U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine Darcie McElwee announced Wednesday that her office collected a total of $24.4 million from civil and criminal actions during fiscal year 2023. Nearly all of the $23 million collected by the Maine U.S. Attorney’s Office from civil actions was the result of a $22.5 million settlement in July 2023 in United State of America v. Martin’s Point Health Care, Inc. [PAGING DARCIE: The Mortgage Broker Troy Jackson Threw…

The South Portland Board of Education is considering ways to improve “diversity” and reduce racial and socioeconomic “segregation” across the City’s five elementary schools. During a Board meeting earlier this month, the Elementary Boundaries and Configurations Steering Committee presented several suggestions aimed at achieving this goal, most of which would involve a significant restructuring of the City’s elementary school system. At the beginning of this year, the Committee was tasked by the School Board with…

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) has been forced to delay development of the Aroostook Renewable Energy Gateway because the developers cannot work for the agreed upon price. “LS Power made clear in its submission that it can no longer hold to its price, though nowhere in its brief or proposed transmission agreement did LS power indicate what the new price would need to be,” said Chairman Philip Bartlett of the MPUC at a meeting…

A mariner’s association representing boaters is girding for battle with the University of New England over the school’s so-called research pier.The scene of the standoff is the Saco River running between that city and Biddeford in Maine’s southernmost county.“Experienced mariners and commercial fisherman who for many years have legally held moorings on the Saco River, in the same spot where the university wants to build an obtrusive pier, have renewed their permits for another year,”…

New polling from Emerson College shows Graham Platner holding a significant lead over Gov. Janet Mills in the Democratic primary in the race for one of Maine’s seats in the United States Senate. Among likely Democratic voters, 55 percent have expressed support for Platner, while just 28 percent have said they plan to vote for Gov. Mills. 13 percent remain undecided. Source: Emerson College Poll, 03.23.26 When pitted head-to-head against incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R),…

The Medal of Valor at the Portland Fire Department has extra significance at this time every year. The medal was created in memory of Joey Cavallaro, who was 26 years old when he died battling a blaze in Maine’s largest city.It happened March 25, 1980, at the Phoenix Nightclub.“FF Cavallaro joined the department in November 1977,” city firefighters announced on Facebook in a memorial to their fallen brother. “Assigned to Engine 1, FF Cavallaro died…

Nothing ever brought Kennebunkport, Maine more international attention than the presence of a presidential retreat.But with the money that all the Bush-loving tourists brought with them to buy trinkets, pay for hotel rooms and drop tip money into waitresses’ aprons came a just-discovered downside. Town officials are now admitting that a local law forbids tax money be used pay for hiring extra police to handle the traffic jams of the annual Christmas Prelude celebration.The annual…

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Department arrested a Skowhegan man on Friday after he was allegedly caught with illegal drugs following a crash with a New Hampshire driver. [RELATED: Massachusetts Teen Flees Police in Maine and NH During Drugged Driving Pursuit Before Crashing Into an Overpass…] Franklin Deputy Isaac Wacome responded at approximately 9:47 p.m. to reports of a two-vehicle crash on Anson Valley Road in New Vineyard. Following an investigation, deputies allegedly determined that Zackery…

When bucks are scraping trees with their antlers during mating season, they may be leaving a UV light message for their potential love interests, a new study shows.A wildlife researcher suspecting the scrapings may be a clue into male rutting confirmed his suspicion using a spectrometer, an instrument that measures the amount and wavelength of light that a surface emits, to examine deer scrapings on trees.Daniel DeRose-Broeckert found that the markings produce a significant glow…

WINN, Maine — State fire investigators are looking into a fatal house fire that broke out early Thursday morning in Winn. According to officials, the Lincoln Fire Department responded at about 1:28 a.m. on March 19 to a reported house fire at 1115 Route 168. When firefighters arrived, they found the home heavily engulfed in flames. Five people were able to escape the residence before firefighters got there, but they told first responders that an…

The Limestone Fire Department responded on Wednesday after reports of a building engulfed in flames. [RELATED: Possible Arson Under Investigation After Early Morning Fire at Portland Apartment Building…] The fire department arrived at 302 Main Street at approximately 1:44 a.m. and found a building fully involved in the fire. The building was a potato storage facility owned by Butler farms Fire crews remained on scene until 3:57 a.m., working to suppress the flames, but the…

Laurie Grant has one message for curious members of the public trying to figure out what the cops are doing crawling all over her home. “Stay off the property,” she told WGME-TV’s Sam DeCoste when he asked her what her message to the public is. Grant’s property has apparently been inundated with curious gossips wondering why police for the past two weeks have been poring over her Main Street property.To his credit, DeCoste got an…

WATERVILLE, Maine — While many candidates talk about Maine’s child welfare system from the outside, Shawn Packard says he has lived it and now he is running for State Representative in District 64 to advocate for change and strengthen the laws affecting Maine’s most vulnerable children. Packard entered Maine’s foster care system at age 12 and spent much of his childhood living with different foster families, an experience he says shaped both his perspective and…

The State of Maine has awarded a total of $12 million for the construction of affordable apartments in Bangor, Portland, and South Portland. This funding stems from the Home for Good program, also known as the Housing First program, which was established by the Legislature in 2023 to support the provision of “permanent housing to address chronic homelessness in the State.” State law requires that “services facilitated under the program must be available on site,…

How in the world could you leave out Bette Davis?That’s the burning question for the denizens of editors at the state’s largest newspaper. The Portland Press Herald in honor of Women’s History Month ran a stand-alone feature on “five women who made Cape Elizabeth history.”Not one of the five names would mean a thing to any of the readers. Not one.But the one name that would have, nowhere to be found in the story?Actress Bette…