The Maine Trust for Local News has hired two reporters to cover key areas in central Maine.

Abigail Pritchard earned her master’s in journalism from Boston University and was formerly the editor-in-chief of American University’s student newspaper, The Eagle. Her work has appeared in various Massachusetts-based publications and she previously worked as the Statehouse correspondent for The New Bedford Light.

Pritchard covers the Waterville area and writes the weekly Kennebec Beat North newsletter.

When she’s not working, she enjoys cooking, reading and taking long drives.

Sara Coughlin earned a degree in English and government with a concentration in creative writing from Bowdoin College, where she served as an editor for the student newspaper, the Bowdoin Orient, and wrote for Bowdoin Communications.

Originally from Brunswick, she previously interned for the Portland Press Herald and the Harpswell Anchor.

Couglin covers the Augusta area and writes the weekly Kennebec Beat South newsletter.

Outside of work, you may find her doing yoga — she’s training to become a yoga teacher —or crocheting a hat.

The Maine Trust for Local News, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Local News, is the parent company of the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, Morning Sentinel in Waterville, Portland Press Herald, and Sun Journal in Lewiston, as well as a host of weekly print and online publications.

Alex Smith, from Holden, attended Brewer High School and Hampshire College, and earned a law degree from Northeastern University and a master’s degree in public health from Tufts. He has worked for UNHCR, UN Women and the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He lives in London.

To win the progressive vote and have any chance of beating Susan Collins, Democratic candidates must speak with conviction and moral clarity about the defining human rights violations of our time: Israel’s genocide, apartheid, systemic torture, occupation and other crimes against Palestinians. Those who don’t need not apply.

I grew up on Holbrook Pond off Route 1A near Bangor. Today, I’m a lawyer and global health specialist with more than 25 years of experience. In 2024, I resigned from my senior advisor role with USAID in protest of the Biden administration’s Gaza policies.

Since then, I’ve joined a legal team investigating Israel’s crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and have continued my advocacy through research, media appearances (e.g., CNN ,  Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera Arabic, AJ+  and TRT World ), lecturing and publishing with  Cambridge University (UK), DAWN and other universities and think tanks.

I’ve traveled to the West Bank twice in the last year, investigating ongoing sexual violence and other human rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank and coordinating legal research with human rights organizations, lawyers and survivors of torture.

With the rise and fall of the Platner campaign, I was encouraged to see my fellow Mainers elevating human rights in Palestine to a major concern and not a fringe issue. This concern mirrors broader national trends.

Among voters who supported Joe Biden in 2020 but did not vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, the single most important issue was ending Israel’s violence in Gaza (29% ), surpassing even inflation and the economy (24%), Medicare and Social Security (12%) and immigration (11%). Nationwide, a majority of Democrats have correctly identified that Israel is committing genocide, with 83% supporting a permanent stop to the killing and 75% opposing U.S. military aid to Israel (compared to just 18% in favor).

Taking a moral stand is clearly popular with Democratic voters, as we’ve seen in New York and Colorado, where voters treated opposition to Israeli crimes like a basic moral litmus test. The saying goes: “If you won’t stand against genocide, why would I trust you to stand up for universal healthcare?”

Condemnation of Israel’s crimes comfortably puts candidates on the right side of history and in good company with the U.N. Commission of Inquiry, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the International Court of Justice, Nick Kristof and Israeli genocide scholars and organizations, including Omar Bartov, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel .

With voters showing such moral clarity and focus on this issue, it is striking that so few candidates have spoken clearly about it. To date, Jordan Wood , Shenna Bellows and Nirav Shah have publicly stated that they believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and have called for ending U.S. support for Israel’s military campaign.

The remaining potential Democratic nominees, including Troy Jackson, Dan Kleban, Paige Loud, David Costello and Andrea LaFlamme, have either taken more limited positions or have not publicly condemned what many international organizations, legal experts and human rights groups have described as genocide, nor have they called for ending U.S. arms transfers to Israel.

When Gov. Janet Mills was asked about the Gaza genocide, she gave an incoherent answer, deflecting to other humanitarian crises, listing Sudan, Somalia and the Rwandan genocide, which was over 30 years ago. Instead of naming specific actions to stop genocide and other crimes, she said vaguely, “There’s a lot we have to be concerned about.” She went on to lose the primary battle. That kind of wavering on an issue as serious as genocide won’t cut it.

Graham Platner, who openly opposed Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank, received more than 150,000 votes, the highest total ever won by a Democratic U.S. Senate primary candidate in Maine. Those voters weren’t simply looking for another Democrat. They wanted someone willing to challenge corruption and the bipartisan abandonment of principle on important issues, including Gaza.

The last thing voters want is more invertebrates in Congress. Anyone not taking a moral stand should therefore stand aside.

“Do we accept the idea that innocent, loving partners and loving and devoted fathers of 3-year-olds can be collateral damage to this government’s policies? Do we agree that this is just an acceptable cost of doing business?” Gideon said. “We truly believe that people need to understand what the real costs are.”

“I want to be clear about something. Johan Sebastián, before he was shot to death, had been accused of committing no crime. He was in this country lawfully, and he was following a lawful process that’s prescribed by our federal government,” the attorney said, adding that Durán had been issued a work permit and a Social Security number under the Trump administration.

ICE has said it was conducting “targeted surveillance on the last known address of an illegal alien with a final order of removal” around 7 a.m. Monday, an agency spokesperson said.

“The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon,” the ICE spokesperson said.

Durán, who was born and raised in Bucaramanga, Colombia, had come to the U.S. in 2023 to seek better opportunities for him and his family, relatives said.

A spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security told NBC News in an email that Durán “illegally entered the United States” through the southern border nearly three years ago “and was released into the country under the Biden Administration.”

Entering the U.S. without proper authorization is a misdemeanor, but living in the country without legal permission is a civil violation and not a criminal offense.

At work, and everywhere he went, Durán carried an infectious joy, Rojas said.

As a father, he was devoted. Aside from working cleaning and delivery jobs to provide for his family, he took their daughter, Dulce — or “gordita” (chubby) as he lovingly called her — to the park every afternoon, Rojas said.

Durán always indulged his little girl whenever she had a craving for nuggets and fries, Rojas said, adding he would often marvel in tears every time he realized his daughter “was getting bigger.”

Rojas recalled a conversation she had with Durán a few months ago, wondering who their little girl would grow up to be. Durán said he would have a hard time sending off his daughter to school for the first time, she said.

Dulce now asks for her father every night, Rojas said, breaking down in tears. “And I don’t have the strength to tell her that dad isn’t coming, that she can’t give him a hug and tell him ‘I love you.’”

Gideon said that “there will come a time when those responsible for Johan Sebastián’s needless death will have to answer for what they did. But today is not that day. … Today is about Johan Sebastián and who he was as a person.”