The most direct link between climate change and public health in Maine can be found between warming temperatures and heat-related illnesses and diseases spread by ticks that no longer die off in winter.
Penelope Overton
Staff Writer
Penny Overton is excited to be the Portland Press Herald’s first climate reporter. Since joining the paper in 2016, she has written about Maine’s lobster and cannabis industries, covered state politics and spent a fellowship year exploring the impact of climate change on the lobster fishery with the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team. Before moving to Maine, she has covered politics, environment, casino gambling and tribal issues in Florida, Connecticut, and Arizona. Her favorite assignments allow her to introduce readers to unusual people, cultures, or subjects. When off the clock, Penny is usually getting lost in a new book at a local coffeehouse, watching foreign crime shows or planning her family’s next adventure.
Posted inLocal & State, Maine Crime
James Pak, Biddeford landlord convicted of killing 2 teenage tenants, dies in prison
Pak, 86, began serving a life sentence in 2016 for fatally shooting 19-year-old Derrick Thompson and 18-year-old Alivia Welch.
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Posted inLocal & State, News
Climate resilience commission starts work in lucrative port: Stonington
The newly formed panel aims travel around Maine to identify storm-ravaged communities whose needs do not fit neatly into federal disaster relief categories.
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
Gov. Mills to create commission to prepare Maine for more battering storms
Mills will sign an executive order Tuesday to create the commission in the wake of an extremely warm and stormy winter.
Posted inHealth, Local & State, News
Maine is playing ‘catch-up’ to prepare for health impacts of climate change
That’s the message the Maine Climate Council hears during the first of 3 scientific briefings geared toward updating the state’s climate action plan by the end of the year.
Posted inLocal & State, Outdoors
A remote forest thrives, thanks to woodswomen
The team behind a 180-acre community woodland near Brownville in Piscataquis County brings a collaborative, relationship-based approach to how it manages the land. The female-centric collective may be entirely accidental, but its focus on empowerment may be crucial to adapting to climate change.
Posted inBusiness, Local & State, News
Maine organic farmers to sue EPA over forever chemicals in sludge
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association claims that federal law requires the EPA to regulate toxic pollutants in sludge and take steps to prevent them from harming humans and the environment.
Posted inLocal & State
High levels of forever chemicals in Maine birds add to concern about food chain
Researchers in Maine are trying to understand how perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are affecting fish, birds and mammals.
Posted inLocal & State
Major data breach involving 2 Maine firms headed to court
BerryDunn, a Portland accounting firm, and Reliable Networks of Biddeford are trading blame about who is responsible for the breach that resulted in the theft of personal information ranging from Social Security numbers to medical data of more than a million people.
Posted inArts & Entertainment, Local & State, News
Climate change is rarely mentioned in top-rated films of the last decade
A new report co-authored by a Colby College professor includes a climate scorecard for movies that found only about 1 in 10 of the last decade’s top films even mention the topic.