Morning Update: What you need to know in Maine today

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’ve been trying to figure out a way to provide market rate housing using conventional financing, but with multi-unit buildings and interest rates and the cost of construction materials, it really didn’t pan out at all.”

— Sam Hight, a developer who is building an affordable housing project in Rumford.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

What does Maine’s “resistance” to Donald Trump look like now? The through line is that the “resistance” is holding protests but is smaller than during Trump’s first term.

Even Maine’s cheapest new homes need subsidies to get built. Developers of an 18-unit affordable housing complex in Madison say it would not have happened without a state subsidy.

Bangor residents push back against a proposed downtown sign. City staff and the Downtown Bangor Partnership are reviving a proposal to place a large, internally lit sign spelling out “Bangor” on city-owned greenspace.

Penobscot County spent $2 million to demolish an asbestos-filled building. The lot remains empty. Several companies have shown interest in the former YMCA property, but no proposals have been finalized, officials say.

A northern Maine medical center is tripling in size. The bigger facility will allow it to hire more providers to meet the demand for primary care in the upper St. John Valley.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

MAINE IN PICTURES

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

Sen. Angus King edits his speech before delivering it on the Senate floor on Thursday. Credit: Courtesy of the Office of Sen. Angus King

“This is about tampering with the structure of our government, which will ultimately undermine its ability to protect the freedom of our citizens. If our defense of the Constitution is gone, there’s nothing left to us.”

Opinion: Elon Musk and DOGE have crossed a constitutional ‘red line’

LIFE IN MAINE

This historic park off the Maine coast is a joy to visit, even in the dead of winter. “There’s something special about being the first to leave bootprints on a road or trail after snowfall,” Aislinn Sarnacki writes about her visit to Roosevelt Campobello International Park.

There is a kind of reverence to buying a new deer rifle. And what did I buy? “What’s such a big deal about buying a new rifle? Well, nothing really,” columnist Chris Sargent writes. “But for someone like me, it’s not trivial. I own just a handful of rifles, all of which serve a specific purpose and occupy a special slot in my gun cabinet.”

This is my wintertime hunting addiction. “I still haven’t been able to nail down exactly what it is about finding a shed deer antler that calls to me so loudly,” Sargent writes.

Castine novelist pens tale of racial tensions in a fictional Maine town. In his latest novel, “Land of Cockaigne,” Jeffrey Lewis approaches the dynamics of locals and those from out of state in the imagined Maine community of Sneed’s Harbor.

Tips to reduce food waste at home. What if there was a way you could spend less on food, have less trash to take out to the curb each week and eat really well? There is.

This is how to prepare dried beans. Dried beans are cheaper, healthier and more sustainable than their canned counterparts, but you might not know what to do with them.

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