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Sea monsters in Casco Bay? As with many bodies of water, there are legends about strange creatures lurking beneath Casco Bay as well. Our local monster is known as Cassie and is apparently serpent-like in her form. Cassie was first sighted back in 1779 by a young sailor named Edward Preble. Fast forward nearly 200 years to 1958 when a fisherman described a similar serpent-like creature he saw that turned its head in response to the repeated blow of the foghorn. Apparently, Cassie is a long-lived serpent! The depths of this story can be plumbed at Portland’s International Cryptozoology Museum...

The voters of Maine passed the "right to food" state constitutional amendment on Tuesday, the first amendment of its kind in the U.S. The Associated Press reported that the amendment to Maine's constitution would “declare that all individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health, and well-being.” The vote on the "right to food" amendment was passed with large support in Maine's state legislature, but needed to be placed on the ballot following approval from lawmakers.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Mainers voiced their disapproval Tuesday for a 145-mile (233-kilometer) conduit for Canadian hydropower that was billed as either a bold step in battling climate change or unnecessary destruction of woodlands. Utilities have poured more than $90 million into the battle over the $1 billion project ahead of the referendum on Tuesday, making it the most expensive referendum in Maine history.... ...Three-quarters of trees already have been removed for the project, which calls for a transmission line that mostly follows existing utility corridors. But a new section needed to be cut through 53 miles (85 kilometers) of...

With the 2021 election in the home stretch, tens of millions of Americans will soon head to the ballot box or vote by mail for candidates on their November 2nd ballot. Depending on the state, voters can expect to elect a governor, state legislators, school board members, and other municipal officials, but there may be other items on the ballot they weren’t expecting: tax increases, and a lot of them. That’s right, voters across the country can expect to see many ballot measures that would impact their wallets. While these measures often get overshadowed, it would be a mistake to...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency request by health care workers seeking a religious exemption to the state of Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The court’s decision not to grant the immediate relief for the health care workers until it decides to review the case, means the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate will take effect while litigation continues in lower courts. The Supreme Court did not explain its action—typical in emergency appeals. But three conservative-leaning justices provided a dissenting opinion saying they would have granted the emergency request. Maine is not offering a religious exemption to its COVID-19 mandate...

Westbrook Maine Police Department t8tSc6404o10h36o25fg35rha6 · TRAFFIC ALERT: CHICK-FIL-A OPENING A lot of people have been waiting for this moment - Chick-Fil-A has come to Westbrook and is opening for business! It will be open beginning tomorrow (Thursday) for customers. There is a lot of excitement for this event. Because people love their chicken, we are anticipating heavy traffic for the next couple of weeks in the Rock Row area, in particular Main Street and Larrabee Road. We are asking that everyone please be patient. You will get your chicken. They won't sell out. They have plenty on site. Have...

NEWRY — The richest known hard rock lithium deposit in the world lies a few miles northeast of the ski slopes of Sunday River and not far from Step Falls, where swimmers can wade in shallow pools formed by hundreds of feet of cascading granite ledge. Smaller deposits have been known in Maine for decades, but this recent discovery, just north of Plumbago Mountain in Newry, is the first to have a major resource potential.

A hospital in Maine announced it would suspend emergency-level care at its walk-in location due to a staffing shortage, coming about a week after a facility in Minnesota suspended its urgent care and emergency room service. York Hospital said it is suspending emergency care at the Wells, Maine, facility starting Oct. 25. “York Hospital in Wells will temporarily suspend emergency-level care,” the hospital said in a statement. “Wells Walk-In Care will continue to offer urgent care to all patients” seven days per week but won’t operate 24 hours per day. “If you are experiencing life-threatening symptoms (severe pain, difficulty breathing)...

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an emergency appeal of a vaccine requirement imposed on Maine health care workers, the latest defeat for opponents of vaccine mandates. It was the first time the Supreme Court weighed in on a statewide vaccine mandate. It previously rejected challenges of vaccine requirements for New York City teachers and Indiana University staff and students. Justice Stephen Breyer rejected the emergency appeal but left the door open to try again as the clock ticks on Maine’s mandate. The state will begin enforcing it Oct. 29. The Maine vaccine requirement that was put in...

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday refused to issue an emergency injunction to stop Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.The three-judge panel of the Boston-based court issued a one-sentence statement saying the request was denied without an explanation, The Bangor Daily News reported.A final ruling will likely be issued next week, according to Liberty Counsel, an organization representing more than 2,000 health care workers across the state in the lawsuit.“We look forward to a decision from the Court of Appeals. If that decision is not favorable, we will request emergency relief from the Supreme Court,” Liberty Counsel Founder and...

There will be no state unemployment benefits for health care workers who are fired for refusing to get employer-mandated vaccinations against COVID-19, state officials said Thursday. Already, a small number of workers have quit rather than be fully vaccinated ahead of the deadline at month’s end. “Refusing to comply with an employer’s policies, including a health or safety policy, typically disqualifies a person from being eligible to receive unemployment benefits,” Jessica Picard, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Labor, said Thursday.

Maine CDC director, Dr. Nirav Shah refuses to be drawn on 'deaths within 28 days of vaccination.“Isn’t that a signal, that you should investigate?”During courtroom legal testimony, TrialSite advisory committee member Dr. Peter McCullough reports that the adverse event death rate in the state of Maine indicates considerable cause for concern. An inordinate amount of deaths, 661 within 28 days after vaccination, suggests a distinct possible link, although, of course, this isn’t prima facie proof that the deaths are caused by the COVID-19 vaccines. The VAERS death rate is 7 times the rate of Maine's average monthly Covid death rate....

Central Maine Medical Center, a key hospital for regional healthcare, issued a dire warning about the need to shut down critical care services last week if they are forced to fire or lay-off all the unvaccinated workers. The hospital appealed to the Governor’s office, Democrat Janet Mills (pictured below left), for a testing option to avoid losing some of the most important care providers in their system. Today, the hospital quantified their issue and announced they were going to suspend pediatric admissions as well as heart attack and trauma admissions, because they just will not be able to operate. Unfortunately,...

This seems like an explosive relationship. A Maine woman was so desperate to spend time with her boyfriend that she made bomb threats at his workplace so he could get the day off, police said Friday. Kayla Blake, 33, was arrested on a felony terrorizing charge after police tracked down the caller and learned she never had any bombs, authorities said. The woman’s bizarre attempt to get her boyfriend out of work happened Thursday in the city of Pittsfield. The suspect is accused of calling state police two separate times that day claiming she was going to bomb Puritan Medical...

Chinese media: Maine lobster shipment was ‘Pandora’s box,’ spreading covid Guest Author:Mark Godfrey Reports appearing across China’s tightly controlled media suggest the origin of covid-19 in the country came in 2019 via a shipment of lobster from Maine. “In November 2019, a shipment of frozen Maine [lobster] arrived in Wuhan, and shortly afterwards several people working in the market fell very ill with a strange pneumonia,” noted an article published this week in the New Observer, a state-owned periodical. The article suggests the shipment from Maine was a “Pandora’s box” that spread the virus around China. It also states the...

The housing market is tight all around New England these days, but among the selling points for most homes, rarely is “haunted by a witch” high on the list. That’s a big part of the terrifying charm of the house on Round Top Road in Harrisville, Rhode Island — that, and the fact that the house was part of the inspiration behind the horror movie franchise “The Conjuring,” the eight movies from which have grossed more than $2 billion. And that’s precisely why Cory and Jennifer Heinzen, longtime residents of the Maine town of Mexico and paranormal investigators, bought it...

CARIBOU, Maine (AP) — Maine’s annual moose hunt will start soon with more permits for hunters than the previous year. The hunt begins on Monday in limited parts of the state. The late September and early October moose hunt mostly takes place in far northern and eastern parts of Maine. The moose hunt ends briefly on Oct. 2. Other stretches of the hunt take places in mid-October, late October and November. The state approved almost 3,500 moose permits for this season, and that was an increase of 11% from the previous year. The moose hunt is starting as the bear...

Former Maine Governor Paul LePage held a rally in Augusta on Wednesday to officially launch his 2022 gubernatorial election campaign. Video...

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) will endorse former Republican Gov. Paul LePage as he seeks a third term in the governor's mansion, the senator’s office confirmed to The Hill. “As Maine recovers from the pandemic, Paul is the best candidate to grow our economy,” Collins will say in a prerecorded one-minute video, according to the Portland Press Herald, which obtained the video and first reported Collins’s coming announcement.

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine topped 1,000 COVID-19 deaths as the Delta variant continues to fill the state’s hospital beds, and Gov. Janet Mills used the “grim and unwelcome milestone” to press Tuesday for residents to get vaccinated. An additional 18 deaths recorded in the state since Saturday pushed the total to 1,002 since the pandemic began nearly 19 months ago, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. Behind the numbers are “parents, grandparents, siblings, children, loved ones and friends, all valued members of our Maine community,” Mills said.