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☆ A meteorite crashed in Maine. A museum there is offering a $25,000 prize for whoever finds it.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum wants a piece of the rare meteorite for its collection. The unusually bright fireball could be seen in broad daylight around noon Saturday, said Darryl Pitt, chair of the meteorite division at the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel. It's the first time radar spotted a meteorite fall in Maine, the space agency said. The Maine Mineral and Gem Museum wants to add to its collection, which includes moon and Mars rocks, Pitt said, so the first meteorite hunters to deliver a 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) specimen will claim the $25,000 prize. Pitt said the museum is also looking to purchase any other specimens found by meteorite hunters.

☆ Oklahoma eyes first US religious charter school after Supreme Court rulings
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( John Kruzel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstApril 6 (Reuters) - An Oklahoma school board is set to consider next week whether to approve the first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in the United States in a move that follows recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings expanding religious rights. The board is a state entity that considers applications for charter schools - publicly funded but independently run - that operate virtually in Oklahoma. They estimated that it would cost Oklahoma taxpayers up to $25.7 million over its first five years in operation as a charter school. In 2020, the Supreme Court endorsed Montana tax credits that helped pay for students to attend religious schools. Secular opponents have said religious charter schools would violate legal limits on government involvement in religion.

☆ Elizabeth Warren demands Fed crackdown on large regional banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Senator Elizabeth Warren is cranking up the pressure on the Federal Reserve following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Both Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank fit into that asset threshold when they failed earlier this month. The bipartisan 2018 rollback of Dodd-Frank freed large regional banks in that range of assets from the toughest oversight. Notably, the letter was signed by Senator Angus King, the Maine independent who voted in favor of the 2018 rollback. Days after the bank failures, the Federal Reserve launched a review of the regulation and oversight of Silicon Valley Bank.

☆ A tiny-home village with $1,000-a-month rents will allow teachers and firefighters to afford to live in the community they serve
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A lack of homes in Dover, New Hampshire has pushed prices up and made housing unaffordable for many. They are building 44 tiny homes that will cost between $1,000 and $1,200 a month to rent. They shouldn't have to live an hour away and then come serve you every day and then drive home." "A lot of affordable-housing projects are killed because of overhead costs," Maggie Randolph told the Concord Monitor. In Colorado, for example, ski towns like Breckenridge — where the ultrawealthy flocked to amid the pandemic — have gotten so expensive that the government is building housing that its snowplow workers can actually afford.

☆ Orca pair devour 17 sharks in a day in South African killing spree, say marine biologists
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A pair of orca whales in South Africa killed 17 sharks in just "one sitting," said marine biologists. The male duo had previously terrorized great white sharks that used to hunt in the area. Days later, they found the remains of 11 of the 17 killed sevengill sharks in Pearly Beach. The carcasses of several great white sharks have since washed up on the shores of False Bay, all grossly injured and with their oil-rich livers ripped out. For the first time in May 2022, scientists were able to film Starboard killing a great white shark.

☆ Lebanon, Maine — where the winning Mega Millions lottery ticket was sold — is a small town for 'woodsy introverts' with just over 6,000 residents near New Hampshire
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Bethany Biron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Maine just sold its first winning Mega Millions ticket for a whopping $1.35 billion. The ticket was sold at a gas station in the small town of Lebanon. "There is not much around, but it is a quiet little town in Maine," they wrote on the site. Hometown Gas & Grill in Lebanon, Maine. A total of 1,250 retailers sell lottery products in the state, and each business receives commissions and bonuses, per the Maine Lottery.

☆ Winning lottery ticket for $1.35 billion Mega Millions jackpot was sold in Maine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A single winning ticket for a Mega Millions lottery jackpot ofat least $1.35 billion, the second largest jackpot in U.S. history, was sold in Maine, lottery organizers said on Saturday. "Congratulations to the Maine State Lottery, which has just won its first-ever Mega Millions jackpot," Ohio Lottery director Pat McDonald, lead director for the Mega Millions Consortium, said in a statement. "It's the fourth billion-dollar jackpot in Mega Millions history." Most winners go for the lump sum, which comes with a hefty tax bill, according to the Mega Millions website. The winning numbers for the jackpot were 30, 43, 45, 46 and 61, plus the power ball 14.

Four college students have died and three others were injured after the SUV they were in crashed early Saturday in the Maine town of Castine, authorities said. Jerry Paul, president of the Maine Maritime Academy, where all seven attended, said in a statement that he's devastated. The four were preliminarily identified as Brian Kenealy, 20, of York, Maine; Chase Fossett, 21, of Gardiner, Maine; Luke Simpson, 22, of Rockport, Mass. All seven were students at the academy, a circa-1941 state school that prepares students for careers in overseas transportation, the Navy, and other ocean-oriented pursuits. Castine, about 35 miles south of Bangor, Maine, has a population of about 1,100 residents, slightly more than the academy's student body.

WASHINGTON — The lobster featured on the menu of Thursday’s state dinner comes with caviar, squash ravioli — and a heaping side of controversy. Maine officials would typically be thrilled to have their state’s most famous export featured at such a high-profile White House event. Maine lobstermen have long prided themselves on sustainability and argue the concern about right whales is misplaced. “I am glad President Biden and his State Dinner guests had the opportunity to enjoy Maine lobster,” Democratic Maine Gov. “The administration should make their policy consistent with their culinary preferences.”The Office of the First Lady, which oversees the state dinner preparations, did not respond to a request for comment.

A decision by Whole Foods to pause purchases of Maine lobster has sparked outcry from the state's elected officials and the lobster industry. Whole Foods' decision, which was announced this month, was prompted by changes in sustainability ratings for Maine lobster fisheries by separate third-party seafood monitoring groups: the California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch and the London-based Marine Stewardship Council. "There has never been a right whale death attributed to Maine lobster gear," they said. “Maine lobster has always been sustainable and that hasn’t changed with the recent announcement from MSC,” Steve Kingston, the owner of The Clam Shack in Kennebunk, Maine, said in a statement. The company said its stores would continue to sell Marine Stewardship Council-certified lobster caught elsewhere.

☆ Maine Governor Janet Mills criticized Whole Foods after the grocery chain decided to stop selling the state's lobsters at its stores
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Whole Foods will no longer sell Maine lobster in its stores. The Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, which represents the Gulf of Maine fishery, also called the decision "disappointing" in a statement to Maine Public. Right whales can reach up to 52 feet in length and live up to 70 years. The main causes of unusual death for right whales include entanglements with fishing gear and collisions with ships. Representatives for Whole Foods, the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, and the Marine Stewardship Council did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

☆ How small-town Maine embraced a family that fled the Taliban
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Elyse Lightman Samuels | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +36 min

CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine — Last November, at about midnight, Omid was lying in bed in his new home in Cape Elizabeth, Maine — exhausted, but unable to sleep. On this night, and on many nights during Omid's first few months in Maine, Nasir was soon at his door. Omid's family arrived in Maine just before Halloween in 2021 and recently celebrated one year in Maine. Catholic Charities, the local refugee-resettlement organization in Maine, was working with Omid's family to help them resettle. After Omid's family escaped Kabul, members of his extended family came by to collect some of their more precious items, and gave other things away.

☆ Live Election Results: Maine State Legislature
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

It symobilizes the 2022 Election. Election 2022 Maine Results Explore more election results Alaska Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Nevada New Hampshire New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Texas Virginia Washington Wisconsin (1 District) Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. Also, all 35 of the seats in the Maine State Senate are up for election, and Democrats currently control the chamber by a margin of 9 seats. The Maine House and Senate are both seen as a toss-up this cycle. Maine House of Representatives election results:Maine Senate election results:

Janet Mills is running against Republican Paul LePage in Maine's gubernatorial race. Janet Mills faces off against Republican Paul LePage — the state's former governor — in Maine's gubernatorial election. She also served as vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party and in the Maine House of Representatives. LePage, Mills' challenger, is the former governor of Maine, serving from 2011 to 2019. Prior to his election as governor, LePage served on the Waterville City Council and later as mayor of Waterville.

☆ Democratic Gov. Janet Mills faces off against Republican Paul LePage in Maine's gubernatorial election
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Hanna Kang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Janet Mills is running against Republican Paul LePage in Maine's gubernatorial race. She also served as vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party and in the Maine House of Representatives. LePage, Mills' challenger, is the former governor of Maine, serving from 2011 to 2019. Prior to his election as governor, LePage served on the Waterville City Council and later as mayor of Waterville. The money raceAccording to Maine Public, Mills has raised $4.9 million, spent $3.4 million, and has $1.4 million on hand, as of September 20.

☆ As Maine’s winters shorten, tiny ticks threaten state’s mighty moose
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Lauren Owens Lambert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

“We’ve seen that areas with lower moose density tend to have healthier moose with fewer ticks,” said state Moose Biologist Lee Kantar, who is running the study. Maine's moose population is currently the largest of all the lower 48 states at over 60,000 animals, according to state figures, thanks to an ideal habitat and careful management of the annual moose hunt. Kantar is now leading research to test whether thinning the moose population through increased hunting can help. It is unclear, he said, what an ideal moose population would be for Maine but he hopes the study will help answer that. Each year, the Maine moose hunt draws around 50,000 applications in a lottery for the 2,000 to 3,000 moose permits typically issued.

An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Thursday in favor of adding the Covid vaccine to the recommended immunization schedule for children and adults. The decision to officially add Covid vaccination to the schedule now goes to the CDC. The recommended immunization schedule is not a vaccine mandate. For example, the CDC added the HPV vaccine to the recommended schedule in 2006. The CDC's recommended vaccination schedule also provides guidance to insurance providers, which tend to cover vaccines on the list.

☆ Covid-19 vaccines will be on the 2023 vaccine schedule, but that doesn’t mean they’re required in schools
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Deidre Mcphillips | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —Covid-19 vaccines will be part of recommended immunization schedules in 2023 for both children and adults, after a unanimous vote by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The board members addressed concerns from the public that adding Covid-19 vaccinations to the schedule would force schools to require the shots. This discussion does not change that.”In fact, Covid-19 vaccines are explicitly banned from being included in school mandates in at least 20 states. “Mandates may not do anything to those people who would pull their kids out of public school,” Hackell said. Schools are public spaces with a level of control, and 95% vaccination coverage is a goal with intent.

☆ A bargain hunter picked up a 700-year-old medieval script for $75 at a yard sale that could be worth $10,000
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A shopper got a surprise when he picked up a 700-year-old script for $75, per the Maine Monitor. Academic Lisa Fagin Davis confirmed the piece was genuine, and could be worth up to $10,000. Will Sideri, who bought the script, told the Maine Monitor he doesn't intend to sell the document. The Maine Monitor reported last week that Will Sideri picked up the 700-year-old document at an estate sale in Maine after noticing the leaf adorned in Latin writing alongside some musical notes. "An estate sale in Maine isn't even the most unexpected place where a Beauvais Missal leaf has turned up.

☆ Retailers pull lobster from menus after 'red list' warning
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-08 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

Seafood Watch, which rates the sustainability of different seafoods, said this week it has added the American and Canadian lobster fisheries to its “red list” of species to avoid. Seafood Watch assigns ratings of “best choice,” “good alternative” and “avoid” to more than 2,000 seafood items based on how sustainably they are managed. Seafood Watch assigns ratings of “best choice,” “good alternative” and “avoid” to more than 2,000 seafood items based on how sustainably they are managed. The lobster fishing industry has come under scrutiny from Seafood Watch because of the threat of entanglement in fishing gear. Members of the lobster fishing industry, which is also coping with increased federal fishing restrictions to protect the whales, pushed back against the Seafood Watch rating.

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