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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“If you put all the political and financial pressures away, the reality is that we still need doctors in Maine.”

— Sally Weiss, vice president of workforce policy and strategic initiatives for the Maine Hospital Association.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

Maine refused to pay to extradite an embattled contractor arrested in Alaska. Jake Brown was arrested July 21 on an active warrant from Kennebec County for one count each of theft by deception and home repair fraud. 

Tiny groups of voters in towns across the state are deciding on some of Maine’s big issues this summer. Because special referendums and school budget votes are typically held in June, they fall in a political attention gap, resulting in few voters showing up to decide crucial policies. 

A medical school could transform Penobscot County, but it faces major hurdles. Obstacles include federal funding changes, student loan uncertainty and financial turmoil at Northern Light Health and the University of Maine System, but health care officials say a facility is needed. 

A nonprofit Bangor syringe provider is pursuing rezoning for its new location on Ohio Street. Needlepoint Sanctuary was shut down less than a week after opening.

New barriers erected this summer likely stopped a suicide on the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. The curved fences were added to the railings on either side of the bridge in May, 19 years after the structure opened to connect the towns of Prospect and Verona Island.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

MAINE IN PICTURES

The Black Crowes performing at Maine Savings Amphitheater in Bangor on Tuesday. Credit: Courtesy of Jodi Devost

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, whose political group, The Dinner Table, is leading a “Voter ID for ME” initiative that would require Mainers to provide photo identification to vote, speaks during a Jan. 6, 2025, rally at the State House in Augusta about the plan to put the initiative on the November 2025 ballot. Credit: Courtesy photo

“The creators of this referendum say this is all necessary to reduce ‘fraudulent voting,’ but voter fraud has never been shown to be a significant problem in Maine.”

Letter: Reject voter ID referendum

LIFE IN MAINE

A Maine writer’s new essay collection channels famed authors E.B. White and Henry David Thoreau.

Now is the time to fish for stripers in Penobscot Bay before the impressive fish start preparing for their fall migration.

An 81-year-old golfer hits hole-in-one at the Hampden Country Club last week, getting his second-ever in his lifetime of playing his preferred nine-hole course.