Morning Update: What you need to know in Maine today

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The purpose of the dealmaking is to enrich the owners as quickly as possible, and then get out and move on to your next conquest. And so there’s a fundamental conflict there between duty to patients as a primary obligation and return on profits to shareholders.”

— John McDonough, a professor of public health practice at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, on the growth of private equity interest in health care over the past decade. Many states, including Maine, are pushing back on acquisitions that critics say could gut health care infrastructure.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

Susan Collins is backing a referendum to overturn Maine’s protections for transgender students. The Republican senator’s office said she signed onto the petition because she agrees with President Donald Trump’s interpretation of Title IX.

Here are five homes in Bangor that sold this month. Sales paint a picture of what prospective buyers are looking for — and what they can afford.

A Hampden man convicted of murdering his sister-in-law said his 43-year sentence is unfair. Philip Clark challenged his 2019 conviction Monday, arguing that he had ineffective counsel during his jury trial.

A salvage firm is trying to find the insurer of a ship that sank off MDI in the 1890s. JJM LLC is hoping to prove that the cargo schooner was not legally abandoned.

New state laws are tackling private equity’s growing role in health care. Maine passed a law to impose a one-year moratorium on all private equity or real estate investment trust purchases of hospitals.