Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024

Quote of the Day

"You only get one life. It's so sacred. You've got to be able to look back and be happy with what you did with it."

— Ross Adam, a Portland mailman who has been successful enough moonlighting as a musician that he’s considering making a full-time career of it.

Today’s Top Maine Stories

Bangor hopes lawsuits will trigger redevelopment of its struggling mall. If successful, the city’s plan could breathe new life into the aging complex. But that may be a challenge, as the owner recently ignored requests to fix a pipe spilling raw sewage into a pond near the mall.

Bangor is giving residents $500,000 to buy their mobile home park. The stakes are high for Cedar Falls residents, who would only be the second co-op in the state to buy a mobile home park if successful.

Developers are moving ahead with plans to restore the Belfast Opera House. The theater space, now in disrepair, has a long history of uses, from performances, basketball games and boxing matches to a stint as an armory.

A national gun control group upgraded Maine’s rating based on the response to the Lewiston mass shooting. The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave Maine a C+ in its 2024 Annual Gun Law Scorecard, up from a D- last year.

Maine's singing, Scottish mailman is contemplating a full-time music career. Like many artists with day jobs and successful side hustles, Ross Adam feels like he must make the difficult choice between one or the other.

News from Around the State

• Maine fishermen will be able to haul in a small shrimp harvest this winter

• Maine collects about $6M in revenue during 1st full year of sports betting

• CDC to revisit regulations for bringing dogs into the United States

• Ellsworth might ban citizen comments at meetings over ‘politicking’

• Concerns grow in Southwest Harbor about feeding of deer

• Linda Bean’s company scales back with sale of midcoast general store

• Construction begins on new child care facility for Bath Iron Works employees

• Convicted Maine killer dies after encounter with New Jersey prison officers

• It’s been 13 years since Ayla Reynolds disappeared in Maine

• Maine town approves water extraction ordinance

• Cattle hauler spills cows onto the Maine Turnpike

• Search is on for replacement after Houlton girls basketball coach resigns

• Bangor High hockey team looking to rebuild and return to state final

• Hampden Academy boys use tenacious man-to-man defense to stymie Mt. Blue

• Cooper Flagg scores 24 in Duke win over George Mason

Maine in Pictures

Nick Gibbings holds his daughters Piper, left, and Emma as they wait for Santa to arrive at the Franco Center in Lewiston on Sunday. Visitors were treated to a breakfast, sweet treats, gifts and photos with Santa. Credit: Russ Dillingham / Sun Journal via AP

Maine Town of the Week

Got a fun factoid about a Maine town? Email us at news@bangordailynews.com.

NEWPORT: The world now knows the town of Newport as the hometown of Maine basketball phenom Cooper Flagg, the hottest young prospect in the sport. But anyone who's ever played the drums also may know Newport as the home of the Vic Firth Co., a manufacturer of wooden percussion sticks and mallets used by musicians all over the world. Vic Firth, who was raised in the town of Sanford, opened his manufacturing plant in Newport in 1963. It produces more than 10 million drumsticks each year.

From the Opinion Pages

Life in Maine

Saving Maine potatoes has helped a New Vineyard woman stay sober for decades. Lauren St. Germain Kidd’s sobriety and her gardening, which she saw as a healthy way of living, grew together over time.

Here are gift ideas for your hard-to-shop-for outdoors enthusiast. Finding the right one should be easy, but it isn’t.

Mainers prefer artificial Christmas trees, a new poll found. The Pine Tree State, it seems, has no qualms about fake firs.

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