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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I don’t think it’s a referendum on support of the schools, necessarily. I think it’s a cry for help in communities like those … they’re saying this is not sustainable, the cost of education is not sustainable.”

— Eric Waddell, executive director of the Maine School Management Association, on the sharp increase this year in Maine voters shooting down their local school budgets.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

Here’s how Maine’s congressional delegation reacted to a wave of USDA foreclosures across the state. Sen. Susan Collins and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden are pushing the federal government for answers after the Bangor Daily News and ProPublica revealed a loan program is pushing poor Mainers into insurmountable debt.

Why are so many Maine school districts rejecting their budgets? More than three weeks into the start of the fiscal year for Maine’s nearly 200 school districts, at least 15 voted against new budgets in June referendums. 

A Maine train engineer is suing Canadian Pacific Railway after he was nearly impaled during a derailment. Louis Meyers of Dover-Foxcroft alleges the company failed to plan for severe weather and monitor track conditions.

A Bangor syringe exchange is moving. Needlepoint Sanctuary’s new Ohio Street location is farther from downtown, but it can be reached by bus.

The $400,000 piece of land comes with a rare view of the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. The undeveloped 0.98-acre plot is slightly more expensive than the cost of an average home in Waldo County.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

MAINE IN PICTURES

Shania Twain performing at the Maine Savings Amphitheater on Bangor’s waterfront on Tuesday. Credit: Courtesy of Rodney Devost

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

A former chicken barn at 1123 Main Road in Carmel is pictured on Oct. 13, 2023. Four Chinese men were arrested in one of the first prosecutions here of illegal marijuana cultivation operations that are raising national concerns. Credit: Linda Coan O'Kresik / BDN

“There is absolutely no excuse for ignoring this problem, which has been reported to have started in Maine more than five years ago.”

Opinion: Chinese marijuana grows and property purchases in Maine raise big concerns

LIFE IN MAINE

The Bangor State Fair kicks off today, and runs through Sunday, with additional dates next week. 

Country music star Shania Twain put on an impressive concert in Bangor Tuesday night, after donating $25,000 to the Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine. 

Watch this woodcock do an adorable woodland wobble to stir up worms.

Would you want to hear coyotes like this in your backyard?

Use this native Maine plant as a natural poison ivy remedy.