Maine

It’s Time to Celebrate (and Protect) Maine’s Most Precious Resource: Clean Water

Published

3 years ago

April 23, 2022

It’s Time to Celebrate (and Protect) Maine’s Most Precious Resource: Clean Water

Posted on April 22, 2022 by NRCM

We’re fortunate to stay in a state so fantastically crisscrossed by pristine, contemporary waterways. From the Allagash up north, to the Penobscot within the center, to the Saco within the south—contemporary, clear water is a luxurious to which we Mainers have change into accustomed. I’m personally grateful for the federal and state legal guidelines, together with organizations just like the Pure Assets Council of Maine, that defend our rivers, streams, lakes, and waterways and perceive the significance of guaranteeing these legal guidelines are regularly strengthened. Fortunately, defending clear water is a subject that seems to transcend celebration affiliation within the Maine Legislature.

A fantastic instance of this was the latest bipartisan help for a invoice within the Legislature, LD 1964, to improve the water high quality of greater than 800 miles of rivers, streams, and tributaries throughout the state. Each homes of the Maine Legislature strongly endorsed the invoice. One part of the invoice will improve the water high quality customary from class C to B for a greater than 14-mile stretch of the Androscoggin River from Lisbon Falls to Merrymeeting Bay.   

Coos Canyon in Byron, Maine, by Beth Comeau

After I assume again to my childhood, I’m overwhelmed by reminiscences of spending time on the Androscoggin and Swift Rivers in Rumford and Mexico. Leaping off the glistening rocks that stood tall above Coos Canyon, and swimming out and in of the underwater caves that lined swimming holes like Three Swimming pools. My buddies and I have been oblivious to the numerous hours, days, months, and years lawmakers, organizations, and on a regular basis Mainers devoted to making sure these very swimming holes have been saved clear. What a legacy they’ve left, and it’s on each Mainer, me included, to make sure that legacy lives on in perpetuity.   

 Individuals might imagine that the water high quality in a city like Rumford is the same as the odor stemming from the paper mill. Within the many years previous to 1972, they’d have been fallacious–it was a lot worse. Nevertheless, that odor was one among many motivating components that inspired Maine U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie, who grew up in Rumford, to take motion and writer one of many nation’s most essential environmental legal guidelines–the Clear Water Act–which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this yr. It’s onerous to seek out one other piece of environmental regulation that has achieved extra to guard Maine’s, and the nation’s, water than the Clear Water Act. It’s a outstanding piece of laws that’s equally consequential to Maine’s financial system as it’s to the well being and wellbeing of all Mainers.

 Fortunately, the part of the Androscoggin River across the Rumford paper mill has rebounded dramatically within the 50 years for the reason that Clear Water Act was handed. I can solely hope that our lawmakers proceed to bolster their help for clear water sooner or later.

—by Byron Glaus, NRCM Rising Management Staff

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Maine

Rockland’s minimum wage is up for 2025

Published

6 hours ago

January 1, 2025

Press Room

Rockland’s minimum wage for some workers will increase from $15 per hour to $15.50 on Wednesday.

This increase, which applies to people employed by a company with more than 25 workers, will come at the same time as the state minimum wage increase. The state’s minimum wage will increase from $14.15 per hour to $14.65 on Wednesday.

Portland, the only other Maine city to have a minimum wage higher than the statewide one, will also be increasing its minimum wage on Wednesday, from $15 per hour to $15.50 per hour.

Rockland voters approved a law in November 2020 that increased the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2024, with future changes based on cost-of-living increases.

The minimum wage for workers employed by smaller companies will be the state minimum wage. For service employees, the direct minimum wage before tips will be $7.75 per hour in Rockland. If the employee’s tips do not add up to at least $15.50 per hour, the employer must make up the difference.

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Maine

Stephen King's rock radio station in Maine won't go silent after all

Published

15 hours ago

December 31, 2024

Press Room

Stephen King's rock radio station in Maine won't go silent after all

Business

Two businessmen purchased WKIT-FM from the best-selling writer after he announced that the station and two others would go silent after New Year’s Eve.

Stephen King attends the premiere of “The Life of Chuck” during the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, at Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File

By Associated Press

December 31, 2024 | 2:31 PM

1 minute to read

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — Horror author Stephen King’s rock ‘n’ roll radio station is going to continue rocking around the clock and into the new year.

Two businessmen purchased WKIT-FM from the best-selling writer after he announced that the station and two others would go silent after New Year’s Eve. The buyers are the Maine-based duo Greg Hawes and Jeff Solari, who formed Rock Lobster Radio Group to run the station.

“WKIT is the most legendary station in the region. It has tremendous history. We couldn’t let it die,” they said in a statement.

King is a lifelong rocker and performed with the Rock Bottom Remainders, a band that featured literary icons performing for charity. He announced earlier this month that at age 77 he thought it was time to say good-bye to the radio stations.

“I’m sorry as hell to be closing down WKIT and its sister stations,” King posted earlier this month on social media. “I held off the suits for as long as I could.”

King’s foray into radio began in 1983 with the purchase of a radio station that was rebranded WZON in a nod to his book, “The Dead Zone.” That station closed before being acquired again by King in 1990.

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Maine

Someone shot up another Maine apartment building

Published

23 hours ago

December 31, 2024

Press Room

Someone shot up another Maine apartment building

A suspect shot up a South Portland apartment building on Sunday night.

The suspect fired several bullets at the residence on Wainwright Circle West in Redbank Village just after 11 p.m., according to Shara Dee, a spokesperson for the city.

Officers found that several bullets penetrated the front door and had become embedded in the living room wall, Dee said Monday.

Police found several shell casings in the street outside the building.

No one was injured in the shooting.

Police are investigating a Sunday night shooting at Redbank Village in South Portland. Investigators have identified a suspect vehicle, a light colored four-door hatchback.

No arrests have been made, but police identified a suspect vehicle, a light-colored four-door hatchback.

Anyone with information about the shooting can contact Detective Lt. Christopher Todd at 207-799-511, ext. 7448, or by email at christo@southportland.gov. An anonymous tip can be left at 207-347-4100.

No additional information is being released.

This comes just days after another unknown suspect fired more than a dozen bullets into a Cumberland Avenue apartment building in Portland. When police arrived early Thursday morning, they discovered numerous damaged windows and bullet holes in several apartments and shell casings in nearby Peppermint Park.

Another shooting was reported in Portland about 11:30 p.m. Sunday on Washington Avenue, where windows were shot out on a Ford Expedition. Shell casings were found on nearby Maplewood Street.

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