Good morning. Temperatures will be in the mid-50s throughout the state, with rain in the afternoon.
Here’s what you need to know for Tuesday.
Writer said letter sent to Collins’ Bangor home contaminated with ricin
–A letter that claimed to be contaminated with poison was sent on Monday to the home of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in Bangor, leading police to shut down an adjacent road for several hours, according to her spokeswoman.
“Senator Collins’s husband, Tom Daffron, today received a threatening letter that the writer claimed was contaminated with ricin, a highly hazardous substance which was used in a previous attack against the United States Senate,” Collins spokeswoman Annie Clark said in a statement Monday night.
The chief architect of LePage’s social services overhaul is now in charge of Medicaid nationally
–After finishing third in a four-person Republican gubernatorial primary earlier this year, Mary Mayhew took over Monday as director of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. No member of Gov. Paul LePage’s administration except for the governor himself has been a more polarizing figure than Mayhew, whose arch-conservative six-year tenure in the often-embattled health department became a road map for Republicans after President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017. She was the face of LePage’s crusade against Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which was approved by voters in 2017 but has languished unimplemented in a court fight with a pending expansion plan and a request for new Medicaid work requirements sitting before the agency where Mayhew will be a key official.
Nobody was injured in a fire at an old Mechanic Falls mill …
–But that almost wasn’t the case. Nearby roof worker Rob Vivenzio saw the fire Sunday afternoon and went to the back of the structure, where he knew there was an apartment. When nobody answered his calls, he said he smashed a window with a cinder block and went inside.
There he found a man sleeping with headphones on, he said. He reportedly got the man out, and now Vivenzio is being credited with saving the sleeping man’s life.
Fire investigators are expecting the fire, which captured headlines Sunday with towering black smoke visible for miles, to continue smoldering at the former mill site for multiple days.
The day after a gun threat at a Maine school, another student set off a firecracker in the building
–Back-to-back incidents last week in which one high school student allegedly threatened to shoot people at school and another student is believed to have set off a firecracker the next day in the auditorium has resulted in school officials considering whether to hold expulsion hearings for each student.
A Maine man’s design will be featured on coins marking the 50th anniversary of the moon landing
–Gary Cooper of Belfast has spent most of his life trying to get the U.S. Mint to accept one of his coin designs. He finally succeeded, and his work will be featured on coins issued next year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s moon walk.
Madawaska Kmart, the only major retailer in town, is closing
–Sears Holdings Corp. announced plans Monday to close 142 unprofitable stores across the country, including the Kmart in Madawaska, as part of its effort to restructure financially under bankruptcy proceedings.
“The whole shopping center is going to look pretty bleak,” Town Manager Gary Picard said. “But, we just can’t let that whole area fall into disrepair or neglect. We want to make sure we come up with a game plan. I’m not sure what it is yet, but will need to have some serious discussions about what will come of that whole area.”
Do this: Celebrate Blue Hill’s literary culture, past and present
–Stephen King and E.B. White might be Maine’s most famous authors, but there’s a rich literary culture in the Blue Hill Peninsula.
That’s why Word, a literary arts festival, was born in 2017. Starting Thursday, the four-day event will celebrate the writers, poets and readers of Blue Hill, said Ellen Booraem, a published author of children’s fantasy books who lives in Brooklin and is helping organize the festival.
In other news…
Maine
On a farm of special critters, Shoppie the Chicken is even more special
Portland man sentenced in sports gambling syndicate case
29-year-old Hermon woman pleads guilty to drug trafficking
Business
Central Maine Power asks regulators to keep prices stable by tapping federal savings
Aspiring Maine credit union wants to lend exclusively to farms, food producers
Bangor mobile app developer plans to hire 12 workers
Politics
2 sisters compete in NH House race
Beyond the name calling: Where Golden and Poliquin stand on key issues
Will Maine voters decide to make aging in place affordable?
Opinion
There’s even more proof that Medicaid expansion works
How environmentalists were silenced on immigration
Our troubling national dialogue about sexual assault
Sports
Red Sox ace Sale will rejoin team in time for Game 3 after hospital stay
Leeds, Skowhegan drivers capture Speedway 95 finales
Thomas College blends video games and sports with new program
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