Business and Economy

Maine residents have been complaining on social media that the national pharmacy chain is cancelling COVID-19 vaccine appointments. A Walgreens spokesperson said last week some locations are adjusting hours due to staffing.

Maine has advanced a housing policy agenda that would be among the most aggressive in the nation in addressing soaring costs, but it faces a difficult path in a state where local control runs deep.

A cybersecurity firm sued the parent company of Central Maine Power Co. in federal court this week, alleging it engineered a bid-rigging scheme in the tens of millions of dollars aimed at increasing payouts from ratepayers.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against Maine lobster fishermen who sought to block new fishing restrictions that are designed to protect rare whales.

The program operates on an approximately $3 million budget through a series of federal grants, but the U.S. Department of Education rejected the latest grant application from the University of Maine at Farmington.

The developers of a wind-energy turbine off Monhegan Island are apologizing to Boothbay residents angered by unannounced work in town last month, some of it on private property. And the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is taking heat for signing a deal to allow cable from the turbine to come ashore on its waterfront property there.

A legislative commission is calling on the state to incentivize towns to change their zoning laws, as part of a series of recommendations for addressing Maine's housing crisis.

A board of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is slated to vote Dec. 17 on whether to reopen fishing. The board relies on a recommendation from a technical committee made up of scientists, regulators and other experts.

James Tymon of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials warned that rising materials prices could reduce the number of projects that can be done with the federal money.

The spill wasn't reported to the state until about a week later, after the Department of Environmental Protection received a complaint about waste coming ashore near Sears Island, and then visited the site. Cleanup continued for a few weeks, but some plastic remained in the environment.