The Bangor Police Department charged a homeless man on Wednesday after he allegedly set off a firework in the middle of a Bangor street.

[RELATED: Bangor Homeless Man Arrested After Stealing a Large Umbrella from a Business…]

Police responded after reports of an explosion in the vicinity of First Street.

Officers arrived and determined the location of the explosion, which was in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

Investigation revealed that the explosion was caused by an altered commercial-grade firework.

Police identified Damien Larochelle, 23, homeless, as the suspect.

Larochelle was located and charged with reckless conduct.

Police simply issued Larochelle a criminal summons and did not actually take him into custody.

He was previously arrested in 2023 on a warrant charging him with a probation violation.

The Newburyport, Massachusetts, Police Department saved an elderly Mainer from an $11,000 bitcoin scam on Tuesday after a caller impersonated a government official.

[RELATED: Cumberland Sheriff Searching for Scammer Who Stole $19,500 from an Elderly Couple…]

A Newburyport officer was in a gas station on Storey Avenue when he was approached by a 75-year-old woman who reported that she feared she was being scammed.

The woman told the officer, Patrolman Nathaniel Kelley, that she received a call from someone claiming to be a government agent.

The caller knew personal information about her and told her that she needed to deposit funds into a Bitcoin ATM machine to avoid legal consequences.

The officer asked to speak over the phone to the caller with the woman. The caller then immediately hung up when he realized that the police officer was on the phone.

Kelley learned that the woman had driven from Maine to find a Bitcoin ATM, and that she had withdrawn $11,000 in cash in response to

The crowd loved her. They ate it all up.

"I support the rights of trans women because I'm a girl's girl," she squealed.

Boom. Vibes filled the State Theatre in Portland, Thursday for the "Students vs. Billionaires" town hall put on by More Perfect University.

It was woke 2.0 hitting its stride. The room was full of young progressives, socialists, communists, anarchists or whatever identifier the young ideologues in the crowd wrapped themselves with.

And they loved just about everything they heard from the telegenic, cheerful, likely 2028 presidential candidate.

When a young man asked AOC what could be done in rural places like Maine to

The Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office arrested an Ashland woman on Tuesday after she allegedly set fire to two neighboring homes earlier in October.

[RELATED: Medway Man Arrested for Arson In Connection With Two Separate Fires…]

On Oct. 10, the Ashland Police Department responded to 1158 Frenchville Road for a report of criminal mischief.

Officers arrived and located Brooke Robinson, 26, of Ashland, on the scene.

She was issued a criminal summons for criminal mischief.

On Oct. 13, the Ashland Police contacted the Fire Marshal’s Office requesting assistance after developing more information on the incident.

Investigators saw fire damage on the exterior of the residence and determined that it was intentionally set by someone holding an open flame against the siding.

Investigators allegedly found that Robinson was responsible for the blaze.

They also learned that she allegedly set fires at the neighboring 1164 Frenchville Road before moving on

The Federal Government charged 15 defendants, including six medical professionals, on Thursday in a massive crackdown on California healthcare fraud schemes that allegedly stole $1.8 billion in false medical claims.

[RELATED: Trump Warns Fraudsters: Prison Time Ahead — and Politicians Who Look Away Could Pay…]

“If you steal from the American taxpayer, if you exploit vulnerable Americans, if you treat health care patients as dollar bills, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is coming for you, and one morning soon, the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service will be at your door executing your arrest warrant,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald.

🚨 @AAGMcDonald announces Los Angeles Health Care Fraud Takedown results in charges against 15 defendants, including 6 medical professionals, .8 BILLION loss ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/NE2D7ZSwdj

— National Fraud Enforcement Division (@DOJFraudDiv) October 22, 2026

The

By John Petrolino

District 2 Congressional candidate Matthew Dunlap says he supports the Second Amendment and is a gun owner. However, he's gone on the record saying Maine's "red flag" law is "promising."

The Maine District 2 Congressional race could boil down to the candidates and their Second Amendment views. Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden is not seeking reelection. In a district where sportsmen and Second Amendment supporters come in all political affiliations, what the candidates say and have done matters.

The frontrunners in this race are Republican former Governor Paul LePage and Democratic former Maine Secretary of State and current State Auditor Matthew Dunlap. Both candidates state they're pro Second Amendment, but it's nuanced and there's plenty to question.

Dunlap's position on the red flag law and his "F" grade from a gun rights organization needs evaluation.

Dunlap's Conversation With the Maine Women's Lobby

A 20-year-old Auburn motorcyclist died in the hospital after a crash on Auburn’s Center Street on Wednesday.

[RELATED: 16-Year-Old Arrested After Fleeing Westbrook Police and Crashing Into a Parked Car…]

At approximately 1:58 p.m., the Auburn Police Department responded to the area of 777 Center Street after receiving reports of a crash between a car and a motorcycle.

A preliminary investigation indicated that Alice Houmann, 69, of West Bath, was operating a 2012 Honda Odyssey when she took a left turn from the Lee GMC parking lot onto Center Street.

While Houmann was turning, Owen Vinecruz, 20, of Auburn, was operating a 1999 Yamaha motorcycle and was traveling north on Center Street when he struck Houmann’s vehicle.

Houmann was evaluated by paramedics at the scene and released.

Veracruz was transported to the Central Maine Medical Center with life-threatening injuries and was later transferred to the Maine Medical Center, where he tragically succumbed to his injuries.

The circumstances surrounding the crash remain under investigation, and police

Health insurance rates for Mainers are going up, again, according to guidance published by the Maine Bureau of Insurance.

If you buy your own plan, the average premium rises 14.8 percent on Jan. 1, 2027. If you get coverage through a small business with 50 or fewer workers, the average hike is 13.5 percent.

The Maine Bureau of Insurance approved those numbers on Aug. 14, offering the insurance companies a trimmed-down version of the larger rate increases they had asked for.

It is the second straight year of double-digit increases.

Last year individual rates jumped 24.2 percent and small-business rates jumped 17.7 percent. Two years of hikes add up to about 43 percent more for people who buy their own coverage, and about 34 percent more for small businesses.

Acting Superintendent Timothy Schott blamed higher utilization, prescription-drug prices, more expensive provider contracts, and inflation.

Schott did not point to any pieces of legislation enacted since 2019 that might have caused health insurance rates to continue increasing.

Whose rates are going up?

The MBI letter concerns only a small segment of Maine’s health insurance market, though it may be representative of health insurance costs for the ~700k Maine residents still paying for their own insurance in some manner.

Together, the individual and small-group markets account for just under 100,000 individuals, and it’s these individuals who will experience the cost increases. The bureau says about 65,000 people buy their own coverage, mostly on CoverME.gov, and more than 36,000 get it through a small employer. The 2027 filings count about 98,600 people in that whole market.

Everyone else is on MaineCare, Medicare, a large-employer plan, or a self-funded job plan the bureau cannot price. DHHS says MaineCare covers about 1 in 4 Mainers and about half of Maine children. 

Insurers asked for larger rate increases than they got, but that will provide little solace to Mainers feeling the pinch of ever-increasing health insurance costs.

MBI cut the individual-market request from a membership-weighted 16.8 percent to 14.8 percent, and the small-group request from 15.7 percent to 13.5 percent.

A KFF analysis cited in the bureau's notice found a national median proposed increase of 15 percent. Maine's approved individual average is already in that neighborhood, after the cut.

Approved 2027 individual increases, per the bureau:

• Anthem Health Plans of Maine, HMO: 15.8 percent (requested 17.9 percent), 31,134 lives. Plan-level range: 7.0 percent to 21.1 percent.
• Maine Community Health Options, HMO/PPO: 19.5 percent (requested 20.9 percent), 17,313 lives. Range: 12.0 percent to 33.2 percent.
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, HMO: 6.6 percent (requested 9.2 percent), 13,374 lives. Range: minus 2.9 percent to 13.4 percent.
• HPHC Insurance Company, off-exchange PPO: 7.6 percent, 212 lives.

Approved 2027 small-group increases:

• Anthem: 14.2 percent, 22,441 lives.
• Maine Community Health Options: 23.8 percent, 4,683 lives.
• Harvard Pilgrim: 5.6 percent, 6,273 lives.
• HPHC Insurance Company: 5.5 percent, 1,687 lives.
• UnitedHealthcare Insurance: 12.2 percent, 1,169 lives.
• UnitedHealthcare of New England: 12.7 percent, 297 lives.

Shrinking market

In addition to rising costs, the other trend in Maine’s small-group and individual health insurance markets is the declining customer base.

Last year's MBI tables counted 70,925 individual customers and 45,129 small-business customers. This year's tables count 62,033 and 36,550.

"The rising cost of health care is making health coverage more expensive for consumers in Maine and across the country," Schott said. "While these final increases are lower than insurers initially requested, we know they will still be difficult for Maine people and small businesses."

CoverME.gov already lost paying customers this year.

Sign-ups fell from about 64,700 for 2025 to about 58,500 for 2026.

By May, 14,300 returning customers had canceled — 29 percent, up from 18 percent a year earlier.

People with no subsidy, people just over the subsidy cutoff, and people under 35 left fastest.

More than half of remaining customers bought cheaper bronze plans with deductibles as high as $8,000 for one person.

Democratic members of Congress held a field hearing Monday at Biddeford High School examining the fatal July 13 shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine led the session, joined by Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee; House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts; and Rep. Troy Carter of Louisiana. The event, titled "Seeking Justice in Biddeford: Oversight of ICE's Use of Force in the Death of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero," took place in the school's Little Theater and was open to the public.

Governor Mills is back from her week-long vacation and is now "crying" over ICE.

Where was this emotion for the last month? pic.twitter.com/ctV6mJ6XnS

— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) August 17, 2026

Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national living in Biddeford, was shot during an ICE operation near the intersection of Pool and Hill streets. Department of Homeland Security officials initially stated agents were conducting surveillance related to a person with a final order of removal when a vehicle left the residence, attempted to flee a stop, and an officer fired out of concern for public safety. Durán Guerrero was not the intended target of the operation.

At the hearing, Pingree said newly available information showed the intended target—Durán Guerrero's roommate and the owner of the vehicle he was driving—also lacked a final removal order. She described the development as contradicting earlier DHS accounts. Pingree further stated that Durán Guerrero had a pending asylum case and held a valid work authorization.

A person was killed Monday in an ICE-involved shooting in Biddeford, Maine, according to the state’s speaker of the house — just days after a federal agent fatally shot a Mexican immigrant during a traffic stop in Houston, sparking mass protests and demands for transparency and… pic.twitter.com/h15zX35av7

— D. Scott @eclipsethis2003 (@eclipsethis2003) July 14, 2026

Witnesses included Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain, family attorney Ben Gideon, Sue Roche of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, and Mufalo Chitam of the Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition. Durán Guerrero's parents traveled from Colombia and addressed the panel, describing their son's character and the impact of his death. Lawmakers and witnesses criticized the absence of released body-camera footage, limited transparency from federal agencies, and the lack of a formal House oversight hearing under Republican control.

Organizers characterized the session as a "shadow hearing" held in Maine because House Republicans had not scheduled official proceedings in Washington. Participants said ICE and Republican members had been invited. The Maine Attorney General's Office continues its investigation into the shooting. Federal investigative status remains unclear, according to statements at the hearing and subsequent press conference.

The session concluded with calls for greater accountability in immigration enforcement operations and transparency regarding the use of force.

U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Massachusetts, does U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine’s efforts at a nonpartisan probe into ICE no favors, if Chellie really was interested in the truth.

Clark is a rabid anti-Trumper who has also been forced to walk back calling the Israeli government a murdering genocidal actor.

During a town hall last year Clark referred to Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide.

However, soon after the event she issued a statement denying she ever said it. “I want to be clear I am not accusing Israel of genocide," Clark said in a laughable re-creation of what she really thinks.

If Chellie wanted a dispassionate arbiter to allegedly help her get to the truth by investigating ICE's recent fatal shooting in Biddeford of a Colombian national, Clark wasn’t the lawmaker to fulfill the role.

Chellie invited Clark, the U.S. House Democratic whip, to help keynote Monday’s alleged Biddeford-based hearing

BIDDEFORD, Maine — Inside the Little Theater at Biddeford High School Monday, the conclusions came quickly.

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero had been "murdered." Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished. President Donald Trump was responsible for a campaign of fear. Republicans had abandoned congressional oversight. And before the hearing adjourned, those gathered were reminded that voters would have an opportunity to do something about it on Nov. 3.

Outside that theater, however, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office was offering a

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) traveled to Maine Monday to campaign alongside former Gov. Paul LePage (R), bringing one of the Republican Party's most powerful figures to Auburn as the GOP sets its sights on flipping Maine's open 2nd Congressional District seat in November.

Johnson joined LePage at Auburn Concrete, where the former two-term governor is campaigning to succeed Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who is not seeking reelection.

LePage will face Democratic State Auditor Matt Dunlap in November in a contest expected to draw significant national attention as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the U.S. House.

For LePage, Johnson’s appearance was also an opportunity to make the case that his eight years running Maine state government would allow him to arrive in Washington as something other than a typical freshman congressman.

"I'm not a lifelong politician," LePage told those gathered at the Auburn business. "I'm running for