Portland, South Portland police texted with immigration agent during surge operation in Maine Records obtained by the Press Herald reveal how local officials communicated with a federal officer, including on the surveillance of protesters, when more than 200 arrests were made in late January.

“Over 200 illegals taken off your hands… They’re going back to their shithole countries.”

Texts obtained by the @pressherald.com show Maine police chatted w/ DHS officials & surveilled protestors during the ICE surge despite public statements to the contrary

www.pressherald.com/2026/03/12/p...

M​aine towns are using AI for policing, budgets and more In the absence of state or federal regulations around artificial intelligence, local governments are deciding for themselves what safe and ethical use of the technology looks like.

Maine regulates how state employees & certain industries are allowed to use AI. It has no laws for local governments.
Some towns now use AI to write emails & ethics policies. Others use it to police & track citizens. Few have formal AI policies.
My latest: www.pressherald.com/2026/02/11/m...

ICE agents shatter window, leave 1-month-old baby, mother in car after Portland arrest Video shows federal immigration agents leaving behind an infant and broken glass after detaining a Guinean immigrant with no known criminal history.

Video shows ICE leaving behind an infant and broken glass after arresting a man with no criminal history.
“There was a car seat in the back... There were broken glass shards all over it... There was just this tiny peanut of a baby. He was crying.”
My latest: www.pressherald.com/2026/01/28/i...

My latest:

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens.” - Harry Truman

RFK Jr.'s new MAHA roadmap is finally public The long-awaited document stops short of surprise regulations and leaves pesticides alone.

The new MAHA strategy leaves pesticides alone.

The plan is a win for the farm industry, which successfully lobbied the White House to temper RFK Jr.'s health agenda.

Support One Big Union at the Maine Trust for Local News Under nonprofit ownership, the Maine Trust for Local News is building a business model that could be a roadmap to sustainability for local news organizations across the country. We are here because we...

We, the workers of the statewide Maine Trust for Local News are excited to kick off our new campaign to bring the entire company under One Big Union. As our work grows increasingly unified, so should our representation.

It's time to bring the whole company together. Sign out petition here!

How cheap weed from ‘gray market’ growers ends up on Maine dispensary shelves Law enforcement experts say cheap, sometimes tainted weed grown by Chinese criminal groups is getting into the state's medical market. Business owners say it's cratering market rates and pushing reput...

NEW: Your local dispo's $40 ounce might've been grown by the Chinese mob
Growers warn "gray market" weed is flooding legal weed markets & crushing legit businesses.
“They’re not just fighting us, but they’re fighting each other. It’s a race to the bottom.”
www.pressherald.com/2025/08/17/h...

BREAKING: GUNMAN AT LARGE IN WINDHAM, MAINE

Maine rejects Justice Dept. request for lists of all voters, election officials Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said the federal government has sent the same request for voters’ personal information in all 50 states.

NEW: Maine rejects Justice Department’s request for a list of local election officials and every registered voter’s personal information.
SOS Shenna Bellows told the feds to “jump in the Gulf of Maine.”

www.pressherald.com/2025/07/29/m...

Former students allege abuse and neglect at Hyde School in Bath A federal lawsuit recounts their experience at the boarding school, accusing Hyde officials of imposing emotional and physical mistreatment that had lasting negative effects. The school denies the cla...

www.pressherald.com/2025/07/13/f...

Hyde School alumni take out full page ad in the @pressherald.com after the paper reported on the school’s alleged practices of child abuse, manual labor & “attack therapy”

How a ‘cluster’ of HIV cases in Penobscot County became one of Maine’s largest outbreaks The vast majority of positive tests have come from people in Bangor who have either been homeless, injection drug users, or both. But officials say the outbreak is a culmination of factors much larger...

A 'cluster' of HIV cases in Bangor has quietly become one of the largest outbreaks in Maine's history.
Local providers expect the county's thin support structure to face more strain as cases rise and the federal government cuts public health budgets.
My latest:
www.pressherald.com/2025/07/23/h...

The Gentrification of the Internet by Jessa Lingel - Paper Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

I just finished reading “The Gentrification of the Internet” by Jessa Lingel, which speaks to exactly this. Highly recommend

www.ucpress.edu/books/the-ge...

7 Chinese nationals have been charged for running a “a multi-million-dollar conspiracy” of illegal weed grows across New England.
One man was caught laundering $40k in drug proceeds while wearing a $120 Supreme shirt of an iron laundering money.
www.pressherald.com/2025/07/09/s...

Maine Fire Marshal investigating dudes for rocking

Burnham woman again charged with animal cruelty The state is investigating a woman who allegedly kept and sold malnourished horses, cows, dogs and cats at her Burnham property and was convicted of nearly identical charges about 15 years ago.

Maine woman who allegedly kept and sold "malnourished, lice infested" horses charged with animal cruelty for 2nd time in 15 years
www.pressherald.com/2025/07/06/b...

Thanks for the shout in the newsletter last week @ire.org

www.pressherald.com/2025/06/04/h...

Cumberland County Jail officer detained by ICE had applied for asylum Gratien Milandou-Wamba was detained by ICE officers while driving to work on April 19. He is being held in a New Hampshire jail awaiting court proceedings.

Cumberland County Jail officer detained by ICE had applied for asylum

Scarborough High revives student newspaper after 12 years of inactivity A group of underclassmen founded The Storm this school year at a time when more and more young people eschew traditional media sources.

Scarborough last had an active student newspaper in 2012. That's a national pattern: between 2011-2021, the proportion of US high schools with a student newspaper dropped from 64% to 45%. In disadvantaged urban neighborhoods and rural areas, just 27% of schools have a student paper.

Reselling grow houses gives the Chinese organized crime groups that own them one last chance to profit tens or thousands of dollars even after they've stopped growing cannabis or been raided by police.
At least 40 such properties are on the market across Maine. Many have sold.

The property is one of many single family homes, warehouses and properties previously used to house illegal Chinese cannabis grows put back on the market by realtor Yuli "Lily" Huang, who I've written about previously. www.centralmaine.com/2024/12/12/m...

Police raided the house in 2024, destroyed thousands of pot plants & turned off the power, which has not been turned back on. Photos from a real estate listing show extensive modifications to the building's interior and bunk beds in the workers' sparse living quarters.

The Elan School is infamous for having inflicted physical and psychological abuse on 100s of students in the nearly 50 years it operated.
The facility in Parsonsfield was in operation from the mid '70s to late '80s, real estate listings indicate, before a Chinese man from NH bought it in 2021.

A building once used by the notorious Elan school for troubled teens is back on the market after being condemned + used as an illegal Chinese-run marijuana farm for the last four years.
It was raided by police last year & is being sold "as is" but traces of its past lives are still visible inside.🧵

Neat stuff in Gardiner. Officials specifically cited my investigation while rejecting two cannabis applications at an illegal Chinese-run grow mentioned in the story.

The facility was licensed by a former legislator & has since been operating illegally.
www.pressherald.com/2025/06/04/h...

How a former Maine lawmaker grew weed with alleged Chinese crime groups

He & others in the cannabis industry/lobbying group he leads have helped numerous illegal Chinese grows find legal cover in rural Maine.

My latest investigation:
www.pressherald.com/2025/06/04/h...

How a former lawmaker grew weed with alleged Chinese crime groups in rural Maine A web of shell companies and illegal grows allegedly linked to Chinese organized crime traces its start to one former Democratic legislator, his cannabis consulting business, and his chain of central ...

Hundreds of pages of inspection reports, police logs and other documents reviewed by the Press Herald show how Eddie DuGay, a former state lawmaker turned full-time cannabis consultant, helped numerous Chinese nationals get medical marijuana licenses and set up shop across the state.

Trump administration has frozen $50 million in UMaine funding so far More than $21 million was terminated or put on hold recently as the university was negotiating the grants' terms and conditions, the university says.

UMaine’s federal funds have been in limbo since February, when Trump ordered an investigation into the university system and threatened to pull its grant money following a public spat with Gov. Janet Mills over Maine state law allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports.

COMMENTARY: Claims of election rigging will be tested in a courtroom in Colorado next week. Here's why many journalists, Democrats, and Republicans aren't talking about it.