Portland

Another 169 Maine National Guard members are heading to health care facilities in the state to help out as COVID-19 cases spread. The initial announcement was made on Tuesday, with Gov. Janet Mills explaining Friday that 16 facilities would receive the additional support. Maine Medical Center in Portland is expected to receive the most National Guard members, with 30 planned…

Roughly 170 more Maine National Guard members are heading to health care facilities to help with the strain from COVID.

A painting by the American modernist Marsden Hartley that had been missing for 40 years was found in a bank vault, a significant step toward recovering the works of an increasingly appreciated artist who considered himself “the painter of Maine.” The painting, “Friend Against the Wind,” was completed in 1936 and had its last known public display at a Portland…

A judge has awarded nearly $1 million in damages to the families of four fishermen who died when their boat mysteriously sank off Massachusetts in 2020. The 82-foot Portland, Maine-based Emmy Rose went down early Nov. 23, 2020, as it was heading to port after a seven-day fishing trip, the National Transportation Safety Board said. Authorities had previously said it…

Workers in Maine’s largest city are getting a big pay raise on Saturday thanks to the hazard pay ordinance. The pay increases to $19.50 effective Jan. 1 after the Portland City Council postponed action on repealing an emergency pandemic order in December. The ordinance was enacted in 2020 and was subject to legal and political challenges. The state supreme court…

On the heels of Boston and New York deciding to implement COVID-19 vaccine requirements to eat indoors at restaurants, a group of eateries in Portland, Maine, is hoping city leaders will implement that type of mandate. Over the past week, a dozen or so restaurants, including places like Eventide Oyster Co. and Chaval, have signed onto a petition urging...

A petition from some well-known eateries in Portland, Maine, is urging a COVID-19 vaccine requirement.

Mainers are salting and sanding their way out of an icy day. From Biddeford and Berwick to Portland, Augusta and Bangor, hundreds of businesses, schools and other workplaces were closed Wednesday. The ice reduced speeds on the Maine Turnpike for part of the morning and clung to trees and sidewalks in Greater Portland into Wednesday night. “I’d rather have 20…

Hundreds of business, schools and other workplaces were closed Thursday after freezing rain left a glaze of ice across Maine.

People in a Portland, Maine, neighborhood are trying to figure out how to move forward after suddenly finding out they’re in a flood plain. A recent mapping change by FEMA that is expected to be finalized within the next two years suggests that more than 45 homes on or close to a street called Alden Circle are now at risk,…

A Portland, Maine, neighborhood is in a flood plain, according to an updated map from FEMA, leaving more than 40 homeowners

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday against Maine lobster fishermen who sought to block new fishing restrictions that are designed to protect rare whales. The new rules make an approximately 950-square-mile area of the Gulf of Maine essentially off limits to lobster fishing from October to January. That’s to protect North Atlantic right whales, which are one of the...

A Portland wharf that has been family-owned for generations has found a buyer.

A piece of history in Portland, Maine will soon change hands, but unlike a number of recent real estate transactions in the Pine Tree State, is not being sold to highest bidder. For roughly 200 years, the Poole family and its ancestors have owned Union Wharf off of Portland’s Commercial Street. But according to Charlie Poole, one of its co-owners,…

Roberto Rodriguez won an at-large seat on the Portland City Council after a rare tie in the ranked-choice election forced a hand recount. His opponent, Brandon Mazer, conceded Wednesday, saying he had questions about discrepancies but realized he would need all the disputed ballots to win. A nearly 12-hour recount showed Rodriguez with a 35-vote lead over Mazer, with 37…

A 1-in-100 million lobster was caught in Maine, and her rare color will spare her from the dinner plate.

A lucky lobsterman in Maine just caught a 1-in-100 million lobster over the weekend. Fisherman Bill Coppersmith found a cotton candy-colored lobster in a haul from Casco Bay, News Center Maine reported. The lobster, named Haddie after Coppersmith’s granddaughter, is a 1-in-100 million catch, according to Portland-based seafood company Get Maine Lobster. Cotton candy is one of the rarest...

When a Portland, Maine, City Council election ended in a tie, it had to be settled in an unusual way, involving an antique wooden bowl.

A ranked choice ballot where numbers were crunched by a computer ended in a tie in a City Council race, so the contest was decided with a low-tech solution — basically, drawing straws. The election was settled in public, in front of Portland City Hall, when lots — something such as random straws — were drawn on Thursday from an…

People living in the West End of Portland, Maine, are still changing their routines after a yearlong string of violent attacks and frightening incidents. The latest high-profile occurrence that resulted in criminal charges was an hourslong standoff outside an apartment building on State Street Sunday that closed various roads. Two men were arrested at the standoff’s conclusion. It began...