State, National and World News - Fiddlehead Focus

State, National and World News

Defense Secretary says military won’t leave ‘until the border is secure’

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan visited a border city in Texas on Saturday and said he intends to accelerate planning to secure the border and bolster the administration’s ability to accomplish that without the Pentagon’s continuous help.

Mainers can now vote online for the state bicentennial flag design

The state is seeking public input on three proposed designs for the flag that will commemorate Maine’s bicentennial.

Fire destroys office building for Belfast potato processor

A fire that broke out Thursday night spared the Penobscot McCrum potato-processing plant in Belfast, but completely destroyed an office building used by the company, according to fire officials.

North Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in possible new warning

North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles on Thursday, South Korea’s military said, its second weapons launch in five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks with Washington could be in danger.

Fox terrorizes 2 Maine homes, biting woman and dogs before being killed with shovel

A Bowdoinham woman was bitten by a fox Tuesday evening shortly before the fox found its way into a neighboring house and was killed by a resident.

These French pilots almost beat Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic. Did they crash in Maine?

It’s fun to speculate how the course of history might have changed had one thing happened, or not happened. For instance: What if Charles Lindbergh had not been the first person to fly non-stop between New York and Paris?

Don’t know which birds you spotted at Katahdin Woods & Waters? There’s now a list for that.

Birders and other visitors to Maine’s newest national monument will receive a valuable tool Saturday as Friends of Katahdin Woods & Waters releases a checklist of more than 150 birds that can be found in the monument.

Maine CDC says hepatitis continues to rise in the state

Public health authorities in Maine said the state’s sharp rise in hepatitis cases is continuing.

Pilot program to offer more traditional cheering activity during fall sports season

Back when sideline cheering at high school football and basketball games around Maine was the rage during the 1980s, Denise Gelinas of Biddeford helped introduce a separate, more competitive side of that activity full of tumbling, jumps, stunts, pyramids and dance.

Foreign sailors detained in Portland as their employer faced dumping charges sue US government

Jaroslav Hornof, Damir Kordic and Lukas Zak were detained in Maine for 2½ months in 2017 as witnesses against the shipping company they worked for while it faced charges of dumping oily bilge water at sea and falsifying a log book to cover it up.

Trump reported $1.4 billion in losses to IRS, report says

Donald Trump reported $1.17 billion in financial losses to the IRS between 1985 and 1994, a massive run of red ink that kept him from paying income taxes during most of that period, according to a report published late Tuesday in The New York Times.

Fewer flu vaccinations, mental health care shortage test Maine’s response to health crises

Maine’s ability to respond to a natural disaster, disease outbreak or other health emergency has improved in the past few years and is now about average for the U.S.

Blue Hill and Ellsworth prove hot spots for bear damage this spring

The first sign was the suet holders, set out to feed woodpeckers, that had been pulled from the trees. Then the bird feeders got crushed.

Why some students and educators aren’t happy with how Maine dumped an online learning program

The administration of Gov. Janet Mills recently said it will end a small program that provides free, universal access to online Advanced Placement classes particularly valuable for high school students who want to attend out-of-state colleges.

Humans are speeding extinction and altering the natural world at an ‘unprecedented’ pace

Humans are transforming Earth’s natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival

Prince Harry and Meghan welcome a baby boy

Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, welcomed a baby boy on Monday.

Maine is losing farms and farmland, but hope is not lost for agriculture

In recent years, Maine’s so-called farming renaissance has been vaunted as both a hopeful spot in the state’s economy and a magnet that is drawing some young people back to the land.

Feds: Maine’s economic growth slowed substantially in 4th quarter of 2018

Maine’s economic growth slowed markedly in the 4th quarter of 2018. According to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, Maine’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at a rate of just 0.7 percent during the final three months of last year.

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