Over the past year, Bangor Daily News photographers and reporters took hundreds of photos that captured the myriad of people and places that defined Maine.  

These highlights are just a small slice of the many lives and experiences the BDN documented in 2025.

January

February

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, speaks on the floor of the Maine House of Representatives at the State House in Augusta on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025. Libby was a significant figure as Maine battled Trump administration directives to restrict transgender girls from participating on the school team that aligns with their gender, among other policies recognizing transgender people under state law. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN

Read the story…

March

Caribou captain Madelynn Deprey celebrates toward the crowd after an emotional overtime win in the Class B state basketball championship game on March 1, 2025, at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. Credit: Emilyn Smith / BDN 

Read the story…

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Diane Dunn, the adjutant general of the Maine National Guard, answers a reporter’s questions in her office at the Maine National Guard headquarters at Camp Chamberlain in Augusta on March 31, 2025. She was one source that the BDN talked to in an investigation into the culture that allowed sexual assault and harassment in the organization to go unchecked. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN

Read the story…

April

Rebecca Nicolino Parsons and her service dog Otis are photographed on the footbridge in Bangor in April. The Maine Human Rights Commission ruled that there are “reasonable grounds to believe that unlawful discrimination occurred” at Hellas Condominiums by Old Town, Maine, against Rebecca Parsons. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN

Advertisement

Read the story…

May

More than 300 cattle moved through Jeff Tilton’s auction barn in Corinth on May 10 for the annual spring sale, one of the only places Maine farmers can consistently buy and sell livestock. It takes roughly two weeks to line up trucking, buyers, sellers, vaccinations, ear tags and pens, plus sorting, separating and weighing the animals when they arrive. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN

Read the story…

June

A Sargent truck was the first to travel the new I-395/Route 9 connector following a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the grand opening. The new connector was a point of controversy, especially for residents of Brewer, Holden and Eddington who had their land affected by the construction of the new highway. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN 

Read the story…

July

The entrance to the Mic Mac Cove Family Campground in Union is sandwiched between a variety store and the public elementary school Sunshine Stewart attended as a child. Stewart’s killing in early July rocked the small town of Tenants Harbor. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN 

Read the story…

Advertisement

University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy poses for a portrait on the University of Maine’s Mall in Orono, July 21, 2025. The university system faced a number of challenges over the past year due to funding cuts implemented by the Trump administration. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN 

Read the story…

August

Kristina Ryberg, 62, and Donald Jewett, 71, can’t afford their Bucksport property taxes this year after a hike that local officials have mostly attributed to using up the stored funds that offset the closure of the town’s paper mill a decade ago. “We’re about to lose what we worked so hard for just because we lost the mill and haven’t adjusted to that,” Jewett told town councilors in August. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN 

Read the story…

September

On March 16, 2024, a Maine state trooper repeatedly punched Justin Savage in the face while he lay restrained in the driveway of his Limerick home, leaving him almost unrecognizable. The beating, captured on video, depicts a use of force that policing experts say is rarely justified. The Maine State Police thought differently. Credit: Courtesy Garrick Hoffman 

Read the story…

Cooper Flagg signs sports cards for kids before the 2025 Maine Sports Hall of Fame at the Gracie Theater on Sunday. Flagg’s mother Kelly Bowman Flagg was one of the inductees for her time as a player and coach at Nokomis High School, where NBA rookie Cooper Flagg would start his soaring basketball career. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN 

Advertisement

Read the story…

October

Dorie Henning, a nurse practitioner at the Islesboro Health Center, has seen an increase in tick-borne diseases — and fears about them — in her 11 years working on the island. Islesboro had a higher rate of these illnesses than any other Maine town between 2018 and 2022, according to state data. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN

Read the story…

November

Bangor’s new councilors from left Susan Faloon, Daniel Carson and Angela Walker are sworn in to the City Council on Nov. 10 at City Hall. Walker, who has a criminal record, drew criticism from right-wing media after she won a seat in the crowded 2025 Bangor City Council election. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN 

Read the story…

December

Alex Emery moves his belongings out of the encampment near Penobscot Plaza in Bangor where he was living when a cleanup crew from the railroad company CSX  arrived early on the morning of Dec. 22 with construction machinery to clean up tents, trash and other remnants of the encampment. Credit: Linda Coan O’Kresik / BDN

Read the story…

Advertisement

Maine has been blanketed with a fresh coat of snow from York to the St. John Valley.

The storm that began Tuesday will wrap up later on Christmas Eve, adding to the already measurable snow that has fallen in places.

Some communities have seen well over a foot of new snow, particularly toward the coast and western hills, while the north has seen but a dusting.

Here are the latest snowfall totals available from the National Weather Service offices in Caribou and Gray on Wednesday morning. These totals are preliminary based on reports filed with the weather service. No reports were available Wednesday morning for Lincoln County.

Androscoggin

— Lisbon, 16.8 inches

— Auburn, 16.5 inches

— Lewiston, 15 inches

— Durham, 15 inches

— Lisbon Falls, 14 inches

— Greene, 13.7 inches

— Canton, 12.5 inches

— Poland, 12.2 inches

— Livermore Falls, 10.5 inches

Aroostook

— Houlton, 1.5 inches

— Castle Hill, 1 inches

— Presque Isle, 0.2 inches

— New Sweden, 0.1 inches

Cumberland

— Freeport, 17 inches

— Cumberland, 14.5 inches

— Gray, 12.8 inches

— North Powna, 12 inches

— Brunswick, 11.8 inches

— Cumberland Center, 11.7 inches

— New Gloucester, 11 inches

— Windham, 11 inches

— North Windham, 9.8 inches

— Falmouth, 9.4 inches

— Raymond, 7 inches

— Denmark, 6.8 inches

— Standish, 6.5 inches

— Sebago, 5 inches

— South Portland, 4.9 inches

— Portland, 4.9 inches

Franklin

— Madrid, 8.6 inches

— Rangeley, 6.5 inches

— New Sharon, 5.5 inches

Hancock

— Orland, 5.5 inches

— Dedham, 5 inches

— Seawall, 5 inches

— Southwest Harbor, 4.7 inches

— East Surry, 4.6 inches

— Trenton, 3 inches

Kennebec

— Gardiner, 11 inches

— Winthrop, 9.7 inches

— Manchester, 9.5 inches

— Farmingdale, 8.5 inches

— Augusta, 8.1 inches

— Waterville, 3 inches

Knox

— Hope, 7.0 inches

— Union, 6.8 inches

— Tenants Harbor, 3.5 inches

Oxford

— Bethel, 10.5 inches

— Newry, 8.3 inches

— Porter, 6.5 inches

Penobscot

— Exeter, 7 inches

— Orono, 6 inches

— Brewer, 6 inches

— Hermon, 5.3 inches

— Levant, 5 inches

— Holden, 5 inches

— Carmel, 5 inches

— Hudson, 4.5 inches

— Bangor, 4.4 inches

— Newport, 3.5 inches

— Bradley, 3.5 inches

— Milford, 2.8 inches

— Passadumkeag, 2.5 inches

— Millinocket, 2 inches

— Medway, 2 inches

— Greenbush, 2 inches

— Kenduskeag, 0.5 inches

Piscataquis

— Monson, 7 inches

— East Sangerville, 7 inches

— Dover-Foxcroft, 6 inches

— Abbot, 5.8 inches

— Sebec, 4.8 inches

Sagadahoc

— Woolwich, 13 inches

— Bowdoin, 12 inches

Somerset

— New Portland, 5 inches

— Anson, 4 inches

— Palmyra, 3.8 inches

Waldo

— Winterport, 4.5 inches

— Belfast, 3.8 inches

— Searsport, 3.8 inches

— Liberty, 1 inches

Washington

— Jonesboro, 2.5 inches

— Baileyville, 1.9 inches

— Pembroke, 1 inches

— Eastport, 0.8 inches

— Whiting, 0.5 inches

— Perry, 0.5 inches

York

— Cornish, 6.7 inches

— East Baldwin, 6.7 inches

— Limerick, 5.6 inches

— Kennebunk, 5 inches

— Ogunquit, 4.7 inches

— Limington, 2.6 inches

The Bangor Daily News was the first to report this story. What you’re reading here would likely not be made public without the efforts of professional journalists asking questions, interviewing sources and obtaining documents. 

In late 2020, a federal investigator identified a concerning pattern within MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program: Providers were billing for suspiciously high levels of interpreter services in what appeared to be a pattern of waste, abuse or fraud.

Interpreter claims surged by 283% between 2011 and 2017, with costs rising from roughly $800,000 to over $4.1 million annually. The increase occurred even as the number of refugees and immigrants arriving in Maine declined. The investigator wrote a report for fellow police, taking a closer look at billing trends following the high-profile prosecution of two interpreters, two social workers and a counselor in 2019.

In the years since the report was written, prosecutors have not brought any additional criminal cases. Under state law, interpreters are not required to have licenses. Providers have also continued to bill MaineCare at similar annual amounts to those that raised the investigator’s suspicion.

The report, which was obtained by the Bangor Daily News along with a partial copy of a second memo from 2021 that validated the findings through an additional analysis, has never been disclosed before. The findings are coming to light in the wake of a federal inquiry by a Republican-led congressional committee into welfare fraud.

That probe began after Minnesota federal prosecutors in November charged dozens of people, largely from that state’s Somali population, with stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from social programs. The House panel’s inquiry recently expanded to include a Maine behavioral provider that serves immigrants and refugees, Gateway Community Services.

On Tuesday, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services halted MaineCare payments to Gateway, alleging the company overbilled for interpreter services by more than $1 million. Gateway denies the state’s claim. Since May, the organization has faced allegations of overbilling from a former employee, first published by The Maine Wire, the media arm of the conservative Maine Policy Institute.

The 2020 report shows that concerns of systemic fraud in the MaineCare system among providers who serve the state’s immigrant population were raised years ago. It is unclear how state officials responded to it. Gateway was the second-highest biller for interpreter services in the past 10 years, state data show.

A spokesperson for Attorney General Aaron Frey said the office was aware of Pellerin’s memo and referred the BDN to a 2019 case as its most recent example of prosecuting MaineCare fraud. The U.S. attorney’s office has not prosecuted any healthcare fraud cases pertaining to interpreters in Maine since 2019.

The author of the report, Brian Pellerin, who wrote it while serving as an agent focused on Maine with the inspector general’s office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, declined an interview. He is now the No. 2 to Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce.

His report followed Maine’s last round of prosecutions around MaineCare fraud centered on the state’s Somali community. Federal prosecutors found that two interpreters had targeted newly arrived refugees — largely from Somalia — and brought them to specific providers for care. Those providers then charged MaineCare for interpreter services that were either overinflated or never happened, then gave the interpreters a cut of the money.

One of the interpreters, Abdirashid Ahmed, was estimated to have made off with at least $1.8 million, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in 2019. Nancy Ludwig, Heather Borst, and Danielle Defosse-Strout, all of whom worked for Lewiston-based Facing Change, were the providers also convicted in the scam.

Pellerin suspected that the same scheme might explain the high billing levels for interpreter services he discovered across the system. His investigation looked at the number of claims filed, patients served, and the total amount of MaineCare dollars distributed by MaineCare for interpreter services each year between 2011 and 2019.

Over those years, the number of claims filed steadily rose, from 16,300 in 2011 to 43,806 in 2019, according to Pellerin’s report. At the same time, the total number of patients ebbed and flowed with a low of 2,856 in 2011 to a peak of 4,559 in 2016. ​Meanwhile, the number of newly arrived refugees stayed flat, then declined — a notable fact given that the scheme Pellerin suspected depended on recruiting new arrivals, according to the report.

When certain MaineCare providers became reliant on immigrants, the interpreters started making demands, Pellerin found. They would ask providers to bill MaineCare for more units of interpreting services than they actually did and negotiate illegal kickbacks outside the MaineCare fee structure. If providers wanted to continue making money, they would have to listen to the interpreters or else they would lose their patients, the report found.

Pellerin’s report did not mention the names of the specific providers whose billing levels indicated potential fraud, waste or abuse. He noted that the scams not only defrauded Maine’s taxpayer-funded health system but also hurt vulnerable refugees, saying bad actors were taking advantage of fellow members of the state’s Somali community by treating them as a “harvested commodity” with little regard for their actual health needs.

“These MaineCare beneficiaries are often newly arriving immigrants who are potentially receiving lifesaving or life-altering medical treatment,” the report said.

Instead, they were potentially receiving poor quality services, or none at all, he concluded. Ludwig’s trial presented examples of that potential harm. A Somali refugee testified that Ahmed had brought him to see Ludwig, a social worker, to treat a toothache and asthma, according to federal court documents. Another testified he didn’t know why he was brought to Ludwig.

It is not clear what happened after Pellerin completed his report. But the spending trends observed in Pellerin’s report remain true, according to a BDN analysis of MaineCare data obtained in a public records request.

In the last 10 years, providers filed more than 45,000 interpreter claims, totaling more than $41.4 million. Half of that money went to only a few providers. The BDN contacted the top 10 providers and asked if they had ever been contacted by federal law enforcement. Only two responded, with one of them saying they had not. (The BDN is not naming that provider because it has not been charged with a crime.)

The other, Gateway, said through a lawyer that it also had not been contacted in the last 10 years by federal law enforcement. The audit that prompted state officials to pause MaineCare payments to the company on Tuesday began in early 2023 and looked at claims submitted between 2021 and 2022, according to a notice of violation.

Prior to the announcement that the organization’s MaineCare payments had been suspended, the provider’s lawyer, Pawel Bincyzk, denied allegations of fraud or being aware of Pellerin’s report.

“Gateway stands by its previous statements on this issue and will continue to cooperate with the state as it has in the past,” Bincyzk said.

Maine is one of 18 states in the country that provides direct reimbursement for language interpreters under Medicaid. The state pays $20 per 15 minutes for interpreting, according to the MaineCare manual. Interpreters don’t bill the state directly. Instead, a provider such as a doctor or mental health counselor bills MaineCare for services rendered, as well as interpreting. The provider then pays the interpreter, according to state regulations.

When Pellerin’s report was written and still today, MaineCare’s manual says interpreters must hold a state license. DHHS reminded providers in 2021 that they were supposed to provide the interpreter’s appropriate certification and licensure, along with other documentation to prove their qualifications.

However, the state’s licensing office doesn’t oversee interpreters except for those focused on American Sign Language. In 2019, the Maine Legislature approved a measure that eliminated the licenses that governed other interpreters, getting rid of the mechanism to license foreign language interpreters despite the requirement in state regulations.

Maine DHHS follows the procedures outlined in the MaineCare manual and can do reviews after a payment is made, department spokesperson Lindsay Hammes said. That review typically includes documentation related to qualifications, date, time, and duration of service, language used and costs.

But the agency did not specifically answer questions about how many times its internal auditing unit has found billing violations for interpreter services. It also did not clarify how interpreters are supposed to be licensed as required by MaineCare when no specific foreign language licensure exists in Maine, other than saying it was under the purview of the budget department.

To address the issues, Pellerin’s report included several things the state could take to correct the programmatic weaknesses identified. Those included incorporating similar requirements and qualifications used by courts for interpreters and requiring interpreters to become MaineCare providers so they could bill directly. At a minimum, it could enforce the regulations in the benefits manual, the report said.

Even among the 18 states that directly reimburse interpreters, every state has slightly different regulations around qualifications, said Mara Youdelman, the managing director of federal advocacy for the National Health Law Program. ​After spending nearly two decades studying the issue, she helped create the only group in the country that can certify foreign language interpreters for work in healthcare. The certification has been available since 2009.

Youdelman helps track how the 18 states across the country utilize interpreters and the regulatory framework those states use. While the state of Maine is spending millions of dollars each year on interpreting, she cautioned that it can be hard to tell if something nefarious is going on. In fact, Maine’s model of having providers bill MaineCare for interpreting is common among the 18 states, she said.

While she’s looked at interpreting services for many years, Youdelman said she’s never heard of interpreters defrauding the system. She worries that some will use instances of fraud as an excuse to cut language services.

​“The competency of interpreters is critical,” she said. “We really do need to make sure that interpreters are actually qualified to do the job, because if not, and we have ineffective communication, then medical errors occur, negligence occurs, malpractice occurs, and people literally die.”

Bangor Daily News investigative reporter Sawyer Loftus may be reached at sloftus@bangordailynews.com.