Today, let’s take a deep breath, appreciate what we have, and reflect on how quickly everything could change. Perhaps we go out in the morning, walk into our back field for a bit of exercise, or to cut some wood, or to dig around for some gemstones that we know are waiting in that sandy pile of soil. And perhaps we never come back.

The Dover-Foxcroft Police Department is working with the Piscataquis County District Attorney’s Office to determine if charges will be filed in connection with the report of a man in a car pointing an assault rifle at a man Tuesday in the Dover-Foxcroft Shopping Plaza parking lot on West Main Street.

Last week the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s advisory council approved a rule that sounds ominous, but will actually change very little for the state’s anglers. Simply stated, in the state’s north zone, the general fishing law will ban the use of live fish as bait.

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine and Angus King, I-Maine announced that the State of Maine, Penquis and Through These Doors received a total of $1,993,850 to help stop domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking and protect victims.

A Sangerville volunteer firefighter was killed when the trash truck he was driving went off Route 5 in the Oxford County town of Stoneham and struck a tree on the afternoon of Thursday, Aug. 22.

The Piscataquis County Commissioners authorized district attorney’s office staff to purchase a replacement vehicle for Investigator Scott Arno to use, during an Aug. 20 meeting.

To alleviate cramped conditions and lack of privacy inside the main sheriff’s office in the same larger complex as the Piscataquis County Jail on Court Street in Dover-Foxcroft, in the spring of 2018 the patrol and investigation divisions moved up Route 15 to Guilford at the former primary school building. The law enforcement space previously was the home of the SAD 4 administrative office suite. With the school building for sale county officials are working with the town of Guilford on an agreement to rent and then purchase, following an affirmative vote at the annual town meeting in mid-March, the C.H. Lightbody Medical Center on Park Street.

A father and daughter escaped a boat fire without injury on Sebec Lake at the Tim Merrill & Co. marina in Dover-Foxcroft shortly after noon on Tuesday, Aug. 6.

A Massachusetts man practicing takeoffs over Moosehead Lake crashed an ultralight plane Saturday morning, Aug. 3 but avoided injury.

A father and son from LaGrange have been accused of drug trafficking after drug agents say they seized nearly $15,000 worth of Oxycodone from their truck and home.

The Trebor Mansion Inn was destroyed in a fire during the early morning hours of Saturday, July 20. Investigators with The Office of State Fire Marshal have been on the scene since Saturday working to determine the cause of the blaze. The 19th century building located on a hilltop just off of Route 15 had been vacant for several years and is now bank-owned.

A severe thunderstorm that swept through eastern Maine on Sunday afternoon left hundreds of Emera Maine customers without power. Amanda Cummings, a spokeswoman for Emera Maine, said that the storm toppled many trees, leading to the interruption of service to customers in northern Penobscot and Piscataquis counties.

In the 11 months since their house in Milo exploded, Amanda and Ricky Badger have had to recover from their injuries, put their lives back together and deal with the explosion’s lasting impact. This week, they received a nearly $550,000 settlement to help.

A Bath man is facing charges that he allegedly attempted to kill a distant relative who was shot and wounded and then beaten with the butt of a gun after he waited hours for her to arrive at a horse barn in Shirley.

A Bath man accused of shooting a female relative in Shirley was arrested at gunpoint later on Monday (July 8) morning in Kennebec County after leading a state trooper on a brief chase. Christopher Hallowell, 24, was charged with attempted murder in connection with the early morning shooting at North Point Farm & Garden on Route 15 in Shirley that wounded a woman, according to Chief Deputy Todd Lyford of the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Office.

Wardens responded to an ATV crash Thursday on the Frenchtown Road in Shawtown Township. The crash involved two subjects on a single dirt bike sometime during the early morning hours.

Drivers in Maine are colliding with the state’s largest land mammal a lot less often than they used to, and a number of factors play into that, according to two state biologists.

Fire marshals arrested a Milo man Monday, July 1 and charged him with arson after he threw his wife’s belongings on the front lawn, poured gas on the items and set them on fire.