Alex Milan Tracy for Underscore
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The dozens of independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news organizations that make up the Rural News Network are developing the broadest news alliance reporting on rural America. These newsrooms are pursuing coverage that provides a more complete picture of what it means to live and work in these communities.
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LATEST NEWS FROM THE NETWORK
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Use of antipsychotics in Maine nursing homes climbs
April 21, 2024
After an initial crackdown and decline, the rate of the powerful medications given to nursing home residents has ticked back up in recent years.
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Maine to open two public defender offices in rural counties
March 22, 2024
The new law is the latest effort to address the state’s ongoing failure to provide lawyers to poor defendants.
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A tenth of Maine’s pharmacies have closed in the past decade
March 03, 2024
In rural areas, the decline has been even steeper, with some counties losing more than a fifth of their pharmacies in the past decade.
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California’s “Lithium Valley” may power millions of electric vehicles. Does Maine still need a lithium mine?
March 02, 2024
As America scrambles to develop a resource sometimes called the “new oil” or “white gold,” contrasts are emerging between what’s happening in western Maine and southern California.
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Funds sought for more rural patrol officers
January 20, 2024
Maine has underfunded state police rural patrol for 40 years, with no increase in funding for patrol troopers since 1977.
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Long term care leaders urge more funding to prevent more closures of nursing homes
January 03, 2024
Some 23 nursing homes have closed in the past decade in Maine.
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Maine nursing homes lead nation in meeting the Biden administration’s proposed staffing standards, but challenges loom
December 10, 2023
Although Maine is close to meeting the federal staffing standards, concerns persist over nursing home workforce shortages and potential closures.
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Aroostook power corridor faces opposition from rural landowners
November 26, 2023
In a scenario reminiscent of similar battles, plans for overhead transmission lines are being pushed by key politicians but fought by those directly affected.
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Maine rarely sanctions residential care facilities even after severe abuse or neglect incidents
November 12, 2023
From 2020 to 2022, Maine’s state health department cited residential care facilities for dozens of resident rights violations and hundreds of other deficiencies. But it has imposed only one fine in response.
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Maine’s vast rural expanse complicates the search for Lewiston shooting suspect
October 27, 2023
Boats and remote vehicles search Androscoggin River as part of a massive manhunt for the suspect in Maine’s deadliest mass shooting. He escaped in a state with an estimated 17.5 million acres of forest land and numerous rivers, vast expanses of uninhabited land dotted by small communities, farms, logging roads and two lane highways.
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Mass shooting turns spotlight on Maine’s sparse gun laws
October 26, 2023
Maine ranks in the middle of the pack among other states when it comes to gun safety laws, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group. The laws in place appeared to have done little to stop the suspect in the mass shooting in Lewiston.
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A city, and a state, in shock
October 26, 2023
In the wake of shootings that left at least 18 dead in Maine’s second largest city, local residents and officials expressed shock that the nation’s epidemic of mass shootings had come to their community and grappled to make sense of the past day’s events.
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The latest on Lewiston mass shootings
October 25, 2023
A manhunt involving at least 100 law enforcement personnel was underway in Maine early Thursday morning in the wake of mass shootings in Lewiston that left at least 16 dead and dozens wounded.
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Shortage of pharmacists leaving customers in peril
October 22, 2023
In rural areas, inconsistent hours, staff shortages and closures mean residents can’t depend on their local pharmacy to get their medications — if they even have a pharmacy near them.
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A rural family is doing what has to be done, one gig job at a time
October 07, 2023
A Washington County couple, like so many others Downeast, loves what they do, but always with one eye on their finances.
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