Troy Jackson’s logger brand rests on a woods career that ended years ago
The Democratic U.S. Senate candidate logged on and off in a hard-hit industry for years. Since 2012, his work has turned to unions and organizing.
What is Maine Focus?
Maine Focus is the Bangor Daily News’ investigative team, telling important stories that hold public figures and institutions accountable and make an impact in communities across the state. Its reporters focus on bringing new perspectives to the forefront. The team began as a community engagement project in 2013. Its reporters have done the state’s most ambitious journalism since then, chronicling the life and death of a young man who was addicted to heroin, illuminating a culture of sexual misconduct in the Maine National Guard, and telling the story of a man who spent years in solitary confinement. In 2025, BDN partnered with The Maine Monitor to strengthen investigative journalism in Maine and expand public access to the reporting. All reporting from this collaboration is free to read on bangordailynews.com.
Maine Focus Staff
Callie Ferguson is the deputy investigative editor and a reporter who focuses on Maine’s criminal justice system. She was a finalist for the Livingston Award in 2022. The next year, she joined the inaugural class of local investigations fellows at The New York Times. Callie graduated from Bowdoin College and lives in Westbrook.
Contact Callie: cferguson@bangordailynews.com / 207-990-8258
Sawyer Loftus is a reporter covering housing as part of a fellowship with the investigative outlet ProPublica. He was named the state’s journalist of the year by the Maine Press Association in 2024. Sawyer is a University of Vermont graduate who is based in Bangor.
Contact Sawyer: sloftus@bangordailynews.com / 207-217-1450
Lori Valigra is the environment reporter. She was a Knight journalism fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has extensive international reporting experience in Europe and Asia. Lori graduated from Boston University. She designed the western Maine log cabin in which she lives.
Contact Lori: lvaligra@bangordailynews.com / 207-990-8272
Michael Shepherd is the editor who oversees Maine Focus. He has led the BDN’s political coverage since 2019. He is a University of Maine graduate with a masters degree from the Muskie School of Public Service. He lives with his family in Augusta.
Contact Michael: mshepherd@bangordailynews.com / 207-370-7652
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Latest Stories
Maine sheriff’s election rival among 3 deputies alleging illegal retaliation
“It sounds to me like a political hit job by my opponent six weeks before the election,” Oxford County Sheriff Christopher Wainwright said.
Juniper Ridge wants to treat its contaminated wastewater 20 miles away
Juniper Ridge Landfill plans to move its PFAS treatment system off-site, requiring leachate to be trucked 20 miles to Hampden.
The family that fought a Maine landfill leaves their town behind
Five years after Debbie Cooper lost her fight against one of Maine’s most important landfills, her son’s family is also leaving Hartland.
Rick Bennett vows to fix Maine’s reading crisis. His rivals aren’t as specific.
The authors of a new report detailing the problem say fixing it will take leadership from the next governor and education commissioner.
Read Educate Maine’s report on Maine’s reading gaps
The report offers a rare look at why Maine students rank so low in reading.
Maine schools still teach reading in ways that aren’t proven to work
The findings offer some of the first hard evidence for something long suspected in Maine schools: reading instruction quality varies widely by district.
State troopers deny wrongdoing in lawsuit over violent southern Maine arrest
The court filings mark the first time the troopers have formally responded to the lawsuit brought by Justin Savage.
Police checks on Susan Collins’ home spike with high-profile Senate votes
The pattern traces Collins’ transformation from a popular figure into a polarizing one drawing strong Democratic campaigns against her.
Maine’s biggest dam owner faces reckoning after another Penobscot River fish kill
Brookfield Renewable is in the final stages of relicensing the Ripogenus Dam, located about 30 miles west of Millinocket.
Editor’s note on the BDN’s Kids Project
Maine used to be one of the best states for students but now we rank among the worst. The BDN will probe why, and identify solutions.
What 3 educators told us about the problems facing Maine schools
Three Maine educators told the BDN that schools try to do too much for too many students without consistent standards or adequate funding.
Troy Jackson punched a man and pushed his partner in 1988, police report says
Lana Pelletier, the U.S. Senate candidate’s partner of 40 years, now denies telling police that Jackson pushed her after a fight.
Maine’s new strategy to stop another insect disaster in the North Woods
After a 26-year outbreak devastated Maine’s forests, the state is testing a targeted attack on spruce budworms invading from Quebec.
The fungus that could save Maine’s trees one seedling at a time
A fungus found in surviving trees during a 1990s outbreak is now bred into 30 million seedlings planted in Maine since 2017.
ICE agent who killed Biddeford man left a trail of disputed arrests
The BDN reviewed records from four of David Brouillette’s past arrests to better understand his conduct during his first months on the job.
Troy Jackson owed $4,600 in back income taxes during his run for governor
The stumble surfaced just as Jackson prepares to run one of the most closely watched Senate campaigns in the country.
Maine state trooper was suspended for punching handcuffed woman in the face
The Maine State Police sustained an excessive force complaint for the first time in a decade three months after a Maine Monitor/Bangor Daily News investigation called its practices into question.
Feds drop Maine gun case after judge questions years of secret surveillance
Police used a camera at a neighboring home to watch Willie Banks for three years before arresting him in connection with a shooting.
Paper mill was the source of Maine river oil spill
Sappi denied being the source of the spill in messages to regulators, but it acknowledged that a Coast Guard analysis confirmed it.
Maine has ignored this homegrown substitute for heating oil
Two startups plan to turn Maine tree waste into heating fuel, with buyers lined up, even as the state’s climate plan leaves biofuels out.
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