Maine
Maine Monitor’s Rose Lundy named Maine’s Journalist of the Year
A trio of Maine Monitor journalists were heralded with notable awards Saturday night at the Maine Press Association’s annual fall conference and awards banquet.
Rose Lundy, a senior public health reporter at The Monitor, was announced as Maine’s Journalist of the Year for her in-depth reporting over the years on Maine’s aging population. This marks the second time in the past four years that a Maine Monitor reporter was named the state’s journalist of the year.
As part of her COVID-19 coverage, Lundy began identifying gaps in Maine’s health care infrastructure, particularly for Maine’s aging population. In the years since, Lundy has carved out a niche reporting on the lack of quality aging care available in a state that is home to the oldest population in the country.
She devoted 18 months as a ProPublica Local Reporting Fellow to investigate Maine’s residential care facilities, carefully combing through hundreds of pages of monitoring and investigation reports, being dogged in her pursuit of the story and exceedingly careful in her analysis. She knocked on doors, visited facilities and spoke to neighbors.
The investigation uncovered that Maine rarely sanctions residential care facilities even after severe abuse or neglect incidents, and Maine’s health department rarely investigates when residents wander away from their care facilities.
Following the investigation’s publication, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced plans to provide its first major update to assisted living and residential care regulations in more than 15 years. (Lawmakers later replaced the proposed measure instead with reporting requirements and a stakeholder study group.)
Maine Monitor editor Kate Cough was named the inaugural recipient of the MPA’s Mentor of the Year award for how she, as The Monitor’s editor, has amplified opportunities for emerging journalists, including six who have completed internships or fellowships directly under her guidance.
As part of The Monitor’s mission, the newsroom takes seriously its role in training and mentoring early career investigative journalists. As Cough put it in a letter to members earlier this year: “One of the pleasures of being editor of The Monitor is being able to offer intrepid young reporters a way into the field. The Monitor has always created these kinds of opportunities, but we’re doing even more now, once again bucking a trend.”
In addition to her duties as The Monitor’s editor, Cough has generously carved out time to mentor high school students in Mount Desert Island and has spent two semesters advising a Wabanaki history and culture class at the University of New England on its journalism projects.
Kristian Moravec, an education and workforce development reporter for The Monitor, was recognized with the Bob Drake Young Writer’s Award, an accolade presented to a journalist with fewer than three years of full-time experience.
Moravec, while at the Times Record, broke the news about the malfunction of a fire suppression system that discharged 1,600 gallons of firefighting foam concentrate containing forever chemicals at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. The incident spurred dozens of follow-up stories.
For The Monitor, at the time of her nomination in early July, Moravec had covered stories such as the implications of Maine’s fight with the Trump administration over Title IX, rural communities exploring withdrawals from their school district and what the future holds for Maine’s heat pump workforce.
The Monitor also received first place recognitions for Digital General Excellence and for usage of Maine’s Freedom of Access Act for Rose Lundy’s investigation into residential care facility residents wandering away from their facilities and Alexa Foust’s reporting on safety violations at child care facilities and reimbursement delays by DHHS to child care providers who accept children in foster care.
In addition to these accolades, 11 newsroom contributors collectively received 15 accolades for work produced between April 2024 and March 2025. The Monitor competed alongside daily news outlets including the Bangor Daily News, Portland Press Herald, Sun Journal, Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel and Times Record.
The newsroom has now earned 221 accolades from the Maine Press Association since it began participating in the MPA competition in 2015.
First Place
Education Story: Child care providers cited for safety violations by Alexa Foust and Kate Hapgood
Environmental Story: How one Maine town is prepping for its next disaster by Emmett Gartner
News Story: Child care providers cited for safety violations by Alexa Foust and Kate Hapgood
Coverage of Minority Community Issues: ‘Historically left out,’ a Wabanaki organization forges its own approach to addiction treatment by Emily Bader
News Video: The eclipse chasers by Roger McCord
Features/Lifestyle Video: A backstage look at a thriving Biddeford community theater by Roger McCord
News Story Headline: Gulf of Maine lobsters are experiencing a housing crisis by Kate Cough
Second Place
Environmental Story: Community solar is booming, but who owns the projects? by Murray Carpenter
News Story: Maritime officials fear ‘catastrophic’ outcome if mariner shortage worsens by Jacqueline Weaver
Continuing Story: Court system troubles (five stories on indigent defense, public defender’s offices, child removal cases delayed by a lack of attorneys and Sixth Amendment violation decisions) by Josh Keefe
Outdoors Story: Seal Island sees record number of breeding puffins by Derrick Z. Jackson
Self-Promotion: Celebrating 15 years of in-depth and investigative nonpartisan reporting from the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting by George Harvey, Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm, Pat Richardson, Kate Cough, Stephanie McFeeters and Ashley Carter
Third Place
Health Story: Independent pharmacies are closing. Pharmacy benefit managers may be to blame. by Emily Bader
Education Story: Schools confront unique challenges in ridding their water of ‘forever chemicals’ by Emmett Gartner
Food Story/Feature: UMaine potato breed edges out longtime favorites by John O’Meara
LEWISTON (WGME) Nearly three years after the Lewiston mass shooting, the Maine Resiliency Center is asking the public to share how the tragedy has affected them and the community.
The nonprofit has launched a survey to better understand the impacts of the mass shooting in October 2023 and to help guide future support efforts.
The director of the Maine Resiliency Center said the ripple effects have spread widely and the organization wants to hear from anyone who has been affected.
“You could have been a service provider who is providing therapy or counseling for people; you could have been a funeral home director or city employee; you could be someone who lives in this community and knows somebody who is directly impacted or you could be directly impacted yourself. All of those opinions and information are really valuable to us as we look to support the broader community moving forward,” the director said.
To take part in the survey, go to maineresiliencycenter.org.
Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Friday upheld Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ decision to keep a referendum banning transgender girls from female school sports off the November ballot.
The high court ruled Bellows was “not only authorized but was constitutionally bound” when she moved in May to throw out more than 1,500 signatures gathered by out-of-state circulators who never agreed to submit to Maine’s jurisdiction.
The unanimous ruling from the six-justice panel closes out a monthslong legal fight that began when Bellows’ office invalidated more than 12,000 signatures submitted by Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine, leaving the petition 532 signatures short of the 67,682 needed to qualify.
The group, backed heavily by Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein, had argued Bellows overstepped her authority by enforcing a settlement that ended a 2023 First Amendment lawsuit over Maine’s ban on out-of-state circulators, rather than letting Maine voters decide whether to loosen the state’s residency rules for petition circulators.
The court rejected that argument, finding Bellows was bound by the Maine Constitution’s residency requirement for circulators except where a federal injunction narrowly excused her from enforcing it, and that four nonresident circulators who never checked a box consenting to Maine jurisdiction fell outside that carveout.
Justices also rejected the campaign’s fallback argument that one circulator’s belated affidavit, filed months after the Feb. 2 filing deadline, should have salvaged her roughly 61 signatures, citing a state law requiring circulator affidavits to be filed when the petition is.
The decision effectively ends the campaign’s bid for the 2026 ballot, though the court noted proponents could still gather the roughly 500 additional signatures needed to try again for the 2027 ballot.
A handful of mostly unknown Democrats, including a retired art teacher, a candidate’s husband and a finance executive, will soon have unprecedented influence over the U.S. Senate race.
Maine Democrats are slated to host a 600-member convention this month, with roughly 500 of those members selected by the party’s 16 county apparatuses. Being a county chair is usually a low-key position. After Graham Platner’s Wednesday announcement that he will leave the race following sexual assault allegations, they are suddenly in a position of power.
Here are the 16 people tasked with creating a delegation to pick who will face off against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Joseph Zamboni: Cumberland County
As Maine’s most populous county, Cumberland will have the largest delegation at the coming convention. Its party chair is health policy and law professor and pro-vaccine advocate. He currently serves as the chair of Portland’s zoning board and previously worked for the state and the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Kathie Purdy: York County
York, the southernmost county, is the state’s second most populous. Its delegation will be led by Kathie Purdy, a former candidate for the state Legislature. She is a business owner in Saco and a bar manager in Ogunquit, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Harry Sanborn: Penobscot County
Alton resident Harry Sanborn is involved in local government, serving as a member of both the planning board and budget panel. He also serves as the town’s sexton. His wife, Laura, a former lawmaker and county commissioner, is a school board member for Regional School Unit 34.
Joanne Mason: Kennebec County
Kennebec’s Democratic Party chair is Joanne Mason, a nonprofit leader and the wife of Sheriff Ken Mason. According to her LinkedIn, she is president of the Family Violence Project, an Augusta-based nonprofit.
Carl Wilcox: Androscoggin County
From his social media history, Wilcox appears to be on the left of the party. In response to a white nationalist rally in DC last week, he posted that “billionaires control the media and the government sets the rules to funnel ever greater sums to the billionaire class,” echoing Platner’s anti-billionaire language. He hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 2016.
Alison Willette: Aroostook County
Willette has relatively little online presence, but the Aroostook County Democrats downplayed the chair’s role in a Thursday Facebook post, writing, “the process is still being hashed out, but I assure you all counties have representation involved and it is NOT a ‘cherry picked by the chair’ process!”
Aroostook’s delegation, likely to be the seventh-largest, could be a source of support for former Senate President Troy Jackson, an Allagash native who is running to replace Platner in his populist mold.
Bruce Bryant: Oxford County
Oxford is one of the only counties with a chair that served in the state Legislature. Bruce Bryant was a Senator between 2002 and 2010. In 2024 he ran for state senate again, but lost to Republican Joseph Martin. On social media he voiced support for Troy Jackson when he was running for Governor.
Marcia Myers: Hancock County
Myers is a former news editor who now lives in Deer Isle. Her social media history shows posts invoking independent socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and attending “No Kings” protests. She told MS NOW in June that Democrats in Hancock were “laser-focused on issues like healthcare and cost of living.”
Lise Ragan: Somerset County
Ragan is an Anson resident and former teacher who describes herself on Facebook as a “patriotic, very concerned American.” She told the Bangor Daily News she is “confident” the party can move forward with a new candidate for U.S. Senate.
Greg Marley: Knox County
Rockland resident Greg Marley is married to the city’s former mayor and current state Rep. Valli Geiger, a Platner ally running to replace him. In response to a post by The Midcoast Villager about Valli’s interest, Marley posted that he “stand[s] beside this extraordinary woman every step of the way.” Geiger had been a close ally of Platner, who she says encouraged her to run.
Marley is a clinical director of suicide prevention at Maine’s chapter of the nonprofit National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Stanley Paige Zeigler: Waldo County
Zeigler is a former merchant mariner and state representative. He represented part of Waldo County between 2016 and 2024. He has been involved with environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and the Maine Bike Coalition.
Keith Mestrich: Lincoln County
Lincoln County’s chair is set for one of the smallest delegations, but he may have something that other party leaders lack and that many party voters have shunned over the course of Platner’s campaign — money and connections.
Keith Mestrich got his start in labor organizing and eventually became CEO of Amalgamated Bank, a union-owned financial institution. He is now a founding partner of Percapita, a financial tech firm providing an employee benefit platform for low-income workers. He also serves as the chair of the National Trust for Local News, whose Maine arm owns The Portland Press Herald and sister papers.
Lisa Marin: Washington County
Washington County Democrats are led by a retired art teacher who worked at the Moosabec Community School District in Jonesport. The Downeast resident’s Facebook history shows that she has attended “No Kings” protests. She recently wrote a Press Herald op-ed condemning Republican gubernatorial nominee Bobby Charles.
Wayne Kinney: Franklin County
Kinney represents Farmington on the RSU 9 school board. His online presence is limited.
Deb Dagnan: Piscataquis County
Dagnan will lead the smallest county delegation. She had expressed skepticism about Platner after The New York Times published a story in June detailing claims of abuse by his ex-girlfriends. She told PBS ahead of the primary election that people were “waiting for the other shoe to drop after he gets the nomination.”
“Then what do we do?” she asked.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between The Maine Monitor and the Bangor Daily News, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.
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