Two novels present Maine, the way life is

There was a time not long ago when Maine literature-or, more accurately, literature about Maine-was largely written by and for people from away. Transplants or seasonal visitors like E.B. White, Louise Dickinson Rich and Henry David Thoreau wrote of our state, land and people with the adoration that comes with falling in love with someplace

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It’s All Covers

The boards are folded back at ice cream stands, the lobster shacks have their steam pots going, the tulips have given way to lilacs. This can all mean only one thing: The Umbrella Cover Museum will soon be open to visitors. That’s right. The Peaks Island attraction, whose motto is “celebrate the mundane in everyday

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Spring comes to the sea

Although less visible to us than the freezing and thawing that transform our local lakes from swimming holes to ice-fishing haunts, the waters off the coast of Maine undergo similarly dramatic seasonal cycles. And the physical transformations in the water trigger changes that create a sea of plenty-phytoplankton feeding zooplankton feeding tiny fish, larval lobsters,

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Islands pass PACE

Starting April 4, residents of Chebeague, Vinalhaven and North Haven became eligible to receive low-interest loans of up to $15,000 from Efficiency Maine to weatherize and make energy efficiency improvements to their homes. The opportunity comes with the launch of Maine PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy), a revolving loan program designed to stimulate the demand

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Penobscot Island Air expands service

Penobscot Island Air has provided passenger service, mail, UPS and Fedex, grocery and freight delivery, sightseeing and emergency trips for island communities since it took over the duty from the previous air service in 2004. Now, the flying service is expanding its offerings with the addition of an amphibious float plane to its little fleet.

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Columbia Falls oil spill impacts fisheries

The response was swift. Equipment and workers from DEP and Clean Harbors, Inc. (an international energy and environmental service company) were immediately deployed from their Portland and Hammond offices. By the time the first booms were set on the Pleasant River, van de Sande had bushwhacked up stream and identified a point source at Aunt

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Divide and Conquer

When the New England groundfish fleet was given the choice between continuing with the days-at-sea fisheries management approach or a new, sectors-based system that divides the entire allowable catch of cod, flounder and other bottom-dwelling fish into specific allotments for each boat, many saw the sectors approach as the lesser of two evils. Now, with

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