Dexter Regional High School is proud to announce that the following students have been selected by the faculty as "Students of the Month" for March -- grade 9: Abey Givens; grade 10: Grace Wallace; grade 11: Alaina Spizuoco; and grade 12: Aino Rudloff-Eastman.

On April 25 the Maine Senate passed a bill that would ban polystyrene, or Styrofoam, cups and food containers by 2020. The bill now goes to Gov. Janet Mills’ desk for her signature. Thank you Sen. Paul Davis, R-Sangerville for understanding that solving the plastic pollution problem is not a partisan issue and voting ‘yes’ on the polystyrene ban.

Dexter Regional High School is proud to announce that the following students have been selected by the faculty as "Students of the Month" for February -- grade 9: Molly Bennett; grade 10: Michael Gadwah; grade 11: Timothy Pike; and grade 12: Wuyu Du.

Penquis Valley High School senior Cymeria Robshaw is one six members of the Class of 2019 from across the state being honored by the Maine Sports Hall of Fame with a $5,000 Scholar-Athlete Award. Robshaw and the other five will be recognized during the 44th Maine Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, May 19 at Merrill Auditorium in Portland.

Beginning on Wednesday, May 1 at 11 a.m. in the Union Church Fellowship Hall we will hold our first hour-long study. The program is designed so that a new character will be studied each week, so if you need to miss a study along the way you will not be left behind.

Clip out this column and pin it to the refrigerator. For online readers, pin your computer to the refrigerator. Eleven birding highlights are about to happen.

Abbot resident Walter Boomsma of the Valley Grange, who also serves as communications director for the Maine State Grange, will appear on a one-hour program on Maine Public Radio Friday, May 3 starting at 1 p.m. The program is “Maine Calling” and will feature Boomsma and Past Master of the Maine State Grange Vicki Huff as studio guests discussing “The Role of the Grange in Maine.”

Two police officers were involved in the shooting of a 40-year-old man in Medford on Friday, according to Piscataquis County Sheriff Robert Young.

This morning’s tv news story about a “dire forecast” for brick-and-mortar New England colleges has me thinking again about learning alternatives to colleges. WMTW-TV’s reporter said two New England colleges shut down recently, and four more New England colleges are closing their doors this month. The tv reporter said an “alarming number of schools are going out of business, affecting thousands of students.”

Aside from the fact that watching thousands of fish come gushing out of a tube and landing in a river is just plain cool, April 24’s uncommon stocking effort on the Piscataquis River was one worth noticing.