Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025

Quote of the Day

"It's like 8 million people a day showing up in New York City.”

— Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, one of the presiding judges in federal appeals court in Boston, where a group of Bar Harbor businesses argued on Wednesday that their town’s voter-approved cruise ship limits conflict with federal commerce laws.

Today’s Top Maine Stories

Bangor is considering buying a pre-fab building to house a shared commercial kitchen. The shared kitchen, modeled after a similar one in Portland, would give small businesses access to expensive equipment needed to prepare and package food.

Penobscot County may pay $2.5 million to board inmates at other jails. An average of 69 people per day were boarded out of the jail in 2024 because the facility was at or near its state-mandated capacity of 157 people.

A Bar Harbor business group continues to challenge voter-approved cruise ship passenger limits. The latest move to overturn voter-approved limits on cruise ship passengers unfolded at a federal appeals court in Boston on Wednesday.

Portland paused hotel development, then left time for 2 to go forward. While new hotels bring more jobs, more tax revenue and tourism, they pay workers too little for them to afford housing in the area, according to one city councilor.

This Maine artist’s chaotic, cartoonish figures are finding a large audience. At first glance, Lewis Rossignol's pictures appear to have been created by a deranged toddler with access to art supplies and an espresso machine.

What are the chances of smoke from the California wildfires reaching Maine? Air quality specialists in New England are monitoring the smoke, which can carry thousands of miles via the jet stream. 

News from Around the State

• Maine House votes to investigate lawmaker facing domestic violence charge

• 2 men plead not guilty to bank fraud to buy Maine homes for illegal marijuana grows

• Police descend on Presque Isle home as part of FBI investigation

• Bar Harbor councilor stepping down

• Swanville arson suspect allegedly threw firework into truck

• California nonprofit buys Central Maine Healthcare

• More than 1,000 Cumberland school emails targeted in phishing scam

• Cooper Flagg gets headline in satire publication ‘The Onion’

• Mt. Ararat suspends boys hockey team during bullying investigation

Maine in Pictures

Saco artist Lewis Rossignol stands in front a canvas idea board on Tuesday in his studio, where he works out some of his child-like drawing ideas. Rossignol has close to a half-million followers on Instagram. Credit: Troy R. Bennett / BDN

Things to do this Weekend

Your weekend in Greater Bangor kicks off with Friday night fun, including True North Theatre's production of Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour" at the Cyrus Pavilion Theatre on the University of Maine campus in Orono. On Saturday, Led Zeppelin tribute band No Quarter performs at the Cross Insurance Center ballroom at 7 p.m. in Bangor. And at 5 p.m. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, Limitless Wrestling brings its big show to the Morgan Hill Event Center in Hermon.

From the Opinion Pages

Life in Maine

Here are the best ways to eat Maine shrimp, according to Mainers. Now that the first official shrimp fishing season in more than a decade has been announced, we asked readers how they like their catch.

An endangered rabbit species is on the rise in parts of Maine. The New England cottontail is bouncing back, but it faces pressure from an invasive cousin, the eastern cottontail.

Try these unconventional ways to keep predators away from your homestead. You probably know to put hardware cloth around the chicken coop, but are you familiar with the used-car-lot approach or the fake corpse decoy?

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