Author: Ted Cohen

The Frankfort teen charged with killing a midcoast woman has a history of uncontrolled anger and defiance, according to a newly discovered police report. Deven Young, now 18, has “violent tendencies,” for which he has been medicated and hospitalized, the report says. The report was published late Thursday by the Midcoast Villager, which had gone to court to force its being made public. Police had declined to publish details of its previous interactions with Young and his family until a judge ordered their release. Young was 17 when he was arrested late last summer, charged with murdering Sunshine Stewart at…

Maine’s moribund economy could certainly use a boost in the form of a new Coast Guard training center. But the state’s governor apparently couldn’t care less. To wit, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine just proposed his state be the headquarters of a soon-to-be-built Coast Guard training center. The agency recently urged governors nationwide to pitch their respective states to host the new base. If Maine Gov. Janet Mills has done so, she’s keeping it a good secret, which strains logic on both economic and political fronts. Not only could Maine use the economic infusion but Mills is a candidate for the…

Eliot Cutler, once a prominent Maine lawyer and politician, suddenly in his 70s becomes what police say is a serial law breaker? Hard to fathom, even for those who have made a life’s work of studying the human condition. “I don’t know that anyone has come up with an explanation,” says Steve Gotlieb, who taught deviant behavior for more than 30 years at Southern Maine Community College – and was once Cutler’s neighbor. Gotlieb, a veteran of the U.S. Marines and Vietnam War who also worked as a police officer and detective in Old Orchard Beach, said the Cutler case…

Maine ‘Deadheads,’ who played host to many of the band’s legendary Pine Tree State concerts, are joining millions of their fellow groupies worldwide mourning Bob Weir. (And yes, even enjoying the reprised Weir story about his stealing a famous fellow Grammy-winning singer’s guitar.) The Dead played several iconic shows in Maine, notably memorable concerts at the Maine State Fairgrounds in Lewiston (1980), the Augusta Civic Center (1984), and Oxford Plains Speedway (1988). The 1984 Augusta show, which drew huge crowds of Deadheads to the state, was even released on the 30 Trips Around the Sun box set due to its…

The woman who was behind the wheel of a minivan that fatally struck two MDOT employees Tuesday previously served four years in prison on a drug conviction. Samantha Tupper, 34, allegedly failed to stop at a posted Waterville construction site along I-95 south, entering the highway where her vehicle was hit by a tractor trailer. Tupper’s minivan then hit three high workers, two of whom were thrown to their deaths over a bridge, police say. Tupper in 2018 was sentenced to four years for selling cocaine to an undercover cop while on probation. She was on probation for another drug…

Former two-time “independent” gubernatorial loser Eliot Cutler is now in back-to-back probation and bail violations. Cutler, who served jail time for possessing child porn, first allegedly violated his probation by contacting an online massage parlor looking for an “escort.” Now he’s allegedly violated his bail on the probation violation by possessing more than two dozen screenshots of sexually explicit material. Cutler was already facing a probation-revocation case stemming from accusations that he accessed prohibited websites and used unmonitored electronic devices, in violation of the terms tied to his 2023 conviction for possessing sexually explicit images of children under age 12.…

Maine’s shrewd senior U.S. senator may be able to play off President Trump’s anger towards her to win re-election. If Sen. Susan Collins follows that strategy she may be able to counterbalance Trump’s criticism of her. That’s the argument being posited by Politico, a leading national political-reporting outlet. Collins came under fire last week from Trump for voting to curb his war powers, a move that drew swift criticism from the president. Trump said she should “never be elected again.”It’s far from the first time that Trump has come down on Collins for, in his view, abandoning the MAGA (conservative)…

Maine’s socialist capital of the north has hired a new “homeless coordinator” – with COVID “emergency” funds. Hard to figure out which is more perplexing: hiring a homeless czar or paying him through the federal COVID account. Maybe both. It’s all part of the New Age phase of life in Bangor, Maine, the city that also aspires to taxpayer-fund its own tent city. Bangor, officially known as Maine’s Queen City, just hired Bruce Hews to manage the street population. Hews, who ran a homeless shelter for many years, told Fox ABC Maine he wants to “build good relationships with people…

The never-ending boardroom battle at one of New England’s supermarkets is wearing well on Market Basket’s customers, from all accounts. A new grocery survey rates the supermarket chain – which operates multiple locations in Maine, including Biddeford, Westbrook, and Topsham – as the second-best nationwide. For the second year in a row, the Massachusetts-headquartered supermarket with nearly 100 stores in New England is runner-up on the list of best grocery retailers. The survey data was compiled by customer data science company Dunnhumby. Topping the ranking once again was H-E-B, a Texas-based chain. Dunnhumby said the most important factor in a…

If the chips are down, Maine voters can depend on a U.S. senator who has … “great sperm.” That’s the literal message of a new campaign announcement video produced by Graham Platner, who’s in a highly competitive, fertile race for the Democratic nomination for the senate. But Platner wants Maine voters to know he’s not doing this by himself – wink, wink. Indeed, the video also features the other half of the political couple who says they’re trying to have a baby, so far unsuccessfully. “Amy and I have been all over the state but in the background we’ve been…

A Camden woman who wrote a book-length tribute to her granddaughter – killed in the nation’s worst mass shooting – has died. Mary Carlson’s charmed life on the Maine coast suffered a sudden, devastating blow nearly 20 years ago when she learned that Emily Jane Hilscher had suddenly died. Emily was only 18, a freshman animal-and-poultry sciences major, when she became the first of 32 victims of the Virginia Tech campus-wide killing, the deadliest-ever campus massacre and largest mass-casualty shooting in U.S. history. She was the first member of the Virginia Tech family to be cut down in a hail…

The bulk of the recent, still-unsolved theft of $400,000 in Costco lobster tails likely came from Maine, a respected foodie website suggests. In an article sourcing Costco’s seafood, Chowhound is tantalizingly spilling the beans: lots of it comes from Maine fishermen. “The frozen tails you buy from Costco’s website are sourced from the icy cold waters of the North Atlantic – specifically, from Maine and Canada,” Chowhound says. Police, meanwhile, are still trying to track down who made off with a priceless shipment of the superstore’s lobster. Also still a mystery is the culprit responsible for the first leg of…

A hotly-contested Republican state-senate primary is brewing in the easternmost region of the U.S., along the shores of the Atlantic. The spirited Senate District 6 contest pits term-limited House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham of Hancock County against former state Rep. Kenneth “Bucket” Davis of Washington County. The majority of votes are in Washington County but Faulkingham is arguing he knows the coast and its peculiarities as well as or better than Davis does. Republican Marianne Moore of Calais, the outgoing incumbent who is term-limited, is campaigning for Davis, who claims he understands Down East culture better than his opponent.…

Verna Hammond, co-founder of Hammond Lumber Company, has died, according to her family. Hammond was not only the power behind the throne – she was its financier. In 1953, she loaned her husband “Skip” $50 to start a sawmill – marking the beginning of what would become Hammond Lumber Company. “While Skip was often seen in the mills and yards, Verna was the steady force behind the scenes – handling payroll, billing, and the day-to-day details that allowed the business to grow,” her family said in a statement. “Her discipline, consistency, and quiet determination helped form the foundation of our…

Police in the Portland area are advising residents to be on alert for a roaming and sick coyote. The animal, believed to be suffering from mange, was most recently seen in the Ferry Village area of South Portland. “The Animal Control Officer and Inland Fisheries and Wildlife are aware of an increase in mange in the greater Ferry Village area, most recently observed in a coyote,” police said Thursday in a press release. Mange is a contagious skin disease in mammals (including pets and wildlife) caused by parasitic mites burrowing into the skin, leading to intense itching, hair loss, scabbing,…

If the Maine newspaper guild wants to find out what happens when you force a company’s hand, it should take a look at what just happened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s owners announced Wednesday the paper will be shutting down in a few months, citing financial losses, according to The Associated Press. Block Communications Inc. announced it will cease publication on May 3. The paper is printed on Thursdays and Sundays and says on its website the average paid circulation is 83,000. A couple dozen union members returned to work at the Post-Gazette in November after a three-year strike.…

The familiar Maine department store Renys has now broken even more hearts, going out of business a day earlier than expected. The Congress Street anchor wasn’t due to call it quits til New Year’s Eve. But it locked its doors forever at 3 p.m. Tuesday. “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the Portland Renys will be permanently closing sooner than expected,” the retailer wrote in a statement on social media Tuesday. “We are incredibly grateful for your understanding and support over the past 15 years, and we truly couldn’t have done it without you!” The store’s “absence…

The recent heist of 40,000 oysters from a farm in Falmouth is now believed to be the first of a series of thefts in a wider New England seafood-stealing ring whose snatches include lobster worth $400,000 and a cache of crabmeat, authorities say. The first seafood vanished November 22 in Falmouth, where authorities say someone stole 14 cages full of oysters from an aquaculture site off the Portland coast. Many of the oysters were full-grown and ready for sale, and together with the cages were worth $20,000, according to the Maine Marine Patrol. “This is a devastating situation for a…

The mother of a 1-year-old twin found dead Sunday in Milford says she is “tired of people making assumptions” about how her daughter died. “I don’t know the exact answers, as I live out of state,” Erika Dupuis posted on Facebook. Dupuis describes herself on social media as a “red neck Barbie” now “living the best life” in West Virginia. Dupuis, estranged from a Milford man, said she doesn’t know yet how her daughter Eleanora died. “We don’t know if she froze or if she starved,” the mother said. “We don’t know if she was in the house or in…

A Bangor organization raising money for the family of a twin girl who died prematurely is either well-intentioned or jumping the gun. “People 207,” headed by Robert Kearns of Bangor, started a GoFundMe campaign following Sunday’s so-far unexplained death of a 1-year-old girl in Milford. Maine State Police say they have yet to determine how exactly the little girl they found “unresponsive” died, but Kearns has his own ideas. When he announced the campaign Kearns theorized the girl died after an allegedly-drunken relative left her, her twin sister and an older 3-year-old sibling in an unheated car. He claimed the…

The dark horse in Maine’s Democrat U.S. Senate primary went full bore on Christmas for his last, big end-of-year money grab. Graham Platner said in his Facebook ad that he needs to post big numbers by the December 31 federal-filing deadline. Platner, identifying himself as “an oyster farmer and Marine Corps veteran” in the primary against Gov. Janet Mills seeking to oust GOP Sen. Susan Collins, seemed to imply the perception is actually more important than the amount. “Our fundraising numbers and everything we’ve been building together is about to become public,” he said. “Our numbers are going to be…

“To the person who took my pocketbook backpack from Hannaford in Hampden would you be so kind to return it?” The simple heartfelt plea comes from Kayla Young of Winterport, victimized last week while gathering groceries for her family. “I’m a single mother and as you found out, I’m broke, when you tried to use my debit card to pay for your Monopoly Go,” she posted in a generally-circulated Facebook message. “Please just bring it back. I need my other stuff in the bag. I don’t even care if you took my gas money. “Just please drop the backpack back…

The Russian Space Agency has warned international and military flights commonly flying over, into and out of Bangor to beware of a planned rocket blast. Russia issued a warning of the potential airspace danger from a missile launch scheduled between December 28 and December 30. The hazard area involved is located above the North Atlantic, which is the world’s busiest oceanic air corridor. The restrictions affect Bangor International Airport, a joint civil-military air field serving as a gateway to the region for international flights and the base for the Maine Air National Guard’s 101st Air Refueling Wing. The airspace is…

Maine leads the nation in one important category, a national news network recently suggested: dynastic politics. Looking ahead to the coming year, candidates with famous names are vying the be the next generation of leaders — all shooting for the Blaine House. “In the crowded Maine governor’s race alone, there are three contenders who are political scions: Democrat Angus King III, the son of independent Sen. Angus King; Democrat Hannah Pingree, the daughter of Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine; and Republican Jonathan Bush, the nephew and cousin of the two Bush presidents,” NBC-TV says in a new report on dynasty politics.…

Former prosecutor and well-known TV crime fighter Nancy Grace is spotlighting a suspiciously-missing Maine girl. On her Christmas-eve show, “Crime Stories on Fox Nation,” Grace featured the disappearance of Stefanie Damron of New Sweden, a tiny Aroostook County town, population 577. Damron, 13, allegedly walked into the woods near her family’s off-the-grid wood-framed yurt in September 2024, never to be seen again. “This little girl just ‘walked into the woods’ and, poof, disappeared? No way,” a skeptical Grace insists. Grace, known for her no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase style, features missing persons on her telecast. “Not everyone has the luxury of being able…

Longtime midcoast Maine summer visitors Connie Chung and Maury Povich nearly got into it in a verbal battle over a major network’s realignment. Povich’s family still owns property in Bath, where they ran a well-known clothing store starting in 1919. Povich, who claims he’s the cool-headed one at home, says he and Connie got into a heated argument over changes at CBS-TV. CBS is also the network where Chung flamed out after failing to bring in the numbers when she tried her hand at the anchor desk. Povich, who hosted a Jerry Springer-style network daytime show – or, more aptly,…

Former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) announced he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The two-term ex-senator, 53, wrote in a lengthy social media post that he received the diagnosis last week. “I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse said Tuesday. “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence,” he added. Sasse retired from the upper chamber in 2023, having grown frustrated in his final years in office, to become president of the University of Florida. He left that post last year, allegedly due to the health of his wife, Melissa, in…

When a politician resorts to using animals as props, you know there must be a problem. Embattled Maine Democrat Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has enlisted her cat to meet what the gubernatorial hopeful calls in a new X post “a critical fundraising deadline.” To clarify, it’s the Shenna who’s running for governor speaking (not the one flailing in her constitutional duties). Sid is only a campaign gimmick, if you will. Even if Bellows does have ‘cat lady’ written all over here. Sid is Shenna’s Socks (it catapulting from the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Arkansas to the White House,…

The Maine license plate that was allegedly attached to a rental car used in a triple homicide remains as mysterious as the entire case. The FBI says the plate was used by Claudio Manuel Neves Valente to try to evade police following three murders earlier this month – of two students in Providence, Rhode Island and of a college professor in Brookline, Massachusetts. It’s unclear where and how Neves Valente got the unregistered Maine license plate, which has not been active for more than a decade, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah Foley said. The plate had not…

The five-day manhunt for a suspect in three campus murders ended with help of nothing more than a Reddit post, authorities say. They found the body of Claudio Manuel Neves Valente late Thursday night in a New Hampshire storage unit. Authorities say he was responsible for Saturday’s mass shooting at Brown University’s engineering building in Providence, Rhode Island, in which two people were killed and nine others wounded. The suspect then allegedly drove 50 miles to Brookline, Massachusetts, and shot dead Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno FG Loureiro – a former classmate – at his home on Monday night.…

A federal judge has sentenced the former manager of Harvard Medical School’s morgue to eight years in prison for stealing body parts. Cedric Lodge “exploited for his own benefit the remains of people who could no longer speak for themselves,” Judge Matthew Brann said at Tuesday’s sentencing. “His punishment must fit this horrible crime.” Prosecutors said Lodge sold body parts to people he met online, including in Facebook groups. The buyers were collectors or people who then sold or traded the items again. Lodge spent almost three decades working at Harvard Medical School. His attorney claimed his supervisor called him…

The clams found along Maine’s coast have something peculiar in common with an elderly cousin of theirs found worldwide. Peculiar to us, that is, not to themselves. To wit, they live to be hundreds of years old, making them arguably the longest living animal on the planet. Scientists are still trying to figure out why those succulent clams that end up in your chowder live so long before they do. An article just published in NewScientist.com is marking the 20th anniversary of the discovery of a 507-year-old clam off Iceland. They knew clams lived for centuries but they happened to…

Norman Podhoretz, a longtime chief editor of Commentary magazine who once said he lost many good friends over his support for President Trump, has died. Podhoretz was the father of New York Post columnist John Podhoretz, who is now editor of Commentary. The elder Podhoretz was a writer for Commentary and served as the publication’s editor-in-chief from 1960 to 1995. Podhoretz was a member of the executive committee of the Writers and Artists for Peace in the Middle East, a pro-Israel group. His 2009 book “Why Are Jews Liberals?” questions why Jews for decades have been dependable Democrats, often supporting…

A former two-time Maine gubernatorial loser and convicted child-porn fiend is rejecting police claims he violated his probation by going online looking for an “escort.” The twice-defeated candidate Eliot Cutler is accused of accessing prohibited websites and using unmonitored electronic devices. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Hancock County. Cutler two years ago admitted to four counts of possessing sexually explicit materials of children as part of a plea deal. Investigators said they had found tens of thousands of pornographic images and videos of children on Cutler’s electronic devices. The conviction included jail time and probation terms ordering him not…

A state senator who was a Republican before he decided the only ostensible way to win the governor’s office was to declare his “independence” is what Maine Republicans ought to look like because that’s how they used to be, the Portland Press Herald has declared. Rick Bennett, running as an “independent,” chose a friendly audience to preach to the choir – a Somali rally in Democrat-heavy Lewiston. Three days after the Saturday rally, Bennett posted on his Facebook page a fawning column praising him for “showing main Republicans there’s another way.” Steve Collins, the Press Herald’s alleged political columnist who…

Ex-Senate President Troy Jackson has a sexy idea designed to appeal to your wallet. That’s right, a Democrat who says he wants to lower taxes! The only problem is that Jackson wants to finance his otherwise attractive tax breaks with a fund financed with – drum roll – taxes. Jackson, running fifth according to the latest poll among a five-person primary field, announced Monday at Bangor Public Library his “economic plan.” He says he’d cut working-class taxes, lower drug costs, offer down-payment housing assistance, lower child-care costs and fund more long-term care facilities for seniors. Jackson would even expand the…

Maine elections chief Shenna Bellows has a new ally trying to stop the federal government from making sure illegals aren’t stuffing the Democrat ballot boxes. Enter the Maine League of Women Voters, which is now intervening to help Bellows in her fight to – let’s just call it what it is – make sure elections favor Democrats. The League announced Monday it’s received a federal judge’s OK to become a co-defendant in DOJ vs. Bellows. The Justice Department took Maine’s secretary of state and governor-hopeful to court earlier this year to get access to voters’ personal information. The DoJ under…

Despite claims from two Rockland councilors that they have received threats in the wake of their anti-ICE votes, police say they have received no such complaints. Two city councilors told a Rockland newspaper they’d been threatened after their recent vote not to cooperate with federal immigration-enforcement officials. The allegations came from councilors Penelope York and Kaitlin Callahan. “I am receiving threats to city email, by phone, on social media posts and via direct message,” York told the Midcoast Villager. “My friends who are on social media are also receiving threats.” Callahan said her “Callahan for City Council” page has received…

Kelly Hinkle of Columbia Falls has a novel way of celebrating the end of a hard fishing season – by “breaking” his back. Hauling his last trap of the year by hand – hand-over-hand, until 65 feet of rope has run through his fingers, is his idea of tradition? “The last trap of the year we hand haul,” Hinkle, aka “Downeast Cowboy,” says on his Facebook video of the process. For the Hinkle family of Washington County, Kelly, 36, and dad Ron, 64, lobstering is all about tradition. Hauling their last trap by hand is grueling, but done for a…

A Friendship lobsterman drove his boat at two other fishermen, threatening to cut a third mariner’s throat, police say. Chad W. Benner is charged with reckless conduct with a deadly weapon as well as criminal threatening and terrorizing. Benner, 41, also allegedly violated his bail conditions from previous run-ins with the law. He was on bail for kidnapping, domestic violence assault, obstructing report of a crime, criminal restraint, and cruelty to animals. Police said Benner had previously locked a woman and her dog in his boat’s engine room, keeping them there for hours. Maine Marine Patrol arrested Benner last week…

The parent company of the Maine Trust for Local News has failed to file timely proof of its 501(c)3 nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue Service. The National Trust for Local News was supposed to have filed an IRS-required 990 form by November 15 – four weeks ago. Even accounting for bureaucratic lag time, if the filing were done it likely would have shown up by now, albeit a month late… The trust’s filing history shows that in previous years it typically met the mid-November filing mandate. So, what gives? Is it dropping its “non-profit” claims? Dropping 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status…

A guy who lived on the streets of Portland is the prime suspect in the murder Sunday of “All in the Family” actor Rob Reiner, police say. Reiner, who made his name playing Meathead in the popular TV sitcom, and his longtime wife were found stabbed to death Sunday inside their Brentwood, California home. The couple’s 32-year-old son and screenwriter Nick Reiner is the prime person of interest in the deadly stabbing, sources told the New York Post. Nick Reiner is described by the outlet as the couple’s “troubled” son. “I was homeless in Maine,” he told People in 2016.…

If fly fishing is a sport of the well-heeled (and out-of-staters), then a group of Maine working stiffs is out to change the narrative. The International Order of Theodore Roosevelt, whose goal is to gain access to every fishing hole for every American, claims Maine is unfairly restricting some lakes to anyone other than fly fishermen. The group’s argument is that most fly fishermen are wealthy, ergo, regular people are denied access to some of the best fishing spots in the state. Teddy Roosevelt’s people want to open all of Maine’s public waters to everyone, not just fly fishermen. They’ve…

The top lobbyist for Maine’s lobstering community is again challenging claims the supply is being “overfished.” After a recent meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which oversees fishing stock management, the head of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association says she was flooded with calls about whether the lobster fishery is being sucked out of the ocean at unsustainable amounts. “I started immediately getting calls for our response on the lobster fishery overfishing the resource,” Patrice McCarron tells SeafoodSource.com. “I was driving around thinking, ‘What are people talking about?’” McCarron, association president, is referring partly to The Maine Wire, which…

The top editor of the largest paper in northcentral Maine apparently feels forced to let you know their staff knows what it’s doing. Dan MacLeod, top dog at the Bangor Daily News, published on Friday an “editor’s note” headlined “What BDN journalism stands for.” Not for nothing, MacLeod’s defense coincidentally comes just days after The Maine Wire reported that the paper was advertising for a new political reporter that it said would walk away from any news events covered by the competition. “Unlike advocacy groups that might fight for a specific policy or political outcome, our daily charge is to…

A Portland cable and internet-service provider is laying off 176 workers from its call center, transitioning their work to other facilities around the country. A Charter Communications spokesperson said Portland employees can relocate to other customer-service locations. Those who do not relocate will receive regular pay for 90 days, and then severance and other benefits. The sudden job cuts come just days after sandwich giant Subway went dark across Maine. Seven Subways lost their business registration licenses earlier this week, though a company spokesman said officials were trying to resolve the problem. Charter Communications, which owns the internet service provider…

A Democrat U.S. Senate contender from Maine is suddenly showing off a new suit, while taking a dig at a big name politician who rarely wears one and whose former staff he now employs. In a Facebook post Thursday night, Graham Platner went after fellow Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. “I want to be clear,” Platner posted. “If I’m in the Senate, I would proudly wear a suit and show respect for the history of the Senate, unlike one senator.” The post showed Platner posing in a dark suit, white shirt and striped tie – arguably the first time he’s…

Federal regulators voted Thursday to extend a shutdown preventing New England fishermen from catching shrimp. New England fishermen, especially those from Maine, used to catch millions of pounds of small pink shrimp in the winter, but the business has been under a fishing moratorium since 2014. Rising temperatures have created an inhospitable environment for the shrimp, and their population is too low to fish sustainably, scientists have claimed. An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission voted Thursday to shut down the fishery for at least another three years, according to Associated Press. Abundance of the shrimp remained…

Dustin Duren, sentenced to 45 years Thursday for blowing off his girlfriend’s head, apparently is quite satisfied with his fate. Duren, 38, sat amicably chatting with his lawyer, smiling at times, as he learned where he’ll be for at least the next three decades – in prison. He will be eligible for parole by the time he turns 66. Not a bad deal for a sniveling, arrogant coward who fired a bullet into the head of the mother of their two girls, instantly killing her in front of one of them on February 29, 2024. The girls were ages four…

An expensive new taxpayer-financed roundabout in Damariscotta was supposed to improve safety at a dangerous spot. But the only thing going around now is a popular joke among locals: if you want something worse than what you started with hire a state traffic engineer. Not to be derailed by a little bad humor, the state folks spun out their Sunday best on the outcome. “The final touches are in on the new roundabout on Route 1 in Damariscotta!” the Maine Department of Transportation gleefully announced recently on its Facebook page. MDOT officials said that “this Belvedere Road intersection was a…

Having disastrously failed at a job promotion, ex-VP Kamala Harris is nonetheless trying to be stone-cold serious about her legacy. Harris declared herself to be a “historic figure” on Tuesday and touted that there will be a marble bust of her constructed in Congress. She made the statement during an interview with The New York Times regarding her upcoming book, “107 Days,” telling the newspaper that she no longer feels “burdened” by the need to achieve a place in history. “I understand the focus on ’28 and all that,” she told the Times. “But there will be a marble bust…

Getting her car fixed with federal trail-maintenance money gave prosecutors a hint she wasn’t operating on all cylinders. They ended up charging Melanie Luce with embezzling $91,000 from the White Mountains Trail Collective, of which she was executive director. Luce, 48, has entered into a plea agreement calling for her to serve two years in prison and pay $193,724 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Cops say she opened a credit card in 2021 without the approval of the non-profit’s board to start a business and pay for car repairs. The collective’s work includes major refurbishing of Crawford Path.…

Two out-of-state investment companies that are buying up trailer parks are among six nationwide under congressional scrutiny. The Joint Economic Committee launched a probe Monday into the firms, which hold large stakes in mobile-home parks. The panel fired off letters to a half-dozen companies seeking information about evictions, rent increases and profits at firms acquiring the properties. Two of the firms that have holdings in Maine, the BoaVida Group and Philips International, have allegedly raised rents more than 50 percent since 2021. In Bowdoin, Philips International added the Mountain View Estates Mobile Home Park to its nationwide inventory in 2021.…

The captain of a Vinalhaven-bound ferry had just left the Rockland dock when his crewmen suddenly told him he needed to turn the huge vessel around. The ferry, which had headed out on the early-morning run just after the sun came up, did a U-turn and headed back to Rockland. The sudden switch in directions was triggered by a passenger apparently having a medical crisis. Rockland cops and EMS sped to the dock to meet the boat at 7 a.m. Tuesday. That’s where they say they found a passenger identified to them as Dana Wentworth. Whether Wentworth, 34, of Vinalhaven…

A new wave of fake federal agents is sweeping Maine, which now leads all U.S. states in scammer border cops flooding immigrant communities to whip up anti-ICE fever. A just-released survey shows the Pine Tree State with a 60 percent year-to-year increase in scammers posing as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The whopping increase in impersonation scams leads all 50 states, according to an FBI Crime Data Explorer report. The study surfaced Tuesday just weeks after the FBI warned about criminals posing as ICE agents to commit violent crimes in various states. The No. 2 scam state is New…

Illegal border crossers who need sanctuary from U.S. limits on their conveniently discovered “freedoms” have a home in Rockland, Maine. Bowing to a free-the-dream crowd happy to invite the worst elements of foreign influence, city councilors have adopted an ordinance forbidding their police department from assisting federal immigration agents unless a judge gives the green light. The measure was developed with help from the state branch of American Civil Liberties Union, the group formerly headed by Maine’s Secretary of State and liberal gubernatorial candidate Shenna Bellows. Nicole Kalloch was the lone dissenter in the 4-to-1 council vote that followed pleas…

An Androscoggin County man charged with fatally shooting a cat says he did so because the animal was clearly suffering from grievous injuries after apparently getting hit by a car. Jake Cyr says he found the critically injured cat under his mailbox, crying and in pain. The cat was trying to walk but its hind end was paralyzed from the apparent car strike, Cyr told The Maine Wire. “It was dragging its rear legs,” Cyr said in an interview Monday night. A portion of the cat’s hind quarter “was totally blown out” from its getting hit by a car, he…

Governor Janet Mills (D) will soon learn whether she’s really political bedfellows – even though odd ones – with the nation’s chief justice when it comes to dealing with President Trump. Republican Chief Justice John Roberts, who owns two pricey oceanfront properties on an island off St. George, today hears arguments in a case that could set limits on Trump’s authority to fire top government officials with whom he’s unhappy. But though Roberts has long advocated for expansive presidential personnel authority, he – like Democrat Mills – has angrily gone toe to toe with Trump more than once. Roberts, for…

A tip about a suspicious vehicle led Old Orchard Beach police to a significant drug bust Saturday afternoon. Police officers responded to a local business just after 1 p.m. for a report of a suspicious vehicle, according to a press release from the Old Orchard Beach Police Department. Inside, they identified two women, Heidi Aldrich and Denise Cassette. A search uncovered 33.3 grams of cocaine, 9.2 grams of cocaine base, and a significant amount of cash. Aldrich, 44, was charged with unlawful trafficking of drugs. Cassette, 45, faces charges of unlawful furnishing of drugs and unlawful trafficking of drugs. The…

Bangor hooligans were out in force to whine about the cost of preserving freedom on the eve U.S. remembering its devastating Pearl Harbor losses this past weekend. The “anti-war demonstration” was held in downtown Bangor’s Pierce Park on Saturday night, December 6. December 7 just happens to be Pearl Harbor Day, observed annually by grateful Americans to remember and honor the 2,403 Americans killed in the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States declaring war on Japan the next day and thus entering World War II. The Bangor…

A man is facing kidnapping charges after a high-speed chase through New Hampshire. State troopers attempted a traffic stop Saturday night in Strafford for a driver wanted in an ongoing investigation. They say the driver did not stop, and cops began chasing the vehicle, according to WGME-TV. Troopers say during the chase, a passenger, who was a minor, was let out. The uninjured child was brought to family by police. The car was stopped using tire deflation, but troopers say the driver refused to get out. The suspect, Scott Newcomb, 55, of Belmont, New Hampshire, eventually got out and was…

A Westbrook man who allegedly murdered his neighbor is denying the charge. James Fowler, 48, pleaded not guilty Monday in the death of Robert Seger. Seger, 57, and the suspect lived in separate Westbrook apartments in the same complex. Seger died at a hospital in November after being found unresponsive in his apartment the prior evening. Cops allege that Seger suffered several injuries, including blunt-force trauma. “The death of Mr. Seger didn’t happen in a vacuum,” Assistant Attorney General Suzanne Russell said Monday. “It was not an isolated incident.” Russell said Seger was somewhat dependent on Fowler for care. Fowler’s…

An Androscoggin County man has been charged in connection with shooting and killing a cat, police said. Jake Cyr, 34, of Greene allegedly shot the cat five times. The animal was discovered by Animal Control Officer Rich Burton not far from Cyr’s residence. Neighbors led cops to Cyr. Burton said he had been sent to the area for a report of an injured cat. When he began questioning neighbors, he said he was told that Cyr had the cat and planned to shoot it. Cyr has disputed Burton’s account, claiming the cat had been struck by a car and was…

The only Maine daily other than those owned by you know who says it has decided to ignore any news events covered by competitors. In a new job posting designed to fill its “senior political-reporter” position, the Bangor Daily News tells applicants: “If you see other reporters at an event, we want you to leave. Go report somewhere else.” So apparently it’ll work like this: if, say, Angus King calls a news conference to announce he’s becoming a Republican, Bangor won’t cover it. But apparently even if the Press Herald weren’t at the Angus press gaggle, Bangor’s editors still wouldn’t…

Kyle Lloyd, photo courtesy of the Skowhegan Police Department

Just three weeks after receiving one of France’s highest military honors, a decorated WWII veteran from Maine has died. Shay, 101, died at his home near Caen in France’s Normandy region, his family said. Born on June 27, 1924, on the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation in Maine, Shay was among some 500 Native Americans who took part in the June 6, 1944 landings. Shay was formally inducted into the Order of Military Medical Merit during a bedside ceremony in Bayeux, France on November 20. As a U.S. Army medic, he ran across the beach dozens of times, dragging men out…

The East-Central Maine version of liberal Portland, besieged like its southern big-sister city with rag-tag “homeless” encampments, is going high tech. To wit, Bangor officials are actually considering creating a government-sponsored tent city. “We can’t keep doing insanity, repeating the same thing over and over and over again,” Bangor City Councilor Joseph Leonard told WVII-TV. “A sanctioned encampment site that allows the city to regulate, establish laws, get citizens there to actually produce rules and order to maintain the community that’s there – that makes it much easier for social services, for EMS, for police to be able to get…

A liberal political lobby announced Wednesday it’s going after Maine’s Angus King for going soft on President Trump. But in reality King set up this Trojan Horse to distance himself from the ongoing ribbing he takes for being a Democrat in “independent” garb. Nothing King does isn’t calculated. For instance, he recently boasted that his vote to confirm an anti-abortion federal judge was “a mistake.” But was it really? King likely knew exactly what he was doing. He’s actually pretty good at this game. The words “I made a mistake” are so endearing! That’s exactly why Angus actually said “I…

If it seems Senate hopeful Janet Mills is stepping up her social-media campaign, there may be a reason. The Hermon GOP Committee says the term-limited governor’s own polling is showing a serious problem for her. Mills “got some very bad news about her run for the United States Senate,” the committee is reporting on its website. “Polling from her own camp has her losing in the primary to an oyster fisherman nobody has ever heard of,” the committee said. “But it gets worse – if she does pull off that primary win, she’s trailing incumbent Senator Susan Collins by more…

The Florida boat that flipped killing a Maine couple and their friend was going as fast as 80 mph at the time, witnesses told a Cape Coral TV station. The accident happened Saturday evening on a river in Cape Coral, just south of Fort Myers near the Cape Coral Yacht Club in the Caloosahatchee River. The sole survivor of the four passengers on what was described as an MTI 390 speedboat was discharged Wednesday from Gulf Coast Hospital. Neal Kirby, 45, of Cape Coral, the only survivor, suffered multiple injuries, including six broken ribs, possibly from a bystander giving him…

A Facebook group whose 21,000 members are focused on “car spotting” are suddenly obsessed with a Christmas tree on the roof of a fancy sports car. Josh Cottone, a member of the group known as “Car Spotting In Maine,” posted: “Followed him from Maine to NH over the bridge on 95.” He attached a picture he took through his windshield of a Porsche in front of him with a Christmas tree tied to its roof. Cottone lit a fire under fellow members wondering what his issue is – or whether he’s OCD. Sports-car dreamers said the point of Cottone’s post…

Former Portland cop and Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion fancies himself as Maine’s next governor. After all, the law-school grad and former state senator tried once to reach for the stars that shone so promisingly over the Blaine House. Just because Dion, 70, now mayor of Maine’s largest city, lost big-time doesn’t mean he’s given up on the dream. Of course he hasn’t. Like a longtime congressman and failed 1976 presidential contender from Arizona – Democrat Morris Udall – famously said, once the urge for the highest political office “gets into your bloodstream it can be removed only by one…

The owner of a York driving academy is facing assault and disorderly-conduct charges, police said. Stephen Graziano, a driving instructor and owner of York Driving School LLC, is due for his first court appearance March 4. The charges stem from a complaint that grew out of an “incident involving a student driver” and Graziano last spring, police said late Tuesday. Police said they conducted a thorough investigation after receiving a report of the alleged crimes and found sufficient evidence to arrest Graziano. The driving school, located in Meadowbrook Plaza, caters primarily to local York High School teenagers. Graziano, 63, was…

The Zumwalt class of stealth destroyers, built at Bath Iron Works, are under fire from Congress for failed systems, according to a new national security analysis. The Zumwalt fleet, the first member of which was launched from Bath in 2013, is now slated for weapons modernizations. The $22 billion program with its reported problems is prompting Congress to wonder whether the ship’s concept was such a good idea in the first place. The USS Zumwalt was the largest and most costly destroyer ever built in the U.S. Before it even started to build the first of three Zumwalts, Bath Iron…

The family and friends of an avid Portland runner are insisting she didn’t cross the street against the light before she was struck and killed by a motor vehicle. But Portland Police say she did. Diane Bell, 75, died on November 20 when she was hit by a car at the intersection of Marginal Way and Franklin Arterial. At a vigil Monday night, her supporters said she took every precaution to be safe. They say they believe she pushed the walk button before running through the intersection. “We shouldn’t be here,” Bell’s daughter, Jaime Bell Fairfield, told the crowd. “We…

A national, 127-year-old outdoors-life publication says a Jackman woodsman “might be the most patient and persistent hunter on the planet.” Stephen White Sr. didn’t only spend 36 long years, one year at a time, praying he’d get a deer – and finally killing one. In fact, a group of his friends threw him an unexpected party last month at Lake Parlin Lodge in the North Woods to honor the culmination of his decades-long dream. “It was like a surprise birthday party,” White told OutdoorLife.com. “Everybody was pulling for me.” White, 61, has been chasing one big buck or another since…

Paying homage to that stubborn, all-American, in-your-face spirit, an iconic southern-Maine business is refusing to compromise its red-meat principles. “Turkey burgers will not be served for the 72nd year in a row,” Rapid Ray’s owners posted on Facebook to widespread applause. “Not all heroes wear capes,” Travis Herring of Saco said, praising Ray’s no-woke-burger policy. To any Karens doubting that Ray Camire’s family-owned burger joint in Saco can stick to its guns, let them eat cake. “We’re not budging,” the Camire clan told anyone who would actually relish a turkey burger over hamburger. The late Ray Camire, a meat-cutter by…

It’s taken nearly three decades but the missing historic Curtis Island Lighthouse fog bell has been found – 70 miles away on Deer Isle. The Camden Harbor bell warned mariners from 1896 until 1970. Three years later the town took ownership from the Coast Guard of Curtis Island Light. But the bell was missing. Nearly 30 years later, Coast Guard officials presented the town with the bell, dedicated on Memorial Day weekend 2000 to honor the men and women who had served on the Curtis Island Light Station. But there was only one problem – it wasn’t the original bell.…

William F. Buckley was once seated at a conference table taking questions from an audience when a man asked him, “why is it when I see you on TV you’re always sitting down? Can’t you think standing up?” The room fell silent. Buckley looked angry, serious, ponderous. He took a few moments to gather his thoughts. “It’s very hard standing up… carrying the weight of what I know,” Buckley replied with his magnetic, trademark arrogance. That was the same Bill Buckley who once talked lightheartedly about the best way to put peanut butter on a piece of toast. “First you…

Hard to believe a tiny nut-gathering beast can still disrupt life in the 21st century, even to the point of endangering U.S. national security, but citizens of the Queen City of come to know just how disruptive the little rodents can be. All it took was one squirrel to put thousands of Bangor, Maine residents – and a critically important airport – in the dark over the busy Thanksgiving weekend. The power outage besetting Maine’s third-largest city on Sunday was caused by “animal contact on the line,” said Versant power spokesperson Emily Tadlock. An estimated 3,251 Versant customers lost power,…

Just as residents were getting ready to carve the Thanksgiving turkey west of Maine’s largest city, a pair of earthquakes shook the ground. The first one, a magnitude of 1.4 on the richter scale, shook the ground southwest of Naples about 12:36 a.m. on November 27. That was followed two minutes later by a tremor with a magnitude of 1.3 that hit, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. New Hampshire was also struck by a 1.8 quake two days before the holiday, at 10:13 a.m. on November 25 near Kingston, a town just southwest of Maine’s southernmost town of Kittery. Earlier…

Rockland-area island hoppers are questioning the state’s decision to give away their oldest – and nostalgic – means of getting from there to here. The Everett Libby, one of the original vessels of the Maine State Ferry Service, began carrying islanders to and from the mainland in 1960. But after the Libby was recently replaced with a new boat, state transportation officials solicited bids to get rid of it. The original bidder, a New York company called Prudence Sea Horse, offered $250,000. After company personnel inspected the old girl they said “thanks but we’ll take a pass.” The sale fell…

A full-blown legal fight has broken out between Nova Scotia’s entrenched lobstermen and indigenous fishermen with close relatives in Maine. If this internecine battle doesn’t heat up the depths of cold Canadian waters where many Gulf of Maine lobsters are allegedly migrating to as they search for a more-hospitable habitat, nothing will. Indigenous fishermen along the coast just northeast of Maine argue an old treaty gives them every right to set and haul traps. But Nova Scotia’s politically-established lobstering industry has gone to court to stop them, claiming they have no right to Canada’s commercial fish trade. The tribe being…

A tick-borne virus that, if not caught early and treated, can be deadly may be spreading to New England, officials say. The illness, known as alpha-gal syndrome, victimizes people who eat meat. A recent case killed a JetBlue pilot from New Jersey after he ate a steak and, at a later meal, a hamburger. “Maine clinicians may see cases of alpha gal syndrome as climate change facilitates range expansion of the Lone Star Tick further north along the coast,” according to research published by a medical doctor in the Journal of Maine Medical Center. “Clinicians should be alert to new…

In a salute to the recent election of Bowdoin College’s most famous socialist alum as mayor of America’s largest city, a group of the storied school’s students has formed a new political organization. The group – called Bowdoin College Socialists – says it agrees with Democrat Socialists of America’s characterization of Zohran Mamdani’s NYC’s mayoral election as “the biggest electoral victory for the socialist movement in the last century.” Bowdoin College Socialists said they see his victory as a way to help them to promote a “pathway for thoughtful engagement.” Mamdani, who graduated from the school in 2014, used his…

A suspect nabbed Thursday in a fatal hit-and-run may have been hopped up on drugs, according to state police. Cops grabbed Tyler Hewitt, 31, of Presque Isle after authorities received reports of a “suspicious person” walking on Hill Road in Clinton. Hewitt was allegedly behind the wheel of a Uhaul van that veered off the road and slammed into a tree Tuesday. Clinton police found Hewitt coming out of the woods near I-95 two days after the accident. Hewitt was driving on a suspended license, cops say, in the crash that killed John Perkins, 38, of Hampden. Hewitt reportedly ran…

A Calais city worker says he has no plans to resign from the city council despite voters deciding he should. Peter Foster, who works for the school department, took his council seat a year ago after the November 2024 election. Fellow councilors debated then whether he could legally serve, deciding – in violation of the city charter – that he could as long as he “abstained” from any votes involving school spending. A charter provision forbidding city employees from serving on the council includes school workers. As if that weren’t clear enough already, voters earlier this month amended the prohibition…

A 78-year-old woman breathed a well-deserved sigh of relief after summiting Mount Katahdin in Maine on November 21. Or, maybe, sigh of exhaustion. Susan Juronics of Hightstown, N.J., walked 2,190 miles from Georgia to Maine in the last year in what Appalachian Trail gurus call a “thru-hike.” Juronics hiked the grueling distance with her daughter, Gretchen Stokes, who posted video of their trek on her Facebook page. Not for nothing, Stokes is glad to point out that another, older woman who recently completed the same distance took more than a year to do it. Betty Kellenberger, 80, completed the trail…

A former director of the state forestry division who also served on two Maine city councils is being remembered for his many years of public service. The Maine Forest Products Council said John Cashwell III was a board member as well as having served as a top state employee, directing the Maine Forest Service. “It is with great sadness that we share news of the passing of John Cashwell,” the council said, announcing his death on Facebook. John Cashwell III, from Facebook “John was an influential member of our organization and longtime friend to the industry,” the council said. “He…

The state’s largest media conglomerate has announced it is partnering in a new project with “Google News Initiative” – which by design aims to do away with print newspapers. The Maine Trust for Local News, an arm of a Colorado-based “nonprofit,” the National Trust for Local News, already stopped printing its weeklies earlier this year. Now it says it is expecting a project-funding award from the initiative whose mission favors digital over print. Though the amount of the cash layout is so far a secret, InfluenceWatch.org, a public-policy watchdog, says the initiative has two clear major goals: 1. Phasing out…

The Maine Trust for Local News has notified a slew of its western Maine freelance writers they are off the grid. “Unfortunately, we will no longer be accepting freelance writing support from most of our contributors,” Marla Hoffman, lead editor of the trust’s western Maine group of papers, wrote to the freelancers. Hoffman said the papers, recently acquired by the 501(c)3 National Trust for Local News, are “navigating an increasingly difficult economy and a changing industry.” [RELATED: Maine Trust For Local News Announces 49 Layoffs, Reduction of Print Publications…] The notices emailed Nov. 21 to the freelancers in western Maine…

The CEO of the Maine Celtics just wrote a real estate check for nearly $60 million. Wycliffe Grousbeck, who heads the Boston Celtics, which own the Maine basketball affiliate, got a real deal on his new oceanfront home. After being built last year, it was originally on the market for $80 million. The builder got no offers so he chopped the price by $10 million. Still no takers so he lopped off another $12 million. That’s when Grousbeck pounced. The home sits on 1.24 acres, with 125 feet on the ocean. The Maine Celtics, a pro basketball team in the…

A focused, multi-pronged search for a missing Massachusetts journalism professor off the coast of Maine has been suspended, officials said. The Maine Marine Patrol and the Maine Warden Service said they have found no evidence of Wiley Davi. Davi, 57, English and media studies professor at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, was last seen November 15 on Peak’s Island. Authorities said they didn’t know why Davi would have been hanging out on Peaks. But the New York Post is reporting that Davi owns property there. At the height of the search nearly 50 law enforcement officers were looking for the…

Maine’s top summer visitor once told a federal official that a interplanetary alien made contact with humans at a secretive New Mexico air base in 1964, according to testimony in an explosive new documentary. President George H.W. Bush, who was CIA director before being elected the nation’s chief executive, often hosted fellow former spooks at his family’s Kennebunkport summer compound. What were they really talking about on the presidential deck overlooking the Atlantic at Walker’s Point aka the Bush Summer White House? Eric Davis, an astrophysicist who was a scientific advisor on the since-disbanded Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, created…

The state’s leading lobster lobby is pushing back against claims that government intervention is an obvious fix for the dwindling fishery. The Maine Lobstermen’s Association on Monday acknowledged severe drops in the lobster landings. “That isn’t surprising to anyone on the water,” Kevin Kelley, association spokesman, told The Maine Wire. “The ecosystem is changing, and no one expected the boom to last forever.” The association says the answer isn’t necessarily more regulation, despite any claims to the contrary. The lobstermen are speaking out in the wake of a report last month from regulator Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission saying that…

The former top executive who walked out of the Portland Press Herald shortly after the Maine Trust for Local News took over the bulk of the state’s newspapers has found a new gig policing content for the state’s pliable mainstream media. Lisa DeSisto is now running a shadow government – an outfit otherwise known as Press Forward, a project of the left-leaning Maine Community Foundation. As “senior advisor,” DeSisto’s role will be to “build a broad-based advisory panel to identify and prioritize the best ways to reimagine and expand access to local reporting,” according to the foundation. DeSisto joined what…

A headline-grabbing, conservative congresswoman surprised the nation on Friday by calling it quits after a high-profile tiff with President Donald Trump. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, announced November 21 she would be ending her short congressional career mid-term rather than continuing a tit-for-tat argument with the guy whose policies she’s historically supported. Greene and President Trump at one point were more or less fully aligned ideologically, sharing the view that liberals have turned the U.S. into a dangerous, crime-filled, woke snake-pit where illegals trump natives in personal liberties. But recently the woman best known by her initials, MTG, began…

In one of the first cases of its kind, a Maine man has been charged with two weapons violations involving two different wildlife species – after advertising his own crimes. It’s a virtual criminal trifecta. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said the strange case began with a tip their wardens received. The tipster told Game Warden Emerson Duplissie-Cyr a guy had posted selfies online of himself sitting with a scoped rifle next to a deer carcass in a Gorham field. “Warden Duplissie-Cyr noted there was no open firearms season on deer at that time and based on…

Photo from GoFundMe account linked in article

A new story in the Portland Press Herald blaming insurance companies for requiring patients to get permission before a procedure would almost seem logical. Prior authorizations are, after all, unpopular and burdensome on patients. But the “story” is produced by KFF Health, a lobbying group that according to media watchdogs, supports universal health insurance (a Democrat-driven policy), and Democrat candidates in 95 out of 100 elections. Suddenly the piece seems less like news, and more like advocacy. The article in question, published Nov. 20, bears a byline of “KFF Health News.” KFF Health News is part of the Kaiser Family…