I offer praise to Bangor's Peace and Justice Center for showing the just released documentary “Awake” that shows the efforts of Water Protectors at the North Dakota Standing Rock Sioux Nation. The video exposes violent actions of the North Dakota National Guard, sheriff department, and hired mercenaries who worked for the oil pipeline company throughout 2016 and 2017.

On June 13 Lori Kurzius and Beth Weymouth’s grade 4 students from Piscataquis Community Elementary School in Guilford took a field trip to the Maine Statehouse in Augusta. Rep. Paul Stearns, R-Guilford met students and gave them a walking tour of the Blaine House and an inside tour of the Statehouse.

Following a successful pilot project during the summer of 2017, the Moosehead Lake Region Economic Development Corporation (MLREDC) will launch the first full summer season of the festive Artisan Village at 35 Pritham Avenue on the Moosehead lakefront in Greenville. Four colorful cottages will house different artists from all over Maine beginning the weekend of June 23-24 and then Thursday through Monday from June 28 through Sunday, Sept. 10.

Why do basic good manners seem so hard to grasp? I was thinking about that last night whenever our 4 ½-year-old grandson, Grafton, announced, “I want a snack,” or “I want juice.” My initial response was, “I’m not hearing any manners,” or the shorter, “Manners?”

Lately, high profile suicides have blanketed the news – the shocking deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain make people wonder, how can someone who appears to have everything do this kind of thing? Why would they leave their family in tatters, especially impacting their young children left behind? The JD Foundation in Abbot, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary this October, is working to address this each and every day.

At the final meeting of the school year the local Omicron chapter of the DKG Society International, a professional honor society of leading women educators, initiated Stacy Shorey, superintendent of RSU 68, and Lenora Granger, retired school nurse, as new members.

As a new resident of Maine, I am dumbfounded at the recent legalization of marijuana in Maine. Everyone agrees that there is an opioid crisis in this state and around the country. So how does legalizing marijuana make any sense? It doesn't.

The Three Rivers Kiwanis of Milo/Brownville recently donated $2,000 to the summer meals program in Milo. The program provides free lunch for area children 18 and under from June 18 to Aug. 22 -- no sign up or registration required.

The Dover-Foxcroft Historical Society’s Observer Building Museum will be opening for the season on the day of the 2018 Maine Whoopie Pie Festival, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday June 23. This year the museum have a new display about East Dover.

Maine State Police have charged a couple from Milo after seizing heroin and crack when their vehicle was stopped on the Maine Turnpike late in the evening on June 14, according to a press release on the incident. The enforcement action came after troopers stopped the couple’s car in York about 11 p.m. and a drug dog was brought to the scene.