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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Our nation, our world, would not look like it does today, [if not for] that one pivotal turning point in time when somebody decided to put Fort Knox here and put the cannons down below, and it did its job of being a deterrent.”

— Dean Martin, executive director of Friends of Fort Knox, the organization that oversees the 157-year-old fort of the same name. The granite edifice overlooking the Penobscot River never saw military action but stands as a piece of local history with a hefty price tag for upkeep.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

Avoid scandal and play hardball politics in the BDN’s town meeting game. The text-based game was created in part by training Claude AI on real Maine town meeting warrants.

A Bangor restaurant was ordered to pay a former employee $135,000 in unpaid wages. Salt North Tap Room owner Dane Morgan failed to appear or defend himself against the lawsuit.

Bangor’s school department said no other schools are at risk of closing over asbestos. The reassurance comes after the material was found in the ceiling of the Fairmount School.

This historic coastal Maine fort is falling apart. Fort Knox is one of the best-preserved examples of coastal defense structures from the mid-19th century, according to historians.

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

MAINE IN PICTURES

David Leeman applies new lime mortar between granite slabs at Fort Knox on Thursday. The fort requires continual maintenance, and Leeman has worked on it for about a dozen years. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

A woman walks next to an anti-Israeli mural on a street, amid a ceasefire between U.S. and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, April 20, 2026. Credit: Majid Asgaripour / West Asian News Agency via Reuters

“Many of the very same tactics were employed by a badly weakened Iran four decades ago at the end of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, one of the bloodiest conflicts in modern history.”

Opinion: Trump administration missed wargaming lessons on Iran

LIFE IN MAINE

The UMaine athletics program received a $10 million gift from a longtime donor.

Former UMaine goalie Jeremy Swayman is one of three finalists for the Vezina Trophy.