About this time next month, when Wiscasset's non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with whoever eyed town land for a data center is supposed to come out, the full NDA and any other documents the town releases might be not all that exciting, depending on what you consider exciting, and despite the attention we the news media, including Wiscasset Newspaper, have rightly given the matter along the way. 

Wiscasset Newspaper obtained and reported on the town's redacted version of the NDA last October, after word came out about an agent's inquiry the town had received. As such documents often go, the NDA

As the Graham Platner cluster-flop reverberates through the Pine Tree State, Will Rogers’ famed prophecy came true, again. He said: “I don't belong to an organized political party; I'm a Democrat.”

On June 7, about 157,000 Democratic voters chose a Senate candidate, an oyster farmer from Sullivan, over sitting Gov. Janet Mills, who polled 42,000. A month later, they threw him under the bus after credible sexual assault accusations rang true. Some faulted him for a Nazi death’s-head tattoo he got years ago. But I discount that as stupid kid stuff, but the sex stuff was different.

What happened

QR codes have become a convenient part of our daily lives, from viewing restaurant menus to paying for parking meters. However, scammers are increasingly taking advantage of this technology to steal your personal information and money through a tactic known as “squishing.” By physically pasting fraudulent stickers over legitimate ones, or sending fake codes via email or text, criminals can redirect you to malicious websites meant to mimic trusted businesses.

In public settings, you might unknowingly scan a tampered code on a flyer or parking meter, sending your payment directly into a scammer

Dear Editor:

On June 9, the Wiscasset voters voted down the Wiscasset school budget of $11.2 million. Since then there were two school committee budget workshops. On June 30, the school committee approved a budget of $10.7 million by a divided vote of 4 to 1, essentially a flat budget from the previous year, one committee member believing that budget is still too high. Most notable were the questions never asked.

School expenses are directly related to the number of students. The current enrollment of 348 students was reported to the state.

1. The Richmond School District, with a middle high

Dear Editor:

Notwithstanding the hype, claims and fear generated by the $2 trillion global warming industrial complex, Wiscasset’s sewage treatment plant, with minor effort, can remain in place until 2076. At the present rate of increase the ocean should be about six inches higher when the USA celebrates its 300th anniversary

In the last 20,000 years, since the Last Glacial Maximum, the earth has been warming, and sea levels have risen about 400 feet. Sea level increased rapidly for the first 13,000 years then slowed dramatically. The present sea level is fairly consistent with the pattern

Dear Editor:

The phrase “Think globally, act locally” asks that we consider the health of the entire planet before taking action in our own communities. Citizens in House District 48 (Westport Island, Southport, Boothbay Harbor, Boothbay, Edgecomb and South Bristol) can fulfill this tall order by electing Charlotte Nutt to the State House in November. Charlotte plans to pick up the torch from Rep. Holly Stover, who is retiring due to term limits.

Charlotte Nutt will continue Rep. Stover’s vital work on affordable housing, health care access, and climate sustainability; advocate for small

To mow or not to mow, that is the question!

It’s a toss up, but it’s hot and it’s dry. The grass is long and if I mow there will be a raking party for sure. But keeping the grass long in extended dry spells with high heat, I think, helps to protect the grass from going up in smoke. With an abundance of ledge and poor soil, it doesn’t take long for our grass to turn to straw. So, I have opted not to mow, just yet. Maybe after a little rain, which I hope comes soon, I can launch the John Deere for the much needed haircut.

In the past, I have mowed on a fairly regular schedule, regardless of

Terns eat fish. We all know that (don’t we?). Many’s the time we have watched these graceful, long-winged birds hovering over the ocean surface before plunging down into the water headfirst or with a dramatic swoop to snatch up a manageable fish.

But wait.

Surprise, surprise—not all terns specialize in fish (and even those that sometimes eat things other than fish).

The Maine birding world has been abuzz this past week by the appearance of a tern species that is famous for eating things other than fish. A gull-billed tern appeared at Popham Beach a few weeks ago and has since been spending

Monday night, as I was trying to get to sleep and wondering what to write in this space this week, I thought about this newspaper and what I would miss if it suddenly ceased to exist … perhaps setting myself up for a nightmare!

First off, I would be out of a job that I have held for 39-plus years. Secondly, I have lived most of my 69 years here in the region and known five of the publishers, from Roy Kelley to A.R. Tandy (Dan DeRepentigny, Howard Cowan and Marylouise Cowan being the other three). In retrospect, I have seen many, many issues of this wonderful broadsheet land on the newsstands

Well, we all survived the 250th birthday party. If you missed the big event, I am sure Big Al still has a sparkler or two left on his shelves.

We survived, despite wars in Iran and Ukraine, where the favorites are, well, not losing but have not achieved their predicted slam-dunk victories. We survived, despite domestic political polarization, as, for a day, both sides have chosen to limit their brickbats to internet posts. We survived despite an onslaught of nasty TV ads proclaiming both Maine Senate candidates are spawns of Satan, or worse. We survived despite a national heatwave that urged

Fire the cannons and ring the bells for Maine State Music Theater's 2026 production of "1776" in honor of our country's 250th anniversary. Huzzahs to the cast, Director Amber Mak and Choreographer Christopher Page-Sanders, set designers, props crew ... it’s an extensive list.

It was just over one week ago that I finally saw this musical on stage. I've seen the film version many, many times since its theater release in 1972; in a high school history class my senior year (my English teacher had been a history teacher and blended the two subjects together whenever she could!); and eventually on

As rising summer temperatures cause energy demands to increase, criminals exploit fears of losing power and air conditioning by posing as local utility companies.

Scammers place threatening phone calls, phishing emails, or urgent text messages aimed at convincing consumers to supply personal data or to click on unverified links to resolve a past-due balance. Oftentimes these schemes are accompanied by a push to receive instant payment through unconventional payment methods like gift cards, or cryptocurrency.

If you receive an unexpected threat to terminate your service, take an active pause

With fuel pumps and ATMs as frequent targets, a surge of skimming devices is threatening consumers. Criminals attach sophisticated skimmers directly over legitimate card slots or splice them into internal wiring to secretly record your financial data.

Many modern skimming devices closely resemble real hardware, making them difficult to detect at first glance. Vulnerable targets include standalone ATMs, unattended retail checkout lines, and card terminals located in busy tourist areas.

The next time you fill your tank or use a card terminal, inspect the machine closely for loose, bent, crooked

We are fortunate to have a very leafy green neighborhood. Maples, ash, ornamental crabapples, the occasion red oak, a few black locust—the sightline from our porch in June and July is of beautiful verdant curtains made up of thousands of leaves and with the rounded green domes of taller trees reaching up into the sky behind houses and along distant streets.

There is, though, this one tree. An elm, across the street, whose top branches lost all their leaves a few years ago.

Since then, it has become one of the most popular spots in town for chimney swifts. They fly into the tangle of thin dead

I might have been Clark Kent/Superman in the Windjammer Days Street Parade but the real hero was the young man who retrieved my cell phones.

Being in the back of Boothbay Railway Village Museum’s antique truck – thank you again BRVM for letting us use the Boothbay Register truck for the parade – was a lot of fun. However, there isn’t a lot of head room and it was a bit warm with the suit coat, white dress shirt and T-shirt on.

After we were detoured onto Western Avenue from Sea Street at the conclusion of the parade, with police keeping traffic away from the downtown area full of pedestrians

Ah, summer. From Boothbay Harbor to Wiscasset and beyond, some of the most time-honored, crowd-getting events have, this year, been getting the blue skies and more that help make them all they can be. But, as with all seasons, with the beauty comes potential trouble. Summer's trouble can include three-digit or close to three-digit temperatures, and three-digit heat indexes. And this week, as of press time Tuesday, the National Weather Service had an "extreme heat watch" out for Boothbay Harbor, Wiscasset and beyond, that it said carries danger, in part due to the heat's duration.

According to