The U.S. Census Bureau would like to remind parents and families who are staying at home amid the COVID-19 crisis to remember that the 2020 Census is here, and it is important to count their children.

University of Maine Cooperative Extension is offering Maine farmers a chance to connect online from 7-8 p.m. on Fridays to ask questions, get answers and share information.

Pine Tree Hospice’s volunteers make up a large group of women and men in Piscataquis, Penobscot, and Somerset counties, giving 4,399 hours of their time last year. They come from every walk of life and bring with them life experiences that make them perfect matches for the many clients with life-limiting illnesses.

Take a moment to think of the things, activities and people who bring meaning to your life. Got them? Chances are that one or more of them have been threatened or lost during this pandemic.

Following last week’s recommendation by Maine Department of Education (MDOE) Commissioner of Education Pender Makin, with the support of Gov. Janet Mills, regional school districts are extending remote learning plans until the end of the academic year.

With public gatherings such as town meetings prohibited under an executive order from Gov. Janet Mills in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the annual town meeting in Dover-Foxcroft will not be taking place on Saturday morning, April 25. With the Governor also moving the state primary from June 9 to July 14 the Dover-Foxcroft referendum will not be held on the second Tuesday of June. Instead town officials are looking to push back the schedule for remaining work on the 2020-21 municipal budget, as they discussed this during an April 13 meeting held via Zoom. 

As part of the Keep In Touch Campaign, the Center Theatre is launching a service to send custom video messages via email or Facebook messenger. The videos, which can be requested for a $10 donation at centertheatre.org, can be sent to a friend, family member or even to yourself and can be to celebrate a birthday, anniversary or just to try to keep in touch while we're all keeping our distance.

More than 60,000 people across Maine are still waiting for their power to be restored as of Sunday morning after a nor’easter tore through the state late last week causing widespread outages. 

Given low testing rates for coronavirus across the country, it can be difficult to gauge from official numbers where outbreaks are actually happening. So researchers at the University of Texas at Austin ran simulations to calculate the risk in each U.S. county that there are sustained, undetected outbreaks -- epidemics -- already occurring.

Gov. Janet Mills formally moved Maine’s June 9 primaries to July 14 and pushed back all election-related deadlines by a month on April 10.. Her executive order delaying voting followed a statement earlier this week that it was "not going to be possible" to hold the elections in early June while maintaining required social distancing measures.

Over 110,000 Mainers are still waiting for their electricity to be restored two days after a spring nor’easter tore through the state Thursday night, bringing down trees and power lines.

The Maine Department of Education (DOE) delivered Wi-Fi-enabled Samsung Tab A's with a 12-month Verizon service to RSU 68 and SAD 4 schools on April 8, in an effort helping area students with their school work while they are engaged in remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maine Sen. Angus King and several Democrats in the U.S. Senate called on Wednesday for a future stimulus bill aimed at coronavirus relief to include money to support local news organizations. King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, signed a letter with 18 Senate Democrats that characterized local news organizations as “in a state of crisis” that was only “exacerbated” by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Over the last week Brown has set up drive-up hotspots in several of our district towns, with more to come. Using equipment from the Academy that is not being used at the moment, students can drive to area hotspot locations and with their iPad (or other devices), log on to the Foxcroft Academy network. 

Like many other venues of its kind, the Center Theatre in Dover-Foxcroft is closed these days due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some theater officials are still at work, but instead of showing movies and hosting live events they hope to collaborate with the local performing arts community in a unique effort to boost the spirits of local residents while still generating some income to support the nonprofit enterprise.

Gov. Janet Mills directed the Maine National Guard and the Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) to work with Maine’s health care systems to open two alternative care sites in Portland and Bangor as part of the state’s preparations to bolster Maine health system capacity in the face of COVID-19. 

Towns and cities whose usual polling locations have closed because of the coronavirus pandemic are waiting for guidance from the state on how or whether the June 9 primary will happen before they choose new locations and make other arrangements for voting.

Meanwhile, there are several Kiwanis-sponsored events that won't happen or will be postponed. First, as you probably assumed, due to state and federal mandates, our annual Piscataquis River Race scheduled for April 25 has been canceled. Nevertheless, we greatly appreciate the sponsors of this event, most of whom decided to donate their sponsorship amount anyway. They will be recognized when we have the final tally. But our fundraising raffle has not been canceled. Renamed our “Social Distancing Community Raffle,” you have three chances to win gas cards in the amount of $300, $200 or $100.