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.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, pews across Maine were empty during live-streamed Masses at parishes across the state for Holy Week and Easter Sunday (April 12). That was not the case at Holy Family Church in Greenville, thanks to the inspired creativity of parish staff looking to offer support to Fr. Aaron Damboise, pastor of the parish as well as St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Jackman.

I must thank Tommy Carbone for republishing Lucius Hubbard’s book "Woods and Lakes of Maine" which was originally published in 1884. I think Tommy must have put a lot of effort into this book, which includes fascinating drawings and lots of maps.

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.

For the past 18 years, the BDN has partnered with registered Maine guide Dan Legere to give away what many winners called the trip of a lifetime: A daylong drift down one of Maine's classic fly-fishing rivers. This year, unfortunately, we won't be holding that trip after all.

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. 

The Rose and Samuel Rudman Library Trust of the Maine Community Foundation has awarded grants totaling $23,895 to 32 libraries in Aroostook, Hancock, Knox, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Waldo and Washington counties. Among the recipients is the Shaw Public Library of Greenville, for books on the history of Maine, emphasizing the importance of Native Americans, African Americans and women

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.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has spent a month modeling how the new coronavirus might spread. The scenarios are wide-ranging. 

Despite a lack of recorded cases of the coronavirus in Piscataquis County as of Tuesday morning, county officials are still exercising caution in daily operations with facilities on the East Main St. campus mostly closed to the public and limited staff working on site. Gov. Janet Mills announced stricter limits on public gatherings last month, including banning gatherings of more than 10 people, the Piscataquis County Commissioners met via teleconference for the April 7 meeting.

More than three weeks after Maine confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus, the state has recorded cases in all but one of its 16 counties. As of Monday, Piscataquis County was the only one without a confirmed case of the fast-spreading infection that has caused a pandemic and shut down much of daily life. Two other counties, Aroostook and Washington, both recorded their first cases last week.

The death toll started on a Monday -- Sept. 23, 1918, to be exact. William Lawry, a 36-year-old Augusta resident, had fallen ill while visiting Camp Devens, an army facility in Massachusetts that had been stricken by influenza, and had returned home a few days earlier to recuperate.