THE DAILY MONITOR
Reporting in the Public Interest
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CORONAVIRUS IN MAINE
STATE CDC VACCINATION UPDATE
191,813 Cumulative vaccinations (An increase of 4,758 from Saturday)
140,184 First doses administered (An increase of 3,443 from Saturday)
51,629 Second doses administered (An increase of 1,315 from Saturday)
COVID-19 DASHBOARD
41,218 Total cases (An increase of 154 from Saturday)
635 Deaths (An increase of 1 from Saturday)
154 New daily cases (A decrease of 111 from Saturday)
123 Currently in hospital (A decrease of 8 from Saturday)
TODAY'S HEADLINES
Another Mainer has died as health officials on Sunday reported 154 more coronavirus cases across the state.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 4,431. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. That’s down from 4,466 on Saturday.

A York County resident has succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 635.
RELATED
By Karen Kreworuka of the Sun Journal
During a period of just seven hours, the Augusta hospital’s vaccination appointment center was bombarded with more than 400,000 telephone calls – the equivalent of one for every three Maine residents – from people trying to snag just 440 time slots. In York, anger over the chaotic rollout of that hospital’s first vaccination sign-up was so swift and fierce that administrators sent out a public message pledging dramatic improvements, ending with the words “We promise.” READ MORE
RELATED
By Kelley Bouchard of the Portland Press Herald
RELATED
By Joseph Charpentier of the Penobscot Bay Pilot
Before settlers rushed westward to mine for gold in the mid 1800s, metal was being mined in Maine. As the craze died down out west, word spread of Maine’s potential. A silver rush ensued and scattered operations lasted through the 1900s — until the impacts of two small-scale, coastal metal mines forced legislators to rethink how mines in Maine should operate.
 
The neighboring mines, which shuttered in the 1970s, caused significant water pollution that is still being cleaned up — on the taxpayers’ dime. After a decades-long standoff on how to regulate the industry, an out-of-state company is seeking to open two mines in rural parts of the state. 

Wolfden Resources Corporation is the first company to test Maine’s strict and long-awaited mining regulations. The Canadian exploration mining company is attempting to rezone a portion of land at its Pickett Mountain property to mine for zinc, lead, copper, gold and silver in Penobscot County. It also recently announced plans to drill at a site near Calais called Big Silver. 

The two sites are among less than a dozen significant metal deposits across the state, according to the Maine Geological Survey. 

It’s been just over a year since Wolfden submitted a petition to Maine’s Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) to rezone 528 of its 7,000 acres of land in an unorganized territory near Patten — less than 25 miles from the Katahdin Woods and Water National Monument, and Baxter State Park. READ MORE
RELATED
By Marina Schauffler of the Maine Monitor
LOCAL POLITICS / CORONAVIRUS
By Nick Schroeder of the Bangor Daily News
In normal times, working at one of the city’s most popular restaurants had its perks. Sherri Lysy made a solid income at Duckfat, a popular Old Port eatery, allowing her to live comfortably in a one-bedroom apartment on the edge of town since 2017.

But as pandemic-induced strain fractured the restaurant industry, workers like Lysy are in precarious situations. Now furloughed, Lysy, 34, has spent the past several months laboring instead how to stop questionable rent hikes at her Portland apartment.

Last August, the Portland company who manages her apartment for its owner told Lysy that rent would jump from $850 to $975 on Nov. 1, 2020.

Though she finds rent hikes made during a pandemic ethically dubious, she had little recourse to fight it. But when she got a second round of hikes — weeks after Portland voters comfortably passed a rent-control referendum — something didn’t add up. READ MORE
NEWS
By Christopher Burns of the Bangor Daily News
WEATHER
From Village Soup