Students could enroll outside their home districts, and public tuition dollars would flow to private religious schools, under education reforms laid out by the LePage administration in Skowhegan this morning. Besides expanded school choice, the administration is also pushing legislation to toughen and standardize teacher and principal evaluation statewide and expand career and technical education. Some praise the proposals as bold and innovative, but others dismiss them as divisive and unfair.

The Legislature's Appropriations Committee has unanimously approved a plan that closes a $120 million dollar gap in Medicaid programs through the end of June. But Gov. Paul LePage has threatened to veto the bill, which he says fails to restructure the costs of health care programs. Meanwhile, rank and file lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are viewing the plan cautiously.

A motion filed by former Independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler in federal court today raises new questions about how much involvement Rosa Scarcelli had in establishing the "Cutler Files" Web site that attacked Cutler personally and professionally just prior to the 2010 general election. Scarcelli finished third in a five-way Democratic primary that same year. Her husband and former campaign consultant have acknowledged their roles in the anonymous Web site. Scarcelli continues to maintain she knew nothing about it. But Cutler's attorneys say emails between the three suggest otherwise.

Last night, a house fire in Canton took the life of 64-year-old Sherwood Campbell. Campbell lived there with his parents, and it's believed he died when he went back into the home to retrieve his dogs. According to The Associated Press, his parents were not home at the time. Town officials in Canton say there have been concerns about the safety of the house, and they were in the process of investigating them.

Last night, the wild and wooly contest for the Republican presidential nomination took another sharp turn, with Rick Santorum winning the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and a primary in Missouri. Will Santorum be able to keep up the momentum? Will Mitt Romney hold on to his front-runner status? Well, the next contest is in Maine, which has been holding caucuses around the state, and will announce a winner Saturday.