Maine News Monday May 25

FREEPORT EVENTS
FREEPORT TALES 

Press Herald - County Commissioners - With few competitive races, it is easy for a commissioner to remain in office for decades. Recent budget crises have brought more attention to the often ignored role. Read more from The Maine Monitor.

Maine Morning Star -   Three Democrats running for governor — Hannah Pingree, Shenna Bellows and Troy Jackson — have joined forces and announced that they will be ranking each other on the June 9 primary ballot. In a joint statement Friday, the candidates highlighted their experiences working together and alignment on several issues.

“I’ve worked with Shenna and Hannah a long time, and I respect the hell out of them,” Jackson said. “I’m running to win this race for working class people and end the status quo, but I ask that if you plan to vote for me, you rank them right after.”

While the statement did not mention their other two opponents, Nirav Shah and Angus King III, the strategy is a way to utilize the ranked-choice system and potentially overcome the challenge of splitting votes between similar candidates. If no candidate receives more than 50%, the race will enter into a ranked-choice run-off, where the second choice of the bottom candidate gets reassigned until someone gains a majority. 

Maine Morning Star -   An asylum seeker in Maine was supposed to have his first hearing in court on Thursday. It’s now slated for 2028 because the Trump administration fired the immigration judge who had been set to hear his case. “I was excited about it because I was ready to respond in my [hearing], to know the decision and how things are going to be,” said the man who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. “It’s stressful. You are ready and waiting for something, and they change and change.” 

News Center Maine -    Three people sustained suspected serious injuries in an accident that occurred early Sunday morning in Brunswick.   Brunswick police responded to a crash on Route 1 near Ormsby Way at approximately 3:20 a.m., according to a police department release. A car with three people inside was traveling southbound on Route 1 when it went off the left side of the road, officials said. It then struck the cable barrier and rolled. Neither the driver nor the rear-seat passenger had a seat belt on, officials said, and both were thrown from the car. All three people in the car are believed to have sustained serious injuries, according to authorities. They were all transported to the hospital. Route 1 was reduced to one lane for several hours after the accident.

JOBS

• Banana Republic, Inc. posted a job opening for Retail Sales Associate - Main St - Freeport in Freeport. Apply here.
• Dunkin' posted a job opening for Team Member in Freeport. Apply here. 
• You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

Maine News Sunday May 24

Maine Biz -  When it comes to quality of life and other factors important to military retirees, Maine ranks among the top 15 most desirable states, according to a new analysis by financial website WalletHub.

To determine the best and worst states for military retirement, researchers compared the economic environment, quality of life, and health care in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, which were further broken down into 28 relevant metrics.

....South Carolina, North Dakota and Wyoming were No. 1, 2 and 3 on the list, respectively. Holding its own at No. 14, Maine was sandwiched between Alabama (No. 13) and North Carolina (No. 15). At No. 51, Oregon was at the back of the pack. Alaska was listed as the state with the most veterans per capita, while New Jersey has the fewest.

Press Herald - Maine’s wild blueberry harvest depends on the annual migration of 21 million honeybees trucked 1,500 miles from Florida to the state’s blueberry barrens, where a Sidney family’s apiary helps pollinate one of Maine’s signature crops. We have the details on the logistics, economic pressures and family teamwork behind modern beekeeping.

Free speech group sues ICE over ‘database’ agents

New book shows Mainers really love their reading nooks

Deep State Tribunal -    Democratic Senate hopeful Graham Platner admitted owning the Reddit account that mocked a wounded American soldier. Archived comments show him calling the Purple Heart recipient a “dumb” soldier who “didn’t deserve to live,” shocking veterans.  Platner now dismisses years of extreme posts as trolling during a “dark time,” saying they do not reflect who he is today. His record of online contempt for police, rural white Americans, and political opponents fuels concerns about his judgment....

When confronted in television coverage about other inflammatory posts, Platner again confirmed the account and dates, saying he made the comments in 2020 and 2021 but insisting they no longer represent who he is. In one now-deleted post on whether people grow more conservative with age, he wrote, “I GOT OLDER AND BECAME A COMMUNIST,” reinforcing a pattern of intentionally provocative rhetoric. In another exchange, he appeared to embrace a blanket condemnation of law enforcement, replying “ALL OF THEM, IN FACT” after another user wrote “COPS ARE BASTARDS.” 

Maine News Saturday May 23

If you live in Freeport or drive through for L.L. Bean, this guide points you toward Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, a quieter coastal escape with forested trails, Casco Bay views, and rich birdlife many visitors miss. It also spotlights eight other lesser-known Maine coastal walks, from Ogunquit’s Marginal Way to Monhegan Island’s Cathedral Woods, all offering big scenery with fewer crowds.

NY Times looks at Platner

JOBS 

• McDonald's posted a job opening for Crew Members - Opening, Day, and Closing Shifts in Freeport. Apply here.
• Dunkin' posted a job opening for Crew Member in Yarmouth. Apply here. 
• You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

Maine News Friday May 22

Federal judge dismisses Justice Department's lawsuit against Maine over refusal to provide voter data

WGME  - Freeport’s Memorial Day parade steps off at 10 a.m. on Holbrook Street, travels up Main Street, and ends with a ceremony at Memorial Park honoring fallen service members. The roundup also lists parades and ceremonies in many other Maine communities, useful if you’ll be traveling or visiting family elsewhere in the state.

News Center Maine -  Gubernatorial candidate and State Senator Rick Bennett is the first Independent to drop off his petition signatures at the Secretary of State's office to get his name on the November general election ballot. That same day, the signatures were confirmed, qualifying Bennett for the election.  Bennett and his campaign turned in 5,300 signatures, more than the 4,000 minimum. The senator from Oxford has been campaigning for nearly a year and has released his plans for housing, health care, and energy if he is elected to the Blaine House.

JOBS

• Circle K Stores, Inc. posted a job opening for Customer Service Representative in Freeport. Apply here.
• Dunkin' posted a job opening for Crew Member in Yarmouth. Apply here. 
• You can search for other jobs near Freeport here.

Press Herald - A proposed refer endum to ban transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that align with their gender identity is invalid, a presiding state official said Wednesday. Of the 67,150 signatures collected, 12,542 were invalid, meaning the proposal was over 500 signatures short of the 67,682 needed to put it on the ballot in November.

Maine Morning Star - The Maine Education Association is sticking to its endorsements for governor, despite their two top ranked gubernatorial candidates criticizing the third, Nirav Shah, for an outside ad supporting him that is partially funded by a school choice organization. “Our first and second choices were Shenna Bellows and Troy Jackson, because of their adamant commitment to maintaining public funds in public schools,” said Maine Education Association President Jesse Hargrove.

Maine Morning Star -  The U.S. District Court in Maine delivered a blow to President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice Thursday, granting the state’s motion to throw out the federal government’s lawsuit over Maine refusing to turn over sensitive voter data. Further, Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker concluded that the government’s stated purpose for the request — to ensure compliance with federal voter laws — is insufficient. Such an interpretation of federal law, Walker wrote in his ruling, “would take a sledgehammer to the balance Congress struck when it required states to create and maintain computerized lists of registered voters in the first place.”  

“Under our Constitution, states are the primary regulators and administrators of elections for federal office, unless Congress passes legislation that preempts that framework,” Walker wrote. “And Congress’s power to do even that is itself subject to limitations.”

Meanwhile, Shah “has expressed wanting to learn more information about charter schools and voucher systems, and he’s been direct and honest with that,” Hargrove added. “I think that his honesty is probably why [MEA] ranked him third, rather than first or second.”

Shah’s campaign clarified that he was asked during an interview with the teacher’s union about whether he supports expanding public charter schools. The candidate reportedly told members that he would support such schools to the extent that they would benefit public school students.  Shah has repeatedly polled at the top of the crowded Democratic field, as candidates make their final pitches ahead of the June 9 primary.

Maine Morning Star -    Mainers may no longer be voting this November on a ballot question to restrict the rights of transgender students to access bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams aligning with their gender identity. That’s because a state official determined that petitioners did not collect enough valid signatures, falling 500 short of the minimum required threshold to qualify for a citizen-led ballot initiative. Chief Deputy Secretary of State Katherine McBrien, who presided over a hearing last week to determine signature validity, is recommending to the Maine Secretary of State’s Office that more than 12,000 signatures that may have been collected improperly be invalidated, the office confirmed on Thursday.