Maine

Shukri Abasheikh, owner of Mogadishu Store, helps customer Gracia Mbula with a purchase in her store in Lewiston, Maine, on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023.

Lewiston mass shooting rattles local Somalis who came to Maine looking for safety 

Violence

Lewiston, Maine, the site of the latest large mass shooting in the US, is a city that has been transformed by immigrants, particularly a large community of refugees from Somalia. Ari Snider reports on how Somalis in Lewiston, who fled violence in their homeland, are reacting to the violence in their new home.

Sample portions of chicken and kale stew over rice

Maine’s largest school district serves up African-inspired dishes to get more students excited about school lunch

Food
A man sweeps the floor in a church being turned into an apartment

Refugees in Maine find it harder to afford housing as remote workers move in

Refugees
An empty Amazon box sits outside a north Jackson, Miss., residence, awaiting pickup for recycling

A new law in Maine requires large companies to pay for recycling packaging waste

Environment
Claude Rwaganje and colleague at an event aiding asylum seekers in Portland, Maine

Portland, Maine, turns ‘crisis’ to ‘opportunity’ for African migrants

Immigration
Close up of a grain.

Maine is scaling up its local grain economy

Food

Craft brewing, artisanal baking and innovative mills and malthouses are reviving Maine’s economic might.

A voter carries a 'blue wave' poster at a rally

The US midterms ‘blue wave’ has mixed results for the environment

Politics

The 2018 US midterm elections ushered in a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives — along with new Democratic governors — who pledge to act on climate change. It also ushered out some climate-denying Republicans. Yet overall, the elections had mixed results for the environment.

The overall catch from lobstering in Maine was down 16.4 percent in 2017 from the year before. Those who catch lobsters for a living in the state are hoping that downfall does not continue in 2018.

The feast-or-famine life of lobstering in Maine

Jobs

The lobster industry has always been an up-and-down business, but a new book looks into how global warming is adding to that already uncertain rollercoaster.

Mastodons (this one on display at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles) are just a small part of the story of how humans first migrated to the Americas 15,000 years ago — or longer.

Retracing paths that people first traversed while migrating to the Americas

Books

When it comes to the first people arriving in the Americas during the Ice Age from Asia, Craig Childs says it is a “blank space” in the collective memory of most Americans. His newest book fills up that space with firsthand adventures and exploration.

Northern right whale with calf

The Northern right whale, already an endangered species, is in deep trouble

Environment

No new Northern right whale calves have been born so far this year — an unprecedented occurrence, according to scientists who study them.