As the Food and Drug Administration considers lowering the level of nicotine in cigarettes to reduce the likelihood of addiction, some states and cities have taken it upon themselves to discourage smoking at a young age. This week, Maine joined New Jersey, California, and Hawaii to raise the minimum legal smoking age to 21. [More]
maine
Maine Gov. Vetoes Bill That Would’ve Required Deposit For Mini Alcohol Bottles
By 6.5.17
In an effort to cut down on roadside litter and give people a chance to make some spare change, Maine lawmakers approved a bill that would require retailers to collect a $0.05 bottle deposit on those mini bottles of booze known as “nips.” But the state’s governor has vetoed the measure, and has offered a few ideas of his own to deal with the litter the bottles create — alternatives that some in the alcohol industry objected to, even before he declined to sign the bill. [More]
Comcast Lifting Broadband Data Caps In Maine — And Only Maine — Starting Dec. 1
By 11.14.16
We often have news in November about Comcast and data caps. Most years, though, it’s a story about those caps expanding. So it’s unusual, to say the least, to suddenly find Comcast doing away with its data-cap plan for an entire state. The lucky subscribers? Folks up in Maine. [More]
One State & One City Voted To Eventually Do Away With Sub-Minimum Wages For Tipped Workers
By 11.9.16
If you’ve never worked in the foodservice or hospitality industry, you may not know that employees who rely on tips often earn base pay that is significantly less than minimum wage (the federal minimum is currently $2.13/hour). Tips can certainly add up to much more than the minimum wage, but they can also be cyclical and unpredictable, which is problematic for people living paycheck to paycheck. Yesterday, voters in one state and one city decided it was time to phase in wage increases that will eventually get tipped workers earning base pay that is at least the minimum. [More]
L.L. Bean’s Duck Boots Already On Backorder Despite 100 Additional Workers Hired To Make Them
By 9.29.15
If you’re looking forward to splashing around this winter in L.L. Bean’s aggressively unglamorous, USA-made duck boots, you’ll need to plan ahead: some styles and sizes are backordered by a month before there’s even a single snowflake in the sky. The duck boot factories are cranking them out as fast as they can, and simply can’t keep up with demand. [More]
Longtime L.L. Bean President And Founder’s Grandson Dies At Age 80
By 9.4.15
The flagship L.L. Bean store in Freeport, Maine doesn’t close. It literally does not have locks on its doors. Yet it’s going to close next weekend during the funeral of the company’s former longtime president and the grandson of founder L.L. Bean himself, Leon Gorman, who died yesterday at age 80. [More]
Truck Carrying 30,000 Pounds Of Lobsters Overturns, All Survive To Become Dinner
By 3.19.15
When a tractor-trailer tips over and spills its edible cargo on the highway, it’s simultaneously sad and hilarious as long as no one is seriously injured. In that case, it would be just sad. Heavy snow in Maine yesterday caused a tractor-trailer accident involving one truck and thousands of lobsters. [More]
Maine Innkeeper Who Won 210-Year-Old Inn With An Essay Is Offering Potential Owners The Same Chance
By 3.9.15
If you’ve ever dreamed of owning your own country inn, tucked away somewhere in Maine with all that entails, you don’t need a huge bank account or a surprise inheritance from a distant relative to make that dream come true: The owner of a 210-year-old inn in Maine is offering up the place for just $125 — to the person who submits a winning essay. [More]
Tree-Tipping Is A Crime, Not Related To Cow-Tipping
By 12.24.14
When you buy a wreath made from fresh greenery, you probably don’t give much thought to where those evergreen boughs came from. A tree somewhere: what else is there to know? It turns out that it’s possible to poach tree branches, and tree-tipping, as it’s called, is a thriving illicit industry in the forests of Maine. [More]
Tourists Rent Car, Get Free Snake In The Trunk
By 9.29.14
“Free ball python with every car rental” might appeal to some customers as a promotion, but it would be an expensive one, and most people probably wouldn’t be interested. Two tourists found a free surprise python in the trunk of the car they had rented at Logan airport in Boston and drove to their motel in Maine. The good news? The snake was alive and unharmed, and its owner has already been found. [More]
Was This Walmart Doing A Bad Thing By Being Closed On Easter But Asking Employees To Work?
By 4.21.14
When a store says it’s closed on Easter so its employees can spend time with their families, does that mean the entire store should be a ghost town? Or is it okay to have a volunteer skeleton crew in to keep things moving behind the scenes? And should the workers who do volunteer to come in be paid extra for giving up their holiday? These questions and more are being debated about a Walmart Supercenter in Maine. [More]
Maine Lobstermen: Ad Boost Is Pointless Because We All Know Where Lobsters Come From
By 4.10.13
The first thing that happens when lobster is brought up is often an excess of drool. It’s highly touted as a tasty delicacy, a delicious dish, and one that most of the time, comes from Maine. Which is why lobstermen in that state say efforts to ramp up marketing the crustaceans is a pointless, expensive exercise. [More]
Maple Syrup Miscreants Now Illegally Tapping Trees In Maine
By 4.5.13
Just because authorities apprehended some of the sticky-fingered bandits behind the $20 million theft of part of the global strategic maple syrup reserve in Quebec last year, that doesn’t mean that the world’s maple syrup supplies are safe. Oh, no. In Maine, authorities have found illegal taps on innocent maple trees on private property. [More]
‘Bad Santa’ Isn’t As Fun In Real Life, Gets Fired From Mall Gig
By 12.6.12
Dealing with throngs of little kids, parents, and holiday shoppers must require a high annoyance threshold, but one mall Santa in Maine is without a job because he apparently missed the memo mandating that Old Saint Nick be “jolly.” [More]
School District Bans All Sorts Of Yummy Food At Games, Events, Field Trips & Dances
By 8.20.12
For students in the public schools of Portland, Maine, the next year — and the foreseeable future — will be devoid of in-class pizza or cupcake parties, and all the high-calorie snacks and beverages sold at sporting events and dances will be replaced with healthier options. Even the teachers have to bring their own sugary sodas to work. [More]
Maine Couple On Trial For Redeeming Deposits For Bottles From New Hampshire
By 8.19.11
One of the more memorable Seinfeld episodes involves Kramer and Newman loading up Newman’s mail truck with bottles and cans and trekking to Michigan to get back double the deposit they would have received in New York. While it makes for funny TV, it’s not as hilarious to a couple in Maine who went on trial this week for redeeming a truck load of empty bottles and cans that had been brought from New Hampshire. [More]
Will Proposed 5-Year Lobster-Harvesting Ban Cause Prices To Rise?
By 7.21.10
You wouldn’t notice from the relatively affordable cost of Lobster in the region these days, but in many areas of the Mid-Atlantic the populations of the tasty crustaceans have sunk to alarmingly low levels. So much so that later this week, members of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission are meeting to discuss a proposed five-year ban on lobster harvesting in the waters between Virginia and Cape Cod. But the most important question is — what impact is this going to have on restaurants and lobster lovers? [More]
JetBlue Pilot Says Someone Aimed Laser Into His Cockpit
By 4.19.10
The pilot of a JetBlue flight heading from Portland, Maine, to JFK Airport in NYC on Saturday night says that a yet-unexplained green laser penetrated the window of the plane’s cockpit as he prepared to land. [More]
