Maine politicians mobilized after an ICE shooting and the detention of a Portland nurse. A Maine Wire review found a dramatically different public response when victims were killed or allegedly assaulted in cases involving people federal authorities say were unlawfully present in the United States.

Within hours of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shooting Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford last month, hundreds of people were gathering in the streets.

Candles were lit.

Flowers were placed near the site where the 25-year-old Colombian national died.

Hundreds gathered for a vigil in Biddeford and another demonstration in Portland. Elected officials demanded answers. Biddeford Mayor Liam LaFountain later met with Durán Guerrero’s family and publicly called for justice and a transparent investigation into the shooting.

The political response was immediate, visible and sustained.

But a five-year review by The Maine Wire raises a more uncomfortable question about Maine’s immigration debate:

Where was the same public outrage when the

The Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department arrested a Portage man on Saturday after he allegedly used heavy logging machinery to tear apart a Portage Lake home.

[RELATED: Two Aroostook County Men Arrested after Severely Beating Man in Madawaska…]

At approximately 4:40 p.m., deputies received a report of a grapple skidder—a large vehicle used in logging—obstructing Route 11 in Portage Lake.

Callers also reported that the driver was behaving strangely and claimed that a nearby house appeared to have been torn apart.

Deputies arrived to discover the skidder’s male operator standing on the roof of the vehicle.

They were able to coax the man off the roof and take him into custody without further incident.

Investigators found that there was significant damage to the residence and located a large propane leak.

The suspect was identified as Gary Belanger of Portage and was

Paradise Residential Services CEO Jocelyne Ininahazwe and her family enjoyed luxury Mercedes brands while the disabled Mainers who relied on the Medicaid agency for 24/7 care were living in squalor, subject to abuse and neglect by non-English speaking staff, including some who were untrained and never subjected to background checks.

That's the chief takeaway from documents released Friday by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), including a termination letter to Paradise that cited "violations [that] place the health and safety of MaineCare Members in immediate jeopardy."

"[Paradise Residential Services] failed to ensure individuals are protected from abuse, neglect, and exploitation, specifically, lack of food, spoiled food, unsanitary conditions in the home, broken glass throughout basement, individuals have been repeatedly left without staff, staff not supervising or providing services," according to the DHHS letter.

The Robinson Report reported exclusively on Paradise's termination back

Another adult autism MaineCare company was terminated in March — on the same day Gov. Janet Mills attacked Dr. Mehmet Oz's Medicaid fraud crackdown as a political stunt — according to records released Friday by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

Like Paradise Residential Services, Beyond Residential Care (BRC) was run by an African migrant and operated with the massive MaineCare Section 21 program that is designed to provide 24/7 residential care for disabled Mainers.

Both companies are now accused of Medicaid fraud.

Unlike Paradise, BRC was run by an alleged attorney who had his law license suspended following a Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar complaint for misconduct.

The complaint alleges that

Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) suspended Community Home Health Care, Maine’s largest home health care biller, from MaineCare in late June, months after The Maine Wire visited their office and their owner, Noora Abd, promised reporters that they were legitimate.

[RELATED: President of Five-Star Homecare Ordered to Repay Nearly $400K Worked at Three Other Home Healthcare Providers Before Moving to Turkmenistan…]

The DHHS issued its suspension notice on June 30, informing Abd that her lucrative business, which drew in a staggering $47,986,855 in taxpayer funding from 2019-2025, would no longer be receiving MaineCare funds.

The Office of MaineCare Services’ Program Integrity unit reviewed allegations that Community Home Health was billing for services that it never provided.

Investigators found the fraud allegations credible enough to warrant suspending their ability to bill MaineCare until such time as investigators or legal proceedings find

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) suspended MaineCare payments to the allegedly fraudulent Maine Connect Care just days after The Maine Wire published an article detailing its ties to a money transfer station and other allegedly fraudulent home health care billers.

[RELATED: Portland Office Becomes a Hub for Medicaid "Home Health" and Somali Money Transfers…]

A Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request last week revealed that the DHHS suspended payments to Maine Connect Care on January 30, shortly after The Maine Wire visited its office at 203 Anderson Street in Portland, and just eight days after the publication of an article highlighting its ties to a money transfer station.

The notice of suspension accuses Maine Connect Care of billing for services not rendered, billing for services while unlicensed, and billing for services provided by an individual excluded from the MaineCare program.

The notice required

The Maine Wire’s Joe Sokol: Christian Journalist Exposing Darkness

Maine Wire journalist Joe Sokol sits down in the Pastor’s Office to talk faith, cameras, and the fight for the soul of Bangor. Known across Maine as the reporter people “love or hate,” Joe explains why a Bible-believing, Jesus-loving journalist walks straight toward the drug crisis, homelessness, and open-air needle markets that the mainstream media won’t touch — and why he believes shining light on darkness is worth being called every name in the book.

In this episode, Joe and Pastor Travis go from the streets of Bangor to the deepest questions of faith. Joe turns the tables and puts Pastor Travis on the spot with unscripted, no-holds-barred questions on abortion, capital punishment, pornography in the church, marijuana, Israel, and more. It’s part testimony, part street report, part theology — completely unfiltered.

From Florida addiction and the penal system to a camera and a calling in central Maine, this is Joe Sokol’s story

Twelve maternity units have closed since 2015. As Hannah Pingree calls for a moratorium, her six years inside the Mills administration — along with Maine’s spending on reproductive health and its troubled child-welfare record — are coming under new scrutiny.

For generations of families in Lincoln County, having a baby could begin and end close to home.

That is about to change.

On Thursday, MaineHealth’s Board of Trustees voted to close the labor and delivery unit at Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta, ending months of uncertainty, community opposition and pleas to preserve one of the increasingly scarce places in rural Maine where women can deliver their babies.

The unit is scheduled to close Dec. 18.

After that, expectant mothers who once counted on their community hospital will have to look elsewhere, with deliveries expected to shift primarily to MaineHealth Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick.

Lincoln isn’t an isolated case.

Its closure will mark

The top editor of Maine’s largest paper Sunday blasted "fake news," as she launched a fund drive to help her "figure things out."

In a Maine Sunday Telegram column, Carolyn Fox complained that "bad actors seem to be popping up every week, many stealing our photos and reporting as their own."

Stealing her photos?

Where did that come from?

Desperation, that’s where.

Fox has seen the Facebook numbers and here is what they show:

Maine Wire followers: 214,000

Portland Press Herald followers: 94,000

The Press Herald has been stuck at 94,000 for months, while The Maine Wire has been growing by the day.

It’s no wonder Fox – naming no names – is attacking "fake news" and "AI" for running roughshod over her failing newspaper.

Fox calls her vengeful money grab the "inaugural summer donation campaign."

She said the paper's staffers – who far outnumber her nemesis – "take punches they don't deserve" and "carry on, not for the pay or the perks, but because they believe what they do matters."

"People used to prioritize paying for newspapers," Fox writes. "Trusted news sources have gone away. Many people have turned to social media, or their favorite podcaster, to tell them what's going on in the world, often stumbling upon misinformation.

"Fake news sites powered by AI and funded by bad actors seem to be popping up every week, many stealing our photos and reporting as their own."

Who is she accusing of stealing her content?

And notice her accusation refers to photos, not stories.

There’s a reason for that – the Portland Press Herald has no stories worth stealing.

√ Maine Wire: 214,000

√ Portland Press Herald: 94,000

"Our newsroom has big plans for the fall, and the more support we get, the bigger and more accessible we can make our work for all Mainers." – Carolyn Fox

The big plans include a "free" voter guide and covering elections, in that order.

Honest.

But heck, don’t take it from us since we’re apparently "fake news."

You can read the insanity by clicking Carolyn here.

The website Thrillist.com clearly has a sense of self, judging by its latest culture survey of U.S. towns with the greatest hippie attributes.

The Maine town meeting the definition is a place in coastal Waldo County called Unity, according to the widely followed media and entertainment website.

"With a name like Unity, you've set the hippie bar pretty high," Thrillist's Matt Meltzer says. "But this town lives up to it…"

Unity earns its hippie reputation thanks in part to the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association and the popular Common Ground Country Fair.

It’s also home to Unity Environmental University – the first in the U.S. to base its entire curriculum on sustainability that "naturally attracts a student body that tends to be a little more hippie," says Jordan Verge of i95rocks.com.

Meltzer calls Unity Environmental University "the most liberal of liberal arts schools."

Lorri Nandrea’s writings for Communist Party USA include pieces on Marxist theory, "green socialism" and class consciousness; Jackson is now challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a pivotal U.S. Senate race

Months before Troy Jackson became the Democratic nominee seeking to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine activist with a documented history of writing for Communist Party USA was among the hosts of a campaign event organized to support Jackson’s political ambitions.

Lorri Nandrea of Canton was listed as one of four hosts of a June 5 campaign brunch for Jackson at the Local 14 Solidarity Center in Jay, according to an event invitation reviewed by The Maine Wire.

At the time, Jackson was campaigning for governor under the slogan "From the Woods to the Blaine House."

Today, the political stakes are considerably higher.

Jackson, a former Maine Senate president and fifth-generation logger from Allagash, was selected by Maine Democrats on July

The Navy has given a ceremonial send-off to the USS San Juan, decommissioning the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine that spent three years in Maine.

The sub, put in retirement at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington after four decades of service, was first docked at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for an overhaul 15 years ago.

The Kittery, Maine, shipyard hosted the San Juan for a major engineering overhaul from 2010 to 2012, as seen in a 2011 Navy