The anticipation that built all week in this quiet manufacturing town quickly dissipated Friday afternoon, June 5 after President Donald Trump’s motorcade passed through downtown, where hundreds of supporters and protesters lined up throughout the day.

President Donald Trump addressed a friendly crowd of around 200 at a Guilford manufacturer on Friday applauding workers for their efforts in producing swabs used in coronavirus testing in an address that often veered into a campaign speech.

The Maine Department of Education is happy to announce that the McKinney-Vento Subgrants: COVID-19 Emergency Mini Grants have been selected. Twenty-four districts applied for the funds for the 2020-21 academic year and all 24 requests are conditionally awarded, including the Dexter-based AOS 94.

The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (DACF) announced the selection of Michael Vermette as the Allagash Wilderness Waterway (AWW) Visiting Artist for 2020. DACF initiated its AWW Visiting Artist Program to celebrate the long-standing tradition of artists capturing the Allagash's beauty and solitude.

The date and method of conducting the annual town meeting amidst the COVID-19 pandemic is still to be determined, but a warrant featuring seven articles was approved as written by both the selectmen and budget advisory committee during the annual public hearing -- conducted via Zoom -- on June 3.

President Trump will visit one of Maine's least populous towns and its most conservative county when he tours a factory producing medical swabs for coronavirus testing on Friday. Conspicuously absent during the trip will be the state's only Republican member of Congress, Sen. Susan Collins.

When Puritan Medical Products celebrated its 100th birthday early last year, it may have struck outsiders as a big deal for the family-owned Guilford company. Little did anyone know what 2020 had in store for the business, which is one of just two companies worldwide that makes specialized medical testing swabs. 

A federal judge on Friday denied an activist’s attempt to keep the U.S. Secret Service and Maine law enforcement from shutting down roads in Guilford during President Donald Trump’s visit to a medical swab manufacturing plant.

All eyes will be on Guilford on Friday, June 5 when President Donald Trump flies up from Washington, D.C., to visit the town of 1,500 people. He’ll be touring the local plant where Puritan Medical Products has been cranking out the medical testing swabs that have grown critically important during the coronavirus pandemic.

First, protesters started demonstrating against business shutdowns Gov. Janet Mills has ordered to slow the coronavirus’ spread. Over the past week, protests opposing racism and police violence have occurred throughout the state, with the largest protests drawing hundreds of people. And on Friday, President Donald Trump’s visit to Bangor and Guilford is expected to draw crowds in both places.

An activist filed a last-minute lawsuit on Thursday asking a federal judge to block plans by the U.S. Secret Service and Maine law enforcement officials to close roads in Guilford as President Donald Trump visits a manufacturing facility there on Friday.

At least one activist group is warning protesters to stay out of Guilford for President Donald Trump’s visit on Friday, instead planning a protest in Bangor due to fears of conflict with Trump supporters.

“People should avoid the Guilford area as early as 9 in the morning til 5 in the afternoon,” a dispatcher with the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office said. “We don’t know exactly when he’s going to be visiting the Guilford mill.

A federal judge is expected to rule soon on whether Maine should release two prisoners vulnerable to the coronavirus, but he urged parties on June 2 to resolve whether all prisoners should get the same level of review before moving forward.

Photos of the region’s National Honor Society chapter members.

President Donald Trump will make an official White House visit to a medical manufacturing plant in Guilford on Friday, June 5 his first trip to Maine since taking office and a seismic event for a town of 1,500 in the state’s least populous and most conservative county.

Not many superintendents have had to coordinate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Secret Service and the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department just to put on a high school graduation ceremony.

President Donald Trump will hold a roundtable discussion with parties involved in the commercial fishing industry during his visit to Maine on Friday, according to a White House official. The president is slated to come to the Pine Tree State to visit the Puritan Medical Products facility in Guilford, which manufactures medical swabs used in coronavirus testing. The Guilford company is one of the two largest swab manufacturers in the world and is opening a new swab manufacturing facility in Pittsfield this summer to meet the surging demand for swabs.