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.
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.
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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.
News Center Maine - Nine adults who stayed at the former Maine Youth Center in the 1990s are suing the Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC) and 58 other defendants, claiming they were abused while at the South Portland facility. The lawsuit, filed Friday, names 59 defendants, including the MDOC and psychologists, supervisors, counselors involved at the facility, now known as Long Creek Youth Development Center.
"This wasn't just a couple of rogue guards. This was a policy. This was the Maine Youth Center custom was to treat kids like this," attorney Tom Hallett, who is representing the plaintiffs, said.
Court documents claim the plaintiffs were beaten, sexually assaulted, and locked in isolation for months at a time. The suit said the abuse caused the plaintiffs, now in their 40s, trauma that has lasted into adulthood.
"I think all of them want to have their stories known, get heard, and have society understand what society was doing to them," Hallett said. "We're the people that run the Maine Youth Center, right? It's the state of Maine. So this is the citizens of the state of Maine torturing its young. And we've all got to be aware of that."
Here are the candidates running for Maine's second Congressional District seat
Maine’s Memorial Day weekend weather is looking just fine
Barney Frank, longtime congressman and gay rights pioneer, dies at home in Maine
Overall: Platner +7
Female: Platner +19
Male: Collins +3
Democrats: Platner +65
Republicans: Collins +69
Independents: Platner +13
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Favorables (net)
Graham Platner (+3)
Susan Collins (-18)
Donald Trump (-23)Portland Maine ranks seventh in WalletHub's list of best cities for summer jobs.
Fire is a familiar threat at Maine lumber mills
Portland hits 92, breaking daily heat record, many other cities come close
Maine Morning Star - Gov. Janet Mills announced her official endorsement Tuesday for Hannah Pingree to succeed her in the Blaine House.
MS NOW - the Senate on Tuesday approved a procedural vote related to a war powers resolution. If adopted, the war powers resolution would severely restrict President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran. After seven failed previous attempts, the Senate voted 50-47 to discharge the war powers resolution, with Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining with nearly all Democrats in backing the procedural motion. (Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., once again opposed the vote.)
School district administration salaries are average for Maine (southberwickreporter.org)
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Domino's Pizza, Inc. posted a job opening for Assistant Manager(03091) - 8 School St. in Freeport. Apply here.
If you are voting absentee, the deadline to request one is June 4. McBrien recommends making a plan to physically drop the ballot off at your polling location on Election Day.
"In order to have your vote counted through an absentee ballot, you actually have to have your ballot in the hands of the clerk by 8 p.m. on Election Day," McBrien said. "So in Maine, as opposed to some other states, it doesn't matter when you mailed it, it has to arrive and be accepted and in the hands of the municipality where you're voting."
McBrien said you can also track your absentee ballot on the secretary of state's website.
"You can see when you've requested it, that that request has been accepted by your town clerk," McBrien explained. "You can see when they've mailed it out to you, so that you know to be watching for it in the mail, and then if you mail it back in or you drop it in the drop box, you can actually see when they've accepted it again."
As for how to vote for a particular party, Maine has a semi-open primary. That means you don't have to be registered to a particular party, but you have to pick one party when you go to the polls.
"If you are a registered voter, registered to a specific party, if you're a Republican, if you're a Democrat, if you're a Green Independent, if you're a Libertarian, that's the primary that you vote in, you get the ballot for that party," McBrien said. "But if you are unenrolled, which means you're a registered voter but you haven't enrolled in a party, you actually get to choose which ballot you vote with."
If you haven't registered to vote ahead of time, McBrien said you can do so when you head to the polls.
"As long as you've already registered to vote with your town, that's where you've shown your ID, your proof of residence, your proof of identity, and your proof of citizenship, or at least checked off that you are a citizen," McBrien said. "If you are not yet registered to vote, you can actually go to the polling location and register to vote at that location that day, but again, just, you know, bring some proof of identity, some proof of residency, and then otherwise, that's it."
Maine Morning Star - Graham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Maine, is known for a few things: his “more Bernie than Bernie” message of wresting back control from the rich and powerful; his biography as a Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer with limited political experience; and his history of controversial and offensive online commentary and tattoos.
Climate champion? Not so much. But in recent weeks, Platner, who has talked about finding peace from some of his post-combat demons and political disillusionment while working on the clear blue waters of the Gulf of Maine, has started to roll out a message of protecting both the planet and pocketbooks, including through an energy plan released last week.
“We need to get off fossil fuels, not just for its impact on the environment and climate,” Platner told Inside Climate News in a summary of that plan. “We need to get off fossil fuels because that would make America self-sustaining.”
With the departure of Maine’s Governor Janet Mills, a candidate with a strong record of supporting renewable energy, Platner is the presumptive Democratic nominee, although a third candidate with a strong environmental record, David Costello, remains in the primary race.
Maine Democrats - A whopping $1.7 million was recently dropped into the Maine Governor's race to prop up MAGA extremist Garrett Mason. The billionaire pulling the strings? Richard Uihlein. He's an anti-abortion extremist who gave $49 million to Donald Trump and MAGA-affiliated PACs in 2024 and has supported far-right, anti-choice candidates like Ted Cruz, Lauren Boebert, Josh Hawley, and now Garrett Mason. We can't allow our future to be one in which the wealthy elite can buy our voice from us.
Maine Historical Society - In 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette, Revolutionary War hero and friend of George Washington, visited Maine, cementing our state's place in the Revolutionary War story. Thousands turned out to honor the man who had risked his life and fortune for American independence. Last month, Portland unveiled a commemorative plaque at Bramhall Square, the very spot where Lafayette addressed the crowd during his 1825 visit. Read the Lafayette story
Maine Historical Society - As we approach July 4th—the actual 250th—and a busy year of commemoration, it’s time to gear up and get ready. MHS has a primer for you—resources online and in our Pathways to Freedom exhibit—to help you get oriented, learn the basics about Maine’s role in the Revolution, explore what Mainers thought in 1776, and consider what the Declaration of Independence means to Mainers today.
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the weather warms, Maine rescue workers emphasize hiker safety
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reactiom to changes in Medicaid services for children with disabilities
JOBS
Skechers USA, Inc. posted a job opening for Retail Sales Associate in Freeport. Apply here.