A DAILY DIGEST OF MAINE NEWS
Friday, JANUARY 15, 2021 — ISSUE #72
EDITOR'S NOTE: Welcome to the Daily Monitor, an evening email newsletter that recaps the most relevant news and information from our editorial team and from our media partners around the state. The Daily Monitor is a product of The Maine Monitor and the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting.

NAVIGATING PAYWALLS: Several stories in each issue of The Daily Monitor will come from Maine news organizations that require a subscription to access their content. To avoid paywalls, we encourage readers to subscribe to Maine's daily news products: the Portland Press Herald, the Bangor Daily News, the Central Maine Newspapers, the Times Record and the Lewiston Sun Journal.
CORONAVIRUS IN MAINE
32,781 TOTAL CASES (An increase of 823 from Thursday)
477 DEATHS (An increase of 16 from Thursday)
823 NEW DAILY CASES (An increase of 15 from Thursday)
20,428 TOTAL ACTIVE CASES (An increase of 771 from Thursday)
193 CURRENTLY IN HOSPITAL (A decrease of 14 from Thursday)
70,228 MAINERS VACCINATED (An increase of 3,741 from Thursday)
TOP STORIES
Another 16 Mainers died as health officials on Friday reported 823 more coronavirus cases across the state.

Friday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 32,781, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 31,958 on Thursday.

Of those, 26,923 have been confirmed positive, while 5,858 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.

The 16 deaths reported on Friday bring the statewide toll to 477. The deaths reported today include two residents of Androscoggin County, five residents of Aroostook County, two residents of Cumberland County, two residents of Hancock County, one resident of Oxford County, two residents of Penobscot County and two residents of Washington County. Thirteen of the people who died were women, while three were men. One was in their 40s, one was in their 50s, two were in their 60s, two were in their 70s and 10 were 80 or older.
Just after Central Maine Power’s parent company said it had received the final key permit for its hydropower corridor and started construction, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the company could not start work on the last 53 miles of the project from The Forks to the Canadian border.

Three environmental groups, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Appalachian Club, filed for a preliminary injunction last November, just after the Army Corps of Engineers approved a key permit for the 145-mile project, which aims to bring hydropower from the Canadian border to Lewiston.

That request was denied by a federal judge in December. The group won in a Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals. Judges granted a request to stop CMP from cutting trees in the 53-mile segment that comprises the final portion of the hydropower line.
Gov. Janet Mills received her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, her office announced Friday.

The 73-year-old governor would be eligible to receive the vaccine under Phase 1A of Maine’s vaccination plan as a worker critical to the state’s virus response. The second phase of the plan was updated this week to include people over 70 as well as those with certain pre-existing health conditions.

The first phase of Maine’s vaccine rollout has prioritized health care workers and both workers and residents at long-term care facilities, plus first responders and critical COVID-19 response personnel. As of Friday, 59,611 Mainers had received first doses of the vaccine while 10,617 had received both doses.
The official Facebook page of the Waterville Republican Committee was removed last weekend after posting a racist message supporting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol and encouraging further violence.