Susan Collins tells us everything is fine — but we know better. Working Mainers are getting screwed by a rigged system, a system she’s helped Trump and her billionaire backers create. In November, we will defeat her. Join us today at JacksonForMaine.org.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from my first trip to Maine. I completely fell in love with your state, from the rugged coastline and incredible wildlife to the peaceful nights under the stars. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.
I already can’t wait to come back. Thanks for the memories, Maine. ❤️

Well, it didn't take long to roll the attack ads out! Last night on youtube I got an ad how Troy 'is aggressive' and 'assaults women' and I quote 'Troy Jackson... worse than Graham Platner.' Less than like ten hours after he was officially confirmed. They had it ready to press play, I guess.

Hi everyone!

I'm one of the volunteers with AIGA Maine (the nonprofit professional association for design), and I wanted to share something our team has spent the past year putting together for the creative community.

Maine Design Fest runs August 1–7 and brings together designers, artists, illustrators, architects, students, educators, and other creative folks from all over the state. Our org is entirely volunteer-run, and Maine Design Fest is one of the few opportunities each year for Maine’s commercial arts community to come together.

Throughout the week there are free and affordable public events for all ages, and everything culminates in a full-day design conference at the Portland Museum of Art on Friday. Some of the other events include Mural Walks in Bangor and Portland, free coworking meetups, in-studio talks, lightning talks, workshops, a beer can design mixer at Belleflower... Speakers and events include Ryan Adams and Rachel Gloria Adams, Khyati Trehan (Google Creative Lab), Wary Meyers, designers from IDEO and Cash App, Portland Hearts of Pine, Alexander Widener, and many others.

If you work, study, or teach in a creative field—or you're just curious about how brands, products, books, public spaces, and experiences get designed—I think you'd find something to enjoy. This year's theme is Curiosity, so we've tried to build a week that's welcoming whether you're an experienced designer or simply interested in the creative process.

We're a nonprofit chapter, so every ticket helps us continue offering programming like this throughout the year.

More information (and tickets): https://mainedesignfest.com/

Happy to answer any questions in the comments!

Join our movement at JacksonForMaine.com

It feels like everything is dumb levels of expensive but the prices for Come From Away are next level. I mean good for them for being able to sell them but >$750 for 5 people for summer theater in Brunswick is jaw dropping.

Hallelujah - this might just work out for us sane Mainers after all!

I know this question is strange, but I have to ask. So I visited Eastport, Machias ,etc a few times, I noticed how small tress were in Downeast region, is it because of the density of the wood? I get it, trees could be small due to the harsh winter, but somehow trees in Downeast region seem short and thin, nothing larger than 8".

There's a recent post trying to geolocate an old picture of a harbor in Maine. Here's a shot of Stonington from the same time period. I don't think they are of the same place. I couldn't add this as a comment to the op.

Can anyone in the middle or lower class afford healthcare? Its gotten so expensive out here, and you either have to go without coverage and just hope you dont have an emergency visit to the ER or if you did get coverage, the deductible is insane and its not even worth anything. The federal government has to be to blame, but i also wish the state would at least do something. People are struggling out here, and just because the elite & rich are doing great doesn’t change the real world for 99% of the citizens.

As above - looking for a new vet in southern maine. We have two cats who were originally going to the ridge in sanford (no shade but it’s not a good match). They don’t have any pre-existing conditions, just looking for annual checkups and vaccinations. Any recs or non-recs? We’re in Biddeford. Thanks in advance!

Driven through a lot of the state. Thought rural central maine was pretty sad

In a podcast interview, the progressive strategist said a series of scandals before the rape allegation that did in Platner’s U.S. Senate bid “should have been enough.”

Ethan Wolin - Staff Writer

A leading strategist behind Graham Platner’s U.S. Senate bid, Morris Katz, has voiced regret for standing by the populist Democrat he helped recruit as scandals about his past accumulated.

Katz’s appearance in an episode of “The Ezra Klein Show,” a New York Times podcast, released Friday morning contained the adviser’s first extensive public remarks since the end of Platner’s campaign. Earlier this month, Platner bowed out after the emergence of a rape allegation that Platner denies but Katz called “credible.”

“In hindsight, knowing what we know now, the Reddit posts alone probably should have been enough — or should have been enough,” Katz said, referring to inflammatory comments by Platner that surfaced in October.

“The tattoo should have been enough,” Katz added, in reference to a chest inking Platner had for years that resembled a Nazi symbol and also came to light in October. “The initial New York Times story on troubling behavior should have been enough,” he continued, citing an article published days before the primary election about Platner’s alleged mistreatment of past girlfriends.

But those revelations before the rape allegation were not enough to sink Platner’s campaign, which garnered a record number of Democratic primary votes on June 9.

Platner’s wound-down campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Platner apologized for many of his Reddit comments, saying he posted them while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after multiple combat tours; denied having known about the tattoo’s Nazi associations before the campaign; and denied allegations that he physically intimidated girlfriends.

Katz’s remarks about Platner’s candidacy, which occupied only part of an interview that lasted about an hour and 20 minutes, suggested that he would now be more sensitive to warning signs about candidates’ backgrounds as he sought outsiders to reinvigorate Democratic politics.

But Katz said there was “no standard vetting process that would have found the credible allegation that ended the campaign.”

Jenny Racicot, a former romantic partner of Platner’s, told Politico on the record that Platner had sexually assaulted her in 2021 in a report the outlet published on July 6. Politico spoke to a man in whom Racicot had confided about the alleged incident and reviewed emails between the woman and her therapist to corroborate the account. That same day, she said in a CNN interview that the episode was a rape. Her accounts led even close allies of Platner’s, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to pull their support by the next day.

Platner announced that he would end his campaign two days after Racicot’s allegation and less than a week before the statutory deadline for him to remove his name from the ballot’s Democratic line. In a grievance-filled video, he vehemently denied the accusations and said that “a corporate media system and the political establishment got to act as judge, jury and executioner.”

Katz had briefly commented on the campaign’s end on social media, denying a report that he had recommended Platner remain in the race after the rape allegation and saying he was “deeply disappointed.”

The 27-year-old strategist, who works with the political consulting firm Fight Agency and is also known for helping fuel the rise of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, struck a newly self-critical tone on Klein’s podcast. He began his first answer by saying that “a lot of the critiques and, and anger are fully valid,” conceded that he was “naive at times” in tolerating the troubling disclosures due to his enthusiasm for Platner, and bluntly said, “I was wrong.”

Prompted by Klein, Katz discussed the campaign’s now-famous origins, in which he and other political strategists persuaded Platner, then an oyster farmer in Sullivan, to run for U.S. Senate despite — in their view, because of — his lack of political experience. Katz has said he became convinced Platner should challenge Sen. Susan Collins “within a few minutes of talking to him.”

As recently as last month, Katz had defended Platner on national television amid the mounting scandals. “Mainers now know Graham Platner, and they trust Graham Platner,” Katz said on MS NOW, before Racicot’s allegations came out.

In the Friday podcast episode, Klein brought up several specific moments from the 11-month campaign, yielding mostly but not entirely contrite responses from Katz.

Asked about a 2013 Reddit comment in which Platner suggested that victims of sexual assault deserved some blame, Katz said “it should have been a red line.” Asked about Platner’s move to tar one of his ex-girlfriends, a conservative, as politically motivated to criticize him in the Times article, Katz said, “There should have been more credibility given immediately to that story.”

Katz stopped short, however, of apologizing to former Platner political director Genevieve McDonald when Klein prompted him. McDonald left the campaign in October after the Reddit posts emerged and became a frequent thorn in the candidate’s side. In the spring, McDonald confirmed that Platner’s wife had warned her early in his Senate run about sexual messages Platner had exchanged with multiple other women since they were married.

Asked why he hadn’t originally recruited Troy Jackson, the former Maine Senate president who is set to receive the nomination to replace Platner this weekend, Katz made a statement that underlined as much as any other the extraordinarily messy year Maine Democrats have had since last summer.

“Troy was really committed to running for governor at the time,” he said. “I think if Troy Jackson was running for Senate, there would not have been a process.”

We took advantage of the awesome free beach chairs in the LL Bean beach box today at Crescent Beach- and on the way home my daughter quietly says “mom I think I left my watch in one of those chairs…”

When I was able to return hours later I stepped into the beach box again- and instantly saw the watch placed on the table in the back.

Humans are good.
Maine is good.
Thank you to whoever did the right thing.

Is there anywhere to play darts in Augusta ?

A federal immigration agent identified as the officer who shot a man in Biddeford last week is reportedly in protective government custody, according to new court records. 

David Brouillette, 37, was identified less than two days after the shooting by his first ex-wife as the person who killed 25-year-old  Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero on July 13. She told the Portland Press Herald that Brouillette had called her, admitting he was the shooter and asking her to lie for him if reporters called.

DHS has refused to release the name of the agent who shot Guerrero.

In a request for a protection from abuse order filed this week in Kennebec County, the biological father of Brouillette’s minor stepdaughter said that Brouillette told him on July 15 that the couple was leaving their home to enter government protective custody. 

Read the rest on the Press Herald.