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255,849 Cumulative vaccinations (An increase of 5,936 from Tuesday)

180,465 First doses administered (An increase of 3,573 from Tuesday)

75,384 Second doses administered (An increase of 2,363 from Tuesday)

42,872 Total cases (An increase of 104 from Tuesday)

654 Deaths (An increase of 3 from Tuesday)

104 New daily cases (An increase of 13 from Tuesday)

91 Currently in hospital (A decrease of 1 from Tuesday)

Maine water rights activists are concerned about the potential sale of the Poland Spring bottled water company to a private equity firm.

Over the weekend, more than 70 people turned out to oppose the sale during a rally in downtown Fryeburg, which is one of the towns where Poland Spring extracts water.

Protest organizer Nickie Sekera of Fryeburg, a longtime opponent of the bottled water industry and a founder of the group Community Water Justice, said the transfer of Poland Spring to a private investment firm would only make it harder for Maine communities to monitor and control their local groundwater supplies.

"Our fight for water is our fight for our democratic process, transparency and dignity," Sekera said. LISTEN TO THE REPORT

Another three Mainers have died as health officials on Wednesday reported 104 more coronavirus cases across the state.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 2,338. 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 2,535 on Tuesday.

It marked a slight uptick from Tuesday’s three-month low of 91 new cases, but continues a trending decline in confirmed virus transmission after a monthslong surge. Even as cases decline, state health officials have warned about more infectious virus variants arriving in the state.

Two women and a man in their 80s from Cumberland County have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 654. READ MORE

Circulating petitions to get questions on the Maine ballot is “core political speech” that cannot be impeded by residency requirements, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in the first major challenge to state law under Secretary of State Shenna Bellows.

U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock said in a 76-page ruling that state law requiring petition circulators to be residents of Maine act as a “severe burden” on signature gatherers and are “not justified” by the state’s interest in overseeing elections. The decision came as the judge required the state to stop enforcing the law as the case moves forward.

The plaintiffs’ case looked to be an uphill one after Woodcock said the lawsuit was unlikely to succeed in January, but he reversed himself on Tuesday. The U.S. Supreme Court has nullified similar restrictions on ballot campaigns, including one in Colorado in 1999 requiring signature gatherers to wear badges saying their names and whether they were being paid.

Bellows, a Democrat, has the option of appealing the decision to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. A spokesperson said her office is currently reviewing the opinion, which puts on hold a law requiring people who circulate petitions to get questions on the Maine ballot be registered to vote in the towns they circulate in. READ MORE

Dr. Bernard Lown, a Lithuanian-born Nobel Peace Prize recipient, cardiologist and inventor who attended school in Maine, has died at the age of 99.

Lown helped advance cardiac treatment as a professor at Harvard University and as a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He invented the direct-current defibrillator, or cardioverter, for resuscitation.

Lown was also an outspoken social activist, founding Physicians for Social Responsibility and later co-founding International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, the latter of which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. READ MORE

The University of Maine unveiled details Wednesday of a $110 million project to upgrade athletic facilities at its Orono campus over the next decade – including a new basketball facility, and enhancements to the football field and hockey arena. READ MORE