#MaineMonitor

Mike Nerney preaching.

When Lance Satterwhite rented a U-Haul and left his home in Texas for central Maine, he and his family didn’t yet have a place to live.

“We loaded up and headed…

Gulf of Maine Research Institute

A University of Maine initiative exploring ways to bring renewable energy to Indigenous and rural communities was gaining momentum this spring when the Trump…

great white shark

John Chisholm has been interested in sharks as long as he can remember. Growing up in Plymouth, Mass. in the 1970s, he spent a lot of time searching for great whites on…

housing complex

Johnnie Walker, director of housing and shelter services at Partners for Peace, has worked at the domestic violence resource center for 25 years. When she started…

Proposed rate increases

Maine could have among the highest health insurance rate increases in the Northeast next year, according to Bob Carey, superintendent of the Maine Bureau of Insurance…

statehouse dome

Reverend Gwen Fry realized she was a transgender woman in 1976 as she watched the transgender tennis player Renée Richards fight to compete in the U.S. Open as a woman…

solar panels

It would be hard to argue that Maine’s solar incentive program hasn’t been successful in spurring the development of small-scale solar projects. Since it was…

exterior of a hospital

A new law expands who is eligible for charity care in Maine while federal Medicaid cuts are expected to push tens of thousands off public insurance.

rsu 20 among districts rejecting proposed budget
inside a classroom

A small group of people gathered in a sweltering cafetorium — a room that serves as both cafeteria and auditorium — at Gray-New Gloucester High School on…

analysis
EV cars charging.

Federal rebates on new and used electric vehicles will now expire at the end of September

When shopping for a car, one rule of thumb is to time your purchase so…

exterior of the catholic charities office.

Maine will end its transitional housing program for asylum seekers by the end of September, citing budget constraints and declined arrivals. 

“The state…

the belfast wetlands.

The 24-acre lot for sale in Belfast, between Renys and Goodwill, is touted as “an ideal location for retail, office, or mixed-use development.”

But ads for the $…

waiting room of a medical office

After about 15 years in different health care settings, Brad Tuttle and his wife, Alley Tuttle, decided to leave traditional health care and start a direct primary care…

analysis
solar panels

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of thousands of Mainers woke up to higher electricity bills. Central Maine Power’s …

Modivcare van

Modivcare, Penquis and Waldo Community Action Partners will continue to provide rides to medical appointments in their respective regions for another year amid a court…

solar panels

Legislation signed by Gov. Janet Mills in June codified and fast-tracked Maine’s transition to 100 percent clean energy amid growing uncertainty about the future of…

regina rooney holds a bumper sticker that reads no excuse for partner abuse

Last year, when Syd Moore began work helping survivors of domestic violence find housing, they managed about eight cases. Now, Moore works with two dozen cases, with…

solar panels on an oyster barge

From a distance, what appears to be an old pontoon boat with a shade canopy was tugging at its mooring near an island in Casco Bay. Up close, the retrofitted pontoon is…

nd paper mill

Two of Maine’s largest paper mills are among the dirtiest in the country, according to a new study on U.S. pulp and paper plants, putting their emissions on par with…

statehouse dome

As the legislative session is expected to wind down, Gov. Janet Mills has already signed a number of bills into law, including ones that will establish new standards…

sun shining

Summer vacation is officially underway, and — while it’s been rainy and cool these past few weeks — the months ahead are gearing up to be hotter than usual, per the…

school buses

As children played at recess during one of the final weeks of the school year, MSAD 58 Superintendent Laura Columbia explained how several towns began pushing to leave…

Acadia National Park's mountains and water

Maine is about as far away as you can get from the bulk of America’s federal public lands, the vast majority of which are concentrated in a dozen states west of the…

exterior of the office of child and family services building.

Maine’s foster care population grew at a higher rate than any other state between 2019 and 2023, new federal data shows.

It was one of just six states that…

exterior of hospital

Maine has the fifth-highest rate of emergency department visits in the country, which hospital officials say could get worse with cuts to Medicaid and further…

yellow lines in the middle of a road

The honeymoon was almost over for Steven Lavrenz and Sandhya Madan. After sightseeing in Acadia National Park, the newlyweds from Michigan woke early and started a long…

exterior of a pharmacy

A bill signed into law late last month aims to increase pharmacy access in rural communities across Maine. L.D. 239 directs the Maine Board of Pharmacy …

ambulance

On a rainy Tuesday morning in early May, Daphne Russell, a community paramedic with United Ambulance Service, knocks on the door of a home in Lewiston. She’s there, as…

exterior of courthouse.

The legislature’s judiciary committee defied a warning from the chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday, pressing ahead with efforts to examine…

lawmakers sitting behind a long desk.

Lawmakers have scrapped proposed increased staffing ratios for assisted living and residential care facilities, replacing the measure instead with reporting…

a man standing next to heat pumps

The sputtered drone of a vacuum pump filled the former milking barn that now houses Kennebec Valley Community College’s heat pump lab. Instructor Dave Whittemore…

bulldozer

Just a month after the Trump administration cancelled a popular grant program and millions of dollars for local Maine climate resilience projects along with it, Maine…

people gather in the halls of the statehouse

At the Penobscot Community Health Center in Bangor, Muriel Emerson spends her days working with patients as a community health assistant, sharing resources and…

court case files

A bill introduced in the Senate earlier this month that would automatically seal certain criminal records has set up a debate between supporters who say the legislation…

Amanda Karomba poses for a photo

Amanda Karomba’s family fled the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and immigrated to Maine when she was an infant. Three decades later, Karomba operates nearly 30 group homes in…

statehouse dome

Lawmakers are considering a bill that would prevent private equity companies or real estate investment trusts from acquiring or increasing ownership of Maine hospitals…

two americorps volunteers

The notice came late Friday, April 25: Federal funding for all eight AmeriCorps programs that Volunteer Maine administers in the state — $2.5 million annually — was…

camden dam

After decades of understaffing, underfunding and dire warnings about the condition of Maine’s dam safety agency, state lawmakers are now considering expansive…

a group of students in a forest

Steve Tatko squatted next to the cut end of a red spruce trunk lying in a stack with other felled trees. Eight inches in diameter, its bark was a deep red-brown. Its…

Maine Recovery Council members

The counties and municipalities that receive a direct share of the settlement funds from opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers have spent less than half of…

statehouse dome

Over the past month, state lawmakers have considered a slate of bills that would change the way Maine’s child protection system defines abuse and neglect — a definition…

group of people in a forest.

Robert Seymour looked approvingly around him at the mix of trees — white pines, sugar maples, white ashes and a few up-and-coming hemlocks — in an open, pleasant forest…

analysis: “We aren’t getting anywhere near where we need to be.”
solar panels

It’s a straight-forward problem with a complex solution.

Maine spends more than 

waterfront housing

Over a dozen plans to bolster Maine communities against the threats of climate change will have to find new sources of funding after the Trump administration …

transmission lines

Between 2014 and 2024, the average retail price for electricity in Maine increased by the third highest rate in the country, according to an analysis by …

man cleaning pig stall

As the warm air of a spring day milled across the acres of pasture along the long dirt road leading through Old Crow Ranch in Durham, Steve Sinisi and his wife, Seren,…

cut timber being loaded onto a flatbed.

From the summit of Katahdin, the view is of forests stretching in all directions, broken only by the western lakes, the alpine tundra of the Tablelands, and the rocky…

David Whitney poses for a photo in his warehouse.

Tractors stand at the ready along rolling wild blueberry barrens Downeast, where fields of naked stems offer no hint of the glorious techno-color display to come. By…

EV charging stations

If you’re driving an electric vehicle up I-95 or 295 these days, particularly in York or Cumberland counties, odds are you won’t have to travel far before hitting a…