Maine Public

Ask people in the construction industry about the problems they're facing, and one thing comes up more than just about any other:

“There's definitely a construction worker shortage in Maine,” says Meredith Kirkman.

Leaders of Lewiston's immigrant community gathered outside City Hall Sunday morning to ask for peace and to express their condolences to the family of Donald Giusti, the Lewiston man who died after a brawl near Kennedy Park Tuesday night.  They say violence has no place in Lewiston and they condemn it "in the strongest possible terms." 

North Berwick sports-seating manufacturer Hussey Seating is sounding alarms about the effect that President Donald Trump's steel tariffs are having on its bottom line – a concern Maine Senator Angus King says is widespread in the state and beyond.

Maine 1st District Rep. Chellie Pingree is co-sponsoring legislation that would prohibit the federal government from separating children from their parents at the country’s border.

“Basically it says there should be no separation and there should be a primary, you know, process of family reunification any time a child is separated,” Pingree says.

Pingree says she has heard from many Maine constituents who say they are outraged at the news that children are being separated from their parents when trying to enter the country.

Across Maine, thousands of high school seniors are graduating and preparing for the next chapter in their lives. But for many, particularly students in rural Maine, the future is uncertain. Graduating seniors in the western Maine town of Rumford told Maine Public how they imagine their own futures, and whether that future might include returning to their hometown.

Maine deer hunters scored their highest annual harvest in a decade during last year's hunting season, and state wildlife regulators say those numbers support a proposal to increase the number of any-deer permits.

Mark Latti, spokesperson for the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said Thursday that last year's harvest of about 22,200 deer represented a 15 percent increase over 2016.

Now that the June primary is over - sort of - we turn to Maine Public's two political correspondents, Steve Mistler and Mal Leary, for some analysis of the results.  They spoke with Maine Calling host Jennifer Rooks earlier about some of Tuesday night's surprises - including, says Mistler, the Republican gubernatorial primary in which Shawn Moody got the nomination.