MILBRIDGE | Heads up! There are only 200 shopping days left until Christmas. While that insight may not having you rushing to the mall, it’s a big-deal reality for three Washington County businesses that rely on the buying frenzy that surrounds Christmas each year to either make or break …
Tom Walsh
Washington County bureau
Tom Walsh, who won numerous state, regional and national awards as a reporter for the Ellsworth American weekly newspaper from 2004-08, is based in the BDN's bureau located at 25 Main St. in Machias. Walsh worked as a science reporter for the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette from 2001-04 and also taught journalism at the University of Iowa, where he earned his degree in journalism in 1972. He earned a master’s degree in communication studies from Dublin City University in Ireland in 2002.Five-year-old killed in at-home vehicle accident in Charlotte
Five-year-old Trent James was killed Sunday when he was struck at his Ayers Junction Road home by a vehicle being backed up by his father, Calvin James. According to the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, Deputy Ryan Allen responded to a call from the Calais Regional Hospital, where …
Power restored quickly to areas south of Houlton
An abandoned osprey nest was blown onto a Bangor Hydro Electric Co. transmission line Sunday, leaving an estimated 2,200 customers without power briefly in communities south of Houlton. Electrical service was interrupted just before noon to 2,897 homes and businesses in the towns of Island Falls, Oakfield, …
More than 2,000 in Aroostook, northern Penobscot County lose power due to problems with transmission line
HOULTON | An estimated 2,200 Bangor Hydro Electric customers were without power at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in communities south of Houlton, but power was restored within hours. Problems with a transmission line knocked out service just before noon to 2,897 homes and businesses in the towns of Island Falls, …
Lego robot wins Bar Harbor student designers best-in-show award at national competition
Eight Connors Emerson Elementary School students recently returned to Bar Harbor from a three-day competition in California at which they were crowned the best of 74 teams from throughout North America after competing in a robotics competition sponsored by Lego. The Denmark-based construction toy manufacturer stages …
VIDEO
Hired bees play major role in Maine blueberry industry
DEBLOIS | The continuing stretch of cold and wet weather has left billions of honeybees trucked into Down East Maine to pollinate the wild blueberry crop hunkered down in their hives for warmth instead of jump-starting the growing season. Some 14,000 bee hives were recently placed across the thousands …
Eastport twin sisters become moms on the same day
Erica and Tashina Ackley are twins who not only share a birthday, but, as of Friday, share the birth days of their first babies. The two sisters, who will be 22 this week, delivered only hours apart Friday morning at Down East Community Hospital in Machias. Tashina …
Days are numbered for Gouldsboro’s iconic hardware store
Enough. It’s been 42 years since Dave Seward bought a hardware store sight-unseen on a handshake, using money begged and borrowed from family and friends. On the last day of August, Seward will lock the door and walk away from Anderson Marine and Hardware on Route 1 …
Washington County tidal generation project featured on Popular Science cover
EASTPORT | A first-generation, Maine-built tidal energy turbine is a cover girl, adorning the front of Popular Science magazine’s June 2013 issue, which hit newsstands this week. For years, Portland-based Ocean Renewable Power Co. has been engineering, fabricating and testing underwater tidal generation technology in waters off the Washington …
The season of the itch: Bugs that bite are both a nuisance and a public health concern in Maine
Between black flies, mosquitoes and ticks, spring and summer in Maine can be the season of the itch. While black flies are a May-July seasonal nuisance in Maine, black flies don’t spread disease. Mosquitoes and ticks can, and do, including West Nile virus spread by ’skeeters and Lyme disease spread …
Regulating a proposed resurgence in mining under debate in Augusta
There hasn’t been an active mining operation in Maine for 40 years, but the prospect of new mining activity in Aroostook County is fueling a State House debate over the environmental effects of open-pit mining. During an afternoon work session Wednesday, the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Environmental …
Restoration efforts put spotlight on once plentiful alewives
Despite alewives being the focus of sometimes contentious efforts to improve their access to Down East Maine freshwater spawning habitats, these migratory fish remain something of a mystery to many, while at the same time remaining a favorite food for wide variety of Maine wildlife. Alewives as a meal for …
Age, lifestyle contribute to high cancer rate in Maine
The next time the Red Sox are on TV from Boston, think about this: Half of the men and a third of the women packed into Fenway Park to watch the game will receive a diagnosis of cancer during their lifetimes. The bleak reality is that half of those who …
Debate raging in Augusta over genetically modified food labeling
The State House debate over requiring labeling of food products that have been genetically modified is one of many similar debates now raging throughout the country. It is also a debate that has been underway in Maine for 20 years. Legislative proposals to require labeling of consumables …
Hampden amateur astronomer’s search team discovers distant exploding star
STEUBEN | Professional astronomers in Italy have confirmed that an amateur astronomy team headed by Doug Rich of Hampden recently discovered a newly visible exploding star in a galaxy that is 420 million light years from Earth. The discovery was made April 7 by the Eagle Hill Supernova Search …
Pat’s Pizza expanding into Washington County
MACHIAS | Pat’s Pizza, one of Maine’s oldest and most popular family restaurant franchises, is weeks away from expanding to a new location in Machias. Work has been underway for months within the building at 168 Main St., which also houses a Dunkin’ Donuts franchise. On Tuesday, a four-person …
Washington County mourns weekend death of longtime sheriff’s deputy Lester Seeley
DENNYSVILLE | Lester Seeley’s April 7 retirement party attracted nearly 200 people paying tribute to a man who Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith described Monday as a “true American hero.” With his son and four daughters at his bedside, Seeley, 74, died Saturday evening at his home in Dennysville …
Former Somerset County administrator named new Eastport city manager
EASTPORT, Maine — Larry Post, 60, a former administrator of Somerset County, will begin his new position as city manager in Eastport next week. The Eastport City Council met in executive session Wednesday night to make the hiring decision, according to Mary Repole, who chairs the five-member council. Post was among …
Year one of Eastport tidal turbine research presents challenges
Months of underwater testing in Cobscook Bay of experimental, tidal-based electrical generation technologies were not without its challenges, according to a research report recently filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Portland-based Ocean Renewable Power Co. said in its 653-page, 2012 environmental monitoring report on its …
Tuesday morning fire drives Addison family from their home
Fire heavily damaged the Indian River Road home of an Addison family Tuesday morning, but those who were inside escaped without injury. “It basically destroyed it,” Addison Fire Chief Sheldon Trundy said of Tuesday’s fire. “It was a really old house. It was close to 200 years …
Camden recovery volunteer ‘shocked’ by governor’s barb
Man fatally shot in his Biddeford apartment
Hibachi restaurant plans to open in Bangor
A happy birthday hunt pays off on Maine moose hunt opening day
Maine needs more people ‘from away,’ so it needs an attitude change
I used to earn a fair paycheck in a paper mill. Now I struggle to get by on $10 per hour.
Maine’s economy needs engineers, and Maine’s young people need great engineering jobs
Fact checker
Bangor coach enshrined in New England AAU Hall of Fame
Should Wyatt Use This Photo For High School Yearbook
Senior runner perseveres on trails, becomes leader of the UMaine pack
Palmer made three Maine appearances during legendary career
Boetsch slated to fight in UFC’s Madison Square Garden debut
Baristas to business owners: Maine entrepreneur to sign company over to employees
On the farm at Bowdoin College, education grows organically
Crossroads of cuisines spices up the menu at Sri Lankan restaurant
It’s tiring surfing web, watching all these go-getters in Alaska
The day my Superpower failed