Love them or hate them, Tesla Cybertrucks garner a whole lot of attention, and apparently, one guy who bought his stainless steel behemoth didn’t realize that. A Cybertruck owner in Portland, Maine – one of the more liberal and chill cities in America – has been bombarded with reactions (both good and bad) to his new truck, and he’s not really a fan.
Walter Isaacson On Elon Musk(s)
Right now, Travis Carter owns one of just two Cybertrucks in all of Maine, so he’s become a bit of a spectacle in his hometown, and not always in a good way, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Tennis players stop midswing to get a glimpse of it. Children want their pictures taken with it. It’s a trending topic online in the Portland subreddit.
On the road, the electric vehicle is the frequent recipient of middle fingers, thumbs-downs and slammed-on brakes. People gawk, roll their eyes and yell. It’s gotten spat on and been scratched.
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Carter tells the paper he has never been a fan of the limelight, somehow forgetting what sort of attention a massive, angular truck would garner him. The marijuana dispensary owner says buying the Cybertruck “wasn’t an attention-seeking move” and that he’s actually quite “shy.” Carter says that it’s quite a weird experience when you pull up to a stoplight and every single person is staring at you. I’m sure it is, man.
Despite this distaste for the limelight, Carter is reportedly taking the attention in stride… for the most part.
He tries to let the negative ones roll off his back. He knows there’s no such thing as bad publicity for a business such as his Forest Avenue marijuana shop, where the truck is prominently parked most days.
Carter loves the thing but still questions whether the hot wheels are worth all the attention. If he had to go back and click “place order” again, he’s not sure he would.
“I didn’t know it was going to turn into this. I’m sometimes like, ‘What did I do?’” he said. “But sometimes it’s positive, too. I take the time to talk to people, because some people are genuinely excited to see it.”
Here’s more reaction from folks in Portland, Maine after first seeing a Cybertruck in their little city that were fairly tame, from the Portland Press Herald:
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“The aliens have landed,” someone wrote about Carter’s truck on Reddit’s Portland forum, just after he returned from picking it up at a New Jersey Tesla facility.
When he first started driving it here, passersby seemed stunned.
When he first started driving it “In the first week or two, people were hanging out of their cars taking videos, even in the pouring rain,” Carter said., passersby seemed stunned.
As Carter drove up Forest Avenue through Deering Oaks Park on Thursday, a jaywalking woman stopped in the middle of an intersectionfacing oncoming traffic. Her jaw dropped. Carter came to a halt. He sighed – it was nothing new.
Things quickly turned less than cordial for Carter and his truck.
Some of the shock value has worn off. But anger has taken its place.
Carter once found a large, fresh glob of spit on the car when it was parked in downtown Portland. As he pulled up to a stop sign Wednesday, someone started yelling at him. A driver in front of him once slammed on the brakes.
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What’s his most frequent reaction?
“The middle finger,” he said. “In passing, at red lights, people walking by.”
[…]
He feels like maybe the anger’s easing, but he still gets plenty of eye rolls.
The owner of Vice Cannabis put down a $100 deposit for the Cybertruck all the way back in November of 2019 and eventually forgot about it as the truck famously got delayed more and more. Then, at the beginning of this year, the Portland Press Herald says it popped back up on his radar and he decided to go through with the purchase after a little it of hesitation.
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He knew the truck would be an eye-catcher in Maine. But he wanted it for its uniqueness.
“It’s so ugly it’s cute. It’s like a French bulldog,” he said. “I don’t think it’s the most attractive car in the world, but it’s different. And I like to be different.”
Anyway, you should head over to the Portland Press Herald’s story for more information on what Carter is doing now and why he thinks people have such a visceral reaction to his truck (hint: it’s because of Elon Musk).
Cory LaForge always liked a particular restaurant space on Main Street in Bucksport, which recently housed My Buddy’s Place and the Friar’s Brewhouse Tap Room before that.
So much so that, when it became available two months ago, he decided to open his own restaurant there.
Salsa Shack Maine, which opened in early December, is a physical location for the food truck business he’s operated out of Ellsworth and Orland for the last two years. The new spot carrying tacos, burritos and quesadillas adds to a growing restaurant scene in Bucksport and is meant to be a welcoming community space.
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“I just loved the feeling of having a smaller restaurant,” LaForge said. “It feels more intimate. This place is designed where you can have a good conversation or talk to your customers, like they’re not just another number on a ticket.”
Salsa Shack Maine joins a growing number of new restaurants on Main Street in Bucksport. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
After growing up in the midcoast, LaForge eventually moved west to work in restaurants at ski areas, where he was exposed to more cultural diversity and new types of food – including tacos.
“It’s like all these different flavors that we’re not exposed to in Maine, so it’s like, I feel like I’ve been living a lie my whole life,” he said. “It was fun to bring all those things that I learned back here.”
When he realized his goal of opening a food truck in 2023 after returning to Maine, LaForge found the trailer he’d purchased on Facebook Marketplace was too small to fit anything but tortillas – and the Salsa Shack was born.
It opened at the Ellsworth Harbor Park in 2023 and operated out of the Orland Community Center in the winter. What started as an experiment took off in popularity and has been busy ever since.
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LaForge calls his style “Maine-Mex:” a mix of authentic street tacos in a build-your-own format with different salsas and protein. Speciality salsas include corn and black bean, roasted poblano, pineapple jalapeno and mango Tajin.
The larger kitchen space in the new restaurant has allowed a menu expansion to include quesadillas, burritos and burrito bowls in addition to the tacos, nachos and taco salad bowls sold from the food truck. Regular specials are also on the menu.
Salsa Shack’s new Bucksport kitchen means room for owner Cory LaForge to experiment. He’s added quesadillas, burritos and burrito bowls to the menu alongside regular specials, such as this shrimp taco. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
More new menu items are likely ahead, according to LaForge, along with a beer and wine license and expanded hours in the spring.
The food truck will live on for now, too; he’s signed up for a few events in the coming months.
Starting Jan. 6, the restaurant will also offer a buy-two-get-one-free “Taco Tuesday” promotion.
“It’s a really fun vibe here, and I feel like everyone finds it very comfortable and easy to come in and order,” LaForge said, comparing the restaurant’s atmosphere to the television show Cheers. “Even if you have to sit down and wait a little while, we always have some fun conversations going on.”
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So far, the welcome has been warm locally, he said, both from residents and the other new restaurant owners who help each other out. LaForge’s sole employee, Connor MacLeod, is also a familiar face from MacLeod’s Restaurant, which closed in March after 45 years on Main Street.
When it shut its doors, people in town weren’t sure where they would go, according to LaForge. But four new establishments opened in 2025, offering a range from Thai food to diner offerings.
“It’s kind of fun to see so [many] culinary changes,” he said.
The Salsa Shack is currently open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
The logos for streaming services Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus and Sling TV are pictured on a remote control on Aug. 13, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (Jenny Kane/Associated Press)
Maine consumers will soon see a new line on their monthly Netflix and Hulu bills. Starting Jan. 1, digital streaming services will be included in the state’s 5.5% sales tax.
The new charge — billed by the state as a way to level the playing field around how cable and satellite services and streaming services are taxed — is among a handful of tax changes coming in the new year.
The sales tax on adult-use cannabis will increase from 10% to 14%, also on Jan. 1. Taxes on cigarettes will increase $1.50 per pack — from $2 to $3.50 — on Jan. 5.
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All three changes are part of the $320 million budget package lawmakers approved in June as an addition to the baseline $11.3 billion two-year budget passed in March.
Here are a few things to know about the streaming tax:
1. Why is this new tax taking effect?
Taxes on streaming services have been a long time coming in Maine. Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage proposed the idea in 2017, and it was pitched by Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, in 2020 and 2024. The idea was rejected all three times — until this year.
State officials said last spring the change creates fairness in the sales tax as streaming services become more popular and ubiquitous. It’s also expected to generate new revenue for the state.
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2. What services are impacted?
Currently, music and movies that are purchased and downloaded from a website are subject to sales tax, but that same music and those same movies are not taxed when streamed online.
The new changes add sales tax to monthly subscriptions for movie, television and audio streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, Spotify and Pandora. Podcasts and ringtones or other sound recordings are also included.
3. How much is it likely to cost you?
The new tax would add less than $1 to a standard Netflix subscription without ads priced at $17.99 per month. An $89.99 Hulu live television subscription would increase by about $5 per month.
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Beginning Jan. 1, providers will be required to state the amount of sales tax on customers’ receipts or state that their price includes Maine sales tax.
4. How much new revenue is this generating for the state?
The digital streaming tax is expected to bring in $5 million in new revenue in fiscal year 2026, which ends June 30. After that, it’s projected to bring in $12.5 million annually, with that figure expected to increase to $14.3 million by 2029.
The tax increase on cigarettes, which also includes an equivalent hike on other tobacco products, is expected to boost state revenues by about $75 million in the first year.
The cannabis sales tax increase, meanwhile, will be offset in part by a reduction in cannabis excise taxes, which are paid by cultivation facilities on transfers to manufacturers or retailers. The net increase in state revenue will be about $3.9 million in the first full year, the state projects.
Cars and trucks travel northbound along the Maine Turnpike in Arundel through a messy wintry mix on Feb. 4, 2022. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)
A wintry mix is forecasted to come down on Maine starting in the early hours of Monday morning.
A mix of sleet and snow is expected to start falling around 1 a.m. Monday in the Portland area and closer to 3 a.m. in the Lewiston area. The mix will likely transition to freezing rain on Monday morning in time for the morning commute, making roads icy, according to the National Weather Service in Gray.
“That’s going to make conditions not ideal for traveling,” said Stephen Baron, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.
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As temperatures inch above 32 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday afternoon, the freezing rain is forecasted to transition to regular rain. Ice on the roads will start to melt over the afternoon as well.
The forecast for the rest of the week is fairly clear as of now. The only other potential precipitation is on Wednesday, with a festive snowfall on New Year’s Eve “around the countdown,” said Baron.
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Sophie is a community reporter for Cumberland, Yarmouth, North Yarmouth and Falmouth and previously reported for the Forecaster. Her memories of briefly living on Mount Desert Island as a child drew her…
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