Press Herald
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released more than $39 million in low-income heating assistance for households in Maine, Sen. Susan Collins’ office announced Tuesday. With the federal funding, the state’s Energy Crisis Intervention Program will open Wednesday, providing one-time heating fuel deliveries of up to $500 to Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program-eligible households that have fully or nearly run out.
- Portland's homeless residents were left with few options Tuesday night as the city’s first winter storm wore on. In past years, the city has partnered with local nonprofits to operate a winter warming shelter, but no community partners were able to take on that role this year. Even so, the city’s warming shelter opens only when temperatures fall below 15 degrees or when more than 10 inches of snow accumulates. Neither threshold was met Tuesday evening.
- Portland froze hotel development for a year. Did it do anything?
- Maine secretary of state opposes using federal immigration database to determine voter eligibility
Robert Hazard Edwards, Bowdoin College's 13th president, died on Sunday at age 90. He served in the role from 1990 to 2001, a decade of big changes at the institution. During his tenure at Bowdoin, Edwards “brought significant change to the governance of the College, the residential life of students, the stability and health of Bowdoin’s finances, the strength of the academic program, and the size and composition of the faculty,” Bowdoin's current President Safa Zaki wrote.
The grounds of L.L.Bean in Freeport are even brighter than usual this holiday season. The company is projecting a gigantic 2D animated short produced by a Maine company. It features woodland creatures getting ready for the holidays. The flagship store is in the midst of a major renovation and much of it is closed off, with most of the merchandise moving to a large tent, which has become a gigantic movie screen of sorts during the annual Northern Lights celebration.
WalletHub - With the recent AT&T data breach impacting nearly 86 million customer accounts, including over 44 million Social Security numbers, the personal-finance company WalletHub today released its report on 2025’s States Most Vulnerable to Identity Theft & Fraud.
To determine where Americans are most susceptible to fraud and identity theft, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 15 key metrics. The data set ranges from identity theft complaints per capita to the average loss amount due to fraud.
Maine’s Vulnerability to Identity Theft & Fraud (1=Most Vulnerable; 25=Avg.):
Overall rank for Maine: 47th
42nd – Identity-Theft Complaints per Capita
26th – Avg. Loss Amount Due to Online Identity Theft
43rd – Fraud & Other Complaints per Capita
43rd – Median Loss Amount Due to Fraud
18th – State Security-Freeze Laws for Minors’ Credit Reports
39th – Persons Arrested for Fraud per Capita
32nd – Avg. Loss Amount Through Cryptocurrency Schemes
For the full report,