Maine

The Wiscasset discount store is shutting down after three-and-a-half decades, as the retail industry undergoes serious changes.

Maine’s public university system said most residential students have verified their coronavirus vaccination status. The percentage of the students who have done so is more than 95%, the University of Maine System said late Thursday. The percentage of full-time employees who have verified their status is about 83%, the system said. The system said it is dealing with 57 known…

Piping plovers are experiencing a record recovery in Maine. This summer, piping plover pairs had more babies that grew up to fly than any other year since the birds, which are endangered in Maine, were protected. In total, 125 plover pairs fledged 213 chicks, according to researchers at Maine Audubon. That number is a sharp contrast to the 12 or…

The lobsters fetched 28 cents a pound on the docks when she first starting trapping them 90 years ago; today, the price is 15 times that.

It is beginning to look like autumn as the leaves start their changeover to the brilliant colors New England proudly displays to tourists everywhere.

Three teenagers have been arrested for allegedly setting a fire at a Lewiston, Maine, apartment building over the weekend that resulted in the death of a 70-year-old man. Authorities announced Tuesday that two 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old had been taken into custody on arson charges. They were transported to the Long Creek Correctional Facility, a youth prison located in South…

Police are investigating the discovery of human remains over the weekend in a marshy area near Interstate 295 outside Portland, Maine. The state medical examiner’s office is working to identify the remains, and police have alerted the family of a Richmond woman who has been missing since November 2019. Anneliese Heinig was 37 when she was last seen walking along…

Twenty years after checking in two of the 9/11 terrorists onto a flight from Portland, Maine, to Boston, retired ticket agent Michael Tuohey, who worked at U.S. Airways, says seeking out mental health professionals and going to therapy was critical in coming to terms with deep feelings of regret. Early in the morning on Sept. 11, 2001, Tuohey was smoking…

Portland may become Maine’s first city with an indoor mask requirement since state restrictions were lifted earlier this year. The Portland City Council held a workshop Wednesday to discuss days after city health officials recommended leaders make mask-wearing mandatory in all indoor public spaces, regardless of whether or not someone has been vaccinated. In recent weeks, Maine has seen...

Both of Maine’s U.S. senators say they support Congress strengthening Roe v. Wade protections after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to block a restrictive Texas law banning abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The restriction also allows anyone in Texas to sue people who provide abortions, as well as people who help someone get receive...

A man was arrested Wednesday in the death of his two-month old daughter in Turner, Maine, last year. The girl, Harper Averill, was in medical distress when first responders arrived to help at a home on North Parish Road near Pleasant Pond on July 22, 2020, Maine State Police said Wednesday. Harper was rushed to Maine Medical Center but died…

If you’re traveling to Maine this fall, a time when “we’re hiring” signs line roads and are posted in bold-type on restaurant Facebook pages, you’re not alone. A number of those businesses have full reservation logs into September and October, said Matt Lewis, the president and CEO of HospitalityMaine, an industry group with more than 1,000 members like restaurants...

Maine restaurants and hotels are looking for staff amid what’s expected to be a busy season. Here’s what travelers can expect.

Over the past few days, Michael Rich has made multiple trips to the wall he curates on the side of Aura, a music venue on Center Street in Portland. Sometime between Thursday and Friday, it was one of the walls with murals in an alley behind Aura that was splattered with light pink paint and vandalized with homophobic and anti-Black…

Portland police say they have opened an investigation into what happened but that cannot fix damage to the artwork.

The Maine Whoopie Pie Festival had a sweet recipe for a 2021 event but COVID-19 has totally mixed the event up once again. As of Thursday, the festival, which was scheduled for Oct. 2, is canceled. That means in it will not happen in-person for the second consecutive year, after the event went virtual in 2020 because of the coronavirus…

The Maine Whoopie Pie festival is canceled amid a surge in COVID, disappointing fans.

Ahead of Labor Day weekend, Maine only has a few dozen intensive care unit beds available at its hospitals. Somewhere around 40 of the state’s total ICU beds were available as of Thursday, with Maine’s recent total ICU bed number fluctuating between 320-340. “We’re at least two weeks behind the rest of the country when it comes to what...

Maine hospitals are warning travelers of rising COVID cases and a shortage of ICU beds ahead of Labor Day weekend.

A Maine man who used a baseball bat to beat his mother, his grandparents and his grandparents’ caretaker to death in Massachusetts in 2017 has pleaded guilty. Prosecutors say 26-year-old Orion Krause, of Rockport, Maine, was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years after pleading guilty to four counts of second-degree murder. Krause…