Tuesday, June 23

Sun Journal - Gerard Caron walked into the Auburn Post Office and was met by a woman with a pair of clipboards. "This petition is against gay marriage and this other petition is to support gay marriage," she said, according to Caron. The Poland man said he asked her why there would be a petition to support something that already happened, referring to the petition "in support of" gay marriage. "She just kinda gave me a little grin and didn't say anything," he said. Then he looked at the two petitions and discovered they were identical, both were supporting the repeal of the same-sex marriage law, Caron said. . . Julie Flynn, deputy secretary of state, said her office has received calls from people concerned about the petitioning process, but not a surprising number. . . We don't have anything in law that allows us to monitor or enforce signature gatherers.". . . Petition gatherers must turn in 55,087 valid signatures by early August to get the repeal question on the ballot this November.

Heating prices in Maine are up 20 cents a gallon over the past two weeks, hitting $2.35 a gallon.

Big crowd in Portland for the Southern Maine Pride parade.

Maine has become the first state to set up recycling for compact fluorescent light bulbs in an effort to contain the mercury these bulbs contained. There are also limits on the amount of mercury allowed

Portland Press Herald - A team of University of New England researchers studying the reappearance of Atlantic sturgeon in the Saco River came up with an even more surprising find : a federally endangered shortnose sturgeon. While Atlantic sturgeon had seemingly disappeared for about 100 years, its more rare cousin had apparently never been seen in the Saco -- at least, not until researchers pulled one up Tuesday. . .

Sun Journal - A few hundred laid-back people of all ages and some jammin' jazz, funk, reggae and rock 'n' roll bands kept the rain gods at bay through midday Saturday during Harry's Hoe-Down at Harry Brown's Farm. . . Describing the festival, DA Butcha, 47, said, "It's a combination music festival and a gathering of folks who want to legalize marijuana. A lot of people here like smoking pot. It's an experiment in temporary community."
. . . Campfire smoke mingled with marijuana smoke around the edges of the hill, joining the heavier and pleasantly intoxicating scent of incense and oils burning around and in some of the homemade crafts and clothing vendor booths.