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QUOTE OF THE DAY
— Sarah Demarest, an independent project manager in Lewiston who helped spearhead protests against a proposed data center.
TODAY’S TOP STORIES
A proposed data center in an old Lewiston mill building began to unravel before the public even got wind of it. City councilors were caught off guard after receiving the detailed proposal for a $300 million center inside the downtown Bates Mill only about a month before a meeting when they needed to vote on the project.
These are the towns hit the hardest by Penobscot County’s swelling tax bill. Thirteen towns have been hit with a tax hike of more than 20%, while the average increase across all 60 towns was about 16%.
Maine Democrats vying to succeed Janet Mills won’t embrace her relief checks. None of the five candidates has endorsed the $300 relief checks she is pushing for in her final state budget.
Inside Maine’s first use of its new “red flag” law. Police in the Oxford County town of Paris requested an extreme risk protection order for a 60-year-old man they said was a threat to the community.
This little island sells for more per square foot than Maine’s biggest mansions. Measuring only 487 square feet, the year-round, fully furnished home in Waterboro takes up most of the 0.09-acre island it sits on.
Nonprofit arts group wants to partner with Belfast for new performance stage. The group is fundraising to cover most of the cost and plans to donate the stage to Belfast, but wants the city to chip in, too.
NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE
- Beverage industry fights bill to direct unredeemed bottle deposits to lake and farm protection
- Maine joins multistate lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s voter list order
- Appeals court says Maine’s 3-day waiting period on guns is likely constitutional
- Community begin compost programs as towns try to limit waste disposal costs
- Aroostook teen starts odd job business to help his family rebound from homelessness
- Aroostook Acadian Village project exceeds fundraising goal
- Lamoine lawyer to challenge former DA for Hancock County probate judge seat
- A tiny Maine island once abandoned by lobstermen is set to be sold
- New Jersey couple buys Camden inn after wife came to Maine to run in marathon
- Midcoast lawyer suspended by state over professional conduct violations
- 75-year-old woman killed in central Maine fire
- Maine man drowns while saving his children from rip current in Florida
- York County sheriff candidate is eligible to run, secretary of state rules
- Meet the unstoppable forces on the BDN’s All-Maine boys basketball team
- $80M redesign of ‘The Pit’ aims to host UMaine basketball by 2027
MAINE IN PICTURES
FROM THE OPINION PAGES
“Americans spend two-and-a-half times more per person on health care as those from other wealthy countries, yet often get worse outcomes.”
Opinion: Reining in rising hospital prices is essential to controlling health care costs
LIFE IN MAINE
Maine could become the only state without Sunday hunting. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey wants to eliminate her state’s ban on Sunday hunting, leaving Maine as the only state with a ban.
You say you’ll go camping in Maine this summer. Here’s why you won’t. “‘Adulting’ usually doesn’t equal fun. Yet in this case, it may lead to it,” Outdoors contributor Aislinn Sarnacki writes.
These new birds are changing how spring sounds in Maine. “A variety of southern birds have moved northward as the climate warms, forests rebound and bird-feeding becomes more popular,” Outdoors contributor Bob Duchesne explains.
