According to a group representing sporting camps around Maine, Gov. Janet Mill’s rural reopening plan falls short of providing relief to commercial sporting camps, employees, guides and rural neighbors because it bans visits from non-residents. Non-resident fishing trips over the next six weeks generates almost 90% of the annual revenue for many of the camps operating across the state.

Maine has become one of at least a dozen states that are beginning to ease restrictions on businesses in rural areas with fewer cases of the coronavirus while many rules will be in place in more heavily populated areas until June.

A group of Maine business owners on Friday sued Gov. Janet Mills over her unprecedented shutdown orders to limit the spread of the coronavirus claiming they are unconstitutional.

Gov. Janet Mills announced on Friday a rural reopening plan aimed at reopening certain additional businesses in rural Maine over the course of the next two weeks with added health and safety measures. The plan comes after Mills stated last week that her administration was considering opportunities for regional variation as part of its Restarting Maine’s Economy plan.

The National Weather Service predicts that a late season storm will bring between 3 and 6 inches of snow to northern Maine on Saturday, and a mix of rain and snow to the Bangor region and farther south.

A testing acquisition the governor described as a “game changer” could help Maine hit goals outlined by health officials as benchmarks for economic reopening, though effects on summer tourism are less clear and the state has performed fewer tests than most on a per-capita basis.

Bath Iron Works has signed a contract with a Guilford company to deliver machines needed to ramp up its production of testing swabs used to detect the new coronavirus. The Bath shipyard will deliver 30 machines to provide sterile packaging for Puritan Medical Products’ testing swabs, according to a company statement.

Following a month and a half of remote learning for students and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, this method of instruction will continue for about four more weeks as the SAD 46 school board approved Friday, June 5 as the final remote learning day of 2019-20 during a May 6 meeting conducted via Zoom.

Fewer Mainers have responded to the 2020 census than the national average, mainly because the coronavirus outbreak has halted U.S. Census Bureau field operations in less populated areas of the state.

Maine began to reopen businesses faster than most other states amid the coronavirus outbreak, but public pressure on Gov. Janet Mills has focused on sectors most sensitive to the summer tourist season as changing plans begin to roll out across the country.

Piscataquis Community High School Principal John Keane has announced that Megan McLaughlin is this year’s recipient of the MPA Principal’s Award.

In early April, the Department of Education delivered 500 internet-enabled tablets to schools in Piscataquis County made possible through donations.

Piscatquis Community High School Principal John Keane has announced the valedictorian and salutatorian for the Class of 2020, Melissa Burdin and Macee Pearl respectively.

Democratic candidate Margarita Contreni announced her candidacy for the Maine House of Representatives for District 119. The district includes the unorganized territories of Northeast and Northwest Piscataquis; Barnard, Blanchard and Elliottsville townships; and the towns of Abbot, Beaver Cove, Bowerbank, Greenville, Greenville Junction, Guilford, Monson, Parkman, Sangerville, Sebec, Shirley and Willimantic.

Puritan is one of the world’s top two makers of the specialized swabs that are used to collect samples from people’s nasal cavities so that they can be tested for the coronavirus that has now infected more than 1 million Americans, including at least 60,000 who have died. That flurry of outreach to the manufacturer has now led to a federal contract worth up to $75.5 million, which will help it to rapidly grow into a new Pittsfield facility and staff it with at least 150 additional workers, according to Wellman. 

Minority Republicans in the Maine Legislature want to reconvene and end the coronavirus state of emergency declared by Gov. Janet Mills, which would allow all businesses to reopen but would require unlikely Democratic support.

Over 40 fourth-graders from Piscataquis Community Elementary School were challenged to create an advertisement for Valley Grange as part of the annual “Newspapers in Education” program sponsored by the Piscataquis Observer. This is the 12th year the Grange has sponsored the program.

Amid criticism of her plan to reopen Maine’s economy from hospitality and other businesses, Gov. Janet Mills on Friday stood firm on allowing businesses to restart in stages over the next few months.