Today is Wednesday. Temperatures will be in the 40s from north to south, with a chance for isolated showers throughout the state. Here’s what we’re talking about in Maine today.
Dana Kitchin died in a Kennebec County jail observation cell in 2014 from a ruptured spleen. Before he died, other inmates said they heard him screaming for medical attention for seven to eight hours. A man with mental and physical illnesses, Kitchin had smeared blood and feces on the window looking into his cell, which remained on the door for 14 hours, making it impossible to see inside.
Kennebec County disciplined three corrections officers who were on duty while Kitchin was yelling for help. But those records failed to mention Kitchin’s death. Anyone reading them would have no way to know that the discipline handed down to the three officers had anything to do with a man dying in his cell while begging for medical attention.
Early this year the Bangor Daily News requested all discipline records since 2015 from Maine’s sheriff’s offices and jails, and found that, in many instances, the records didn’t actually describe the misconduct in question. Incomplete records leave the public in the dark about what really happened, and raise questions about whether discipline is equitable across offices and violations — and whether elected sheriffs are holding their staff accountable.
Josh and Mary Harrison and children Titania, left, and Malcolm, right, in a 2013 family photo. Credit: Courtesy of the Harrison family Credit: Courtesy of the Harrison family
While the official COVID-19 death toll numbers more than a quarter million Americans, the pandemic’s true death toll is likely much higher than because the official count doesn’t include fatalities that are indirectly related to the virus. In October, federal researchers said as many as 100,000 fatalities could indirectly be attributed to the coronavirus.
In this Nov. 3, 2020, file photo, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap speaks to the press at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN
With Democrats in control of the Legislature, Matt Dunlap is all but assured to become the next state auditor.
Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester, listens to proceedings in the State House in Augusta. Credit: Troy R. Bennett / BDN Credit: Troy R. Bennett / BDN
Democrats picked state Sen. Shenna Bellows as their nominee for secretary of state Tuesday evening after a first-ever ranked-choice vote, all but assuring her ascension to the office and title as the first woman to hold the position when the full body elects the state’s constitutional officers Wednesday.
The border crossing between the U.S. and Canada in Houlton. Credit: Alexander MacDougall / Houlton Pioneer Times Credit: Alexander MacDougall / Houlton Pioneer Times
Spanning more than 5,000 miles of land, the U.S.-Canada border encompasses many unique communities with their own sets of challenges for how to reopen. For Maine, many of its affected communities share a border with the province of New Brunswick, which is part of the “Atlantic Bubble” within Canada consisting of provinces located east of Quebec.
Main Street in Downtown Rockland. Credit: Gabor Degre / BDN Credit: Gabor Degre / BDN
It comes as the owner of a downtown building has proposed tearing down a majority of the structure and paving the site for parking. The council previously considered a ban on commercial parking lots in the downtown area to stop the developer, but has since postponed that measure.
An inquisitive doe on Rose Hill in Jonesboro, Maine. Credit: Courtesy of Steve Balzer
These does are certainly curious, and have followed their noses to these two cameras to figure out what they’re doing strapped to those trees. John Holyoke prefers to think of these deer as giving all of us unsuccessful hunters a good ol’ Bronx cheer: “Better luck next time, Buddy!”
