The Lewiston-based campus hit a new high of 60 active cases among students after it locked down the campus last week.
Steve Collins
Columnist
Steve Collins became an opinion columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News in April of 2025. A journalist since 1987, Steve has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine and served as the State House reporter for the Sun Journal since 2016. The Maine Press Association named him Maine's Journalist of the Year in 2022. Among his other awards are the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2016 Ethics in Journalism Award, the I.F. Stone Whistle-Blower Award in 2015 and the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. Steve is a founder and board president of Youth Journalism International, a charity that teaches students around the globe about news writing, media literacy and issues of the day. His wife, Jackie Majerus, serves as its executive director. Born in Massachusetts, he grew up in a military family that took him to Norway, Ohio and Virginia, where he earned a degree in history from the University of Virginia. He and Jackie live in Auburn. They have two adult children, two collies and not enough time.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Schools and Education
Bates College imposes temporary quarantine to slow COVID-19 outbreak
With 34 active cases, students are told to stay inside their rooms until next Tuesday to reduce spread of highly contagious virus.
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Posted inLocal & State, News, Schools and Education
Bates sets new high for students in COVID-19 isolation
Bates College has seen the number of students requiring isolation housing rise from one a week ago to 16 now.
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
Lawmakers consider banning release of most balloons in Maine
Aiming to protect wildlife from latex litter, environmentalists urge the Legislature to bar people from intentionally releasing balloons.
Posted inArt, Arts & Entertainment, Life & Culture, Local & State, News
A master of realism making art in the Maine woods
Joel Babb has won acclaim for his finely detailed paintings of everything from Boston to babbling brooks.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Local & State
Winthrop widow seeks more regulation of funeral home vehicles
After her husband died driving one in 2017, Marie Charest wanted to sue her husband’s employer, but soon learned that she couldn’t because workers’ compensation laws bar it unless a company does something that breaks the law.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Bates says it has the capacity to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to students
College plan will depend on vaccine supply, dropping age restrictions
Posted inLocal & State, Politics
Maine may allow Viking-style funeral pyres
Legislature is weighing whether to make open-air cremation legal in Maine.
Posted inLocal & State
You can help make a better map
Editor’s Note: This story is part of a special, two-part report is part of a continuing series on poverty in Maine, and the strangling affect poverty has on our communities. We look at how vital broadband accessibility is for our schools, our businesses and our health. The work is being done in cooperation with the […]
Posted inLocal & State
Maine map gap: Bad federal maps muddle route to better broadband
State and federal maps offer little more than a vague impression of where high-speed internet exists and where it does not.