QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I struggle to reconcile the fact that a candidate who has fewer actual votes than their opponent can still become president of the United States.” 

— Gov. Janet Mills on her decision to allow Maine to join an interstate compact aiming to do away with the Electoral College and elect presidents by a national popular vote.

TODAY’S TOP MAINE STORIES

Maine lawmakers voted to expand background checks for gun sales. The House is expected to vote later this week on other gun bills introduced after the Lewiston mass shooting, including a ban on bump stocks and a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases.

Home sale prices are dropping in these five cities. Homes are still unaffordable on the average household income, but the downturn signals that demand might be steadying. 

“The whole thing was terrifying,” a survivor of a car fire said Monday afternoon. Robert and Carolyn Scott shared their experience of escaping from a flaming SUV on Interstate 95. 

A Texas firm claims it’s owed $2 million for work on Maine solar farms. The three lawsuits were filed in Penobscot County Superior Court last week.

Funding isn’t keeping up with demand for this Bangor-area meal delivery program. Surging food prices are part of the problem. 

MAINE IN PICTURES

Penobscot Theatre Co.’s Jen Shepard, executive director, and Jonathan Berry, artistic director, under the marquee on Main Street in Bangor. The nonprofit theater is experiencing a major budget shortfall as it still struggles to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

The healthy looking red fox in this video courtesy of Camp Oot Oot, a private wildlife research facility in Mount Chase, successfully hunted a hare it is presumably taking to its den or some other private place to dine on it.

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

“Henry Wadsworth Longfellow knew he could get a better rhyme out of ‘hear’ and ‘Revere, but the result of his famous poem from ‘Tales of a Wayside Inn’ is that Paul Revere’s fellow rider, William Dawes, is largely unknown to most Americans.”

Editorial: Patriots’ Day and the forgotten William Dawes

LIFE IN MAINE

Maine’s museum dedicated to Bigfoot and other cryptids is still coming to Bangor. The founder, Loren Coleman, still needs about $500,000 to renovate the museum’s fittingly unique new home.

Nina Fuller moved to Maine from New York in 1972, searching for “The Good Life.” She found a career as a photographer, and a favorite subject: her sheep.

By the time you read this, Julia Gagnon of Cumberland will know if she’s made it to the top 14 on this season of “American Idol.” Listen to some of her best performances so far.