Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024

Quote of the Day

“This is a good place to live and raise your kids. Everybody thought for sure Bucksport would roll up the sidewalks after the mill closed, and it so clearly hasn’t.”

— Kate Corwin, a Bucksport native who moved back to the area from the Portland area in 2016.

Today’s Top Maine Stories

The city of Bangor has filed another lawsuit against the owners of the dilapidated Bangor Mall. A recent break in a 5-foot stormwater pipe has a deluge of issues, including human excrement that flowed into stormwater ponds that drain into the Penjajawoc Stream.

Ten years after its mill closed, Bucksport’s prime coastal location helped it avoid the “former mill town” label. Located within a comfortable driving distance of Bangor, the quiet town is seeing a rebirth.

Maine’s Electoral College is meeting to cast ballots for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris this afternoon. Harris won three of Maine’s four electoral votes by easily carrying the 1st District in southern Maine and beating Trump statewide.

President Joe Biden on Monday moved to declare Frances Perkins’ Maine homestead a national monument. The property includes a brick house and barns on 57 acres along the Damariscotta River.

Maine’s crime rate has dropped for the second straight year. The crime rate was 29.65 per 1,000 people in 2023, a decrease from 32.16 in 2022 and 32.5 in 2021.

Now is the time to cut out browntail moth webs. It is a timeframe when the moths, clustered in the white webs they weave at the tips of branches, lie protected until spring, and can be easily dislodged from trees on your property.

News from Around the State

• Maine has a moderate chance of getting snow for Christmas

• Harvard Pilgrim reverses policy, will cover HIV drugs for Mainers

• Federal funding helps Maine schools hire mental health counselors

• Downtown Bangor wine and cheese shop soon to be under new ownership

• 2-vehicle crash slows traffic at Union Street intersection

• At least 10 vehicles involved in morning crashes on I-395

• Shania Twain to play Bangor Waterfront concert next summer

• Caribou and Maine DOT want to improve downtown pedestrian and cyclist access

• Boy fell through Ellsworth lake ice after running away from group home

• Bucksport salmon farm still on hold

• Belfast’s new affordable housing project sees large demand

• Police investigating reported threat that closed midcoast Maine schools

• Semi-truck burns on Maine Turnpike

• Man killed in Winthrop collision

• Portland to consider 2-day music festival that could draw large crowds to city-owned park

• Rabid raccoon found in Cape Elizabeth

Maine in Pictures

Hannah Chartier, 17, of Fort Fairfield leads her procession through Monica's Scandinavian Imports on Friday while playing St. Lucia, the Swedish patron saint of light, followed by Avenea German, 15, and Tevney-Rose Germain, 10, both of New Sweden. Credit: Melissa Lizotte / Aroostook Republican

From the Opinion Pages

Life in Maine

Maine’s drought situation is getting worse. Records for the driest fall were broken in Bangor and Millinocket this fall, and precipitation in late November did not ease dry conditions.

This is what you need to know to buy the right muzzleloader. Even though Maine’s season for the year is done, it’s never too early to start preparing for next year.

The possibilities for cooking with Maine conifers are endless. The evergreens take center stage around the Christmas season, and they’re good for more than just decoration.

There’s a reason that a duck’s feet don’t freeze in winter. Columnist Aislinn Sarnacki answered why, along with uncovering other odd wildlife mysteries, while on a winter hike with her husband.

This cute, unique duck breed has been kept alive in Maine by generations of midcoast farmers. The German Pekin duck is listed as endangered by the German Society for the Preservation of Old and Endangered Domestic Animal Breeds.

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