The Maine Monitor • 26 October 2026

Maine students and teachers say school cellphone ban is working

Jonathan Bisson walked through the double doors at Brunswick High School for his first day of the academic year in August. As a senior, the hallways felt familiar — except for a white, rectangular box by the door of his first class.  The box was knee height on small wheels and contained about 25 slots where students could insert their phones at the start of the day. The boxes are meant to help students comply with a new district policy spurred by recent state law prohibiting phone use in school....

The Maine Monitor • 22 October 2026

How does Maine choose its constitutional officers?

Mainers casting ballots in the general election this fall may notice that there is no option to vote for the secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer or state auditor. Instead, their selection is left to lawmakers. Maine is the only state in the nation to elect all of these key positions through a joint legislative session, a process that is written into the state Constitution. The process occurs in early December, after Maine’s 186 representatives are sworn into office, which this...

The Maine Monitor • 1 October 2026

Half of emergency room nurses in northern Maine hospital quit

About half of the nurses in the emergency department at Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent have resigned, straining emergency care for patients at the 25-bed critical access hospital and worsening staff morale, said Ami Maxwell, a registered nurse in the emergency department and leader of the hospital’s nursing union.  In June, the emergency department had 13 registered nurses. Ten worked full time, and three worked flexible, per-diem shifts as needed. Since then, five full-time nurses a...

The Maine Monitor • 30 September 2026

Mainers feel the pinch of food prices as corporations grow sales

Mandy Belanger, of Lewiston, could once afford three meals a day for herself, her two children and her mother, but she had to make difficult cuts in recent years while navigating the biggest surge in grocery prices in a half century.  On weekly trips to a nearby Hannaford, she started buying pork instead of red meat and chicken, and less meat overall, trying to stretch the disability income her family relies on. Belanger said she no longer purchases snack foods. She also buys fewer fruits and ve...

The Maine Monitor • 21 September 2026

Hospital spending on contract staff almost back to pre-COVID level

Maine hospitals have worked for years to reduce the number of costly, temporary staff — particularly travel nurses — they have hired since the pandemic. Now hospital spending on contract staff is almost back to normal. The Maine Hospital Association, which represents 32 of the state’s 34 hospitals, said that spending from its member hospitals has dropped each year since peaking in 2022. The yearly reductions became so consistent that the spending became less of a worry, said Jeffrey Austin, pres...

The Maine Monitor • 17 August 2026

Maine struggling to get homeowners to treat wells for arsenic

Wendy Brennan agreed to participate in a study examining how arsenic exposure can affect children’s cognitive development primarily because her young daughter wanted the free T-shirt. It was 2009, and the family had lived on their property in the small Kennebec County town of Mount Vernon for eight years. Brennan said she had no reason to fear the results. But when researchers came to test their drinking water, Brennan learned that her family’s well tested nearly six times above the Federal Envi...

The Maine Monitor • 16 July 2026

What we know about the timeline of the Biddeford ICE shooting

A 25-year-old Colombian man named Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent on Monday morning while driving in Biddeford. Authorities have released little information about the incident.  As of July 16, no video footage had emerged showing the shooting itself, but the sound of gunshots can be heard on neighbors’ Ring cameras and video footage shows the man’s body later being pulled from his car. The officers were not wearing body cameras.  He...

Fort Worth Report • 20 December 2025

New federal THC regulations could snuff out Fort Worth shops

THC shop owner Alex Noriega sold nearly everything, including his family home, to open Natural Buds on 7th Street. Now his livelihood is on the line.

New federal limits on THC will force cannabis shops in Fort Worth and across the nation to close, according to advocates and proprietors. Business owners say the new regulation, which goes into effect next fall, will cripple a budding industry.

However, President Donald Trump on Thursday recategorized marijuana to a drug along the lines of Tyleno...

Fort Worth Report • 15 December 2025

Fort Worth emerges as hub for driverless vehicles

Hundreds of driverless trucks will be on Fort Worth-area roads soon following the creation of a new statewide route to El Paso. 

The push for more autonomous vehicles in North Texas comes as the Fort Worth City Council in November created a new district in the Alliance area for the deployment of semi- and fully autonomous semitrucks.

The technology is of interest to Alliance’s nearly 600 customers, many of whom have looked into autonomous trucking technology, said Ian Kinne, leader of the Mobi...

Fort Worth Report • 1 December 2025

Fort Worth family changes lives through lemonade stand sales during TCU football season

Eight years ago, Brance Glasgow and his brothers Colt, Breck and Dayne learned how Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas families along the Gulf of Mexico and knew they needed to help.

Not knowing how, the Tanglewood Elementary students asked their mother, Maida Glasgow, for ideas. Together, they decided to open a lemonade stand in their front yard to raise money. When their stand opened, the community responded and the brothers raised over $1,500 in just a few weeks. Ultimately, the Glasgow family...

Arlington Report • 26 November 2025

How Arlington’s Retro Tech Lab helps residents preserve memories

Librarian Mark Dellenbaugh read the faded ink written on the label of an old and unwatchable videotape: “Newborn Kyle” and “Ryan learning to ride tricycle.”

For over two decades, the camcorder memories of two of his children sat in storage, trapped in outdated formats. Without the equipment needed to play the tapes, Dellenbaugh’s irreplaceable recordings were stranded in an inaccessible past.

When the Arlington Genealogical Society asked Dellenbaugh how — if he had the money — he would innovat...

Fort Worth Report • 24 November 2025

Deadly bird collisions in Fort Worth rose from 2024. Here’s how to help

As fall migration nears its end, Fort Worth conservationists found more dead birds they believe were killed after colliding with windows than last year.

As of Nov. 15, surveyors found 56 dead birds in downtown so far this year, according to preliminary data provided by Lights Out Fort Worth, a Texas Conservation Alliance regional program that aims to prevent window-related bird deaths by reducing light pollution. By the end of fall last year, the group found 41 birds killed in window collisions...

Fort Worth Report • 11 November 2025

Tarrant County Veterans Day parade delivers long awaited pride to Vietnam veterans

The Tarrant County Veterans Day Parade made Vietnam veteran Larry Boetch proud, a feeling he had not felt when he returned from the war.

Boetch volunteered in the draft and landed in Vietnam as a 19-year-old infantryman. He spent nearly a year in the war torn country. When he finally returned home in 1968 to a not-so-warm welcome, he took off his uniform and placed it in his closet where it stayed until it was eventually lost, he said.

“It has been a long time coming, and it makes me feel prou...

Fort Worth Report • 10 November 2025

How Fort Worth-area school districts are looking to boost student military recruitment

Saginaw High School sophomore David Wey approached the pull-up bar next to a Marine Corps recruiter station during lunch.

The red iron monolith in the cafeteria served up a challenge: test your strength. A small crowd of students watched as Wey leaped, grabbed onto the grip and hung for a moment before pulling himself up. His classmates counted each rep behind him, urging him to do more.

“As Marines, we love healthy competition,” Marine Corps recruiter Sgt. Elbert Brown said.

The spectacle a...

Fort Worth Report • 30 October 2025

TCU student documentary showcases tennis victory at Lone Star Film Festival screening

Ella Hestand had no interest in tennis until she interviewed David Roditi, head coach for Texas Christian University men’s tennis team. 

Hestand, a TCU senior sports broadcast and journalism major, was nervous when chosen to direct and lead a team of 10 classmates to create “The Roditi Rule,” a documentary focused on the coach, she said. 

The documentary follows the team’s journey to become national champions in 2024, including how Roditi’s personality changed college tennis and his legacy. Th...

Fort Worth Report • 29 October 2025

Fort Worth director set for debut at Lone Star Film Festival

Nathan Price initially gave up on his newest short film during the COVID-19 pandemic when his dog, Milo, knocked his hard drive off a table, destroying its contents.

He had accumulated hours of footage after shooting a script he wrote out of boredom that then became a personal project. When his hard drive fell victim to his German shepherd’s bushy tail, Price says he got the message. Demoralized, he abandoned his own project but kept working on other filmmakers’ sets. He still longed for a film...

Fort Worth Report • 28 October 2025

Filmmakers challenge perception of homelessness at Lone Star festival

After his mother’s sudden death, Nicholas Buck knew he had to make a choice: follow his passion for filmmaking — or wish he had.

He chose his dreams.

Buck’s newest screenplay, “Storage Fees,” is derived from personal experience and follows a young man navigating loss, homelessness and the associated shame. The film is meant to challenge how people typically think about homelessness and presumptions about those suffering through it, he said.

The short feature will be screened at the upcoming...

Fort Worth Report • 30 September 2025

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tarrant County addresses shortage of male mentors

Arlington mother Iesha Mustafa hoped to quickly find a good role model for her 10-year-old son, Isaiah Hassell, through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. 

After two years of waiting, her hopes dwindled.

“I thought they forgot about us,” she said.

Isaiah was one of more than 400 children sitting on the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Tarrant waitlist. Delays caused by a shortage of male mentors have left boys waiting twice as long on average for a mentor than girls.

The male mentor s...

Fort Worth Report • 25 September 2025

Matcha mania in Fort Worth has shops whisking up solutions to shortages

Within a year, Ampersand co-owner Toan Luong watched matcha become one of his cafes’ most popular items.

The CEO ordered more of the tea, then more than that, and then more again. Luong now orders three to four times more matcha than the 55-pound shipments he routinely purchased four months ago.

Customer demand for matcha took him by surprise.

“We’ve run out of matcha a few times,” Luong said. “Whenever we do run out, customers are always a little bit sad, but everyone understands.”

Shop ow...

Fort Worth Report • 14 September 2025

Beloved White Settlement library cat dies after 13 years of purr-fect companionship

Sandra Rosas thoroughly read the ballot before making her selection.

It was a big decision, but she knew her favorite was the right choice: Browser.

Her vote helped name the White Settlement Public Library’s newly adopted kitten. 

A couple of years later, Rosas started working at the library, where she and Browser spent the next 13 years together.

Browser, 15, died Aug. 25 after he was euthanized due to kidney and thyroid issues. White Settlement residents and people from surrounding commun...

Fort Worth Report • 9 September 2025

Fort Worth shops adjust as THC vape ban takes effect

Nicholas Arneson, owner of Dallas Vape Delivery & Lounge on Rosedale Street, opened his business just three weeks before a ban on THC vape products took force.

He built his business on vape deliveries and leaned heavily on the product. Most of his customers were interested in THC vape products, he said.

Now, nine large boxes filled with the product sit in the back of Arneson’s store after a new law banning the sale of THC vape pens went into effect Sept. 1. Although some prepared for the loss...

Fort Worth Report • 1 September 2025

Cristo Rey Fort Worth’s $5.5M school expansion hits delay as enrollment grows

Sophomore Andrea Herrera was sitting in geometry when she became distracted.

The 15-year-old’s classroom at Cristo Rey Fort Worth College Preparatory is one of four temporary spaces set up in half of the private school’s gymnasium, now divided by lockers and racks of foldable chairs. She overheard teachers in neighboring spaces giving their lessons. 

“I kind of don’t like it as much because I get distracted very easily,” Herrera said. “Hearing the other classes going on and other sounds going...

South Bend Tribune • 25 August 2025

'Community' key to South Bend Mexican restaurant's rapid growth since pandemic opening

SOUTH BEND — When Francisco “Franky” Macias and his workers were laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic, the former production supervisor at Amerimex faced a difficult decision: Look for another corporate position or follow his dream of opening his own restaurant and risk losing everything he had left?He decided to take a leap of faith. With everything on the line — his house, his car, everything — he used all his savings and “every credit card you can imagine” to buy a rundown building with its...

South Bend Tribune • 18 August 2025

Beer, smoked meat served with a river view. Crooked Ewe puts time behind its craft

SOUTH BEND — In the 10 years Crooked Ewe Brewery & Ale House has been serving pints and smoked meat overlooking the St. Joseph River, the main goal has been to create food and beer where customers can “taste the time behind it,” restaurant co-owner Sean Meehan says.

Many of its menu items, whether a beer recipe perfected over years or smoked meat that takes nearly a month to travel from kitchen to plate, are the result of labor-intensive processes and the creative vision of the cooks or Andy Wa...