by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

In a letter sent by Senator Angus King (I-ME) to the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, he expressed concern that the IRS is conducting a disproportionate number of tax audits in Maine’s two poorest counties — Piscataquis and Washington.

“The IRS’s misdirected audits of lower-income Americans have led to higher-than-average audit rates in two of Maine’s most underprivileged counties,” wrote King.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

The Maine Board of Veterinary Medicine issued a statement on Wednesday, April 19, advising that Dr. Cynthia Teer has not been licensed to practice veterinary medicine since January 2018. In October 2018 Teer signed a consent agreement and paid a $10,000 find to the state for “gross negligence, incompetence, misconduct or violation of an applicable code of ethics.” Teer practices at the Machias Animal Hospital.

by Wayne Smith

Healthy Acadia is raising funds for food security with a GoldenOak benefit concert at The Grand on Saturday, June 8. This event will support Healthy Acadia’s Downeast Gleaning Initiative, a farm-based food collection and donation project that feeds people experiencing hunger with surplus nutritious produce.

Rocket ships, UFOs, aliens, pastel space paintings and more added up to an action-packed Outer Space themed April Vacation Arts Camp April 16-18 at Eastport Arts Center. Thirteen children from Eastport, Robbinston, Pembroke, Edmunds, Parsonsfield, Bangor, Scarborough and as far away as Bolivia (South America) explored their ideas of extraterrestrial life, intergalactic travel and heavenly bodies using a wide variety of media.

by Hazel Stark

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon, Editor

I was chatting with a local businessman last month when he said, “So, how is the newspaper doing, you know, now that no one reads newspapers anymore?” The newspaper is doing pretty well, I said, in part because people actually do read community newspapers like ours.

That said, a recent Pew Research Study on the news habits of American adults found that 41 percent preferred to get their local news from television, 37 percent online, 13 percent in print, and 8 percent from the radio.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

On Thursday, April 11, attorneys for Acadian Seaplants filed a Motion of Reconsideration with the Maine Supreme Court asking the Court to reconsider its recent decision in the case of Ross v. Acadian Seaplants. In the three years since the case was filed, both the Washington County Superior Court and the Maine Supreme Court declared that rockweed is not publicly owned, but instead “the private property of the adjacent upland landowner.”

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Machias will hold a special town meeting on Tuesday, April 23 to hold a vote on four different matters.

by Phil Stuart

After a winter of less-than-adequate sportsmanship during the high school, junior high school and travel team season, things seemed to have turned around some this spring during mud season.

It’s been a cold, icy winter, but believe it or not, we’ll all be in T-shirts soon — Machias Wild Blueberry Festival T-shirts, that is.

Help coax warm, sunny days our way by entering the festival’s T-shirt design contest. If your design is selected, you’ll see it not only on hundreds of festival-goers but on the US Postal cancellation stamp available during the festival and for an additional month at the Machias post office.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) recently celebrated a Machias teacher for her achievements teaching science literacy to her students.

Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School sixth grade teacher Lizzy Douglas is nominated for the annual award founded by GMRI in 2014 which in collaboration with the insurance company Unum honors dedicated teachers across Maine that are involved with GMRI programs and exemplify the leadership qualities of the award's namesake, former Unum CEO Kevin McCarthy.

When the Chevy Breaks (How Small Towns Fix Big Problems) tells a collection of stories, ranging from Machias taking on the world’s most powerful navy (on a Sunday after church), to an amputee father waiting for his son to return from Afghanistan so they can hike up Mt. Katahdin together. All these stories of overcoming obstacles, big and small, are set against the spectacle of Downeast Coastal Maine, including Eastport, Jonesport, Machias and way out west Kingfield — a parade of persistent people you’ll only meet here.

by TJ Holmes

I am eight years old and I love to draw and read. I go to Jonesboro Elementary School. Our school is very small but we have big hearts.

I was asked to play on the basketball team as a second grader because there were not enough boys in fourth to sixth grade.

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

On Thursday, April 11, attorneys for Acadian Seaplants filed a Motion of Reconsideration with the Maine Supreme Court. The motion asks the Court to reconsider its recent decision in the case of Ross v. Acadian Seaplants, which found that “rockweed attached to and growing in the intertidal zone is the private property of the adjacent upland landowner.”

by Sarah Craighead Dedmon

Fundraising is a regular part of Arise Addiction Recovery Director Paul Trovarello’s job because it takes a lot of money to run a 12-bed residential addiction treatment center. But starting last week, the house that serves as the Arise home base is one less thing they’ll have to pay for.

by Nancy Beal

The site of the original Jonesport-Beals High School on Jonesport’s Main Street is currently being used to store various sizes of crushed granite going into the construction of the new bridge to Beals Island, but from 1968 to 2016 it housed the old brick school building—and a war memorial standing in front of it. Prior to the demolition of the high school, the memorial was moved to the library lawn. Now, some in town want to see its replacement back on the old location.

Last week U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) questioned Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt on a number of environmental issues important to Maine people, including the possibility of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Maine, the status of the Katahdin Woods and Water Monument, and Senator King’s legislation to address the National Park Service’s $12 billion maintenance backlog. Senator King’s questioning came during a hearing in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to consider Acting Secretary Bernhardt’s nomination to serve as the permanent Interior Secretary.

by Wayne Smith

If you pay attention, you can see Paul and Margie Toussaint driving the streets of Milbridge. In the summertime, Paul’s smile lights up everybody’s day for whoever he sees while he’s walking down the sidewalk. They might get a hot cup of coffee at the local coffee shop. Maybe even a donut- just for good measure. You might even see them at the free dinner every Sunday in Cherryfield called the Downeast Table of Plenty. Often, they are in the lobby of West Manor working together to  put a puzzle together.

The Grand concludes it's 2018-2019 season of matinees for families during school vacation weeks (sponsored by The City of Ellsworth & Morton’s Moo) with the crazy sequel to one of the most popular animated movies in years “Ralph Breaks the Internet- in 3D!” See this great family film the way the directors made it to be seen- through a state-of-the-art digital projection system- on the Coastal Eye Care giant screen.  See it any other way... and it wouldn't be Grand! “Ralph Breaks the Internet” screens daily at 1 pm from Monday, April 15 to Friday, April 19.

Victory Championship Wrestling will be in Machias on Saturday, April 13, in support of Arise Addiction Recovery, a Christian residential drug treatment facility. Tickets purchased in advance through Arise directly benefit the charity.

The event will be held at the Lee Pellon Center and doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the bell will sound at 7 p.m. To purchase tickets call (207) 271-7060, or message Arise directly through their Facebook page by visiting: www.facebook.com/ariseaddictionrecovery.