Maine

Depending on whom you ask, Maine’s proposed “right to food” constitutional amendment would simply put people in charge of how and what they eat — or would endanger animals and food supplies, and turn urban neighborhoods into cattle pastures.

The number of reported COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic has surpassed 100,000 in Maine. Maine has faced a lower burden of COVID-19 cases than states with similar populations, such as Rhode Island and Montana. Vermont and Hawaii are the only states significantly below that number. Wyoming has had about 100,000 reported cases. The Maine Center for Disease…

“Home Sweet Dome” is the motto for the owners of one unique house in Kennebunkport, Maine. The three-bedroom, one-bathroom, monolithic abode features a massive cement dome and, as of this June, it’s for sale. Its owner, Daphne Pulslifer, and her husband say it is time to leave that the house they moved into in 2003 and spent three years building…

A monolithic dome house is for sale in Maine. The artist who helped design her homeshowed us around.

NOAA released their winter weather prediction for the 2021-2022 season Thursday morning, and it has some pretty good news for New England — if you put stock in these kinds of seasonal forecasts.

In mid-September, Marcel Schliebs, a disinformation researcher at the University of Oxford who had been tracking messaging that Chinese diplomats and state media spread on Twitter for 18 months, spotted the emergence of a surprising coronavirus origin theory.

Two lawsuits filed in the aftermath of a thunderous propane explosion in Farmington, Maine, that killed a firefighter and injured others have been settled. A court document filed this week indicates a lawsuit against two companies on behalf of the deceased firefighter and six injured firefighters was resolved, the Sun Journal reported. Another lawsuit brought by the maintenance worker who...

Police shot and killed a man in Falmouth, Maine, on Tuesday night, News Center Maine is reporting. Two officers responded to reports of a disturbance at the intersection of Lunt Road and Middle Road around 6 p.m. according to Falmouth police. Following a standoff with police, the male suspect was shot by police and declared dead at the scene. One…

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an emergency appeal of a vaccine requirement imposed on Maine health care workers, the latest defeat for opponents of vaccine mandates. It was the first time the Supreme Court weighed in on a statewide vaccine mandate. It previously rejected challenges of vaccine requirements for New York City teachers and Indiana University...

Detainees broke windows and tore apart classrooms, offices and living spaces at the Long Creek Youth Development Center, prompting a call for help from local police, officials said Monday. It was bad enough that the South Portland Police Department officers were called to assist Sunday evening. Officers took up positions outside the facility for six hours from Sunday evening to…

Removing the flipping obscenities from license plates on Maine’s roads and highways isn’t going to happen overnight, even though a law banning such profanities in a state where such regulation has been unusually lax goes into effect Monday.

Opponents of Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers have filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeal on Friday was filed hours after the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied an request to stop the mandate from going into effect. The Supreme Court previously rejected challenges of vaccine mandates for New York City...

Fire departments from several towns in Somerset County responded to reports of an explosion and house fire in the town of Emden, Maine. Authorities said that just before 3 p.m. on Friday, there was an explosion at a house on Bert Berry Road in Emden. They said the woman who owned the house called 911 to report the explosion and…

Colby College is banning discrimination based on caste, a system of inherited social class, becoming one of the nation’s earliest colleges to do so. The private liberal arts college revised its nondiscrimination policy to add caste to its list of protections for the campus community. The efforts were led by a professor who took an interest in caste discrimination...

Maine’s beloved puffins suffered one of their worst years for reproduction in decades this summer due to a lack of the small fish they eat. Puffins are seabirds with colorful beaks that nest on four small islands off the coast of Maine. There are about 1,500 breeding pairs in the state and they are dependent on fish such as herring…

A ferry route from New England to Canada that shut down long before the U.S. border closed during the pandemic expects to start back up soon. The Cat ferry from Maine to Nova Scotia has announced that it plans to provide service between Bar Harbor, Maine, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, beginning next spring. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the ferry’s return...

A ferry route from Maine to Canada that shut down more than a decade ago will be reopening next spring.

U.S. News & World Report has released its first-ever ranking for public elementary and middle schools in each state. The inaugural ranking is in addition to the annual high schools ranking released every year. Unlike the high school ranking, there is no national ranking for K-8 schools, but readers can still browse school rankings by state or by district. ...

On the same day a federal judge upheld a Maine COVID vaccine mandate for all its health care workers, Gov. Janet Mills outlined ways the state is trying to combat a scarcity of health care workers highlighted this week by a suspension of services at a Maine hospital. This Tuesday, Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, the second-largest city in…

Police made an arrest Wednesday in a fatal stabbing at the Fryeburg fairgrounds in Maine. Officers from Fryeburg, Conway, New Hampshire, and the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department responded to a 911 call around 1:05 a.m. Wednesday in the area of 1154 Main St. The caller reported a male had been stabbed and was unresponsive. When officers arrived at the scene,…