I walk to the St. Augustine, Fla., beach to watch the sun rise on my second day of trying to make sense of whatever principalities of darkness possessed Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock. How frustrating that Mr. Paddock, to avoid capture, killed himself; taking with him, apparently, our best source for knowing the reasons for his wholly unreasonable madness.

The Maine Warden Service is pleased to announce the hiring of a new pilot to complement the air wing division. Pilot Christopher Hilton, 32, from Brunswick, was sworn in Oct. 5 in Augusta before warden service staff and family. Pilot Hilton will serve in the bureau’s third pilot position and began working as a game warden pilot at the start of the month.

From a pool of over 375 nominations to 16 county winners who were narrowed down to eight semifinalists and three finalists, there is just a single Maine 2018 Teacher of the Year. The honoree is SeDoMoCha School music teacher Kaitlin Young, and the award announcement was made by Maine Department of Education Commissioner Dr. Robert G. Hasson Jr. during a surprise assembly in the school gym on the morning of Oct. 4.

A huge pumpkin grown in Charleston has squashed the record for the heaviest one ever grown in Maine. But breaking the record wasn’t a slam-dunk for Elroy Morgan’s Atlantic Giant pumpkin, which topped the scales at 1,756 pounds.

If any non-human deserves a Nobel Prize, it’s the common fruit fly, according to a newly minted Nobel laureate and Maine retiree who used the tiny insect to unlock the mystery of the biological clock.

A grand opening for the new JD Foundation office building will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14. Sen. Paul Davis, R-Sangerville will read a proclamation, three key to be announced figures will be honored and attendees can enjoy warm cider and donuts donated by Abbot Bakery.

The town of Dover-Foxcroft has joined numerous other municipalities and organizations in recognizing October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, as the selectmen formally signed a proclamation during a Sept. 25 meeting.

Speaking this week with Dover-Foxcroft based musician/teacher, Susan Ramsey, I found out Foxcroft Academy's String Program, which she directs, is a model other rural Maine communities can follow. From the start, I was surprised at the extent of FA's overall music programs. But I especially could not fathom why the FA String Program was so popular.

The Aroostook County community of Limestone’s search for a new town manager has concluded with the selectboard hiring Matthew S. Pineo, who previously held the same position in Brownville and later Sangerville on an interim basis.

Heather Wheaton, Penquis Autism Community Services program manager, accepts a $1,200 check from representatives of the Widow Sons Temple Guard on Sept. 29 at Penquis’ Dover-Foxcroft office.

Maine fishing writer Bob Leeman, alias “Mr. Trout,” has decided to put away his pen.

Partners for Peace, the domestic violence resource center serving Piscataquis and Penobscot counties which earlier this year announced a name change from the Spruce Run-Womancare Alliance, will mark Domestic Violence Awareness Month with a free Walk to End Abuse in the late afternoon of Wednesday, Oct. 4 in Dover-Foxcroft.

Melissa Reynolds says her family, her husband Frank and their children Ashley and Brady, does everything together, and since January that includes running their Our “FAMB”ily Restaurant. An extra letter was added to the name to include Brady Reynolds’ first initial along with those of the rest of the family.

A Dover-Foxcroft resident who family members say lived her life with kindness, generosity, good humor and grace, including during her 15-year battle with cancer, will be remembered through the Tracy Hibbard Kasprzak Cancer Treatment Center on the second floor of Mayo Regional Hospital. The center was formally dedicated on the morning of Sept. 23.

There's no doubt the immediacy of the Internet has coarsened public discourse. Not everywhere online, but, it seems, in more and more places. Of course, the same can be said of a coarsening of our culture in other areas. That is, language most people not too long ago avoided in public, if not in all areas of their lives, is now commonplace on television, in the movies, on radio, in music, and certainly in print.

In recognition of their decades of being land stewards through forestry and farming at Breakneck Ridge Farm and efforts to educate young and old about conservation management at the local, state and national level, Steve and Diana Hobart were recognized by the Piscataquis County Soil and Water Conservation District (PCSWCD) by receiving the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award during a presentation at their farm on Sept. 16.

The Piscataquis County Commissioners are looking to follow their counterparts in Somerset County by drafting a letter to express their opposition to additional industrial-scale wind development near Moosehead Lake. The commissioners authorized County Manager Tom Lizotte to write a letter during a Sept. 19 meeting, and the document is scheduled to be on the agenda for the Tuesday, Oct. 3 session for a formal vote.

In an effort to deal with space issues at the SeDoMoCha School, RSU 68 officials are considering moving the superintendent’s office from the second floor to a vacant building a stone’s throw from campus. During a Sept. 19 school board meeting, Superintendent Stacy Shorey was authorized to make a $36,000 offer for the former Head Start building off of Autumn Avenue next to the SeDoMoCha campus.