Temperatures are well below average again for Saturday with highs in the upper teens and lower 20s.

Winds will start to increase through tonight, eventually gusting up to 35 miles per hour on Sunday.

Temperatures will feel like -10 to -20 through Sunday morning with a biting wind out of the north.

Sunday is cloudy, but Connecticut will stay dry as a strong snowstorm misses us well to the southeast.

High temperatures will lift into the 30s by Monday, and we’ll stay there through next week.

Roger Poitras is CEO of InterMed.

Most of us learn early in life: don’t make medical decisions without consulting a health care professional. When it comes to shaping health care policy, we don’t always follow the same advice, but we should. And in Maine, we’re beginning to.

Our health care system is under real strain. Across the state, hospitals and medical practices are operating with thin margins, struggling to recruit and retain staff and making difficult decisions about which services they can sustainably offer.

Workforce shortages and rising costs are colliding with an aging population and growing demand for care. These pressures create uncertainty both for organizations trying to plan ahead, and for patients who worry about access, continuity and how far they’ll have to travel to receive care.

Against that backdrop, Maine convened a commission to examine how the state reviews major changes in health care. I had the honor of serving on that commission, and the experience was enlightening.

The process was thoughtful and grounded in a genuine commitment to ensuring patients and communities have access to care. Nonetheless, the experience also reinforced an important lesson: effective reform requires more than convening a group and hearing testimony; it requires expertise and the willingness to listen to those who live these realities every day. It also demands a sustained, two-way dialogue and a willingness to wrestle openly with perspectives that challenge initial assumptions.

There were times throughout the course of the commission that the discussion felt oriented toward validating specific solutions rather than fully examining the underlying problems they were meant to address. Given the commission’s scope and timeline, that structure is understandable. But it also points to a broader risk in health care policymaking: when discussions begin with conclusions rather than questions, the range of viable solutions can narrow before the work truly begins.

Health care does not operate in silos. Clinical decisions affect staffing. Staffing affects access. Access affects finances. Regulation touches all of it. When policy is developed without engaging in that full context, it can be well-intentioned but incomplete, or responsive in theory but difficult to implement in practice.

Meaningful reform depends on processes that invite not just agreement, but challenge, nuance and the lived realities of delivering care. This commission showed that Maine is willing to invite frontline voices into the conversation. That matters. But if we want policies that truly strengthen our health care system, the state must continue to invite health care professionals into the conversation earlier and more consistently.

At the same time, those of us who work in health care have a responsibility to join the conversation. This commission was my first experience serving in this type of role, and to be candid, it was not always comfortable. At times, the process felt constrained.

The outcomes are not guaranteed. But participation matters. If we choose not to engage because the process is imperfect, we leave critical decisions to those farther removed from day-to-day care.

The future of health care in Maine will be shaped by who shows up, who stays engaged and who is willing to offer practical, experience-based insight, even when it complicates the conversation.

It’s time to deepen the dialogue, broaden participation and create an ongoing partnership between policymakers and the people who deliver care. That is how we move from conversation to action, and how we ensure Maine’s health care system remains accessible, sustainable and centered on the patients and communities it serves.

A commercial fishing vessel, carrying a crew of seven, is presumed to have sunk off the Massachusetts coast, prompting an intensive, round-the-clock search by the U.S. Coast Guard. Rescuers are battling howling winds and frigid temperatures in their efforts to locate survivors.

The 72-foot Lily Jean issued an alert early on Friday morning, approximately 25 miles off the port of Gloucester. Following the distress signal, Coast Guard teams quickly located a debris field near the alert, alongside the grim discovery of a body in the water.

Coast Guard Commander Timothy Jones, who is coordinating the ongoing search and rescue operation, affirmed their commitment. He stated: “We will continue to search throughout the night with the cutter, hoping to find additional folks as we continue.” Commander Jones indicated that the vessel was “coming back in full of fish” and may have encountered issues with its fishing gear, necessitating a return for repairs.

Despite the severe conditions, Commander Jones maintained that they are “always hoping to find” survivors from the vessel. However, Sector Boston Commander Jamie Frederick offered a more sobering assessment, acknowledging the “challenging” problems inherent in searching for individuals in the open water after a vessel has gone down.

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“That is the equivalent of searching for a coconut in the ocean,” Frederick said.

Captain, crew were featured on TV show

The Lily Jean, its captain, Gus Sanfilippo, and his crew were featured in a 2012 episode of the History Channel show Nor’Easter Men. Sanfilippo is described as a fifth-generation commercial fisherman, fishing out of Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the Georges Bank. The crew is shown working in dangerous weather conditions for hours on end, spending as many as 10 days at sea on one trip fishing for haddock, lobster and flounder.

Gloucester is often described as America’s oldest working seaport, with a fishing industry that goes back more than 400 years.

The city, where the reality television show “Wicked Tuna” about Atlantic bluefin tuna fishermen was based, has been the site of maritime tragedy over the years. Among them was the FV Andrea Gail, which went missing at sea in 1991. The loss of the Andrea Gail was the basis of the 1997 book and 2000 movie “The Perfect Storm.” In another tragedy, four fishermen died when the Emmy Rose sank in 2020 off Provincetown, Massachusetts. on its way to Gloucester.

Republican State Sen. Bruce Tarr, who confirmed seven people were on the vessel, grew emotional as he talked about Sanfilippo, who was a good friend.

“He’s a person that has a big smile, and he gives you a warm embrace when he sees you,” Tarr said. “He is very, very skilled at what he does.”

Tarr said the “fact that vessel now rests at the bottom of the ocean is very hard to understand.” But he expected the community would come together as it always has with such tragedies.

“This is a community that has felt this type of loss in the past,” Tarr said. “I’m going to make a prediction. Tonight, tomorrow and the days that follow, no matter what happens, you’re going to see the strength, strength that has made this the most historic fishing port in the United States.”

Vito Giacalone, head of the Gloucester Fishing Community Preservation Fund, said he knows Sanfilippo from the captain’s early days in commercial fishing and knew him as a hard worker from a fishing family. He said he and the fishing industry in Gloucester, a community where commercial fishing is a longstanding way of life, are distraught.

“He did well for himself. I was proud of him,” Giacalone said. “And now the dock we own, he ties his boat at the dock so we see him every day. He’s been to all my kids’ weddings. That’s how close we were. I feel a sense of loss. A lot of us do.”

Commercial fishing is a hazardous profession

Deep-sea fishing in New England can always be hazardous, but it can be especially dangerous in the winter because of high waves, frigid temperatures and unpredictable weather. Commercial fishing is often cited as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

“Commercial fishing is a really tough living to begin with, and it’s as safe as the elements and all of the things allow it to be,” Giacalone said. “Gus was a very seasoned experienced fisherman.”

Everett Sawyer, 55, a childhood friend of Sanfilippo, said that he is still processing the news of his disappearance. “He was hardworking. He loved fishing,” he said.

After more than five decades living and working near the Atlantic Ocean, Sawyer said he has known 25 people who were lost at sea. Cold winter conditions can complicate operations even for experienced sailors, Sawyer said.

“Things happen very quickly when you’re out on the ocean,” he said.

Steve Ouellette, an attorney who works with fishermen in Gloucester, agreed that commercial fishermen have a “tough life and unfortunately these things happen.” “Doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen it, you’re never ready for it when a boat with a crew goes down,” Ouellette said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday it was aware that there was a fishery observer on board the vessel. Fishery observers are workers who collect data on board fishing boats for the government to use to inform regulations.

“We are deeply saddened by the tragedy. NOAA Fisheries is committed to the safety and well-being of observers. As part of this ongoing commitment, we are providing assistance and support,” NOAA spokesperson Sean McNally said

The Coast Guard said it tried unsuccessfully to contact the vessel early Friday and then launched a search that included an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew, a small boat crew and the Coast Guard Cutter Thunder Bay. It expected to have the cutter out all night and a fixed-wing airplane in the morning searching for survivors, Jones said.

At the time of the emergency alert, the National Weather Service said wind speeds out at sea were around 27 mph (24 knots) with waves around four feet high. It was 12 degrees (-11 Celsius) with water temperatures about 39 degrees (4 degrees Celsius.)

Gloucester Council President Tony Gross, a retired fisherman who had joined other elected officials at the harbor in the city after learning of the missing boat, called it a “huge tragedy for this community.”

“The families are just devastated at this point,” Gross said. “They are half full of hope and half full of dread, I would imagine.”

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said she was “heartbroken” to hear about the boat’s sinking.

“I am praying for the crew, and my heart goes out to their loved ones and all Gloucester fishing families during this awful time,” she said in a statement. “Fishermen and fishing vessels are core to the history, economy and culture of Gloucester and Cape Ann, and this tragedy is felt all across the state.”

Gross described conditions on the water as “fishable” but that it wouldn’t take much for ice to build up on the vessel. “That is what people are thinking right now, that there was ice buildup and that made the boat unstable,” he said.