The Maine Nordiques have enjoyed a great period of success and ahead of the game against the Philadelphia Rebels, Maine was on a run of eight straight wins.

But, Friday’s game on Jan. 23, 2025, at The Colisee finished 5-2 and the winning streak was ended.

The visiting team took the lead halfway through the first period, with a goal from

Billy Sheridan

.

Jared Coccimiglio

and

Ryan Bunting

assisted.

The Rebels made it 2-0 late in the first when Joe Stauber scored, assisted by Luke Janviriya.

The Nordiques narrowed the gap to 2-1 early in the second period when

Aiden Farro

scored, assisted by

Ethan Wongus

and

Damon Myers

.

The Nordiques made it 2-2 with a goal from

Michael Stenberg

.

Ruslan Jamaldinov

took the lead with a goal early in the third period, assisted by

Caesar Bjork

and Drew Belleson.

Brayton Frick

also increased the lead to 4-2 with a goal seven minutes later.

Ryan Bunting then made it 5-2 with a goal one minute later, assisted by Billy Sheridan and Jared Coccimiglio.

Next up:

The teams now have the chance to fine-tune their tactics, as they play each other again in the next matchup on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025 at 6 p.m. CST at The Colisee.

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This column appears every other week in Foster’s Daily Democrat and the Tuskegee News. This week, Guy Trammell, an African American man from Tuskegee, Ala., and Amy Miller, a white woman from South Berwick, Maine, write a column about the wildfires in the West.

By Amy Miller

When Hurricane Sandy flooded streets in lower Manhattan in 2012, my parents on 55th Street barely felt a ripple beyond what they read in the news. The realities of how climate was affecting thousands of people was not their reality on the 21st floor of a building five miles away.

Today, from my perch in Maine, I hear about the wildfires in California and the news seems surreal. I feel like I am reading a book in that new genre called Cli-Fi. Except that I am not. Except I read that same book last year, and the year before, and it is not fiction at all.

Except I have cousins and friends in southern California who live and work in schools and offices where they are breathing the smoke and wondering if they too will have to leave their homes.

A local planner told me southern Maine is one of the places attracting climate refugees, people who want to live somewhere with less chance of a heat emergency, drought or wildfire. My corner of the world remains more protected than places like New Orleans, which sits below sea level, or Kiribati, a Pacific nation of 100,000 people and coral islands that have already begun to disappear.

But even here we have seen the writing on the wall. 

Maine’s coastal zones flooded last year, causing millions of dollars in damage and proving we are not immune. My insurance company told me I had to buy flood insurance for the first time for an inland camp on a lake near Bangor.Rotary International, a devoutly non-political organization with 1.4 million members in 200 countries, recently adopted climate change and the environment as one of its seven focus areas, along with fighting disease, maternal health and water hygiene. The organization, not prone to controversial issues, added this focus change as part of its mission in 2020.

“Rotarians understand that the whole world is their backyard,” says the organization’s website. “They can see the effects of climate change in communities they care about, and they haven’t waited to take action.”

Former International Rotary President Barry Rassin has said about 95% of the membership support the decision.

“As a humanitarian organization, we’re obligated to talk about it,” said Rassin, whose own island nation of the Bahamas is vulnerable.

“I’m not talking politics; I’m talking about our world and how to make it a better place,” Rassin has said. “We’re in a position where, with all the people Rotary has around the world, we can make a difference. If Rotary is going to be relevant, then we’ve got to be looking at the environment.”

By Guy Trammell Jr.

In 1895, fire destroyed Tuskegee Institute’s dairy barn, along with its herd of cows. After that, school architect Robert R. Taylor created fireproof buildings, using less ornamental wood and more earthen brick.

In 1917, two brick barns were constructed, each with steel windows. Another campus fire in 1918 destroyed the Slater Armstrong Boys Trades building. It was rebuilt and became Margaret Murray Washington Hall for girls’ trades. All the 1928 Wilcox Boys Trades buildings were mostly masonry.

Fire needs three things to exist: heat, oxygen and fuel. Take away one of these and the fire is gone. 

The current California wildfires have wreaked disabling devastation on an unbelievably massive scale. Neighborhoods with 50 or more years of residents’ investment – raising families and making precious memories – were horribly decimated in an instant, leaving shock, despair and debilitating sorrow.

All the neighbors and friends who normally pitch in to help each other are left powerless because they face the same losses. The magnitude of destruction is overwhelming. 

Wildfires are natural in North America, and are required for certain trees to germinate. They also are a clearing mechanism for dominant plants, allowing other species to emerge and feed specific animal life. The Mvskoki Nation deliberately used wildfires to clear underbrush for hunting. 

Discarded cigarettes, arson or downed power lines cause 25% of wildfires. However, more wildfires and more destructive wildfires are fueled by human-caused climate change that generates hotter temperatures, creates drought, and produces more dry, dead vegetation. 

In 2022 and 2023, Los Angeles had extraordinary rainfall, reaching over 52 inches downtown. 2024 had eight months of drought. 

2021 – 2,568,948 acres destroyed by wildfires

2022 – 362,455 acres destroyed by wildfires

2023 – 324,917 acres destroyed by wildfires

2024 – 1,050,012 acres destroyed by wildfires 

Los Angeles’ ferocious 80 to 100 mph Santa Ana winds send clouds of burning embers for miles, igniting more blazes. These hurricane-strength winds prevent use of water dropping helicopters to douse large areas of fire, and neither firefighters nor urban water infrastructures are adequate to attack vast acres of wildfire.

One man saved his home and others with a 2-inch hose pump, his pool, and fire retardant gel he spread over exterior walls. Others had fireproof exterior walls and vegetation-free barriers around their homes. Farmers hire out ruminant goats that make land fireproof simply by eating. 

We have created our own environmental crisis, but if we stop and think, solutions can be found.

Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy presides over a case between the ACLU of Maine and the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services to determine what, if any, remedies can address the hundreds of criminal defendants waiting for lawyers. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

AUGUSTA — A state attorney told a judge Friday he’s not against releasing some criminal defendants from jail who have been denied their constitutional rights to a lawyer, as long as public safety is taken into account.

Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy wrapped up a three-day hearing in Augusta on Friday, during which attorneys debated potential remedies for the more than one hundred criminal defendants who she said are unconstitutionally being held in Maine jails without a lawyer.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine has asked Murphy to release those who have waited more than seven days for a lawyer, similar to what a judge recently ordered in Oregon.

The idea still concerns victims’ rights advocates.

Andrea Mancuso, policy director for the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, said Friday afternoon that she is disappointed “that those responsible for ensuring a functional criminal justice system in Maine have abjectly failed to resolve these issues over a period of several years.”

“Victims of crime are bearing the consequences of that failure,” Mancuso wrote in an emailed statement. “Given the current state of the system, these timelines would mean that perpetrators of serious or repeat domestic violence are released back into the community when it is not safe, or whole cases are dismissed, and protective bail conditions with them, when the crime victim has come to the criminal justice system seeking help. This is dangerous for victims, and we are deeply concerned about the impact.”

As Murphy appears closer to ordering what she has called an “extraordinary remedy,” she questioned in court this week whether Maine’s public defense agency has done enough to address the crisis.

“The people who are locked up, to me, that is just beyond acceptable,” Murphy told Maine Commission on Public Defense Service Director Jim Billings. “That, to me, would be the priority that I would ask you to think about, for your action plan.”

Murphy found the commission liable for violating the Sixth Amendment requirement to ensure defendants who cannot afford an attorney are appointed one by the state.

But commission leaders and several defense attorneys have argued the group is only one piece of the crisis. Prosecutors, the courts, lawmakers and the governor should also be involved in fixing it, they say.

The ACLU has also asked Murphy to find the entire state liable for the constitutional violation. She has not yet ruled on that issue.

Paul Suitter, an assistant attorney general representing the state of Maine, appears in court at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta on Wednesday. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Assistant Attorney General Paul Suitter, who is representing the entire state, insisted that they’re not the party at fault.

“To this point in time, I don’t know who that person is,” Suitter said. “I haven’t heard (the ACLU) identify that person. That person should be here, and sat in a deposition.”

“That person is you, Mr. Suitter,” Murphy said. “You’re here for the government, you’re here for the sovereign state of Maine, asserting ‘sovereign immunity,’ saying that the court has no authority to do anything in this case … I don’t know who else to address than you.”

DISMISSALS STILL ON THE TABLE

The ACLU’s attorney Zachary Heiden argued Friday that criminal defendants have been irreparably harmed by not having a lawyer. The consequences to their ability to defend themselves and the damage to their personal lives are so severe, he said, that they deserve major relief.

There are people spending weeks or months behind bars without any idea of what’s happening with their criminal case, Heiden said. They lose their homes, they lose their jobs and sometimes custody of their children — all while missing out on the opportunity to either prove their innocence or work out a plea deal with prosecutors.

“That’s not how our justice system is supposed to work,” Heiden said.

The ACLU is also asking that charges be dropped against anyone who has been unrepresented for more than 45 days; charges could be refiled when an attorney is available.

Zach Heiden, an attorney at the ACLU of Maine, appears in court at the Capital Judicial Center in Augusta on Wednesday. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

The commission was not opposed to that idea. Frayla Tarpininan, who leads the state’s first brick-and-mortar public defense office in Augusta, testified Friday that it wouldn’t interfere with their work, and that dismissals could even be helpful.

But Suitter questioned whether Murphy has the legal authority to dismiss cases under this type of legal action. He warned the state could still appeal anything that it views is out of bounds.

PUBLIC DEFENDERS

Murphy spent most of the last three days pressing commission leaders on how they’ve handled the crisis. She asked Director Jim Billings several times whether Maine’s new public defense attorneys have the capacity to take more cases, especially because the commission insists they are key to getting the state out of this crisis.

“I don’t see how they’re the solution unless they are being pushed to take more cases,” Murphy told Billings. “I don’t think there’s anybody else you can push.”

Since 2022, Maine has pivoted from a system entirely dependent on private lawyers to a hybrid system that includes full-time public defenders.

Sean Magenis, an assistant attorney general representing the Maine Commission on Public Defense Services, appears in court Wednesday. Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald

Assistant Attorney General Sean Magenis, who is representing the commission, said Murphy doesn’t need to order the commission to create a plan because it already has one. But that plan, which calls for opening more public defense offices, relies heavily on getting more money from the Legislature during a very difficult time for the state budget.

“Ultimately, this is not a case where there is no care or effort or specific plans in place,” Magenis said. “It’s a question of whether there are differences in opinion as to how to move forward.”

If Murphy orders the state’s new public defenders to take more cases, Magenis warned, it could impair a system that is only in “its infancy.” Most of the state’s public defenders have only recently been hired and are just getting off the ground.

Tarpinian, who was hired at the end of 2023, described how busy she and her attorneys already are.

Four of her attorneys have roughly 80 cases apiece, Tarpinian testified. A fifth has a little more than 50 cases, but that number means little because each case is so unique and depends on the client (who can have more than one open case). Tarpinian said several attorneys were new to the field when they started.

“I’ll continue to push my people as hard as I can without pushing them beyond what they’re capable of,” she said.

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