HANCOCK – The Maine State Police, with help from a private DNA laboratory, made an arrest Nov. 9 in a 26-year-old cold case. Maine State Police detectives on Wednesday arrested 56-year-old Jason Follette of Gouldsboro for the alleged sexual assault of a now 47-year-old woman, who at the time was from the town of Hancock, announced Maine State Police spokesperson Shannon Moss. Follette had an initial court appearance Thursday. District Attorney Matt Foster said Follette’s bail was set at $100,000 cash. The victim was 21 when she was sexually assaulted in her Hancock apartment on Aug. 11, 1996 ..read more

Veterans Day is Friday, Nov. 11, and the pages of this newspaper contain dozens of photos of individuals with local ties who served or are currently serving in our nation’s armed forces. At least eight are Purple Heart recipients. Several received Bronze Stars. All gave something of themselves in service to their country — in some cases their lives. The submissions are snapshots into how everyday people become heroes. Herschel Norwood of Southwest Harbor, who died in 2013, was in the first wave of Allied troops storming the beach in the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Sylvanus “Junior” Tracy serve ..read more

With Halloween in the rearview mirror, many Americans are turning their sights to Christmas and all the preparations that holiday entails. Inflation will be the uninvited guest at the party, and a real buzzkill. Nearly three-quarters of Americans expect higher product prices this season, according to the 2022 Deloitte holiday retail survey. Most expect to spend about the same amount of money but get less for it. They anticipate giving fewer gifts overall. Sorry, Aunt Matilda. While worthwhile, discussions of household or global economics might be lost on young children who thrill at what they ..read more

Never mind the miracles of modern communication. A deadline is a deadline, and the filing date for this column was pre-election, so whatever might be said about winners and losers will have to wait until next week. In the meantime — Sam Hunkler. With all due respect to Sam, it’s a pretty safe bet that he did not wake up governor of Maine on Nov. 9. Nevertheless, his against-all-odds campaign gave us plenty to think about. Who would disagree with him that our country lacks direction? That party leaders are mostly interested in winning elections and controlling legislative bodies but accomplish ..read more

ELLSWORTH — Write-in candidate Beverly Sargent and incumbent Paul Markosian were elected to the School Board Tuesday. Markosian was the only candidate on the ballot, but two seats were available. Sargent received 599 votes to fellow write-in candidate Tiffany Gasper’s 166. No one was running on the ballot for an open seat on the Ellsworth Public Library’s Board of Trustees, but 40 voters cast write-in votes for Judith Lyles. If she accepts the post, she will join the board ..read more

ELLSWORTH — The city clerk’s office will be closed for normal business Nov. 10 as staff conduct a requested recount of the results of the Nov. 8 City Council race. The recount will be votes for candidates Jon Stein and John Linnehan. The recount begins at 10 a.m. in City Council Chambers at City Hall. This recount will be broadcast live on the city’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Members of the public are welcome to view in person. City services not available Thursday are birth, death and marriage certificates, dog licenses, hunting and fishing licenses, ATV/boat registrations and busine ..read more

Dear Editor: The North Wind (your political party) boasted of great strength. The Sun (my political party) argued that there was great power in gentleness. “We shall have a contest,” said the Sun. Far below, a man traveled a winding road. He was wearing a warm winter coat. “As a test of strength,” said the Sun, “let us see which of us can take the coat off that man.” “It will be quite simple for me to force him to remove his coat,” boasted the Wind. The Wind blew so hard, the birds clung to the trees. The world was filled with dust and leaves. But the harder Wind blew down the road, the tighte ..read more

Dear Editor: Tim Plouff, in his Nov. 3 commentary titled “The Biden Catastrophe,” writing about oil and gasoline prices, claims that Barack Obama said in 2020, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to (expletive) things up,” and he claims Obama added, “And you know who really doesn’t have it? Joe Biden.” Mr. Plouff offers these quotes as if we know whether Obama actually said these things. The quote was originally reported by Politico and was attributed to an anonymous source who claimed to have heard it. Because the source is anonymous, there’s no way to confirm whether or not it is genuine. Mr ..read more

By Michael Hall The United States must focus on the dangers of climate change. America must prioritize all our efforts on stopping global warming. Every nickel allocated in the $4 trillion federal budget must reflect our commitment to saving ourselves and the planet. What good comes from preserving Social Security and Medicare if all the recipients are dead? If we don’t save the planet, nothing else matters. My soldiers in Iraq had lots of worries. Could their spouse pay the bills or how was their parent’s health? Was their child being bullied in school? Those were legitimate concerns when we ..read more

Dear Editor: I think every once in a while it’s OK to actually take a moment and thank someone for great service. Is that still allowed? I made the mistake of buying my wife a used Mercedes a number of years ago. She loved it then and still loves it now, but the maintenance is difficult. I took it to VIP in Ellsworth for an oil change yesterday, which they performed admirably, but then worked an extra hour or so trying to get the stupid computer to reset so that it knew that it had an oil change. I want to thank Steve and Chris for their tireless work to get this job done. It’s not often you f ..read more