A DAILY DIGEST OF MAINE NEWS
SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021 — ISSUE #67
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.

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CORONAVIRUS IN MAINE
29,298 TOTAL CASES (An increase of 279 from Saturday)
432 DEATHS (Flat from Saturday)
279 NEW DAILY CASES (A decrease of 338 from Saturday)
17,131 TOTAL ACTIVE CASES (An increase of 272 from Saturday)
190 CURRENTLY IN HOSPITAL (A decrease of 15 from Saturday)
11,735 RECOVERIES (An increase of 7 from Saturday)
54,557 MAINERS VACCINATED (An increase of 2,233 from Saturday)
TOP STORIES
Another 279 coronavirus cases have been reported across the state, Maine health officials said Sunday.

Sunday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 29,298, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 29,019 on Saturday.
Of those, 24,430 have been confirmed positive, while 4,868 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported.

Sunday marked the first time since Dec. 20 when the Maine CDC reported no new coronavirus deaths, leaving the statewide toll at 432. Nearly all deaths have been in Mainers over age 60.

It also saw the lowest increase in new coronavirus cases since Dec. 20 when 229 were reported. Sunday broke a six-day streak of new cases surging above 400 and is the first time this year when new cases dipped below 300.

That one-day dip comes as Maine continues to see new cases rising to higher and higher levels amid a monthslong surge in virus transmission, bringing high levels of community transmission, which the Maine CDC defines as a case rate of 16 or more cases per 10,000 people, even to counties once largely spared the worst of the pandemic.
RELATED: Maine food pantries scramble to keep up as need reaches new heights (By Gillian Graham of the Portland Press Herald)
U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of the 1st District is the only member of Maine’s congressional district to back a second Democratic effort to impeach President Donald Trump that may come to a first vote a few days before the president is set to leave office.

House Democratic leaders could introduce impeachment articles on Monday after a group of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol as the houses of Congress convened to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s November victory. Members of Congress were hastily evacuated in the melee, which led to the deaths of five people, including a police officer.

Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said his Cabinet should consider removing him, while Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from the 2nd District, called for the president to be held accountable without specifying how to do that. Spokespeople for King and Golden said their positions had not changed on Friday.

A spokesperson for Sen. Susan Collins, the only Republican in the delegation, said she and many colleagues are “outraged” by the violence and the president’s role in it, but that removal by the Cabinet looks unlikely. The senator would not comment on impeachment because of the Senate’s eventual role in voting on whether to remove Trump, her office said Friday.
Maine’s nine-member public defense commission unanimously selected a temporary director but won’t reveal who it is until the candidate accepts the position, likely early next week, Chairman Josh Tardy said during a meeting Friday.

The change in leadership at the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services, or MCILS, comes during a tumultuous time for the agency. Commissioners tabled a set of reforms on Monday and missed — for the second year in a row — a legislative deadline that would have ensured their proposal to enhance the qualifications of private attorneys who represent Maine’s poor would be reviewed by lawmakers this year.

A vacuum in leadership has existed for about a month since John Pelletier resigned effective Dec. 11, following criticism of his management and oversight of the agency during the prior decade. 

MCILS “needs top-to-bottom reform,” said Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, through her spokeswoman on Thursday.
The owner of a Maine fishing boat that sank off the coast of Massachusetts last November is asking a federal judge to find it’s not at fault.

In the filing in U.S. District Court of Maine, Boat Aaron and Melissa Inc. said that the Emmy Rose was “seaworthy, tight, staunch, strong, and fit” before it headed out to sea on its fateful trip. As a result, the company shouldn’t be held liable for any deaths, injuries or damages from the sinking, according to the court document. Such filings are standard in these cases.

No lawsuits have been filed in connection with the sinking of the Emmy Rose, but the boat’s owner expects that such claims will be filed on behalf of the families of those who died aboard the vessel.

The document, dated Jan. 4, was filed on behalf of Boat Aaron and Melissa by David S. Smith of the firm Farrell, Smith, O’Connell, Aarsheim, Aprans LLP of Salem, Massachusetts. The 80-foot Emmy Rose left Portland for a fishing trip for haddock, hake and pollock on Nov. 18, 2020, with Robert Blethen Jr. as captain and Jeffrey Matthews, Ethan Ward and Michael Porper as crew, according to court documents.
Rep. Zeigler discusses urgency of responding to COVID-19, climate change (By George Harvey of the Penobscot Bay Pilot)