QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I don’t care if the whole building falls in, but we care about the surrounding roads.”

— Lori Ziencik, a Frazer Township, Pennsylvania, supervisor, on the $4.5 million in repairs needed to a private loop road at the Namdar Realty Group-owned Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills. The company, which also owns the Bangor Mall, has a history of buying cheap commercial properties and ignoring pleas from tenants and communities to keep them up.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

Here’s what a federal government shutdown would mean for Maine. After the House rejected a plan backed by Donald Trump on Thursday night, Congress now has until the end of the day today to pass a plan to temporarily fund the federal government through March.

The owner of the Bangor Mall has a troubled legal history. Two city lawsuits against Namdar Realty Group are only the most recent against a company accused by numerous communities of letting its properties crumble into disrepair.

A group of Bangor residents will get $1 million from the state to buy their mobile home park. The contribution is only a fraction of what Cedar Falls residents need to top a Canadian corporate bidder.

David Mallett’s children remember their late Maine songwriter father as fiercely devoted to the things he loved: his music, his family and his home state of Maine.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

MAINE IN PICTURES

A pine grosbeak is one of the birds you might see at your winter backyard feeder. This year, however, they seem more content in Canada thus far. Credit: Courtesy of Bob Duchesne

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, from left, walks with Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, who is carrying his son, as they arrive for a roundtable meeting to discuss President-elect Donald Trump’s planned Department of Government Efficiency, on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 5, 2024. Credit: Jose Luis Magana / AP

“Congress doesn’t deserve a raise, but more importantly, Americans don’t deserve a government shutdown.”

Editorial: Congress keeps proving why it doesn’t deserve a pay raise

LIFE IN MAINE

You can grow summer plants outdoors this winter. Start with materials from your kitchen, and the seedlings you produce will be cold-hardy and ready to grow outside.

Here’s how Canada could affect the birds you see at your feeder this winter. “Maine’s backyards are directly connected to eastern Canada’s vast forest. Winter conditions up there affect what we see here,” Bob Duchesne writes.