Latest news with #CapeElizabeth
CTV News
03-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
N.S. man dies after sailboat runs aground in Maine
Kettle Cove State Park is pictured on May 22, 2025, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. (AP Photo/Patrick Whittle) A Nova Scotia man has died after the sailboat he was on ran aground in Maine earlier this week. The state's Department of Marine Patrol says Thomas Kent Smith, 72, was sailing with a couple from New Hampshire early Monday morning. The couple called 911 around 3 a.m. to report they were stranded on shore near Cape Ann Ledge on the southern end of Isle au Haut after the 40-foot sailboat they were on started to break apart on the rocks. Marine Patrol responded and found the couple and Smith's body on shore around 5 a.m. The couple reported they found Smith's body in the water after the boat broke apart and they were able to pull him to shore. Marine Patrol says the couple reported they had all been in the water for more than an hour. They were also all wearing life jackets. Smith's body will be examined at a funeral home in Ellsworth, about 33 kilometres outside Bar Harbour, by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The couple were taken to Stonington where they were examined and released by emergency medical crews. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Southern Maine communities gear up for school budget, bond and candidate votes
Jun. 7—Residents of communities all across Maine will get the chance Tuesday to approve or reject their school districts' proposed budgets. Most budgeting processes so far have been largely uneventful. But when voters weigh in, which is required by law, things can get complicated, especially in cities or towns with large proposed increases. Last year, five Maine districts rejected their budgets. Experts weren't sure whether the increase in spending, which happened as districts were grappling with the loss of COVID-19 pandemic funds, was a trend or a one-off occurrence. But as voters gear up to decide on budgets, special election races and some bond projects, a few this year could prove controversial. They will also decide whether to extend the budget referendum voting process, something state statute requires districts to reaffirm every three years. Historic data shows turnout during June municipal elections is generally low, usually between 10% and 20%, compared to November elections when that number is closer to 60%. Here's a closer look at what will be on the ballot in some communities in Southern Maine. CAPE ELIZABETH Cape Elizabeth has twice rejected large bond proposals to rebuild the district's aging schools. Voters turned down a $116 million project in November 2022, and a $95 million version of the bond in November 2024. The most recent referendum failed by less than 200 votes. On Tuesday, voters will get a third chance to vote on a bond, this one an $86.5 million project that includes a new middle school and renovations and additions at the elementary school. The project comes with an estimated tax increase of 12.3%, spread across multiple years. Proponents of the project, including Superintendent Chris Record, say the school buildings have reached the end of their useful life and are not well-suited to modern-day learning. "At the middle school, they have very small classrooms that make teaching in a modern way very difficult," Record said. "It's very hard to move students into different groups, have interactive centers and do any sort of collaboration because the rooms are so small." Opponents want the district to focus on renovations rather than rebuilding. They also take issue with the school board continuing to propose building project referenda after voters have rejected them in the past. The election occurs as the district and superintendent are undergoing an ethics investigation prompted by a complaint filed by critics of the bond project. They argue district officials should have registered as an official ballot question committee before paying for newspaper advertisements about last November's bond project. Cape voters also will weigh in on a proposed $36.3 million budget with a 2.9% property tax increase. They also get to share a nonbinding opinion on whether they find the budget too high, acceptable or too low. GORHAM In Gorham, the town's recent history of rejecting budgets, coupled with local advocacy against this year's proposal, could signal a close vote. In 2023, Gorham voters rejected two versions of the school budget before approving a third. Last year, the budget passed on the first try, but by only four votes. This year's budget, a $57.5 million school spending plan that represents a $4 million increase over last year, was approved by the school committee and town council unanimously. Superintendent Heather Perry said this year's budget includes the lowest tax rate increase in more than a decade, just 3.15%. "We believe this budget is fiscally responsible and still provides the high-quality educational program our families have come to expect in Gorham," Perry said. "The proposed budget is now in the hands of our voters on June 10. We will move forward positively regardless of the outcome. We encourage all Gorham residents to please get out and vote." Signs that have popped up around town encourage voters to reject the budget. They include messages like "raise test scores, not taxes" and have QR codes that lead to the website for the organization Gorham Watchdogs, which describes itself as a citizen journalism initiative "dedicated to uncovering the truth about school budgets, town politics and taxpayer accountability." That group is circulating a petition that opposes a budget tax hike, and one of its founding members, Ben Tuttle, exceeded the public comment time limit while reading a statement about rising school budgets and the declining student test scores at a May town council meeting. Tuttle collected signatures last year to force a school budget referendum recount, after which the budget passed by two votes. Other signs around town call on residents to vote yes on the budget, with messages like "adequate funding, quality education." OTHER COMMUNITIES In South Portland, early budget discussions were met with swift community opposition when Superintendent Tim Matheney revealed plans to lay off more than 20 employees to cut $5 million from the budget. The final budget approved by the school board totals $73.1 million, a 5.5% spending increase over last year, and contains cuts to nine full-time equivalent positions. Matheney announced his resignation Wednesday, citing friction with the school board during the budget process. South Portland won't vote on a controversial athletic complex bond Tuesday; the school board decided to put that referendum on a future ballot. The Gray-New Gloucester budget generated attention last month when a group of residents spoke out against a proposed axing of the high school's American Sign Language program. Residents of the two towns ultimately approved a $35.4 million budget with a cut to the ASL teacher position, after district officials said the teacher announced plans to retire and they were unable to find a replacement. Portland, the state's largest school district, will vote to fill an open school board seat in addition to weighing in on the $172 million budget. The two candidates are Cassidy LaCroix, a contractor and parent of a Portland elementary student, and Jayne Sawtelle, a retired Portland music teacher. Westbrook voters get to approve a $54 million school budget; last year a second referendum vote was required after voters rejected the first one. Falmouth will vote on a $52.4 million school budget with a 3.33% increased tax rate, a smaller increase than in recent years. MSAD 51, the district that includes Cumberland and North Yarmouth, will get to vote on a $54 million school budget and two school board seats. Yarmouth will elect two school committee members and vote on a $42.4 million budget. Voters from Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Arundel, the towns in RSU 21, will decide on a $62.6 million budget that represents a 5.5% increase over the current year's. And residents of Brunswick will vote on a $57.71 million school budget, which will result in an estimated 1.8% tax rate increase, and on an open school board seat. For more information about these upcoming votes, visit: Staff Writer Drew Johnson contributed reporting. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Maine singer Role Model to star in Netflix romcom with Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo
May 21—Maine's Tucker Pillsbury has been pretty successful singing pop songs about love and romance. Now he's set to star in a movie about those topics, too. Netflix announced this week that Pillsbury, who sings under the name Role Model, will make his film debut in a romantic comedy called "Good Sex." He's listed as one of the three principals in the proposed film, along with Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo. The romcom will be written and directed by Lena Dunham, creator of the HBO series "Girls." Pillsbury, 27, grew up in Cape Elizabeth and has established himself as a pop singing star, selling out venues and touring the world. His feel-good TikTok video for the song "Sally, When the Wine Runs Out" has more than 4 million views and he's performed on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and "Today." View this post on Instagram A post shared by tucker pillsbury (@rolemodel) "Good Sex" is about a New York couples therapist (Portman) who has spent a decade in a failed relationship and now, at 40, is reluctantly getting back into the dating scene. According to the Netflix description of the film, Portman's character meets two men, one in his 20s and one in his 50s. Pillsbury is 27 and Ruffalo is 57, so it's not a stretch to assume who will play who, though Netflix doesn't list any specific roles beyond Portman's. There is no release date set for the film yet, which also features Meg Ryan and Rashida Jones. On his Instagram page this week, Pillsbury posted an article about the film from the entertainment website Deadline, along with his comment "everyone say thank you lena." @rolemodelSALLY VIDEO OUT NOW DIVA♬ sally when the wine runs out — tucker Pillsbury will join Gracie Abrams on some of her summer tour, including July 23 and 24 at TD Garden in Boston, and will headline his own tour of Europe beginning in November. His latest album — "Kansas Anymore" — came out last July and was inspired by a breakup he was going through at the time. He says he became homesick, living in Los Angeles and working on the album, and started listening to music his parents listened to while he was growing up. Those artists, including Jackson Brown and Neil Young, influenced his song writing. Pillsbury didn't sing in a school chorus or play any instruments growing up, but displayed his creativity by writing and making videos. After graduating from Cape Elizabeth High School in 2014, he went to Point Park University in Pittsburgh to study film. While there, he started playing around with some recording equipment left in his room one day. He started performing raps for a while, but decided he'd rather sing. By early 2017 he was performing and using the name Role Model, picked because he loved the 2008 Paul Rudd comedy film "Role Models." Pillsbury has several tattoos to remind him of Maine, including the script P from the Portland Press Herald logo, on his right hand. Others include a sack of potatoes, a box of strawberries and a lobster trap. With his hectic tour schedule, Pillsbury says it's been harder for him to get home as often as he'd like, but says he has some trips to Maine planned throughout the summer. Sometimes family and friends come to him when he's performing nearby. When he played MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston on April 23, his mom, Susan Pillsbury, danced on stage with him. @taylorrrs75 most perfect sally ever @tucker @noplaceliketour #rolemodel #noplaceliketour #tuckerpillsbury #kansasanymoredeluxe #sally #boston #mgmfenway #kansasanymore #saintlaurentcowboy ♬ original sound — taylor Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cape's Nick Laughlin poised for big season with UMaine football
Apr. 26—ORONO — Here's the first and most important thing you need to know about Cape Elizabeth's Nick Laughlin and his role with the University of Maine football team. When you bring up his name to his teammates or coaches, the first thing they do is smile. "I love Nick. He's a great guy. He's one of my good friends on the team," said quarterback Carter Peevy. "We can use him as a receiver, a running back, he's got a wide range of skills, which is really going to help us. He's from Maine. He loves this state. He loves this team. I'm really glad we've got him here." Advertisement A redshirt sophomore, Laughlin is changing positions for the Black Bears, moving to running back after starting his college career at wide receiver. The Jeff Cole Memorial Spring Game, played Saturday in a driving rainstorm at Alfond Stadium, was the first chance to see Laughlin at work in his new position. Talking about that makes everyone around the Black Bears smile even more. "Nick is going to be a stud," said offensive coordinator Mikahael Waters. "He was already a stud last year for us and made some big-time plays. We're just trying a way to get him the ball as much as we can." As a freshman, Laughlin's 22 catches were third on the team, and he had 186 yards and a touchdown. He also had three carries, including a 5-yard run at Oklahoma for the first touchdown of his career. Maine coach Jordan Stevens said he considered moving Laughlin to running back when he played the position on the scout team while redshirting during his first year with the program. Now that Laughlin has bulked up from 5 foot 8, 185 pounds he was when he arrived on campus to a solid 5-10, 210 while maintaining his quickness, the move was obvious, Stevens said. Advertisement "He's just really consistent. He's just been a steady guy. That's what he is. He's low maintenance," Stevens said. Laughlin compared his new role with Maine to the role he played at Cape Elizabeth, where coach Sean Green lined him up in a variety of spots to keep defenses guessing. That Laughlin was going to get the ball was obvious, but how? As a junior, he helped the Capers win the Class C state championship. The following season, Laughlin was a finalist for the Fitzpatrick Trophy, given to the top senior in the state. Now, it's just getting up to speed on the nuances of playing running back instead of wideout, Laughlin said. "The biggest thing for me is knowledge of the game. Reading the defenses. Especially now, playing running back, focusing more on the blocking schemes and where the defenses is going to go," he said. Advertisement In Saturday's rain, Laughlin was able to showcase his skills. He had some carries. He caught some passes. He showed a connection with Peevy and an ability to make tacklers miss. That's his greatest strength as a running back, said Laughlin's coaches. He's a Weeble. He gets hit and wobbles, but the first hit is rarely going to take him down. It's called contact balance, and maybe it's his background from playing hockey and lacrosse as well as football, but Laughlin has plenty of it. "A huge part of that is mentality, and I think he definitely has that," said running backs coach Pushaun Brown, who led the Black Bears in rushing as a player in 2010 and 2011. "He plays the game the right way." Laughlin is playing with confidence, Waters said. Peevy can't wait to see his friend in game action in the fall. The Black Bears open the season August 30 at Liberty. "I can't tell you exactly how we're going to use him this season, but if it's anything like the spring, he's going to line up in several spots," Peevy said. Advertisement Early last season, Stevens awarded Laughlin a full scholarship. Laughlin remembers being called into Stevens' office a few days after the season-opening win over Colgate to get the news. "I wasn't sure if I was in trouble," Laughlin said. Laughlin wasn't in trouble. He was just getting started. Copy the Story Link
New York Times
09-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Robert A.G. Monks, Crusader Against ‘Imperial' C.E.O.s, Dies at 91
Robert A.G. Monks, a lawyer and businessman from a prominent Massachusetts family who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate three times but found a calling in his 40s as an influential defender of shareholder rights, died on April 29 at his home in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He was 91. The cause was pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed about a week before his death, his son, Bobby, said. By age 40, Mr. Monks had worked his way up to partner at the Goodwin Procter law firm in Boston, amassed a fortune running a regional oil and coal firm and other businesses, and made the first of three unsuccessful runs for U.S. senator in Maine. While campaigning during a Republican primary there in 1972, he noticed 'big, slick bubbles of industrial discharge' in a river, Mr. Monks wrote in an unpublished memoir. That and other signs of pollution made him wonder how corporate behavior could be better controlled. His answer was to persuade shareholders to assert their ownership rights by pressuring corporate executives to act more responsibly toward society at large. This epiphany, as he described it, ultimately gave him the sense of purpose and direction he had been seeking. He pursued his activist-shareholder agenda at the U.S. Labor Department, where he was appointed in 1983 to oversee the pension system. And in 1985, Mr. Monks, with Nell Minow, founded Institutional Shareholder Services, or ISS, which advises investors on how to vote on such matters as elections of directors, compensation policies and shareholder proposals. ISS, now majority-owned by Deutsche Börse of Germany, and a rival company, Glass Lewis, are today the largest providers of such advisory services. Their influence is such that some corporate leaders and Republican politicians, accusing the firms of pursuing 'woke' agendas, have recently called for the Securities and Exchange Commission to rein them in. Mr. Monks's main target was the concentration of power at the highest levels of corporate leadership. In 1991, he campaigned for a seat on the board of Sears, Roebuck & Co., whose share price had plunged amid losses of market share to more nimble retailers. Among other things, he sought to curb the powers of Edward A. Brennan, who was then serving as both chairman and chief executive of Sears. Mr. Monks lost in that effort but continued to push for changes in Sears' strategy. In May 1992, he bought a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal naming Sears board members and shaming them as 'non-performing assets.' Sears at the time had been seeking to diversify, buying up financial service companies like the brokerage firm Dean Witter Reynolds and Discover credit card operations. But under pressure from Mr. Monks and other investors, Sears decided later that year to dump those businesses and focus on retail. In 2003, Mr. Monks turned his attention to Exxon Mobil. At the company's annual shareholders meeting, he lectured Lee Raymond, the chairman and chief executive. 'The scope of your operations is global, and goes beyond the usual language of business into politics and foreign policy,' Mr. Monks said. 'The scope of your power, Mr. Chairman, is truly imperial. You are an emperor.' In addition to starting ISS, Mr. Monks founded a small fund-management firm, wrote books and essays, gave speeches and formed coalitions with other corporate-governance crusaders. Partly as a result of his efforts and those of like-minded activists, more companies split the jobs of chairman and chief executive. (Among S&P 500 companies, 61 percent now divide those roles, up from 20 percent in 2000, according to ISS.) Far fewer boards are dominated by insiders, and institutional investors are more inclined to demand effective and ethical governance, Ms. Minow, the ISS co-founder, said. Mr. Monks told The New York Times in 2007, 'The notion that a company that creates a problem is exempted from trying to find a solution to that problem is like being in the elephant business but not having anyone in charge of going behind the elephant and cleaning up after it.' In one area, executive pay, he conceded that he was unable to change behavior. Pay packages for chief executives have continued to climb from levels he considered 'obscene' decades ago. Using another animal metaphor, Mr. Monks described the limits of shareholder power: 'When two gorillas get ready to fight, they throw dust at each other. I'm in the gorilla-dust business, and I'm in the gorilla-dust business not because I like it, but because it's the only game in town.' Robert Augustus Gardner Monks was born in Boston on Dec. 4, 1933, and spent his early years in what he described as a 'rambling mansion' in the western Massachusetts town of Lenox. His ancestors, including Gardners and Peabodys, had been wealthy for generations. Dividends from AT&T and General Electric sustained the family comfortably through the Depression. His father, George Gardner Monks, was a priest in the Episcopal Church and led the private Lenox School. His mother, Katherine (Knowles) Monks, ran the household and helped oversee family properties. After graduating from St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H., Mr. Monks went to Harvard, earning an undergraduate degree in history in 1954. He had stood out as a 6-foot-6 rower for the varsity crew and was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa key. He later rowed for the University of Cambridge in England, where he also studied history as a Fiske scholar. In 1954, he married Millicent Sprague, known as Milly, a descendant of the Carnegie steel family. She later founded a dance company in Maine and wrote a memoir, 'Songs of Three Islands: A Story of Mental Illness in an Iconic American Family.' She died in 2023. In addition to his son, Mr. Monks is survived by a daughter, Melinda Monks; three grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Mr. Monks earned his law degree at Harvard in 1958. At Goodwin Procter, his first stop after law school, he impressed colleagues with his ability to find clients among his many family connections. At age 31, though, he was tired of law and left Goodwin to take on various executive roles revitalizing and in some cases selling family businesses. A friend recruited him to be a director of Boston Co., a fund management concern, where he became chairman and a major shareholder — and cashed in when the firm was sold in 1981. Donations to Republican causes set him up for his Labor Department appointment during the Reagan administration. As a dogged Republican candidate for the Senate, Mr. Monks lost to Senator Margaret Chase Smith in the primary in 1972, to Senator Edmund Muskie, a Democrat, in the general election in 1976, and to Susan Collins, a Republican who remains in office, in the 1996 primary. He concluded that his political talents were slight. In his memoir, however, he wrote that campaigning was a joyful experience that brought him into contact with working-class people he never would have met otherwise. A 1999 biography of him by Hilary Rosenberg was titled 'A Traitor to His Class,' a label that Mr. Monks called appropriate. A devotee of transcendental meditation, he enjoyed being a maverick and needling plutocrats — a tendency that had the effect of shrinking his social circle, he wrote. Even so, he was careful not to exaggerate his heroism. 'I'm more conservative than I like to think,' he told The Financial Times in 2005. 'I'm talking a brave game, but I have a lot of money, and I'm never risking anything I can't afford to lose.'
