A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.
Happy Tuesday!
Tonight is the autumnal equinox, and we’ll see the coolest air of the season so far. The National Weather Service is even forecasting a possible frost up north.
Before the sun slinks back below the western horizon, we’ll see temperatures in the low to mid-60s across the state.
This weekend we could see a nor’easter churn up the coast, bringing with it wind and rain. But the weather service cautions that models aren’t in agreement about the path of the storm, partly because of a high pressure system to the north.
The FBI anti-corruption squad was circling Susan Collins — until Trump got in the way
In 2019, the University of Maine used its massive 3D printer to manufacture a prototype military boat. The vessel was unveiled to great fanfare. A Guinness World Records representative declared it the world’s largest 3D-printed boat. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins broke a bottle of champagne across the bow. The Bangor Daily News wrote about it.
The project had the sheen of innovation, but for the Hawaiian defense contractor behind it, Navatek, it was a throwaway gesture in an ongoing relationship with Collins, who steered federal contracts to Navatek in exchange for campaign contributions, according to documents from an FBI investigation obtained by ProPublica.
“[The work] got rolled into a few PowerPoint slides and a white paper, and that was the deliverable,” recalled one former employee who worked on the project. “The boats weren’t delivered to the Navy — the Navy didn’t even want them.”
By 2024, the FBI’s top investigators were pursuing Navatek’s back-door dealings with Collins and more than a dozen members of Congress and their staff. But before they could start on their new mission, the Trump administration gutted the FBI’s anti-corruption efforts as part of a campaign of retribution.
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From the Opinion Page
“She now has an opportunity to direct the firehose of federal spending toward our state.”