americans are rightfully frustrated with the gridlock and partisanship so prevalent in Washington these days. I share this frustration. But I also believe that if you build bipartisan bridges, you can move forward. I am pleased that I achieved several priorities last year that make a difference to Mainers every day.

As the senior Republican on the Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, I have worked hard to ensure that our transportation infrastructure is modern, safe, and efficient, here in Maine and across the country.

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