Down East Notes

Press Herald - A poll conducted last week about possible candidates in Portland’s upcoming mayoral race shows a political analyst and director of a local nonprofit with the edge over the incumbent, Michael Brennan. Ethan Strimling leads by 8 points in a hypothetical, head-to-head match-up against Brennan, the city’s first popularly elected mayor in nearly a century.

Press Herald -  Casco Bay is healthy, but water quality near coastal areas and estuaries is rapidly degrading because of man-made pollution, according to a study released Tuesday by the Friends of Casco Bay... The most pressing problem is the acidification of mud flats and coastal waters, a process that has led to reduced stocks of clams, mussels and other sea life, threatening the balance of a treasured resource, the report said. “Overall the bay is good, but there are challenges,” said Cathy Ramsdell, executive director of the Friends of Casco Bay. “About 60 percent of the sites we study were only fair or poor in quality.” ... The worst conditions are found closest to shore or in the mouths of the various rivers that empty into the bay. Those spots include Peabbles Cove in Cape Elizabeth, the Upper Fore River in Portland, the Cousins River in Yarmouth, the Harraseeket River in Freeport and the New Meadows River near West Bath.





Bangor Daily News - Mid-coast businessman Reade Brower has reached a deal to purchase MaineToday Media, the newspaper group that owns the Portland Press Herald, the Maine Sunday Telegram, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel. A memo sent to MaineToday Media staff late Tuesday confirmed financier S. Donald Sussman, husband of Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, agreed to sell the paper. He paid $3.3 million for a 75 percent stake in the company in March 2012 and, according to the memo, invested $13 million in the newspaper group since that purchase.

The statement said Chris Miles, former publisher of The Times Record in Brunswick and current partner with Brower in the Brunswick-based Alliance Press, also will be a partner in the deal... Brower, a Camden resident, also owns The Free Press and The Courier-Gazette in Rockland, The Camden Herald and The Republican Journal in Belfast.

Ozone status by county