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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I tell them they’re just like our lobsters — when we put them in boiling water, they turn red.”
— Hot dog stand owner Jim Simones on how he explains Maine’s iconic red snappers to customers. The hot dogs owe their distinctive color to red dye No. 3, which the FDA has just banned.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
Maine’s last red hot dog maker has a plan to save them after a federal ban on red dye No. 3. W.A. Bean & Sons expected the FDA to eventually ban the ingredient and had been exploring ways to make its iconic red snappers without it.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention revoked a Bangor syringe provider’s certification. The change leaves Penobscot County with two state-certified syringe service providers, Wabanaki Public Health and Needlepoint Sanctuary.
Four midcoast counties plan to hire consultants to help reduce jail costs. Jail funding has been a continuing challenge for Maine’s county governments and has led to calls to close and consolidate some of them in the past.
Mattanawcook boys basketball has its first shot at a regional title in 69 years. The last time the team from Lincoln played in a state championship game, Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president.
NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE
- Maine pharmacies and ambulances take cautious approach to Janet Mills’ tax proposals
- Canadian officials warn against trade war during Maine visit
- Biden administration withdraws rules to save endangered whales from collisions
- Man arrested during Bangor elementary school drop-off
- Police release photo of suspect who robbed Bangor Circle K at knifepoint
- Texas man pleads guilty to stealing $400K from vacationing Maine couple
- Owner will rebuild fire-damaged Machias motel
- Bar Harbor town councilor resigns to focus on state legislative work
- Hancock man avoids jail time after friend died in fall from vehicle
- Maine schools went into lockout after someone mistook tire iron for an assault weapon
- Driver badly injured after colliding with tractor-trailer in Northport
- 20-year-old dies after crashing while fleeing from Maine police
- 4 charged in Rockland after drug deal allegedly ends with knives out
- Voters reject $7.3M bond to upgrade midcoast Maine school
- Man hit by SUV after allegedly fleeing Hannaford with stolen vodka
- Maine man accused of shooting his stepbrother
- Man arrested in shooting outside Maine sushi restaurant
- 13-year-old Maine girl found unconscious in ditch after hit-and-run
- UMaine hockey co-captain nominated for national humanitarian award
MAINE IN PICTURES
THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND
The place to be for live music this weekend is Ellsworth, starting Friday with jam band Endless Groove at the Black Moon Public House. On Saturday, Fogtown Brewing hosts a seventh anniversary party featuring dance band Lazers in the Jungle, and at the Grand Theatre, there’s a memorial concert for longtime Maine concert promoter Joel Raymond, who passed away last year, featuring the bands Gray Parrot, 40 Thieves, Travis Cyr and Laura Bagley, Muskeg, Milk and Honey Rebellion, The Hot Suppers, and Shirt Tail Kin. This weekend also brings the 15th annual SnowCon, a three-day celebration of tabletop and non-electronic gaming set for the Black Bear Inn and Convention Center in Orono.
FROM THE OPINION PAGES
“Maine owes it to victims like Virgina Cookson, who was killed in Bangor, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, to sustain these services and do everything we can to prevent further tragedies.”
Editorial: Maine must prevent ‘catastrophic cuts’ to victim services
LIFE IN MAINE
Maine’s snowmobile clubs are desperate for snow. The lack of snow in Aroostook County may have contributed to a lakeside restaurant closing less than two weeks before the state’s largest fishing derby.
A fisherman pulled a 10.5-pound togue out of Eagle Lake in Aroostook County. “I grabbed the line and gave it a tug. Fish on!” Nick Starbird said. “And I could tell it was a good one.”
Maine lighthouses have been added to a list of endangered world cultural sites. That comes a year after severe twin storms damaged a third of them.
