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Mark Eves, the former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives who frequently clashed with Gov. Paul LePage, announced his campaign for governor Thursday during a barbecue at his North Berwick home.

Theres so much that we can do to lift the pressure that families are living under today and build a better Maine one family at a time, and that is why I am running for governor, Eves said to a cheering, clapping crowd.

Eves is the fourth Democrat to join the race to replace LePage, a Republican who is termed out, in January 2019.

In his speech he joked about his clashes with LePage, saying weve gone at it a time or two, and pledged to work to unite Mainers. The political climate in Augusta and in Washington, he said, has left the nation divided and theres no in-between.

There are those that have taken advantage of that. Some even thrive on it. Thats what weve had here in Maine the last long seven years, Eves said. I think there is a lesson we once knew that we have to learn again. That is to see the good in each other even when we disagree. To stop seeing each other as us and them and start seeing each other as neighbors, as classmates, as co-workers and, I would say, yes, even as friends. I believe that is how we will start to bring together a state that can feel all too divided.

His announcement was streamed live on Facebook, and an accompanying prepared statement said that while his bouts with Gov. Paul LePage have been well publicized, under Eves leadership the Legislature passed a bipartisan middle-class tax cut, boosted property tax relief for all Maine families, and strengthened investments in Maines children, seniors and workers.

In 2015, Eves sued LePage after the governor threatened to withhold state financial support for a nonprofit private charter school that had hired Eves to be its president.

Good Will-Hinckley, which operates the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Fairfield, offered Eves the job in June 2015. But the offer was rescinded roughly two weeks later after LePage denounced the hiring and pointed to Eves record of legislative opposition to charter schools.

Eves and his attorney accused LePage of blackmailing the school for at-risk students and argued that his action violated the Democratic speakers rights to free speech and political affiliation, as well as his right to due process. In May, U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal dismissed Eves lawsuit, prompting an appeal to the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals, which also ruled against Eves in November 2016.

Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, called Eves decision to run for the Blaine House a crony comeback attempt that Republicans will firmly oppose.

I had hoped that Mark Eves days of Augusta insider crony politics were over, but sadly he appears to want to make a comeback, Savage said. At every turn our job will be to remind voters that, among other concerns, as speaker of the Maine House, Mark Eves used his paid legislative staff to land himself a cushy job running a charter school whose very existence he fought on behalf of the (Maine Education Association), until there was a paycheck in it for him.

Eves spent more than 15 years working as a counselor and a therapist for both families and individuals, as well as an administrator at several behavioral health organizations. His resume includes stints at larger organizations such as Sweetser and Woodfords Family Services and in private practice as a therapist. He lives with his wife, Laura Eves, and the couples three children.

While at the State House, and often to LePages chagrin, Eves forged working relationships with key Republican rivals, including Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport. Thibodeau, who worked with Eves to craft a state budget in 2015 that could withstand a LePage veto, once said that if Eves moved to Waldo County, he would like to be his neighbor.

He is a nice man. Politically we are very different, but again, he is a nice, honest person, Thibodeau said at the time.

Eves, the son of a retired military chaplain and a schoolteacher, is a native Californian but largely grew up in Kentucky, where he graduated from the University of Louisville in 2000 with a bachelors degree in psychology. He earned a masters degree in family and marriage therapy at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2003.

Eves and his wife moved to Maine that year, drawn by the chance to live close to Eves parents in York and by the states close-knit feel and natural beauty. They settled in North Berwick a former mill town of 4,500 residents roughly 10 miles west of Kennebunkport and their first child, Elaina, arrived in 2005, followed by Lucas and Naomi, all born about two years apart.

Eves announcement came just days after Maine Attorney General Janet Mills, a Farmington Democrat, said she would be running for the office in 2018. Also in the race for Democrats are Betsy Sweet, a lobbyist, Adam Cote, a 20-year Army veteran and attorney from Sanford, and Patrick Eisenhart, a retired Coast Guard commander from Augusta.

Scott Thistle can be contacted at 791-6330 or at:

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Democrat Mark Eves jumps into 2018 race for governor - Press Herald

Democrats are enraged today by an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would prohibit the Department of Defense from using government money to provide medical treatment related to gender transition.

The amendment, which was offered by Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., would bar money available to the Department of Defense from being used to provide medical treatment, other than mental health treatment, related to gender transition to DOD personnel.

Hartzler said her amendment is intended to prevent the military from paying for transgender surgeries, explaining that her motive is to ensure that our military is the most effective, efficient and well-funded fighting force in the world.

With the challenges we are facing across the globe, we are asking the American people to invest their hard-earned money in national defense. Each dollar needs to be spent to address threats facing us, she wrote in a statement. My amendment ends the 2016 Obama administration practice of the military paying for very expensive gender change surgeries that even most private insurance plans dont cover.

The amendment could see a vote by the full House of Representatives later today, alarming House Democrats.

Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., spoke out against the amendment, calling it truly ugly.

Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., who serves as the chairman of the Congressional Transgender Equality Task Force, noted the greater implications of the amendment. Bigotry is the last thing this country should offer any brave man or woman who volunteers to defend us, he said in a statement.

He continued, By inserting Congress into the personal medical decisions of certain service members, this amendment tells thousands of Americans willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice that they are not entitled to the same rights as the soldier they stand next to. Transgender Americans, in uniform or not, deserve better than this hateful amendment from those elected to represent them.

Hartzler said her amendment would not prevent anyone from joining the military or receiving standard medical care but would simply [make] sure our defense resources are allocated in a way that is smart and good for our national defense.

This current policy of providing and paying for transgender surgeries hurts readiness and is projected to cost over a billion dollars over the next 10 years, she added.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declined to say whether he supports the amendment but said its important that Congress work closely with the Department of Defense on the issue.

As you probably know, Secretary [of Defense James] Mattis is under review on this right now, and so I want to make sure that what we do is in close coordination with them, Ryan said.

Mattis last month approved a recommendation by the military services to delay allowing transgender applicants into the military until Jan. 1, 2018. That decision had no effect on existing policy, which allows service members to transition using the departments health care coverage.

A statement at the time of his decision asserted that the six-month delay would allow for the military services to evaluate how the change would affect military readiness.

Well see what happens with the Hartzler amendment, Ryan continued. Its an open process. She can bring an amendment to the floor if she wants to.

House Democrats are not the only ones to express concern over the bill: The American Civil Liberties Union is writing lawmakers, urging a vote against the amendment.

The Hartzler amendment is specifically designed to discriminate against transgender members of the armed forces and their families, said Ian Thompson, a legislative representative for the ACLU.

By barring them from receiving medically necessary health care, this amendment would put the health of members of our military and their families at risk by undermining the ability of military doctors to provide care for their patients.

ABC News Elizabeth McLaughlin contributed to this report.

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Republican proposes amendment to bar Department of Defense from funding transgender surgery - ABC News

The visit appears to be smoothing over an initially strange and tense relationship with President Emmanuel Macron, and possibly vaulting France ahead of Britain and Germany as a point of U.S. contact.

But Mr. Trumps domestic troubles accompanied him. In comments made to reporters on Air Force One en route to Paris, he said of Donald Trump Jr.: Hes a good boy. Hes a good kid. And he had a meeting, nothing happened with the meeting. In Paris, a video of Mr. Trump telling Brigitte Macron, the French presidents wife, that she was in such good shape and beautiful was widely spread online.

Comedians continue to riff on the Paris meeting. Heres our Best of Late Night roundup.

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3. Liu Xiaobo, Chinas most prominent political prisoner and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, died, still silenced and under guard at a government hospital.

Mr. Liu, who kept vigil on Tiananmen Square in 1989 to protect protesters from soldiers and initiated a prominent petition for democracy, had been jailed since being convicted in 2009 of inciting subversion. His fate reflects how human rights issues have receded in Western diplomacy with China.

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4. We had no documents, no nothing; we had left everything behind.

A family of refugees among the last to enter the country before President Trumps moratorium went into effect today told our reporter how they fled Congo in 2009 after a militia attacked them, and lived for years in a refugee camp in Malawi until finally making it to Arkansas.

For the next 120 days, only refugees who have a bona fide relationship with a close relative or entity in the United States will be eligible to enter.

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5. The Justice Department charged 412 people nationwide, including dozens of doctors, in schemes that collectively defrauded the government of about $1.3 billion. Nearly one-third were accused of opioid-related crimes.

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50. Above, medics respond to an overdose. Our magazine looked at one small-town police officers war on drugs.

And we reviewed three new books that explore the opioid epidemic and how to help those afflicted by addiction.

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6. Sheldon Silver will have to be retried.

In a surprise move, an appellate court overturned the iconic Albany power brokers 2015 conviction for extensive corruption, which drew a 12-year sentence that he has not yet begun to serve.

The appellate court said that the judge had given erroneous instructions to the jury, citing a Supreme Court ruling last year involving the former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell that made it harder to convict public officials.

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7. The competition to lead Uber is robust, despite a year of scandals. Above, Ubers headquarters in San Francisco.

Heres a look at the hiring process, and some of the intriguing candidates. Yes, theyre inheriting Ubers entire toxic culture, an executive headhunter said. But theyre also getting thousands of employees who are hungry to change it.

Other workplaces are shifting into a new kind of disruptive model. Flash organizations, modeled on the film worlds temporary assemblies of freelancers, are finding their way into fields like software and pharmaceuticals.

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8. We enlisted our international photographer Adam Ferguson to help us expand our coverage of his native Australia.

He spent three months exploring its vast interior, and came back with portraits of remote, fascinating landscapes and the slow erosion of traditional ways of life for ranchers, miners even crocodile farmers. An Aboriginal community leader showed him how to suck the sweetness from honey ants.

The outback has become a kind of myth, he said in a Q. and A. after returning to his base in New York. And the point of the trip, for me, was to inquire what that myth has now become.

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9. Venus Williams is heading to her ninth Wimbledon final.

She upset Britains top female player, sixth-seeded Johanna Konta, in the semifinal. Williams, the 10th seed, will play No. 14 Garbie Muguruza of Spain on Saturday, her first finals appearance since 2009.

For the mens singles semifinals on Friday, Sam Querrey plays Marin Cilic, and Roger Federer faces Tomas Berdych.

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10. And the nominees are

Saturday Night Live and Westworld, above, led the pack with 22 nominations each for the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards. HBO received a total of 110 nominations, with a close second by Netflix with 91 nominations.

Our critics weighed in on whether Alec Baldwins portrayal of President Trump is worth a supporting actor nod and considered the snubs in a year of really good TV. The awards ceremony comes Sept. 17.

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11. Explore the arks of the apocalypse. Our magazine looks at how scientists around the world are building repositories of everything from seeds to ice to mammal milk in a race to preserve a natural order that is fast disappearing under the weight of human impact.

Take our quiz to find out the one climate solution thats more effective than others.

Photographs may appear out of order for some readers. Viewing this version of the briefing should help.

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

And dont miss Your Morning Briefing, posted weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern, and Your Weekend Briefing, posted at 6 a.m. Sundays.

Want to look back? Heres last nights briefing.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com.

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Republican Party, Liu Xiaobo, Donald Trump: Your Thursday Evening Briefing - New York Times

Should Donald Trump, Jr., have taken that meeting? Senator Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, asked Christopher Wray, President Trumps pick to be the director of the F.B.I., at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Graham had just read out the e-mail exchange between Trump, Jr., and Rob Goldstone, whom Graham, in as concise a description as anyone has come up with, referred to as someone connected to the Miss Universe pageant and has ties to Russian entertainment. Goldstone said that Russian officials were reaching out with incriminating information about Hillary Clinton, as part of an effort to influence the 2016 election; Trump, Jr., professed to love the idea, and put in motion plans for a meeting. In asking whether that was wise, Graham was embarking on a ritual that has become a hallmark of the half year since the Inauguration: a Trump nominee is asked to state something that seems blindingly obviousthat he respects the rule of law, say, or knows that torture is illegal, or doesnt like it when Vladimir Putin tries to shape an American election. And yet, because of the terrible behavior of this President and the people around him, the questions come across as fraught, often initially causing even the most adept respondentsWray is an experienced corporate litigator and a former Justice Department officialto fumble them.

Well, Senator, I dontI, I, Im hearing for the first time your description of it, so Im not really in a position to speak to it, Wray said. (Later, he told Senator Chris Coons, of Delaware, that he hadnt even had a chance to read any of the newspaper coverage.)

Graham interrupted him: Let me ask you this: If I got a call from somebody saying the Russian government wants to help Lindsey Graham get relected, theyve got dirt on Lindsey Grahams opponent, should I take that meeting?

Senator, I think you would want to consult with some good legal advisers before you did that, Wray replied.

The exchange could have ended there, but Graham asked for a little more: Should I call the F.B.I.?

I think it would be wise to let the F.B.I. . . . Wray began.

Youre going to be the director of the F.B.I., pal! Graham said, in a way that suggested that we were no longer living in a time in which just being told what was wise would be understood as a clear instruction. So what I want to hear you tell every politician, If you get a call from a foreign government suggesting that a foreign government wants to help you by disparaging your opponent, tell us all to call the F.B.I.

Wray took the shortest of breaths and then, shifting his voice to the sort one might hear in an elementary-school-civics video, delivered, To the members of this committee: any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation-state or any non-state actor is the kind of thing the F.B.I. would want to know.

All right, so Ill take that we should call you, and thats a great answer, Graham said. With that, Wray seemed to regain his footing. And yet it was an answer that did no more, basically, than describe a function of the F.B.I. Whether one takes that as rising to greatness may say more about the nonfunctioning state of certain politics than anything else. The job that Wray is up for is open because Trump fired the former director, James Comey , because, by Trumps own account, Comey paid too much attention to warnings about Russian interference. That investigation is now in the hands of a special counsel, Robert Mueller .

Graham went on to ask whether Trump, Jr.,s claim, in a statement, before the e-mails came out, that the meeting was meant to be about adoptions was misleading. Wray said that he just didnt have the context to answer; Graham asked him to get back to him. And, at another point, he put Wray through the Trump Twitter-response test. After Trump, Jr., appeared on Sean Hannitys Fox News show on Tuesday, and portrayed the Russia meeting as a normal part of campaigning, his father tweeted, My son Donald did a good job last night. He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad! Witch hunt is a phrase that Trump has used before in tweeting about questions regarding Russia and his campaign. Odds are that Wray, and the rest of us, will hear it applied to other areas related to the F.B.I.s dealings.

Do you believe that, in light of the Don, Jr., e-mail and other allegations, that this whole thing about Trump campaign and Russia is a witch hunt? Graham asked him. Is that a fair description of what were all dealing with in America?

Wray began to demur, citing his imperfect knowledge, when Graham pressed him: Im asking you , as the future F.B.I. director, do you consider this endeavor a witch hunt?

I do not consider Director Muller to be on a witch hunt, Wray said. It was a careful answer, not quite contradicting the President by leaving open the possibility that othersthe Democrats, the Fake News Networkwere indeed chasing wraiths in Trump Tower.

That is further, nonetheless, than most Republicans have gone in confronting Trumps absurdities. Graham is one of the handful of G.O.P. senators who never endorsed their partys candidate. But Graham never suggested an alternative, either, making it clear that he did not believe that Clinton was an option. Other parts of Grahams questioning made it clear how extremely limited, and limiting, the opposition of even the most Trump-averse Republican elected officials continues to be. Graham and other Republicans used part of their time to disparage Comey. This matters because, as Jeffrey Toobin pointed out this week , in a look back at Watergate, historically it is the Presidents own party that has to abandon him before it makes sense to speak about anything close to impeachment. And before Graham got to what he called the e-mail problems weve had with Donald, Jr., Donald Trump, Jr., the last few days, he questioned Wray closely about a Politico piece on possible efforts by Ukrainian officials to get negative information about Donald Trump to the Clinton campaign. Will you look into this? the senator asked the nominee.

Id be happy to dig into it, Wray said. And with that assuranceof yet another Clinton investigationLindsey Graham, for one, was satisfied.

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Lindsey Graham, Christopher Wray, and the Limits of Republican Resistance to Trump - The New Yorker

Following the series of emails released by Donald Trump Jr. on Tuesday, Rep. Bill Flores, who represents Texas's 17th Congressional District, said he thinks the President's best move is to remove all of his children from his administration, whether they hold an official position or not. "I'm going out on a limb here but I would say I think it would be in the President's best interest if he removed all of his children from the White House. Not only Donald Trump (Jr.), but Ivanka and Jared Kushner," Flores told CNN affiliate KBTX, which is based in Bryan, Texas, on Thursday morning.

Both Ivanka Trump and Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, serve as senior advisers to the President. Trump Jr. does not hold an official position.

Flores' comments follow revelations related to Trump Jr.'s email exchange about a meeting he arranged with Kushner, former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer in order to discuss potentially damaging information against Hillary Clinton.

"I do find issues with the meeting, that it's a meeting that should not have taken place," Flores said on KBTX. "I think he probably thought he was looking out for his father's best interests."

Flores later issued a statement praising the President as well as his family members' success in private businesses.

"Through no fault of their own, the presence of President Trump's adult children in the White House has caused some distractions from the work the Trump administration is doing on behalf of hardworking American families," Flores said in the statement. "Given the liberal media's unwavering scrutiny of the Trump administration, it may be beneficial for the president to do all he can to remove any distractions from the administration so that he can focus on our conservative agenda."

Flores comments are significant because he hails from the President's own party, but plenty of Democrats also are calling out Trump's children in the wake of the Trump Jr. revelations. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi argued Kushner should lose his access to sensitive information.

She emphasized, "I'm more concerned about them obeying the law. It's not outside the law for them to be there, I think," referring to Kushner holding a senior West Wing position. But on his previously undisclosed meetings with Russian officials, Pelosi said, "you lie on a disclosure form -- that's a crime. You do it multiple times, that's arrogant and a crime."

"The GOP must hold Kushner accountable for the false statements on his national security disclosure form and revoke -- his security clearance must be revoked immediately. You know that the numbers keep growing as to the false statements," Pelosi told reporters Thursday.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. Trump has defended his children several times this week, including Trump Jr. and Ivanka.

"My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer, but a Russian lawyer," the President said alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday. "It was a short meeting. It was a meeting that went very, very quickly, very fast."

In the House appropriations committee, Democrats also took aim at his son-in-law's security clearance.

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was head of the Democratic National Committee when it was hacked during the 2016 campaign, proposed an amendment to a spending bill for the Justice Department that would revoke the security clearance of anyone working in the executive office of the President who was under federal criminal investigation.

Wasserman Schultz made clear that Kushner was the target of the measure.

"Revoking Jared Kushner's security clearance would send a clear signal to anyone who would consider aiding and abetting a foreign enemy state to affect the outcome of a US presidential election that they will not be entrusted with our nation's most sensitive information," she said.

Republicans accused Wasserman Schultz of a political stunt and the amendment failed on a 22-30 party-line vote.

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Texas Republican: President's best interest to remove Trump children from White House - CNN