Child mental health struggles / Bangor tiny home village / Aroostook town’s debt recovery

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“They told me if I did not come get her, they were going to take her to a homeless shelter and report me as ‘abandoning her.’ I told them, ‘Go ahead.’”

— A mother on her decision to leave her daughter, who was in desperate need of mental health care, at an Aroostook County hospital.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

Afraid for her family’s safety, she abandoned her teen daughter at a hospital. The experience illustrates an extreme dilemma playing out for parents, children and medical professionals in emergency departments across Maine, where guardians don’t want to take their children home because they don’t have services to support them safely.

If you’ve struggled to find mental health support for a child, we’d like to hear from you.

A nonprofit wants to transform the land currently home to Bangor’s largest encampment into a tiny home village. We’ve sought to answer the biggest questions swirling around this project.

Fort Fairfield found itself mired in $1 million in debt after alleged financial mismanagement. Officials made tough choices to dig out of that hole and rebuild trust in their community.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

MAINE IN PICTURES

Fort Fairfield’s Main Street is seen at twilight on a November evening. The town found itself in a deep debt hole after alleged financial mismanagement, leaving officials with tough choices to make and mistrust to overcome among residents. Credit: Paula Brewer / BDN

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

A wind turbine in the Vineyard Wind offshore wind site near the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts on Sept. 16. Credit: David Lawlor / Rhode Island PBS via Maine Public

“While there is reason for this optimism, there are also reminders that the path to renewable energy development remains long, and sometimes circuitous.”

Editorial: Offshore wind leases sold despite Trump pledge to end industry

LIFE IN MAINE

Joe Boyd’s grandsons had three hunting firsts in one week. What makes these firsts so special for Boyd is that he was there to witness two of them and to celebrate all three with his special grandsons.

Thousands of years ago, retreating glaciers left the Maine landscape strewn with large boulders. The stick season — the drab period between brilliant fall foliage and winter wonderland — is the perfect time for finding them.

Rockweed is free and abundant along Maine’s cragged shore. If you can get it responsibly, it has numerous benefits for your soil and livestock.

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