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#MaineMonitor

Mills proposes revamp to intellectual and developmental disability services
Fri, 01/20/2023 - 12:30pm

After years of talking about it, Maine’s health department is proposing to spend millions to clear a backlog for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who need state services, and to change the way those services are delivered. The changes, included in Gov. Janet Mills’ proposed $10.3 billion two-year budget plan, would represent a significant change for the programs that provide services for thousands of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their...
New public defenders don’t alleviate court’s troubles finding enough attorneys
Sun, 01/15/2023 - 4:30pm

State officials say they’re barely keeping up with the demand for lawyers to represent the poor in criminal and family cases, even as Maine takes gradual steps to shed its status as the only state without a public defender system. Maine’s first five public defenders began working on criminal cases late last year, and Gov. Janet Mills last Wednesday proposed funding for 10 more lawyers. But Justin Andrus, who runs the agency that coordinates indigent legal services, said adding a few public...
Get ready, get set for bruising referendum campaigns in 2023
Mon, 01/09/2023 - 9:00am

By the time you get your spring tires put on, the waiting room of your local automotive shop might be decorated with political signage. You might not think who is allowed to repair a vehicle could be a political discussion, but it will be one of the four likely ideological skirmishes waged on the airwaves and roadside signs as Maine gears up for a referendum-heavy year. This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor , a nonprofit civic news...
The long road to recovering PFAS damages
Fri, 12/30/2022 - 12:15pm

Shortly after hearing from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection that their well should be tested for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a Fairfield couple watched the movie “ Erin Brockovich ,” a true-life legal drama set in the 1990s. Julia Roberts portrays a struggling single mother of three young children who, in her newfound work as a legal aide, uncovers evidence that a Pacific Gas and Electric plant in Hinkley, Calif., was poisoning the community’s water source,...
Maine hospitals see lower readmission penalties after regulators relax certain metrics
Mon, 12/26/2022 - 12:00pm

Maine hospitals on average will see some of the lowest penalties for patient readmissions in a decade after federal regulators reduced the review period to acknowledge the challenges healthcare systems still face from the pandemic. Fines for readmissions and hospital-acquired conditions, two areas where hospitals can lose funding from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, are relatively small, but indicate hospitals where infections and potentially avoidable complications have...
‘We disagree with the decision and are considering our options, including an appeal’
Walmart weighs options as state board denies “dark store” tax appeal in Thomaston
Wed, 12/21/2022 - 8:30am

A state board has rejected Walmart’s attempt to avoid hundreds of thousands of dollars in property taxes for its store in Thomaston, in a case that tested an argument by big-box chains that claim their stores’ value should be treated like that of a building for sale, not an active business. The Maine Board of Property Tax Review case covered Walmart’s appeals of the 2017 and 2018 valuations of its Thomaston store. Many other similar appeals — for Walmart and other chains, and for stores in...
The price of PFAS: ‘Forever chemicals’ generate boundless costs
Mon, 12/19/2022 - 2:45pm

Widespread contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “has the potential to impose an unsustainable burden on state and private resources,” the Maine PFAS Task Force wrote three years ago. The weight of that burden from widely dispersed toxic chemicals is now becoming clear in multiplying expenses and costs that defy calculation. Governmental and utility funds committed to date for early-stage PFAS research and remediation in Maine are estimated to exceed $200 million,...
Maine’s decades-old flood maps don’t always factor in sea rise and climate change
Mon, 12/12/2022 - 8:30am

As Congress looks to reauthorize the chronically-underfunded National Flood Insurance Program next week, much of Maine is operating with flood maps that are decades old, if they exist at all. And the new maps that are being drawn are not designed for a changing climate. They don’t account for sea level rise or the kind of extreme rainfall events that are becoming increasingly common in Maine and elsewhere around the country. “The flood zone is wrong,” Charlie Colgan, a researcher and former...
alleges Maine AG has blocked reforms as court system collapses
Rep. Evangelos asks U.S. DOJ to investigate Maine criminal justice system
Mon, 12/05/2022 - 7:15pm

Retiring state Rep. Jeff Evangelos asked the U.S. Department of Justice on Sunday to place Maine’s criminal justice system under federal review and supervision for what he said are multiple attempts by the attorney general’s office to thwart reform during the past four years. Evangelos (I-Friendship) has been an outspoken supporter of progressive criminal justice reforms throughout his four terms in the state Legislature, which ends on Tuesday. He served on the legislative Judiciary Committee,...
Chief Justice says Maine’s justice system is “failing”
Sat, 11/12/2022 - 4:00pm

Maine’s top judge on Wednesday said the state’s justice system is failing people in the criminal and civil courts and implored lawyers to assist in the defense of the state’s poor. Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill and the director of indigent public defense, Justin Andrus, laid out an increasingly dire situation in Maine’s courts in a presentation to nearly 100 lawyers Wednesday at a meeting of the Maine State Bar Association. They asked lawyers to take cases and fill the gaps in representation...
Maine election officials cautious amid midterms
Mon, 11/07/2022 - 10:30pm

After more than three decades of working in municipal government, Bangor city clerk Lisa Goodwin is confident that Maine’s election system is safe. But with national tensions rising ahead of a potentially pivotal Election Day, she does not want to take chances. That was why Goodwin volunteered Bangor as one of the first municipalities to take part in an election systems assessment offered to Maine through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland...
Knox among courts recently struggling to find attorneys
Maine courts stretch to find available defense attorneys
Mon, 10/31/2022 - 8:30am

The crisis in Maine’s legal defense system for the poor is worsening, with jailed defendants waiting as long as six weeks to be assigned an attorney and some parents of children who have been removed from home lacking a lawyer days before scheduled hearings, emails obtained by The Maine Monitor show. Court clerks in nearly half of Maine’s counties — Aroostook, Kennebec, Knox, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Washington and York — couldn’t find an available lawyer who was qualified to work on cases for 34...
Planned Parenthood spends likely record amounts on Maine elections
Tue, 10/25/2022 - 9:00am

The state’s largest abortion rights advocacy group has spent a likely record amount of money on candidate races this year in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s political action committee in Maine has spent $836,059 this year in independent expenditures, a category of campaign spending that allows groups to show support or opposition to candidates, according to Maine campaign finance records. It is the...
How they met economic challenges gives a glimpse into Mills, LePage
Thu, 10/13/2022 - 10:00pm

As the economy took center stage in Maine’s gubernatorial race, attention focused on how the two major party candidates responded to very different economic challenges that took place during their terms in office. The contrast emerged when former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, defended his economic record before the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, noting he had increased Maine’s economic reserves despite a multitude of economic challenges when he came into office in 2011. He...
Wild blueberry harvest suffered in this year’s drought
Sun, 10/09/2022 - 10:15am

ROQUE BLUFFS — Cool sea breezes off Englishman Bay graced the fields of Welch Farm on a piercing blue, mid-September day, revealing nothing of the heaving, dry summer months before. It was the third straight season of drought for the state’s midcoast and Down East coastal region — wild blueberry country. With the mighty harvester resting in the field, 52-year-old farm owner Lisa Hanscom drops into a chair in the boxing room, allowing herself a pause to consider the bleak tally of this year’s...
Legal protections of low-income mortgages at risk with appeal pending
Mon, 10/03/2022 - 10:15pm

A solicitation of briefs from Maine’s highest court has legal aid providers worried that long-standing rulings protecting the poor from repeat foreclosure attempts could be upended amid the housing crisis. For 25 years, Maine’s legal precedent has barred lenders from suing borrowers multiple times for defaulted loans when they ask for repayment all at once — called accelerating a note — if their case is dismissed with prejudice under state law . That precedent was upheld by the Maine Supreme...
‘zero tolerance for anything that would infringe upon somebody’s right to privacy’
Waldo County among those to adopt changes to prevent jail recording attorney-client calls
Sat, 10/01/2022 - 11:30am

Two-thirds of Maine county jails recorded phone calls between jailed clients and their attorneys at various times since 2014 and provided law enforcement with some recordings, which potentially violated defendants’ constitutional rights, an investigation by The Maine Monitor has found. As the recording of attorney calls became public in recent years, county sheriffs, a state agency and the company that runs most of the phone systems in Maine jails have taken steps to curb the practice. But they...
MCILS to send Mills, lawmakers letter requesting special session
Indigent defense commissioners seek emergency funding to raise lawyer pay amid defense lawyer shortage
Thu, 09/29/2022 - 8:15am

Maine’s shortage of lawyers accepting new cases is at a “crisis” stage and could collapse the statewide public defense system before spring if state lawmakers don’t make an emergency intervention, officials warned on Wednesday. Commissioners who oversee Maine’s public defense system unanimously endorsed a request for an additional $13.3 million to raise the hourly compensation rate to $150 an hour for attorneys before the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2023. They also voted to send Gov...
NRA endorses LePage, gives improved grade to Mills
Mills, LePage navigate tricky politics of gun rights
Wed, 09/28/2022 - 4:00pm

After a downgrade in her first campaign, Gov. Janet Mills’ ranking with one of the most prominent gun lobbying organizations increased this year without much fanfare — reflecting the changing political terrain on gun rights since her first campaign. The release of the National Rifle Association’s campaign scorecards last week saw Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Gov. Paul LePage earning the group’s endorsement, as he did in 2014 . The endorsement praised LePage for issues such as...
Maine vaping numbers down for students, work continues toward further bans
Mon, 09/26/2022 - 8:30am

When Mary Lou Warn discovered her teenager was vaping six years ago, he assured her it was safe. He had done his research, he said, and vaping was just flavored water. It was nothing like smoking. Warn tried to do her own research but there was little information available at the time about these new electronic cigarettes. “I couldn’t find anything to counter this message,” she said. “I didn’t have much of a leg to stand on.” By the time her son, Jake, went off to college, Warn said his vaping...
Maine to walk away from multi-million dollar Juul settlement
Fri, 09/23/2022 - 6:15pm

The Maine Attorney General’s Office on Friday decided to walk away from an $11 million agreement with electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul after objecting to certain conditions from the company. Maine was set to receive about $11 million over the next six to 10 years as part of a nearly $440 million settlement between the manufacturer and 33 states and territories. The investigation found that Juul had marketed its products to youth. However, as part of the agreement, Juul wanted states to...
40 percent of Maine high schoolers report mental health problems, survey finds
Thu, 09/22/2022 - 11:45pm

Nearly 43% of Maine high school students reported their mental health was not good “most of the time” or “always” during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of a 2021 survey released Wednesday. Female high school students reported worse mental health than male students. Nearly 57% of female students said their mental health was not good “most of the time” or “always,” compared to nearly 29% of male students. The question stated that “poor mental health includes stress, anxiety, and...
Copy cat demands for data mirror those in other states
Elections clerks field ‘frivolous requests’ in apparent effort to sow distrust
Thu, 09/08/2022 - 12:45pm

Clerks across the state have just nine weeks until the pivotal 2022 elections. But their tasks increasingly include responding to misinformed election data requests rooted in national efforts to sow distrust in the process. The requests are part of a national trend that is slowing down clerks’ ability to do their jobs. Those efforts stem from skeptics who believe that former President Donald Trump should have won the November 2020 general election, despite officials in several states finding no...
Maine misses EPA deadline to submit pollution reduction plan
Wed, 09/07/2022 - 4:00pm

If you’ve lived here for any appreciable amount of time, you’ve probably heard Maine referred to as the “tailpipe of the nation.” Prevailing winds carry pollutants up from the Midwest and the rest of New England, periodically resulting in smoggy, hazy days, particularly in the hot summer months. On the east coast, that haze comes from power plants, industrial boilers, industrial processes, and emissions from cars and trucks. “Even if we had really great emission standards in Maine, the way that...
Half of Maine indigent cases are being defended by just 33 lawyers, analysis finds
Mon, 09/05/2022 - 12:00pm

Maine officials may ask lawyers handling large caseloads of indigent defendants to stop accepting new assignments from the courts, after finding that 11 lawyers each have more than 301 open cases and half of the open indigent cases are being managed by just 33 lawyers. The development is the latest sign that Maine’s network of lawyers who represent defendants unable to afford their own counsel are overwhelmed. Maine is unique among states in not employing public defenders. Instead, contracted...
DEP says developer of Washington County project built cabins without permits
Sun, 08/28/2022 - 9:30am

State environmental regulators issued a “Notice of Violation” against the developer of an ambitious, $1 billion project in Washington County, after inspectors found the company built several dozen cabins, a restaurant, roads and parking areas without obtaining necessary permits. Worcester Holdings was issued the notice in July after an inspection found apparent violations at their Flagpole View Cabins. Worcester officials said they are working with the Department of Environmental Protection to...
Abundance of openings, lack of qualified applicants burden school leaders
Tue, 08/16/2022 - 9:15am

One Maine school district is paying teachers an hourly stipend to act as custodial staff after work. Another is trying to recruit parents to work as educational technicians. A third has 12 teacher openings it needs to fill before school starts Aug. 31. Maine schools are struggling to fill openings after an unusual number of educators retired or quit in the past three years, leaving roles vacant as the school year approaches. Teachers and administrators blame the departures and resulting...
A man waited three years for a trial. His case may change how Maine looks at speedy trial rights
Sun, 08/14/2022 - 5:00pm

Maine’s highest court may hear arguments on whether defendants must show they were harmed by a delayed trial, taking on the right to “speedy trials” amid a historic backlog of criminal cases across the state. Maine is among the few states not limiting the months or days that can elapse before the government brings a case to trial. The state’s constitution promises, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have a right … to have a speedy, public and impartial trial.” But the guarantee of...
As wait for mental help increases, suicide attempts continue to rise
Mon, 08/08/2022 - 10:45pm

Demand for mental health services that peaked during the pandemic has remained stubbornly high, increasing waitlists and spilling patients into Maine’s hospital emergency rooms. Prior to COVID-19, Mainers might wait weeks to see a behavioral health specialist. Now waitlists are months long, said Dr. Anthony Ng, medical director for community services at Northern Light Acadia Hospital. “You could put them on the waitlist but for every moment they wait, weeks and months, their illness could...
Only n.h. has higher rate of people saying they rarely or never attend services
Maine religious leaders hope to stem drop in attendance
Mon, 08/01/2022 - 7:45am

Anita M. Madore shifted in her wooden pew at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Lewiston. It was 7 a.m. on a Thursday and the seats around her were mostly empty. The 84-year-old has attended mass six days a week since she was a small child, and for decades has watched attendance slowly thin. The priest, who, performing double duty, would travel to Holy Trinity Church in Lisbon Falls an hour later to deliver another mass, gave communion to around 35 congregants in Lewiston...
State complicates couple’s hopes to mine $1.5 billion lithium deposit on their property
Mon, 07/25/2022 - 9:30am

A recent decision by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection will make it more complicated for a Newry couple to mine lithium from a deposit on their land in western Maine. In a July 8 letter to Mary and Gary Freeman, who own the land and discovered the deposit, Mark Stebbins, field services director for the Bureau of Land Resources, wrote that the operation would be considered a metallic mineral mine under state regulations. That means it would be treated more like a copper or silver...
as many as 7,200 plaintiffs could join lawsuit
Judge grants class action status to ACLU suit on public defense system
Fri, 07/22/2022 - 12:30pm

A class action lawsuit filed against Maine officials that alleges they failed to create an effective public defense system has cleared two major hurdles. Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy granted the ACLU of Maine’s request for class certification on July 13 after she denied the state’s request to dismiss the lawsuit in June. The decision is an important recognition that the problems with Maine’s representation of defendants isn’t isolated to one county or case, but that there is a...
Woodlands Memory resident died after being found in the snow
Sun, 07/17/2022 - 3:15pm

A resident in a Rockland assisted living facility died after spending two hours in an outdoor courtyard in December before being found by staff members “in the snow,” according to an investigation by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. The resident later died in hospice care and the cause was listed as related to the incident. This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor . The Maine Monitor is a local journalism product published by The Maine Center for...
Law enforcement officials listened to dozens of those recordings
A Maine jail recorded hundreds of an attorney’s calls. He wants to know why.
Tue, 07/12/2022 - 4:30pm

When Corey Hebert’s attorney came to see him at the Aroostook County Jail, they sat face to face. His court-appointed attorney, John Tebbetts, advised him to speak softly so their conversation wouldn’t be heard by the guards posted nearby. “But when we talked over the phone we were more free because these calls — we were told — were not supposed to be recorded,” Hebert said. “And here we are finding out that they are.”
Availability of Maine defense lawyers reaches all-time low
Wed, 07/06/2022 - 11:15pm

The availability of criminal defense attorneys is at an all-time low in Maine for defendants who cannot afford to hire their own attorney. There are 224 attorneys currently accepting court-appointments to criminal or child protection cases statewide, which is down from 410 lawyers in May 2019, according to the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services, or MCILS. The decrease of available attorneys coincides with an increase in cases where the defendant needs a lawyer appointed at the state’s...
Numbers rise for healthcare professionals entering substance use and mental health program
Sun, 07/03/2022 - 6:15pm

More than 120 Maine doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals entered a substance use and mental health monitoring program in 2021, part of a steady increase over the past three years, according to a new state report. While they make up a small percentage of the overall workforce, the rising number of professionals in the program comes at a time of exhausting demands on healthcare workers during the pandemic, and also reflects rising substance misuse across the population as a whole...
new regulations to give scientists better understanding region’s fish
How many fish are in the sea? New rules intend to help with the count.
Thu, 06/30/2022 - 11:00pm

Regulators and fishermen hope new rules set to take effect this summer will provide a more accurate understanding of the population of some of New England’s most iconic fish, including Atlantic cod, which has seen a spectacular collapse in recent decades. The rules, adopted this spring by federal regulators, will require boats in groundfish sectors to have a human observer or a camera aboard on every groundfish trip to keep tabs on what they catch and discard. This story was originally...
Young women react with shock, resolve after SCOTUS overturns abortion rights
Tue, 06/28/2022 - 11:30pm

For young women across the country, the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion was a certainty — a legal right that was established and enshrined long before they were born. Friday’s ruling overturning the landmark decision has left many college-aged women shocked and angry. Some are pessimistic about the ruling and believe it is only a matter of time before the Supreme Court overturns decisions legalizing contraceptives and same sex relationships. Others are focused on...
AG’s office says legislature likely needs to change laws governing private schools receiving public money
SCOTUS ruling could unsettle already limited oversight of private schools
Mon, 06/27/2022 - 11:30pm

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that Maine cannot exclude religious schools from a public tuition reimbursement program is creating new uncertainty for the state’s already limited authority over private schools of all kinds. The court issued its order Tuesday in Carson v. Makin, which determined the constitutionality of a Maine law requiring school districts that lack a public high school, most of them in rural areas, to pay tuition for students to go to private schools instead. This...
state’s top public health official says virus could surge again
Shah warns against COVID-19 complacency
Fri, 06/24/2022 - 9:15am

As COVID-19 hospitalizations in Maine continue to decline, the state’s top public health official warned not to be “seduced” by the impression of smaller and smaller surges. It seems like each time COVID-19 surges there’s a lower peak, but “there’s nothing written in stone that says it will be that way going forward,” Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Maine Monitor this week. This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor...
Registered voters who did not vote in the past two federal elections have 20 days to verify address
State mailing seeks to confirm voter eligibility
Thu, 06/23/2022 - 8:45am

Yes, the state of Maine is mailing notices to some registered voters asking them to verify their address ahead of the November election. But the state’s top elections official says voters should not be alarmed. The Secretary of State mailed 248,227 postcards on June 15 to registered voters who didn’t cast ballots in either of the past two federal elections — 2018 and 2020 — to verify their residence and eligibility to vote in Maine. This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor...
Maine’s aging transgender population faces profound challenges
Wed, 06/22/2022 - 2:00pm

Deborah McDonald cherishes the memories. There are nearly six decades of relationships with friends, coworkers, the two children she raised and her spouse, the woman she fell in love with 32 years ago. “You’ve got to decide what memories you keep, which ones you let go,” said McDonald. “It’s sort of a grieving for life before you transitioned.” After wrestling with the discomfort and distress of living in a male body for 57 years, McDonald began taking hormone replacement therapy in March 2020...
They face bullying and isolation, and health resources are hard to come by
The heartbreak, hope and courage of a Maine transgender child
Fri, 06/17/2022 - 6:15pm

Sometimes there are no words to take away her son’s pain. So Marie wraps her arms around her child and cries with him. A few times a week, the 11-year-old breaks down, overwhelmed with the adversity he faces as a transgender boy. His peers, his mother said, have called him gross, stupid and a pervert. The Penobscot County fifth-grader also suffers from gender dysphoria, a psychological condition that causes distress for those whose gender identity does not match their birth-assigned sex. ...
‘I want people to know there is support out there for them’
One transgender man’s journey to find hope and happiness
Wed, 06/15/2022 - 11:15pm

There were so many questions. Why don’t I feel comfortable in my body? Why do I feel so alone? And perhaps the most heartbreaking: Will I ever be loved? As a child growing up in Maine, Aiden Campbell knew something wasn’t right.
Justice rules ACLU can proceed with lawsuit against state public defense agency, commissioners
Tue, 06/07/2022 - 8:30am

The ACLU can go forward with a lawsuit against Maine officials contending the state violated the constitutional rights of indigent defendants by allegedly failing to create an effective public defense system, a superior court justice has ruled. Maine’s attorney general had sought to dismiss the case and claimed the courts cannot grant the ACLU the outcome it desired, which is more funding to train, supervise, oversee and support the attorneys that defend Maine’s poor who are accused of crimes...
Supreme Court ruling expected on Maine education case
Mon, 06/06/2022 - 8:15am

Educators are anxiously awaiting a major decision in a Maine-centered U.S. Supreme Court case, due out this month, that could roll back restrictions on the use of public funding for religious and other private schools. The high court is considering an appeal in a case called Carson v. Makin , which stems from a 2018 lawsuit brought by three Maine families against the state Department of Education. The families’ lead attorney is the Institute for Justice, which has won similar school choice and...
‘There’s a lot of people who really want treatment who can’t get into it’
Only 20 beds exist for uninsured Mainers needing monitored withdrawal
Mon, 05/30/2022 - 11:45am

Courtney Allen was on her way from Augusta to Bangor one day in January, driving a man to a substance use treatment center that accepts MaineCare, when she learned the facility couldn’t take him. Allen was able to find a backup place in Derry, N.H., that provided him a free bed. So Allen turned around and they drove across the state line. This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor . The Maine Monitor is a local journalism product published by The Maine Center for...
Vacant and newly filled clerk jobs a concern ahead of primary elections
Sat, 05/28/2022 - 10:00am

Several Maine towns and cities are hurrying to hire their top election official as the June 14 primaries approach, trying to fill vacancies left by people who retired, took new jobs or quit in the wake of harassment and false accusations following the 2020 election. State officials are concerned about shortages of election workers. At least three municipalities are looking to fill clerk positions and several more are hiring deputy clerks, though some community officials said they were confident...
Elections officials fight misinformation about Maine’s voting security
Tue, 05/24/2022 - 8:45am

Maine officials anticipate a modest turnout on June 14 for the state’s primary elections, though they are on heightened alert for threats against poll workers amid a growing cloud of misinformation about the security of Maine’s elections. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said there are layers of protections built into Maine’s election systems to ensure the accuracy of its count, down to the individual voter. As the state’s top election official, she is concerned by claims made locally and...
one of many steps needed to make cultivated landscapes more ecological
Make way for pollinators: How Rockland’s ‘No Mow May benefits bees, butterflies
Fri, 05/20/2022 - 3:45pm

Spreading like dandelion fluff, a “No Mow May” initiative to support bees and other pollinators is taking seed in Maine. It began when two Rockland residents sent City Councilor Nathan Davis a New York Times photo essay about how this movement had swept Wisconsin in recent years. “This is something the people of Rockland could get behind,” he recalled thinking, and he was right. The council supported the resolve unanimously, and Rockland became Maine’s first “No Mow May” community ...

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