Maine
Maine ice fishing derbies are being canceled because the ice isn’t safe
Most of Maine barely has any snow to benefit from the outdoor — and including insult to damage is the restricted quantity of protected ice on lots of the state’s lakes and ponds forcing the cancellation of native ice fishing derbies.
Up to now this winter, heat temperatures and a major pre-Christmas rainstorm have been instrumental in slowing the formation of ice in lots of areas of Maine.
The state is experiencing a heat stretch, together with December temperatures in Bangor that had been 5 levels hotter than common. The shortage of ice and snow is disrupting an iconic season of derbies, together with actions like snowmobiling, Nordic snowboarding and pond skating.
In an try to draw early season anglers, some organizations schedule ice fishing derbies beginning in mid-January. There may be much less competitors than in February, when quite a few occasions are scheduled throughout the state.
Nonetheless, earlier derbies additionally run the danger of falling sufferer to unsafe ice circumstances.
The sixth Oak Hill Pike Derby, which had been slated for Feb. 4 on Sabattus Lake, has been canceled. That derby serves as a fundraiser for co-curricular actions at Oak Hill Excessive College in Wales.
“It’s unlucky we needed to cancel it for the climate,” mentioned Amy Raymond, president of the Oak Hill Excessive College Booster Membership. “That is such a giant fundraiser for our membership. We’re at the moment wanting into different fundraisers that we may do to usher in some cash.”
Raymond, who can see Sabattus Lake from her dwelling, mentioned Wednesday there are seen areas of open water. A Saturday forecast that features heavy rain and temperatures approaching 50 levels are anticipated to make issues worse.
“It’s simply unlucky that Mom Nature was not in our favor,” Raymond mentioned.
Canceling the derby means the Oak Hill Excessive College Booster Membership seemingly received’t be capable of do as a lot to assist its college students, which beforehand has included the acquisition of recent uniforms and gear for his or her sports activities groups.
“Prior to now we’ve made near $40,000,” Raymond mentioned. “It has gone down a bit, nevertheless it’s nonetheless value doing it.”
The membership is refunding the tickets which have already been bought.
The Dexter Fish and Recreation Affiliation has pulled the plug on its annual ice fishing derby, which was scheduled for Jan. 14-15, due to unsafe ice circumstances on Lake Wassookeag.
The membership is hoping that people who deliberate to take part within the ice fishing derby will as an alternative take into account shopping for tickets for his or her raffle objects. Among the many issues up for grabs are 10 totally different firearms and a crossbow.
Tickets for the gun and crossbow raffle are $10 every or six for $50, whereas tickets for the non-firearms raffle price $5 apiece. Members shall be promoting tickets on Friday and once more from 9 a.m. to five p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Lakeshore Restaurant in Dexter. Tickets additionally can be found at Pond View Sports activities in Dexter.
The Youth Ice Fishing Derby scheduled for Saturday on Lake St. George in Liberty additionally has been canceled as a result of unsafe ice circumstances.
The Icefishforkids Horne Pond Derby in Limington has been postponed till Feb. 11. That occasion advantages the Standish Fish and Recreation Membership and the Bonny Eagle Backpack Program.
As of Wednesday, organizers had been nonetheless planning to maneuver ahead with the North Anson Snowmobile Membership derby scheduled for Saturday on Sandy Pond in Embden and the Operation Reboot OutDoors derby set for Jan. 21 at Nice Pond.
Extra articles from the BDN
Maine
How Donald Trump’s ‘day 1’ agenda would hit Maine
President-elect Donald Trump will return to the Oval Office Monday and has vowed to carry out various “day one” priorities that could affect Maine.
Although the specifics of various pledges are still unclear or subject to changes from the mercurial Republican, the promises that could come to fruition as soon as Trump’s inauguration concludes Monday touch on everything from offshore wind to Jan. 6 rioters, among other issues.
His offshore wind ban is in the works.
Maine has failed to win a massive federal grant for a contentious offshore wind port that Gov. Janet Mills is proposing on Sears Island in Searsport, but that all may not matter if Trump carries through on his vows to halt offshore wind development.
Trump reportedly told U.S. Jeff Van Drew, R-New Jersey, to draft an executive order to halt wind projects. Van Drew told the Associated Press on Wednesday his draft order would halt offshore wind development from Rhode Island to Virginia for six months.
That could allow Trump’s interior secretary nominee, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, to review how leases and permits were issued. Under questioning from U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, he would not commit Thursday to honoring existing leases but generally said projects that “make sense” and are currently in law would continue.
Time will tell if Maine is included. Outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration already started selling leases for areas in the Gulf of Maine that could power more than 4.5 million homes.
Pardons may be on the table for Jan. 6 rioters from Maine.
Trump has vowed to pardon as soon as next week rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and disrupted Congress as it certified Biden’s 2020 election victory, but he has not been clear on whether he will seek to pardon all of the more than 1,500 people who have been charged, with more than 1,000 sentenced so far, or only pardon non-violent offenders.
Roughly a dozen Mainers have been charged in connection with the deadly riot that featured attacks on law enforcement officers. Four Mainers have been charged with violent offenses, and not every case is resolved.
The most prominent defendant, Matthew Brackley, a former Maine Senate candidate from Waldoboro, is serving a 15-month prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to assaulting police. Kyle Fitzsimmons, of Lebanon, received a seven-year prison sentence in July 2023.
His Canada tariff plan already has Maine’s attention.
Trump has threatened to immediately slap 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and higher rates on China. A delegation from Prince Edward Island is in Maine and other New England states this week to make the case for free trade.
Neighboring Canada is the state’s top trade partner, with wood products, seafood and mineral fuels among the key products that cross the border. Tariffs have previously played well politically in Maine but have hurt heritage industries at times, including during Trump’s first term.
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from the rural 2nd District, reintroduced his measure Thursday to create a universal 10 percent tariff. Golden pointed to a Congressional Budget Office analysis that found it would raise $2.2 trillion through 2032. But economists have also warned of higher prices for consumers and slower global growth under Trump’s plan.
“Tariffs can be very complicated, but at the end of the day, this is what it means: If it costs our goods and services 25 percent more to come across the border, they’re going to be costing Americans 25 percent more to consume them,” Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King said.
Maine
Golden proposes universal 10% tariff, saying it will protect Maine workers
President-elect Donald Trump promised to impose sweeping tariffs. Days before Trump is set to take office, Maine’s 2nd District Rep. Jared Golden has introduced similar legislation — a 10% tariff on all imported goods.
It’s intended to protect Maine industries and workers against unfair competition, Golden said.
The Democrat from Lewiston, fresh off a narrow reelection win in November, said in an interview that his proposal would put the U.S. on more equal footing with trading partners that for years have protected their industries and workers. In contrast, Maine has lost jobs in manufacturing, lumber and other industries because the U.S. has failed to shield its workers and markets from unbalanced trade, he says.
“It’s a lie that we allowed ourselves to believe, that our allies around the world don’t pursue protectionist measures,” he said.
Golden pushed back against two arguments against tariffs: that the levies are inflationary because producers will pass added costs to consumers and that governments will retaliate against the U.S. with tariffs of their own.
He said an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office shows that a 10% “universal tariff” could spur a short-term increase in prices of some foreign goods and services, but would likely reduce the cost of other goods and services, drive up the incomes of American workers and have no long-term effect on inflation. Addressing the possibility of protectionist retaliation, Golden said U.S. markets are among the largest in the world widely sought by trading partners and other countries.
“For the time being, dollar for dollar, we’ll out-compete them. They need us,” Golden said.
Although the CBO report acknowledged no long-term inflationary impact, it predicts that cost increases would “put upward pressure on inflation over the first few years in which the tariffs were in place.” The analysis said increases in tariffs on U.S. imports and retaliation from trading partners over the next decade would reduce the size of the economy and increase businesses’ uncertainty about barriers to trade, cutting returns on new investments.
Golden told the Washington Post that no House Republican or Democrat has agreed to co-sponsor his bill.
Representatives of Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st district, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, did not respond to emails Thursday seeking their opinions of Golden’s legislation. A spokesman for Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said King is withholding comment on the issue of tariffs until more details emerge about policies developed by the Trump administration and Congress.
Kristin Vekasi, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Maine, argues that tariffs are inflationary and would likely lead to a cascade of policies and responses that could ultimately undermine Golden’s intent to protect jobs.
“There’s broad consensus about some aspects of tariffs,” she said. “The thing that we generally see with tariffs is they increase prices for consumers.”
That could prompt the Federal Reserve to again raise interest rates to fend off inflation, in turn prodding investors to shift money to bonds, increasing the value of the dollar that would make goods less competitive in global markets and hurting production and jeopardizing jobs, Vekasi said.
In addition, if retaliatory tariffs are imposed on hydropower from Canada and oil from other nations, higher energy costs would affect most industries, she said.
Stefano Tijerina, who teaches international business at the University of Maine Business School, said more than 50% of Maine’s trade is with Canada and tariffs “would affect us tremendously.” Lumber and tourists “mostly come from Canada” and lobsters fished off Maine typically end up in Canadian canneries, he said.
Many companies have moved to Canada and other nations to sell goods back to U.S. consumers, he said. “We’d be putting tariffs on our own products,” Tijerina said.
While Golden’s legislation can be interpreted as bolstering President-elect Donald Trump’s push for tariffs after he takes office Monday, Golden introduced similar legislation in September and said tariffs were established by President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden, both Democrats. A softwood lumber tariff dates to the Obama administration, he said, and Biden raised tariffs against China.
The 10% percent tariff would apply to all imported goods and services, and would increase or decrease by 5%, depending on whether the U.S. maintains a trade deficit or surplus.
Golden said job losses accelerated in the 1990s due to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has become a magnet of anti-free trade animus that crosses political lines from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on the left to Trump on the right.
Maine
Arrest made in shooting incident stemming from fight at Maine steakhouse
Police say they have made an arrest in connection with a shooting last month that stemmed from a fight that broke out at a steakhouse in South Portland, Maine, last month.
South Portland police said 21-year-old Jonathan Hanson, of Buxton, was arrested Wednesday in Buxton. He was one of two suspects in a Dec. 18 incident in the Maine Mall area. The other one, 21-year-old Navinn Ean, of Westbrook, is still at large.
Police said they responded to the Kobe Steakhouse at 380 Gorham Road at 5:13 p.m. that day for a report of a possible shooting in the parking lot. Responding officers learned that a fight had broken out inside the restaurant between two sets of individuals. The altercation moved from inside the restaurant to the parking lot, where a suspect from one of the groups displayed and threatened people in the other group with a handgun.
The victims were able to flee in a vehicle, but they were followed by the suspect in another vehicle. When both vehicles reached the intersection of Gorham Road and Western Avenue, the suspect allegedly fired the gun in the direction of the victim’s vehicle. The vehicle was struck by gunfire, and the suspect then fled onto Western Avenue.
No one was injured in the incident, police said.
South Portland police said their investigation led them to believe the vehicle used in the crime, a blue Dodge Charger, was located at an address in Naples. A search warrant for the property was issued, and the vehicle was impounded as evidence. The suspects were not present, however.
On Tuesday night, Buxton police attempted to make a traffic stop on a pickup truck, but the driver sped off in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid contact with police.
Buxton police later located the vehicle in a driveway on Haines Meadow Road, an address with ties to the South Portland shooting suspects. As officers were getting ready to enter the home, they used a loudspeaker system in an attempt to make contact with Hanson, who they believed to be inside. He eventually came out and was arrested around 11:30 p.m.
Hanson was taken to Cumberland County Jail and faces charges of reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon, criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, criminal mischief and terrorizing. He was arraigned Wednesday and bail was set at $10,000 cash.
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