Eight incapacitated people in the state’s care died during the past three years and authorities don’t know exactly how.
The adults, all under public guardianship, died of what medical…
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Advisors on civil rights in Maine are recommending the U.S. Department of Justice investigate how the state provides lawyers to poor defendants and are urging the state Legislature and Gov. Janet…
Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy on Wednesday rejected …
Members of the Maine Medical Association over the weekend strongly endorsed a policy statement calling for universal healthcare insurance coverage, becoming only the fifth state medical…
As Maine communities begin to spend what will amount to more than $235 million in opioid settlement money, parallels — and lessons — emerge from a similar 25-year-old landmark agreement with…
Two forestry companies that were announced as recipients for hundreds of thousands of dollars in state grant money last December were issued environmental violations at their Maine facilities over…
As money from national settlements with companies accused of fueling the opioid epidemic has begun flowing into Maine, a debate has emerged between advocates, local and state governments, and on-…
The 50th anniversary of Project Puffin has just ended, with researchers fully realizing how their quest has morphed from saving one bird to playing a part in saving the planet.
Its purpose…
A proposed settlement agreement that promises to "dramatically reshape" the state’s delivery of indigent-defense services has been reached between state officials and the ACLU of Maine.
…
On a Monday in September 2022, a semi-retired Livermore Falls resident requested the removal of a graphic novel from the shelves of the local school library. It was the seventh official challenge…
Environmentalists are decrying a year-long process meant to gather public feedback on where to build a…
In a brightly lit conference room on the first floor of the Department of Health and Human Services in Augusta on Thursday, the Maine Recovery Council met for the eighth time in as many months and…
Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy on Wednesday said the state’s system of providing defense lawyers to indigent clients has "deteriorated significantly," and she instructed lawyers for the…
She didn’t drive.
She couldn’t schedule appointments on her own.
She wouldn’t be able to hold a job and was dependent on others to get through the day.
The petition filed…
After a torrent of late-June rain, the road to the popular Tumbledown Mountain hiking destination has taken on the rough look of a mountain trail — not a paved road meant for cars and trucks. …
As the number of Mainers dying from drug overdoses appeared to be going down in the first half of the year, recovery experts and state officials are increasingly looking to…
After they struggled with COVID-19 symptoms for two weeks, Joel Mahoney drove his parents to Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport, where his mother, Nancy Mahoney, was admitted on Dec. 19, 2021 for…
Maine’s largest land use authority wrapped up a series of summer meetings Wednesday as it considers how to regulate short-term rentals across its over 10.4 million-acre expanse for the first time…
Fuel oil is one of the most expensive, planet-warming and unpredictably priced ways to heat a home — yet three of every five Mainers use it, more than any other state. Moving Maine off oil could…
In the fall of 2016, Jessica Coakley became increasingly concerned that her son, Braden, was falling behind in school. The fourth grader had an Individualized Education Program, requiring certain…
As part of a larger budget deal, state legislators have approved $31 million in funding that will provide breathing room for the roughly 275 emergency medical services (EMS) statewide, some on the…
State lawmakers have passed legislation that aims to crack down on jails that record attorney-client phone calls by disqualifying investigators who listen to private jail phone calls and directing…
Federal mine safety officials found 33 violations at the Dragon Products cement company in Thomaston during an inspection in May, the latest in a string of violations that have led to tens of…
A bill that would expand the scope of Maine’s criminal code for assaults against an emergency care provider passed easily in both chambers last week but advocates say there is still more to be…
This guide will be periodically updated with new tips and incentives to help Mainers transition off home heating oil and onto lower-carbon, lower-cost technologies. This story was originally…
Maine looks set to amend its mining laws to exempt some metals from the state's strict metallic mining regulations, provided developers can prove they won't pollute nearby watersheds or cause…
Maine will receive at least $235 million in settlement funds
Maine stands to receive at least $235 million over the next nearly two decades as the result of national settlements with some of the companies accused of supercharging the opioid epidemic.
…
State advisors to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights plan to apply more pressure to Maine leaders to overhaul the state's indigent public defense system with a report that finds the system may…
Norman Fisher’s enemy lived within him.
If he didn’t properly mix two medications each day, his diabetes would attack his body and mind. Once, his out-of-control blood sugar left him so…
Hooked on heating oil
At a paper mill warehouse near the University of Maine, engineer Ian Toal oversees a huge, intricate machine that turns sawdust into a key ingredient for a new kind of heating oil.
…
Is storing energy — in batteries, or reservoirs, or fuel cells — considered generation or distribution? That was one of the major questions underlying lawmakers’ discussion during a hearing last…
A legislative committee tasked with evaluating a slate of mining-related bills made no recommendation on which one(s) to advance after a work session on last week, with members insisting they…
On a recent afternoon in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood, the after-work crowd began to trickle into one of the area’s many craft breweries and locally owned restaurants. Teams arrived at Bayside…
Venus Nappi strolled through a community center in South Portland in early April, chatting with vendors at Maine's annual Green Home + Energy Show about electric…
The Kennebec River in Augusta and Hallowell saw near-record-high flooding earlier this week as inches…
Between 2007 and 2021, commercial gun manufacturing in Maine plummeted 77% while national production shot up 250%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
…
Your Data Monitor correspondents have written about the…
When Olivia Bourque became president of the club women’s basketball team at the University of Maine, she was staring down a long to-do list.
There was a team to build, a schedule to make,…
ideal solution is recycling, but it isn’t that easy
The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the shrink wrap is coming off. The boat shrink wrap, that is — low-density polyethylene plastic prized for its flexibility and ability to keep vessels…
Maine leaders estimate that state courts won’t begin to address their backlog of cases until 2028, even with the anticipated hiring of four new judges.
The outlook is the best estimate…
Amid an uptick in homicides and a spike in drug overdose fatalities, the Maine medical examiner’s staff is slowly ramping up the number of autopsies it conducts after years of lagging behind…
Ghislaine Bola moved to Maine from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2015. Before then, she’d been a practicing physician for five years.
In Maine she’s a medical assistant — which…
Maine lawmakers are considering changes aimed at better protecting prisoners’ rights to private attorney-client communications in jails and prisons — including one proposal that would eliminate…
Most abortion clinics in Maine offer medicinal abortions only, meaning a Texas lawsuit seeking to ban the most popular pill to end pregnancy could have a major impact on women in the state seeking…
do sea walls and natural solutions really work?
Before Walt Dunlap moved in 2011 to the shores of Maquoit Bay, just south of Brunswick, he did his homework. A licensed land surveyor, Dunlap knew the steep banks sloping down to the ocean were…
Representatives from Canadian mining company Exiro Mineral Corp were in Union and Warren last week to talk about their plans to look for nickel, copper and cobalt near Crawford Pond, a move has…
Justin Andrus will be second lawyer to leave MCILS this year
The top official at Maine’s public defense agency has announced he will resign after two years of working to reform a state agency once embroiled in controversy.
Justin Andrus, 48, will…
After three of the slowest years in its 42-year history, the Eastport Port Authority is scrambling to find new business and continue operating in the black.
Once the second-busiest port in…
It’s no secret the education field was burdened during the pandemic, with schools nationwide facing teacher workforce shortages. Now, the 2022-23 academic year is halfway done, and Maine school…
