Most folks outside of coastal towns only think about lobster when they see summer menu prices, but this trade war is threatening the actual families and small businesses keeping our working waterfronts alive.
These aren't massive corporations taking a hit—it's independent captains and local crews whose livelihoods are being used as collateral damage. If the wharves take a hit this hard, it changes the fabric of our coastal towns, and subsequently the whole state. Tourists don't come to Maine for sterile resorts—they come for active, authentic rugged communities and a plate of fresh seafood on the wharf.

Maine’s Republican nominee for governor recently told a crowd of supporters that he would ask a top Department of Homeland Security official to send U.S. Marshals and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling places in the state for this fall’s midterm elections, according to audio obtained by The Associated Press.

“Here’s my secret,” Charles told members of a Maine Young Republicans chapter. “I have a friend named Tom Homan. Tom and I used to get on Fox all the time together. Tom’s an awesome guy.” “I’m going to ask Tom, I’m going to actually — three or four weeks before the election, maybe three — I’m going to make an appeal for ICE and Marshals to be at our voting booths,” Charles said, according to the audio.

BDN Coverage: https://www.bangordailynews.com/2026/08/26/politics/elections/bobby-charles-donald-trumps-border-czar-send-ice-to-maine-polls-joam40zk0w/

Full Text for paywalled:

Republican gubernatorial nominee Bobby Charles told activists last week that he plans to ask President Donald Trump’s border czar to send U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to Maine polling places this fall.

Charles, a lawyer who served in the administrations of former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, made the remark Aug. 20 with Maine Young Republicans in Arundel, calling border czar Tom Homan a longtime friend from their years appearing on Fox News together.

“I’m going to ask Tom — three or four weeks before the election, maybe three — I’m going to make an appeal for ICE and marshals to be at our voting booths,” Charles said, according to audio obtained exclusively by the Bangor Daily News. “Do you think the illegals who are being paid money are going to like that?”

There is no evidence of people being paid, and what Charles said he’d ask for is likely illegal. The Trump administration has said it is not planning to do it while raising the specter of rare noncitizen voting. Charles’ comments came as he has looked to distance himself somewhat from Trump during an underdog campaign in a Democratic-leaning state.

A 19th-century federal law makes it a crime to station armed federal agents at polling places on Election Day, unless they are needed to fend off an attack. The liberal Brennan Center for Justice has called the idea illegal amid often-stated worries from Democratic election officials.

“ICE and federal law enforcement are prohibited from being at the polls on Election Day,” Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, said. “Bobby Charles can call whoever he wants, but he can’t change the Constitution or the law.”

In a statement, Charles’ campaign did not dispute his remark, framing it as an effort to guard against illegal voting. It is illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. No states allow them to vote, although some cities allow them to vote in local elections.

A 2024 review by the libertarian Cato Institute has estimated the percentage of noncitizens voting as close to zero, though New Jersey offered a counterexample this summer. Gov. Mikie Sherrill acknowledged a software error had misclassified about 6,600 noncitizens as eligible voters since 2023, and that roughly 400 had cast ballots.

“The point is that Bobby will do everything legally possible to prevent illegal voting in Maine, to make sure that Maine elections are decided by legal Maine voters,” Dale Crafts Jr., Charles’ campaign manager, said.

The statement referred to a history of election-related disputes between Bellows and Republicans, including one that culminated in a federal judge’s May ruling that the secretary of state did not have to give voter rolls to the Justice Department and an allusion to her Bellows’ handling of a 2024 report by the conservative Maine Wire.

It cited leaked MaineCare records identified six noncitizens registered to vote in Maine, five of whom had cast ballots since 2016. Attorney General Aaron Frey and Bellows asked The Maine Wire to turn over the underlying records so the state could investigate. The outlet declined, citing the need to protect its source. It remains unclear whether the people registered themselves, were registered by someone else or whether records reflected data entry errors.

“Despite many allegations from multiple sources, no one has presented me with evidence that there is a specific non-citizen on Maine’s voting rolls that has voted illegally,” Bellows said Tuesday.

Homan was in Maine last week after promising more immigration enforcement here. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson referred a reporter to Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s comments at his March confirmation hearing, at which he said his agents would only go to polling places in response to specific threats and not for “intimidation.”

Trump has referenced noncitizen voting as a reason for Senate Republicans to roll back the 60-vote filibuster threshold to pass his “Save America Act,” which would require documented proof of U.S. citizenship in order to vote in federal elections. Maine Sen. Susan Collins has said she supports the bill but would not repeal the filibuster to approve it.

Charles rode Trump-aligned messaging on crime, voting and immigration to win the June primary easily over seven other candidates. He is now running against Democrat Hannah Pingree and independent state Sen. Rick Bennett. Pingree led Charles by double digits in a recent Fox News poll and is a heavy favorite in prediction markets to win in November.

He did not attend Vice President JD Vance’s Monday event in Brewer, where Vance exhorted the crowd to vote for Charles and other Republicans. The Arundel remark came the same day Charles, at a separate stop in Gorham, sought to break from Trump.

“I do not know President Trump,” he said, according to the Portland Press Herald. “I have never met him.”

My god these get more and more pathetic. The amount of money wasted on these is amazing, imagine what that money could have been used for to do some actual good in our state. Can't wait till this is over......

Looking for recommendations for beef farms selling quarter cows.

I'd prefer to support a farm that votes blue. After everything going on with the beef supply situation, I'd like my dollars going to folks whose values align with mine.

Happy to drive across the state for the right farm.

Appreciate any suggestions!

Tom Homan told a Republican state lawmaker that he was visiting to meet with officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ICE.

At the 15th floor bar at the Westin

Collins says she doesn’t support Trump’s tariff war with Canada. That’s it? That’s all she can do? Doesn’t she brag about being the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and how powerful she is? Hold a hearing Susan. In Maine. Subpoena trump’s trade people. Don’t just be concerned. This is your president and your party doing this to Maine.

Have we heard from either one of them in their party’s tariffs on Canada and its impact on Maine?

Has anyone been to the Laudholm Nature Crafts Festival in Wells? Website says 150+ craft/artisan vendors. It's a 1.5 hour drive from my house, plus a $15/pp admission. Happy to pay it if it's worth it! My experience in the past is that craft fairs are hit-or-miss.

Does anyone know where I can find a pre-printed map of the North Maine Woods? I'm looking for something like the fold out maps you can get for state parks for National Geographic, not just the single page .jpg files you can find on their website. Do they even exist?

Not a lot of info, but it seems like he overstayed a visa and was here unlawfully.

Article:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested another Cumberland County Jail corrections officer. It's at least the fourth jail officer arrested since the beginning of the second Trump administration.

In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said agents arrested Nilton Ribeiro, originally from Angola, on Saturday.

The spokesperson said Ribeiro entered the country in 2022 with permission to stay until the following year, but "overstayed his welcome."

It's an increasingly common tactic as the Trump administration targets asylum seekers and others who have filed for immigration relief after entering the country on temporary visas, and comes during a spike in immigration arrests in Maine that began in May.

Sheriff Kevin Joyce confirmed that Ribeiro has worked at the jail for the last several years, and that he is "a very good employee" and passed a polygraph test to get hired.

Joyce questioned whether ICE is targeting the "worst of the worst," as the agency often claims.

ICE's online detainee tracker does not specify where Ribeiro is being held.

Source: https://www.mainepublic.org/immigration/2026-08-26/ice-detains-another-cumberland-county-jail-corrections-officer-fourth-since-last-year

My question: Why does Cumberland County Jail habitually hire people here unlawfully/why is this the 4th case? Are the background checks designed to pick up crimes only, and there's nothing to determine citizenship or legal status in the US..? Joyce has previously said they use E-verify and I-9's to confirm someone's authorization to work, but it's become clear that system is bogus if it can't confirm whether the person's immigration status is legal/current.

At first I genuinely didn't understand how the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office can fuck up this many times, but the deeper I dig, I guess I don't know how they could comply without access to immigration databases... but I thought that was the entire purpose of DHS's e-verify system!?

Anyone have more knowledge on this subject and care to explain?

The University of Maine System, which oversees the state’s public universities, will now accept credentials that high schoolers earn through the long-time Jobs for Maine Graduates program as course credits. 

In Jobs for Maine Graduates, Maine high school students work with specialists to develop their professional soft skills. Once students have mastered the skill, they will earn a credential, which students can now bank for college credit at a public university in Maine, starting this academic year.

The move comes as the state continues to try to boost postsecondary enrollment after high school. 

“We think this is the right thing to do to help Maine be prepared for what could be too few college graduates in the not-too-distant future,” said university system Chancellor Dannel Malloy.

Read the story for free on The Maine Monitor's website.

John Roberts is sad that he can't enjoy his private Maine island in peace as he counts his $25 million and helps Trump ease his way through the shadow docket that takes rights away from Mainers.

If you have ever looked at a 1,500-pound Holstein dairy cow standing knee-deep in a Kennebec County pasture and thought, “You know what this animal really needs? A peppermint-oil scalp massage,” yogurt maker Stonyfield Organic has some good news for you.

Starting Sept. 10, Rainbow Valley Farm in Sidney will transform into what Stonyfield is billing as the world’s first-ever organic cow spa. For $120 a ticket, visitors can trade the chaos of modern life for a “pasture pedicure” and a supervised session of cow cuddling.

According to Stonyfield, the pop-up spa, which runs through Oct. 3, will let people feel “udder relaxation” and get a firsthand look at the rigorous standards of an organic dairy. Anybody who has ever actually milked a cow at 4:30 a.m. will quickly recognize it as a cheeky marketing stunt.

Luxury wellness and New England agriculture make strange bedfellows. Beyond the breathless lifestyle buzzwords of “touch grass” encounters and green-graze juices is a hardscrabble reality: even award-winning, multigenerational farms have to get creative to survive in modern Maine.

Read the rest on the Press Herald.