Maine News Friday May 8

Maine Biz - Unity Environmental University, a private liberal arts institution based in New Gloucester, has signed transfer agreements with 11 community colleges in Maine and New Hampshire that will allow incoming students to apply associate’s degrees toward bachelor’s programs in environment and sustainability-related fields.

The agreements include partnerships with Central Maine Community College, Kennebec Valley Community College, Washington County Community College and York Community College.

Freeport gardeners can look forward to Farthest Field Farm’s Memorial Day weekend seedling sale on May 23–24, featuring organically grown vegetable and herb starts. The article also highlights several other Midcoast farms and nonprofits in Brunswick, Bowdoinham, Freedom, and beyond offering seedling sales, preorder options, and community-focused programs to help residents kick off their gardens this month.

Press Herald - The health plan that covers 26,000 state employees and retirees under 65 is changing its coverage rules for the highly popular weight loss medications known as GLP-1s, marketed under brand names such as Wegovy and Zepbound. With open enrollment beginning this week, state employees will be required to enroll in a guided nutrition and lifestyle program for their insurance to continue covering the costs of GLP-1s for weight loss.

Here’s the state of tick-borne diseases in Maine

Where are Portland residents moving? U-Haul gives us a sense.

Rick Bennett - My top priority as Maine governor will be to implement practical, immediate solutions to make Maine more affordable. We’ve already released plans on two of my biggest priorities: housing and healthcare.

...As energy costs continue to rise, it drives up the prices of everything else. High electricity costs keep us dependent on expensive fossil fuels and our money flows out of state. The costs weigh on Maine families and businesses.

We must move faster and do more to bring down energy costs in Maine. My plan focuses on four actions:

Right-sizing utility profits to lower delivery costs
Lowering energy costs for manufacturers and Maine’s heritage industries
Increasing efficiency and saving energy
Creating a new Maine Generation Authority to power Maine’s future

The details matter. Read my full plan here.

Yahoo - Maine Democrat Graham Platner is targeting the oil industry and the federal gasoline tax in his campaign for the Senate seat currently held by Republican Susan Collins.

Platner — who last month became his party's presumptive nominee for the marquee race when Gov. Janet Mills (D) dropped out — released an energy platform Friday, with a focus on policy changes he argues would reduce people's bills.

Democrats nationwide are relying on pocketbook issues to retake Congress during the midterm elections. But unlike other contenders in Maine and elsewhere, Platner has been less vocal about whether he would pursue a data center moratorium because of their potential effect on energy prices. His new plan doesn't touch on the debate.

"Nine hundred dollars more. That is what the average Maine household paid this winter compared to the year before — just to heat the house, keep the lights on, and get to work," Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer, says ...

His ideas, including a fund for clean energy projects and a national freeze on electricity rate increases, "simply require the political will: to end Big Oil’s stranglehold on our energy policy, to slash prices for consumers, and to build the energy of the future."

Collins has touted her seniority in the Senate and her leadership of the Appropriations Committee. She has prioritized the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and suggested President Donald Trump’s administration has withheld funding. The Department of Health and Human Services recently released millions of dollars after Collins and other senators pushed for it.

Jobs - Under Armour posted a job opening for Seasonal Stock Associate in Freeport. Apply here. Walgreens posted a job opening for Inventory Specialist in Yarmouth. Apply here. You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

Maine Democrats - Susan Collins:

Votes with Trump 96% of the time
Voted for the Big Ugly Bill, which has caused rural hospitals to close and more than 61,000 Mainers to lose their healthcare coverage
Voted to let ACA tax credits expire
Voted for dozens of anti-choice Trump judicial nominees

The best restaurants in Brunswick

Maine Morning Star - After years of educators, districts and school leaders advocating for higher teacher salaries, Maine passed a law late last month to incrementally raise the minimum educator salary to $50,000 by 2029. While that still might not be enough to keep up with the rising cost of living, Deering High School teacher Lily Withington said, “it feels like the bare minimum, at least.”

Maine Morning Star - Olivia Andre, a 19-year-old asylum seeker and Portland resident, will be released this week from an immigration detention center in Texas where federal authorities held her for six months, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree’s office announced Wednesday evening.

Maine News Thursday May 7

FREEPORT NEWS

WGME - Freeport breaks ground on new downtown housing project — Downtown Freeport is getting a major boost with construction underway on The Dash, a 51‑unit apartment building one block off Main Street. Town leaders and longtime residents say the project, and another expected soon, aim to revive year‑round downtown living, support local businesses, and bring back the neighborhood feel many remember from earlier decades.

Press Herald - What are those boxes in Casco Bay's mudflats?— If you've spotted mysterious wooden boxes on Freeport's mudflats, they're part of a coastwide research project tracking how well softshell clams survive against predators like invasive green crabs. Downeast Institute scientists are using these "recruitment boxes" in Freeport and other Casco Bay towns, and they're looking for local volunteers this fall to help haul and process the heavy, mud-filled boxes when tides allow.

Taking the Kids - Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park in Freeport offers locals easy-access trails, Casco Bay views, and daily hours from 9 AM to 7 PM right on Wolfe's Neck Road. The article walks you through its accessible paths, birdwatching, forest bathing, picnic spots, and seasonal scenery, with tips on when to visit for quieter walks and how families, seniors, and dog owners can enjoy the park comfortably.

Jobs: Skechers USA, Inc. posted a job opening for Retail Key Holder in Freeport. Apply here....Under Armour posted a job opening for Seasonal Stock Associate in Freeport. Apply here. You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

Shaw Bros. plans to start sewer work on Friday morning, May 8th at Depot Street and the access road to First Parish Church. There will be flaggers on site and at times Depot Street and the church access road will be down to one lane of traffic. This work should roughly take all day Friday. After Friday, the sewer work will continue on the access road for the next 1.5 weeks.

Maine Morning Star - Maine’s Judicial Branch is warning residents of a new scam demanding payments for unpaid traffic violations. The texts include an image of a “final enforcement notice” and demand payment for unpaid traffic violations, including failure to pay tolls, speeding tickets and parking violations.

The state wants accessory dwelling units. Cities and towns are seeing mixed results.

National Democrats pour $9M into Maine governor’s race

Press Herald - The City Council on Monday approved an ordinance update that extends limitations on cooperating with federal immigration authorities to all public employees, but not without some last-minute wrangling over the final language. The updated language, proposed in response to this winter’s immigration enforcement surge, further limits how public employees can interact with federal immigration authorities and includes restrictions on allowing agents into municipal buildings, using public funds to assist with operations and more.

The council conducted a first reading of the ordinance April 13 after negotiating amendments with the city’s legal team and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, which has brought the language to multiple cities.

The 7-1 vote followed some back and forth over the final language, which led Mayor Mark Dion to cast the lone vote in opposition.

Dion argued that language barring city employees from allowing federal agencies to access nonpublic portions of municipal buildings sends an “unfair” message to city staff. He offered an amendment that would’ve protected staff from discipline for violating the section, if they were found to have granted such access because of intimidation by federal agents, but it failed.

Press Herald - A Portland teenager whose immigration case has garnered national attention is set to be released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after nearly six months in custody. A judge ordered on Wednesday that Olivia Mabiala Andre, 19, be released by Friday, according to one of her attorneys, Todd Pomerleau.

“She’s just overjoyed and ecstatic and going through a lot of emotions,” Pomerleau said in a phone call Wednesday evening, “but she’s getting out.” Olivia Andre and her mother, Carine Balenda Mbizi, and two siblings, Joel and Estefania Andre, were taken into custody by U.S. Border & Customs Protection after the family sought asylum in Canada on Nov. 12.

According to Border Patrol, the family entered the United States illegally in 2022 and a judge ordered their removal in February 2025. They appealed that order, but were denied in October. The mother and two siblings were released in March. Ahead of their release, attorneys had argued that the mother and two high schoolers must be released from custody under the Flores Settlement Agreement, which details protections for people under 18 who have been detained by immigration authorities.

Jacobin - Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger and labor leader, is the first to say he’s not from the Left or the Right — he’s from the bottom. Troy worked eighty-hour weeks in the woods for big timber corporations as an “independent contractor” forced to accept the prices they set and leave his family for six days a week. In 1998, Troy led the fight to shut down the US-Canadian border to protest the illegal hiring of Canadian loggers, whose national health care system and exchange rate allowed them to work for less.

Jackson initially made his bid for the Maine State Legislature in 2000 as a Republican (and later became an independent), reflecting the political sentiments of many of the people he grew up with and worked alongside. His voting history details votes against marriage equality and legalized abortion. However, Troy is an elected official that actually talks to his constituents. Following his 2009 vote against marriage equality, which he calls “the worst vote he ever took,” he met with a group of pissed-off gay people from Aroostook County. In 2004, Jackson made the switch to the Democratic Party and now is a firm supporter of trans rights, women’s bodily autonomy, and progressive tax reform to make millionaires pay their fair share.

Maine News Wednesday May 6

Portland Press Herald - The Maine Department of Health and Human Services is gearing up for the rollout of the new Medicaid work requirements set to launch in 2027. The new policy will require some Medicaid recipients to work at least 80 hours per month, attend school, or volunteer. In Maine, the requirements would apply to about 90,000 adults, and the state estimates over 31,000 people could lose coverage as a result.

Based on per capita deaths, Portland is more dangerous for pedestrians than Boston and New York City. In 2025, the number of pedestrians seriously injured or killed in Portland reached a five-year high.
The average price for a gallon of regular gas in Maine rose to nearly $4.50 on Tuesday, charting a new high since the conflict in Iran began more than two months ago. Statewide, regular averaged $4.48 per gallon, premium was up to $5.48 and diesel hit $5.82. Experts warn that rising diesel prices could have spillover effects on the cost of groceries, dry goods and other industries that require the fuel to produce or ship goods.
Chellie Pingree calls on ICE to free Portland teen detained in Texas
Could the Maine budget be overturned in a people’s veto?

What are those boxes in Casco Bay’s mudflats?

Maine Morning Star - Arresting law enforcement officers who are violating people’s constitutional rights. Establishing a public health insurance option. Continuing to challenge the federal government in court. Those were some ways that the five Democratic gubernatorial candidates said they would stand up to President Donald Trump’s administration, during the candidates’ second televised debate, hosted by the Bangor Daily News and WGME Tuesday evening.

The $85 test that could change Maine's PFAS fight (pressherald.com)

Troy Jackson - CMP just went back to our state public utilities commission to ask for another rate hike — even though their profits are already skyrocketing. If you've seen some of the headlines, you might think they're going to “lower” your bill this summer. ut don't believe it — it’s corporate trickery to make CMP seem like the good guys. In reality, they’re asking the state to let them jack up the electricity rates even higher to line the pockets of their multimillionaire investors, all while squeezing working-class Mainers who are already struggling.

The Electric Tool Lending Library features a variety of EGO brand electric yard care tools that residents can borrow for their personal residential use, including:

Self-propelled Lawn Mower (x2)
Leaf Blower (x4)
Hedge Trimmer (x3)
Weed Whacker (x2)

Tools can be reserved by Freeport residents free of charge as long as they are 18 or older and have an active library card for the Freeport Community Library.

Maine News Tuesday May 5

FREEPORT EVENTS
FREEPORT TALES
SAM SMITH BIO

NEWS

Patch - A longtime Freeport firm, Fine Lines Construction, is moving its offices this June from Main Street to the former Stars and Stripes Brewing Co. site on Varney Road and adding a cabinet and millwork shop by September. The 35-employee company has heavily renovated the vacant brewery building and says the larger space will support more local projects within a reasonable radius of Freeport.

Freepot Town Manager reports

Winslow Park camping runs from

Friday May 22nd through Monday September 28th

Nightly Campsite Rates for 2026

Freeport Residents:
- Site Type Inland: Tent $15, RV $17
- Site Type Waterfront: Tent $16, RV $18
Non-Residents:
- Site Type Inland: Tent $40, RV $52
- Site Type Waterfront: Tent $52, RV $58
Group Campsite Rate: $86 (residents and non-residents)
*Group Campsite reservations must be made over the phone at 207-865-4743 x126

*PLEASE NOTE: All reservations are non-refundable*

Maine Morning Star - President Donald Trump said he supports a bill from Democratic U.S. Rep.Jared Golden to extend the pause on federal lobster rules. Last month, Golden introduced a bill to continue shielding Maine lobstermen from new regulations to protect North Atlantic right whales until 2035. “The need to protect Maine’s iconic lobster industry knows no party,” Golden said in a statement. “I’m grateful for the President’s support for Maine’s lobstermen and hopeful that my colleagues in the House will join me in quickly passing this bill into law.” On Friday, the Trump administration announced its strong support of the bill in a Statement of Administration Policy and said the president would sign the legislation if Congress sends it to his desk.

Troy Jackson is first person ever to be endorsed in a gubernatorial primary by the Maine AFL-CIO

JOBS

C. & J. Clark International, Ltd posted a job opening for Assistant Store Manager New Store Opening in Freeport. Apply here.
MSAD 51 posted a job opening for K-12 Ed Tech III - Special Education in Cumberland Center. Apply here. You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

Maine News Monday May 4

Press Herald

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, plans to visit Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas to see Olivia Andre, a 19-year-old asylum seeker from Maine, who has been in federal detention since November.
Washington County farmers face mounting economic uncertainty, but they will not see a proposal for relief funds on the November ballot. Lawmakers made several attempts to revive LD 2094, a bill that would have directed a $45 million bond into existing grant and low‑interest loan programs for farmers and the forestry sector — even introducing an amendment to fold the farm and forestry funding into another bill. But the legislative session ended in mid‑April with the proposal stalled. Read more from The Maine Monitor.

Maine Morning Star - From food assistance to healthcare, housing to energy costs, the Democratic-led Maine Legislature passed dozens of laws to counteract the adverse effects of federal cuts on affordability, while advancing several long-term Democratic priorities, notably a new tax on millionaires that aims to raise state revenue and permanently making community college free.

“The major accomplishments of the legislative session were efforts to counteract the cruelty of the Trump administration,” Maine House of Representatives Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) told Maine Morning Star.

....But lawmakers stopped short of fully counteracting mounting federal pressures. Several ambitious proposals failed in the session’s final weeks, including a $250 million healthcare bill meant to help Mainers struggling with rising marketplace insurance costs and changing Medicaid eligibility.

Gov. Janet Mills got a lot of what she wanted during her final legislative session. The Legislature again failed to override her vetoes, including what would have been a first-in-the-nation temporary ban on data centers. She also blocked continued attempts to return full sovereignty to the Wabanaki Nations. And, her “affordability checks” for some Mainers squeaked through, despite pushback from even some within her own party.

Maine Monring Star - The latest legislative session in Maine saw few changes to the state’s criminal justice system. Lawmakers pursued three overarching types of reform: adding oversight of prisons, reestablishing parole and expanding criminal record sealing. The first two proposals were significantly walked back, while the latter was outright rejected through the failure of multiple bills. But, the lawmakers and advocates behind these proposals said they plan to bring them back, either again in future legislatures or potentially as citizen initiatives sent to voters.

FREEPORT

On April 30th, Freeport’s Meetinghouse Arts hosted the statewide National Poetry Month Maine grand finale, A Celebration of the Maine Poets Laureate...The poems carried us through marriage and grief, rhubarb and beauty salons. A letter to a Maine still one hundred years away. Cow faces pressed to farmhouse screens, the moon compared to a deadbeat roommate and a violinist who played through her own brain surgery. The recording is now on YouTube

Maine Biz - The Freeport Sewer District has scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony for May 7 to mark the start of its wastewater infrastructure upgrade and rehabilitation project at 43 South Freeport Road. The projectreceived $20.1 million from U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.
“We are pleased to mark the groundbreaking of a project that has been years in the making and represents a once-in-a-generation investment,” said Mike Ashby, the district’s chair. The project is a “significant step forward in strengthening Freeport’s wastewater infrastructure for the future,” he added.
“As commercial clammers, we depend on clean water,” Ashby and Tom Hudak, the district’s treasurer, said in a joint statement. “This project allows the district to continue to protect the Harraseeket River and Casco Bay for everyone. The project is a critical investment in upgrading the district’s 50-year-old facilities and ensuring effective wastewater treatment for our community and visitors for decades to come.”

Maine News Sunday May 3

Fun walking in Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park

Maine Biz - The Wood Build Maine conference on June 5 in Freeport will showcase how wood is shaping the future of construction, from mass timber and engineered wood systems to sustainable building practices and advances in manufacturing and research. Sponsored by the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, in partnership with the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development and the Maine International Trade Center, the one-day event will bring together architects, builders, designers, manufacturers, policymakers and investors.

The event builds on the DACF’s partnership with Finland’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. It will highlight the broader movement that sees wood not just as a building material, but as a climate solution, an economic engine, a design element and an opportunity to connect with nature.

JOBS

Skechers USA, Inc. posted a job for Retail Sales Associate in Freeport.
Casco Bay Ford posted a job opening for Parts Counter Person in Yarmouth. .
You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

Maine News Saturday May 2

FREEPORT NEWS

Town of Freeport - Beginning Monday, July 6, the Town of Freeport will implement new Town Hall public hours to better align open hours with staff capacity and community usage patterns. Under the new schedule, Town Hall will be open:

Monday: 7:30am - 5:00pm
Tuesday: 7:30am - 6:00pm
Wednesday: 7:30am - 5:00pm
Thursday: 7:30am - 5:00pm

Analyses of Town Hall activity showed very low transaction volumes during the 5:00 - 6:00pm hours, during which time multiple departments remain staffed. Adjusting hours allows the Town to focus staff coverage during times residents most frequently seek in‑person assistance. Online services such as some payments, permit information, forms, and requests are available 24/7 on our website at https://www.freeportmaine.com/184/Online-Services-Transactions

The total number of hours Town employees work will be unchanged, and there is no reduction in staffing or services. The change aligns public hours with the staffing capacity approved through the Town’s budget, helping ensure that offices are routinely staffed whenever Town Hall is open.

MAINE UPDATE

Recent poll: Palmer leads Collns by 2%

Thom Hartmann - Maine just handed Democrats a wake-up call that they’d damn well better actually listen to this time.

Governor Janet Mills suspended her Senate campaign yesterday, leaving Marine veteran and oyster farmer Graham Platner as the presumptive Democratic nominee to take on Republican Senator Susan Collins in November.

The message Maine voters are frankly shouting is the same one I’ve been hearing from listeners on my radio/TV show for years and the same one that pollsters across the spectrum keep picking up across the country: people are sick and tired of mealy-mouthed corporate Democrats who run on focus-grouped slogans and govern like they’re scared of their own shadow. They want fighters.

Mills was Chuck Schumer’s hand-picked candidate, recruited by Democratic Party insiders because they thought the 78-year-old two-term governor would be the safest, most “electable” option against Susan Collins. What Schumer and the “insider Democrats” got instead — and deserved — was a 30-point shellacking.

Platner, who launched his campaign last August by naming “the oligarchy” and “the billionaires who pay for it” as the enemy, outraised Mills every single quarter, packed wildly enthusiastic town halls all over the state, and even earned Bernie Sanders’s endorsement along the way. He turned Mills’s establishment alignment into a major liability and thus pushed her out of the race a full five weeks before the primary.

Press Herald - Special education rates are at an all-time high nationally. Depending on the study, Maine ranks second, sometimes third, in the nation, with just under 21% of the state’s 171,174 students qualifying for additional services in the 2023-24 school year. The national average is 15%. There is no clear reason for Maine’s high rates, though experts mention factors like the aftereffects of the COVID pandemic, an aging teacher population and state regulations.

Press Herald - When Susan Tarpinian opened the original Morning Glory Natural Foods on Maine Street in Brunswick in 1981, her son, Toby, was just 2 years old. Now, he’s running the business, and has a brand new store for his own 2-year-old to toddle around in.

Tarpinian and his team decided to expand the business about a year ago, feeling cramped in the downtown store. The new location [in the former REAL school building in Brunswick Landing] offers the same natural food products as the Maine Street store, with the addition of a seafood counter and a butcher.

Interview with the team behind Morning Glory here.

How five Democrats running for governor agree and disagree with Janet Mills

Maine News Friday May 1

Clean Link - The Green Restaurant Association (GRA), a national non-profit organization that demarcates official Certified Green Restaurants, announces the winners of the 2026 Green Restaurant Award. These facilities support sustainability initiatives that aim for both conservation and cleanliness. To measure the efficacy of environmental efforts, organizations are measured alongside eight categories: energy, water, waste, chemicals and pollution, food, and building and furnishing. For each element implemented within a category, Green Points can be obtained. The cumulation of these points demonstrates foundational steps toward eco-friendly operations. Greenest Independent Restaurant: Maine Beer Company Tasting Room, Freeport, Maine

Troy Jackson - I proudly endorsed Graham Platner back in February because I saw in him the same thing Bernie Sanders did, and the same thing countless people all across Maine and the entire country did: a progressive champion with the guts to take power back from the corporate oligarchs who’ve dominated our political system for FAR too long.

Maine Bix - Out of 149 U.S. metropolitan areas, Portland ranked second for livability in a barometer by RentCafe.com, an apartment search website. Washington, D.C., topped the list.

The rankings evaluated metro areas with populations of at least 300,000 across 17 metrics, including cost of living, health care access and community feel, grouped into three categories: location and community, quality of life and socioeconomic status.

While the city of Portland has a population of around 68,000, the Portland–South Portland Metropolitan Statistical Area totals more than 563,000. Researchers highlighted the region’s access to a large number of membership associations, local farmers’ markets, top universities and a robust network of health care providers.

“Although the cost of living here exceeds the national average, Portland’s steady job market, income gains and low unemployment rate make it appealing to renters looking for stability,” according to the report.

“But, it’s not just a spot where you can work hard,” the authors noted. “The metro area also stands out for its rich food scene, with 230 restaurants per 10,000 residents, an

Press Herald - With Gov. Janet Mills' withdrawal Thursday morning, the Senate race in Maine now appears to be a competition between incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Democratic newcomer Graham Platner.

The Democratic primary takes place in June, and Platner will have to beat David Costello for his party's nomination, but he's almost certain to do so. That means Mills' announcement turns our attention to November's midterm election.

…Platner's campaign has spent more on advertising than Collins', but those figures may not show the full picture. Platner for Maine had spent about $7.3 million on ads as of Thursday afternoon, according to the ad tracking site AdImpact. Collins for ME Senate had spent about $2.4 million.

Press Herald - For the first time, thousands of Mainers can take paid time off from work for life events and return to work. Over 2,000 Maine residents have already pre-applied for benefits. Starting May 1, the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave program will allow any employee in Maine to take up to 12 weeks off work for family or medical events such as childbirth, infant care, injury, illness or family caregiving duties — while still receiving a portion of their wages.

Platner pulls out of Senate debates after Mills ends campaign

Wabanaki Alliance - The Wabanaki Studies bill being funded and signed into law, advancements made to improve the conservation easement statute to include tribes and tribal ties to land, more positive movement on taxation benefits, and waived admission fees for tribal citizens to state parks...

7 Oddball Maine Museums to Visit

JOBS

Regional School Unit 05 posted a job opening for Athletic Coaching Positions 2025-2026 in Freeport. Apply here.
L.L.Bean, Inc. posted a job opening for Assistant Manager, Retail (Stores) Communications in Freeport. Apply here. You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.