Morning update: What you need to know in Maine today

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“You pretty much have to have a car. I don’t know of anybody who takes the bus anywhere.”

— Maureen Sullivan, a resident of Cascade Brook, a 30-unit senior housing project in Saco that is a half mile from the closest bus stop. Many senior housing developments, including some that the state considers walkable, are not on public transportation routes.

TODAY’S TOP MAINE STORIES

What is going on at Northern Light? Those losses appear to be worsening in fiscal year 2024 with a more than $60 million deficit by the end of the second quarter.

Maine is still building senior housing around cars . Housing policy players agree that seniors need better access to public transportation, but they’re less unified on who should pay for it.

A descendant of a salvaged Maine boat’s namesake wants to save the vessel . The ownership and cost of raising the sunken Jacob Pike is complicating things for Pike’s great-great-grandson.

A closed Searsport grocery store is expected to reopen this fall with a new owner . The longtime family market closed abruptly last month.

MAINE IN PICTURES

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

• Challengers try to kick RFK Jr. and another presidential longshot off Maine’s ballot
• Maine AG sued over law meant to protect veterans from ‘claim sharks’
• Maine can now order employers to pay workers damages for missed wages
• Farmers’ Almanac predicts a wet and wild winter for Maine
• Ambulance vessels could be a solution to Maine’s island care crisis
• Even Maine lobsters are struggling to find homes
• The Maine man behind the ‘buttery, flaky crust’ viral video has died
• NH man killed in crash on Maine’s Golden Road
• Sinclair man whose home exploded is ‘lucky to be alive,’ say family, neighbors
• Aroostook man charged in infant’s death jailed after bail lender bails
• Report: Conditions were ‘brutal’ when 2 died in Trenton plane crash
• Man drives pickup into front doors of Ellsworth bank
• 76-year-old suffers life-threatening injuries in Maine crash
• Man killed in fiery Richmond crash has been identified
• Judge denies emergency relief to Catholic school challenging Maine antidiscrimination law
• Pedestrian injured in collision near Maine Mall
• 16-year-old seriously injured in Maine motorcycle crash
• Trenton and Old Town-Orono lose in Junior Legion regional
• UMaine hockey center looking to build on last season’s success

FROM THE OPINION PAGES

“It won’t thaw tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but when a South Korean table tennis player took a selfie of his team with their North Korean counterparts (along with the Chinese team) at a medal ceremony, it was a reminder of the humanity behind the posturing and headlines.”

Editorial: Olympic spirits and achievement won in Paris

LIFE IN MAINE

Maine is taking a unique approach to fighting the emerald ash borer . The invasive pest threatens brown ash trees used in traditional Wabanaki basket making.

Fungal disease has been found in an Aroostook potato field . The disease devastated crops in 2009. After stellar growing years in 2021 and ’22, growers don’t need bad news like last year’s constantly wet season.

Thirty four huge, granite sculptures are scattered across eastern Maine . These distinctive products of the Schoodic Sculpture Symposium appear in tiny towns like Harrington and Roque Bluff, and highly trafficked locations in Bangor, Bar Harbor and on the University of Maine campus.