Yet another great Troyota moment! Let’s get Lazy Susan out of the senate!

I thought senators were public servants. Their job is to fulfill the obligations of office and represent their constituents.

This ad campaign is at best asking constituents to thank a paid official for doing her job.

I should thank her for getting all expense paid vacations to Italy while I just caught up on my mortgage. I should thank her for that outstanding stock portfolio of her’s while the rest of us deal with publicly available information. Thank her for not having a town hall. Thank her for… only serving two terms as promised.

How out of touch these mailers are insulting.

The Maine State Police suspended a state trooper for punching a handcuffed woman in the face during an arrest last fall, marking the first time the agency sustained an excessive force complaint against an officer in at least a decade.

Trooper Jacob Murphy-Canto was securing a shackled woman in the back of his cruiser on Sept. 12, 2025, when she kicked him multiple times in the chest, according to a discipline record obtained by The Maine Monitor and Bangor Daily News. 

In response, he “punched her twice in the face with a closed fist.” The state police suspended him in December for 15 weeks, saying he violated its use of force policy after prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against him, the record says.

The state police reached that finding at a time when its use of force practices were under public scrutiny, several months after reporting by The Monitor and BDN had called the state police’s perfect record of clearing officers into question. 

Between 2015 and 2024, the agency investigated 33 complaints about troopers’ use of force and did not find a single case in which it was excessive, the Monitor/BDN investigation found. 

That changed last December, when the Maine State Police determined the amount of force Murphy-Canto used was “not necessary under the totality of the circumstances” and violated department policy. 

Read the story from Josh Keefe of The Maine Monitor and Callie Ferguson of the Bangor Daily News.

With the help of new select board members, Camden has decided to end the paid parking program for the remainder of the 2026 season. As many of you remember, a masked vigilante known only as, The Raven, vandalized the kiosks last year which sparked a debate on why they were necessary in the first place. Since then the town of Camden was split on whether they should remain or be removed. As of now the paid parking program has come to a dramatic halt. Will other towns follow suit?

Article: https://www.midcoastvillager.com/news/camden-hits-pause-on-paid-parking/article_f6edf72d-e68f-4d79-8f1c-c7e4889d334f.html

A state law passed this spring requires every one of Maine’s 261 school districts to adopt a phone ban by the end of July.

Many schools have long had some sort of phone policy, but the new law requires school boards to adopt a strict bell-to-bell ban, which prevents student use of all personal electronic devices from the starting bell to the dismissal bell. Proponents say it’s an important step to reduce distractions during instructional time, and improve student socialization.

School boards didn’t have much time. Gov. Janet Mills introduced the ban as part of her supplemental budget and signed it into law April 10, leaving school boards just under four months during a typically sleepy time of year.

Districts have held workshops and conducted surveys to gauge community sentiment, and relied on model language provided by the state and the Maine School Management Association. Some forewent a traditional second reading of the policy to comply with the timeline.

Lawmakers in Maine have generally been reluctant to impose statewide mandates. In fact, in 2025, the state Legislature abandoned language to create a bell-to-bell ban over concerns about infringing local control. Mills, however, announced her full-throated support less than a year later.

Read the rest on the Press Herald.

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I won't vote for any candidate on any ballot that says anything short of ICE needs to be abolished. That includes YOU Anus King you old fahht. I will not compromise after an ice agent shot a man in the face to die in cold blood in front of his 3 year old daughter. I'm talking all the way to presidential elections too so if Democrats want my vote and many people like me they better get comfortable with taking down ICE entirely

The Franklin County jail began offering an extended-release, injectable form of buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder a year ago, and has seen promising results: Morale among both jail staff and prisoners has improved, use-of-force incidents have decreased by more than half, and physical altercations between prisoners have gone down by more than 70 percent, according to the jail’s data.

In neighboring Somerset County, the jail has provided the injections since 2022. A study examining the first year of its program showed that individuals released from the jail were about three times as likely to continue their treatment after being released than those in another jail in Maine that provided the more commonly available daily pill.

The two rural jails are the only ones in Maine providing the extended-release injection, which is considered the gold standard for addiction treatment for high-risk individuals, and the results show how effective it can be. But the injections are also significantly more expensive than the alternative – one monthly shot costs more than twice as much as a month’s supply of the daily pills or strips. Other counties are interested in providing the shots in their jails but officials have struggled to find adequate funding to get such a program off the ground.

In the first of four stories supported by the Pulitzer Center, Maine Monitor health reporter Emily Bader looks at the evolving approach to addiction treatment in Maine’s jails. With photos by Greta Rybus.

Read this story for free on The Maine Monitor.

"A doctor who lives and works in Presque Isle has been stranded in Canada after she was denied reentry into the United States, according to a federal lawsuit.

The 52-year-old woman, who is identified by a pseudonym in the lawsuit, was born in Iran and is a Canadian citizen. She has an H-1B visa that allows her to work as a primary care physician at a Presque Isle hospital, where she’s been employed since December 2022. She lives in town with her husband and child."

Homeland Security/CBP crapping on the H-1B docs that northern Maine's medical system desperately needs.

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2026/07/21/bangor/bangor-police-courts/maine-doctor-born-in-iran-sues-border-protection/

For anyone that wants to see what it's like on Lake Auburn right now.

Story by Hannah Kaufman, Morning Sentinel / Sun Journal

Central Maine Healthcare officials said this month that 572 employees have left the health system since it was acquired by Prime Healthcare Foundation nearly five months ago, confirming insider reports of dozens of provider resignations that are fueling concerns over patient safety.

Nearly 20% of the staff has departed since the Feb. 15 acquisition. A spokesperson for California-based nonprofit Prime Healthcare Foundation said such turnover is common during hospital transitions.

Officials also said Central Maine Healthcare has hired 400 employees in the same timeframe.

But current employees say the departures have increased their workload and presented unsafe staffing situations. The impacts are being felt at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, critical access hospitals in Bridgton and Rumford, and the health system’s outpatient practices, according to multiple current and former employees who asked not to be named for fear of retribution.

One physician who has worked at the health system for several years said she is leaving her job later this year. Eight of her colleagues have left in the last six months, she said, while the workload has compounded for remaining staff.

But it’s the patients she’s most concerned about.

“We have been incredibly busy and need more staffing,” the physician said. “I think that patient care is getting dangerously delayed.”

Management for Prime Healthcare said in a recent email to providers that CMMC’s histology lab, which processes biopsies and diagnoses cancer, is experiencing “critically low staffing numbers.”

Another email flagged several uncovered shifts through July and August in the hospitalist department, which provides inpatient coverage and admits emergency room and transfer patients, sometimes in grave conditions.

A Prime Healthcare spokesperson said some staff turnover is expected.

“Staff turnover can be common during hospital transitions and a consistent issue in healthcare overall, with averages nearly 20% nationwide,” the spokesperson said. “Our turnover is below that rate.”

In a letter to Maine officials requesting approval to acquire the health system, Prime made a number of commitments, including to invest $150 million in Central Maine Healthcare over the next five years. Another was to retain and support existing employees.

Providers say that isn’t happening.

“They made all sorts of promises about improvements that they’re going to make,” the physician said, “and things just continue to get worse, and people continue to quit.”

An analysis of Central Maine Healthcare’s 2025 employment records, website archives and interviews with current and former employees revealed that dozens of providers have left the health system in the months since Prime acquired it.

READ THE FULL STORY AT SUNJOURNAL.COM

I'm relatively new to the Bangor area and am not having any luck finding meet-ups of those who love to crochet/knit (or even those who just kinda like it). Do any exist? Thanks in advance!