Maines

CASTINE, Maine, July 30 (UPI) — The new State of Maine has arrived in historic Castine, where Revolutionary War history and maritime tradition converge on the shores of Penobscot Bay, bringing advanced technology to the Maine Maritime Academy as it trains the next generation of merchant mariners.

The $330 million, 525-foot ship is the third of five National Security Multi-Mission Vessels built for the U.S. Maritime Administration. to prepare the next generation of merchant mariners. The ship accommodates up to 600 cadets and features advanced navigation and engineering systems, classrooms and modern diesel propulsion.

Constructed at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia by more than 2,000 American shipbuilders, engineers and apprentices, the vessel also reflects renewed investment in the U.S. shipbuilding industry. The shipyard was acquired by South Korea’s Hanwha Group in late 2024 for $100 million, bringing advanced automation and digital manufacturing technology there.

The South Korean shipbuilding conglomerate is betting $5 billion on a dramatic revival of American shipbuilding, planning to turn its Philadelphia yard into a high-volume production hub.

The investment would increase annual output from fewer than two vessels to as many as 20, pairing advanced Korean manufacturing technology with expanded U.S. capacity to build commercial ships and naval vessels.

For Maine Maritime Academy, the new ship represents a dramatic leap from the wooden schooners and comparatively simple navigation instruments that once defined maritime training along the Maine coast.

Its bridge features sophisticated navigation and communications systems, digital charts and advanced ship-control technology designed to prepare cadets for an increasingly automated global maritime industry.

Despite the technology, the fundamentals of seamanship have changed little. Cadets must still read weather and sea conditions, work as a crew and make decisions under pressure.

“We start with the basics,” said the academy’s Captain Gordon “Mac” McArthur, 56. “Rowing in an eight-person lifeboat is a large part of the fall semester freshman year. We build from tying knots and turning a wrench to the more complicated things. We are training problem-solvers and critical thinkers. The technology-based things don’t matter if you don’t have those fundamentals.”

The training ship’s arrival underscores the community’s enduring maritime identity, where centuries-old seafaring traditions meet the technology shaping the future of global shipping.

Nowhere is that contrast more evident than at Maine Maritime Academy, where the state-of-the-art ship shares the waterfront with Bowdoin, the academy’s 1921 National Historic Landmark schooner — a living symbol of the evolution from wind-powered seamanship to the digital age of navigation.

Yet, both are classrooms for learning many of the same fundamental lessons about life at sea.

The academy’s new flagship reflects Castine’s balance of maritime tradition and the future of seafaring. While Maine Maritime Academy trains the next generation of mariners for a high-tech global industry, the town is fighting to preserve the working-waterfront traditions that shaped its identity.

Just down the harbor, Eaton’s Boatyard — where wooden boats have been built and repaired since 1931 — remains a living workshop of Maine craftsmanship, proving that even in the digital age, some skills are still best learned by hand.

Eaton’s Boatyard preserves a cornerstone of Castine’s maritime heritage as the birthplace of the 18-foot wooden Castine Class sloop, designed by Mace Eaton in 1951. On July 18, 13 of the one-design racing sailboats, including two originals still owned by descendants of their first owners, competed in Castine Harbor, continuing a nearly 70-year racing tradition on Penobscot Bay.

David Biggs, honorary chairman of the 27th annual Castine-to-Camden Yacht Race, said the Downeast harbor’s maritime traditions continue to thrive as new generations embrace sailing.

“It’s still exciting to see these beautiful boats in our harbor, especially our own Castine Class Caroline B,” Biggs, 93, who has lived there with his wife, Marian, for more than 50 years, told UPI.

Though Castine has evolved from a working fishing and shipbuilding port into an upscale summer village, its identity remains firmly tied to the sea through Maine Maritime Academy, one of the nation’s leading schools for merchant mariners.

“It’s become a college town with a deep maritime soul,” Biggs said.

Kenny Eaton, 81, Mace Eaton’s grandson and the third generation of the boatbuilding family, has watched Castine’s waterfront change from a working harbor toward one increasingly shared with recreational boats and seasonal residents.

“You can’t stop change,” Eaton said. “But you hope the next generation understands that Castine wasn’t built just because it had a beautiful view of the water. It was built because people worked on it.”

That maritime connection continues among a new generation at Maine Maritime Academy.

That sense of maritime tradition also runs through families. Marin Griffin, 18, of Bangor, Maine, recently completed her freshman year at the academy and is following a path already taken by two generations before her.

“I’m the third generation in my family to attend Maine Maritime,” Griffin told UPI.

A harbor shaped by history

Castine’s ties to the sea run deep. Once a strategic outpost and later a bustling center of fishing, shipbuilding and coastal trade on Penobscot Bay, the town has evolved into a quiet Downeast harbor, while Maine Maritime Academy has carried its seafaring legacy into the modern era, training generations of merchant mariners and maritime professionals.

The State of Maine’s Captain Craig ‘Mac’ McArthur said Castine’s centuries-old connection to the Atlantic world continues to define both the school and the town.

“I’ve run into Maine Maritime alumni in Korea, Malaysia, Brazil, Dubai and other places around the world. Most don’t talk about their time at Maine Maritime,” McArthur said. “They talk about their time ‘in Castine.’ There is something about the remoteness of this place that prepares you for world travel.”

The academy’s legacy endures in the careers of graduates who credit its seamanship training for their success. Jon Parsons, 59, spent 23 years with Polar Tankers, transporting oil from Valdez, Alaska, while Tip Macdonald, 70, served as a ship pilot at the Port of Baltimore.

“I was a successful ship pilot at the Port of Baltimore for thirty years,” Macdonald told UPI. Both men say the academy’s rigorous instruction remains as strong today as when they attended, and that Castine continues to preserve the maritime traditions that have shaped generations of mariners.

An industry under pressure

Across coastal Maine, maritime trades are being reshaped by rising costs, technological change and a changing marine environment. Fishing remains dependent on generations of accumulated knowledge, but boats, engines, electronics, fuel and regulatory uncertainty have made entering the industry increasingly expensive.

A warming, rapidly changing Gulf of Maine is reshaping life on the water. Veteran tuna fisherman Justin McCarthy said Atlantic bluefin catches have declined and prices have fallen sharply, squeezing a fishery that once yielded five-figure paydays.

Yet, he sees hope in the next generation: his son, Mac, graduated from Maine Maritime Academy and returned home aboard the State of Maine, extending the family’s seafaring tradition.

Today’s merchant marine cadets are entering a maritime industry transformed by satellite navigation, electronic charts, automation and digital communications. Built for that environment, the State of Maine provides hands-on training with modern shipboard technology, preparing future deck officers and engineers to operate increasingly sophisticated commercial vessels.

Retired Navy Capt. Justin Cooper II, Maine Maritime Academy’s commandant of midshipmen, brings decades of naval experience to Castine. A former fighter pilot, Cooper served aboard the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Nimitz.

“We are training these young men and women to take their place in the maritime community,” Cooper told UPI. “We want them to be good leaders and to prepare them to enter the global maritime industry.”

Founded during World War II, Maine Maritime Academy still instills the discipline and seamanship demanded by U.S. Coast Guard standards. While most graduates now head into the commercial maritime industry rather than military service, the academy’s mission remains the same: preparing mariners to lead when conditions at sea turn unforgiving.

That emphasis on fundamental seamanship is reinforced by another academy vessel.

The Bowdoin, a 1921 Arctic exploration schooner, comes from an era when sailors depended on wind, weather, charts and celestial observation. Berthed alongside the State of Maine, the two vessels bridge more than a century of maritime education, reflecting both the evolution of seafaring and the enduring maritime heritage that has defined this coastal community for generations.

July 19 (UPI) — A majority of delegates have committed to voting for Troy Jackson to give him the Democratic nomination, replacing the beleaguered Graham Platner in Maine’s U.S. Senate race.

While Jackson’s nomination isn’t official — the Democratic Party is set to hold its U.S. Senate nominating convention Saturday — his name dominated county-level meetings this weekend, Politico reported. The swing in his favor led Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to drop out of the race Sunday.

The Washington Post reported that 600 delegates will vote on the nominee at Saturday’s convention in Bangor.

Maine Democrats have been scrambling to find a replacement for Platner after he dropped out of the race earlier this month under pressure from those who previously endorsed him. A former partner of his accused him of sexually assaulting her while he was drunk, an allegation he has denied.

Whoever gets the Democratic nomination will face incumbent Sen. Susan Collins. The Republican has won election to the U.S. Senate five times prior, and if a Democrat unseats her, it could put control of the upper chamber within Democrats’ reach.

Jackson, 58, ran earlier this year for the gubernatorial nomination, but lost out to Hannah Pingree. She will face Republican Bobby Charles and Independent Richard Bennett in the general election.

Jackson adjusted his gubernatorial campaign for the Senate race, facing Bellows and Nirav Shah, who also lost out in the gubernatorial primary.

In a video statement to supporters on Facebook, Jackson said he was surprised at his success in the Senate race.

“I’ve been getting text messages all day about, you know, what a great job I did, and I didn’t do a [expletive] thing,” he said. “All of you just smoked it.”

Four states are set to hold their primary votes, further solidifying the battle lines for the United States midterm elections in November.

On Tuesday, citizens in Maine, South Carolina, North Dakota and Nevada are set to cast their ballots in party primaries, designed to select which Democratic and Republican candidates advance to the final round of voting.

But Maine has emerged as one of the most heated primary battlegrounds. With Democrats desperate to flip four seats in the US Senate, all eyes are on Republican Senator Susan Collins’s re-election campaign.

Democrats are hoping to defeat her in November, but the party has fractured over controversies related to its leading candidate, Graham Platner. The race has become one of the most closely watched of the primary season.

At stake in November is control of Congress, and each party is angling to put forward the strongest contender.

Currently, the Republican Party holds slender majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but Democrats hope to wrest back control, in what would represent a major rebuke to President Donald Trump.

State-level races are also in play during Tuesday’s primaries. Several in key swing states like Nevada could have outsized influence over election administration in the years ahead.

Here are some of the key races to watch.

Key Senate race in Maine to be decided

The Democratic Party’s long-shot hope of retaking the Senate hinges on Maine, a lushly forested northeastern state largely bordered by Canada and the Atlantic Ocean.

The primary vote on Tuesday is widely expected to result in Platner advancing as the Democratic champion for November’s midterms. If so, he will take on the longtime incumbent, Republican Senator Collins, who is considered vulnerable to defeat.

Polls have consistently shown the 41-year-old progressive narrowly defeating Collins in the midterm in November.

Platner has appealed to left-wing voters with his positions in favour of universal healthcare and ending US support for Israel. But a slate of recent reports about his past relationships has threatened to chill the enthusiasm for his campaign.

An oyster farmer and former US Marine, Platner has faced accusations of “unsettling” behaviour towards women, including an alleged incident where he twisted one romantic partner’s arm. Platner has denied that allegation.

He has also permanently removed a skull-and-bones tattoo that critics likened to a Nazi symbol, saying he did not know its source.

Still, in Tuesday’s primary, Platner is expected to handily beat his closest Democratic rivals: environmental consultant David Costello and Governor Janet Mills, who will remain on the ballot despite announcing her withdrawal from the race.

Contests for Maine’s House and governor seats

But Maine boasts other nationally significant races, too. That includes the contest for the House seat left open after Democratic Representative Jared Golden announced he would not run for re-election.

Golden has represented Maine’s 2nd congressional district since 2019, and he has proven adept at retaining support, even though his coastal district leans conservative.

If Republicans pick up his seat, it would be a boon to the party’s effort to maintain control of the House. Former Republican Governor Paul LePage is running uncontested in his party’s primary to replace Golden.

Four Democrats, meanwhile, are competing in their party primary to take him on.

They include state Senator Joe Baldacci, state auditor Matthew Dunlap, social worker Paige Loud, and congressional staffer Jordan Wood. All four have charted a more leftward course than the outgoing lawmaker.

Maine’s governor’s race is also open, with Mills, a Democrat, leaving her post at the end of the year due to term limits.

The chance to win the governor’s mansion in November has attracted a crowded field to both party primaries. Each race features notable political scions.

On the left, there is Angus King III, whose father currently represents the state in the US Senate, as well as Hannah Pingree, the daughter of a current member of Congress. Running on the right is healthcare executive Jonathan Bush, a cousin of former President George W Bush.

Election administration looms large in Nevada

Nevada has remained a deeply purple state in recent years, leaning neither left nor right.

Democratic presidential contenders have narrowly won the state from 2008 to 2020, but President Donald Trump broke the streak in 2024, carrying just over 50 percent of the vote.

A staggering 45 percent of Nevada’s voters are registered as independents. That means they hold outsized sway in November’s midterm vote, but they will not be able to cast a ballot in Tuesday’s closed primaries, which are limited to party members only.

The sprawling western state is home to about 3.2 million residents. In the middle of its desert landscape sits Las Vegas, a global gambling and entertainment destination.

But the state has become a political football, in part because of its narrow partisan divide.

Trump and his allies have targeted the state by spreading false claims of election fraud in the wake of the Republican leader’s 2020 election defeat. Those assertions led him to clash with state Attorney General Aaron Ford, who pledged to defend his state’s election integrity.

Now, Ford is currently leading a crowded Democratic field to take on Republican incumbent Joe Lambardo for the governor’s mansion. Polls have shown Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill as his top challenger in the Democratic primary.

Lombardo — who has broken state records for his use of vetoes — also faces a deep bench of Republican challengers, but he is expected to skate to an easy victory on Tuesday.

Another key state position is up for grabs this November: Nevada’s secretary of state.

Like Ford, the role’s current occupant, Francisco Aguilar, is a vocal critic of Trump’s efforts to assert more federal control over election administration.

He is running unopposed on the Democratic side, so he automatically advances to November’s general election.

Four Republicans are running to challenge Aguilar, including Jim Marchant, a former state assemblyman who supported Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Another top primary contender is lawyer Shirley Folkins-Roberts, who has been endorsed by the state’s Republican governor.

On the national level, Nevada has four total seats in the House of Representatives. Three are currently held by Democrats, and one by a Republican.

On Tuesday, Republicans will select their challengers in a bid to unseat the Democratic incumbents, all of whom are running for re-election.

Meanwhile, the retirement of Republican Representative Mark Amodei has sparked hope that Democrats might, for the first time ever, win the state’s 2nd congressional district.

Eight Democrats are vying to be their party’s champion, while 13 candidates are running on the Republican side.

Democrats eye long-shot flip in South Carolina

Since last year, the Trump administration has led a controversial redistricting drive, pushing Republican-led states to redraw their congressional districts to better favour the party.

But last month, lawmakers in South Carolina chose not to pursue a redistricting plan — at least, not yet. Part of the reason came down to Tuesday’s primaries.

Thousands of voters cast their ballots last month as part of an early-voting campaign encouraged by Democrats. Any last-minute redistricting would have required throwing out those votes.

That has, for now, protected the majority Black district of longtime Representative Jim Clyburn, the only Democrat representing South Carolina in the House.

South Carolina, a southern, coastal state home to 5.5 million people, is considered rightward-leaning. But Democrats are seeking to defend their House seat in November’s midterms — and maybe pick up a second.

In Tuesday’s primaries, the 85-year-old Clyburn is expected to sail to victory against a long-shot Democratic challenger. He is all but assured to win in November as well, given his district’s reputation as a Democratic stronghold.

Democrats have also set their sights on flipping South Carolina’s 1st district, with Republican Nancy Mace vacating her seat to run for governor. Seven candidates are running in the Democratic primary race for the coastal district, while 10 Republicans will compete in their party primary.

One Senate seat will also be on Tuesday’s primary ballot: the one held by Republican Lindsey Graham. Despite several challengers, polls show the incumbent with a commanding lead.

Graham, a close Trump ally and a notable war hawk, has been one of Congress’s most vocal supporters of the US-Israel war on Iran.

This year, due to term limits, Governor Henry McMaster is unable to run for re-election. Given that South Carolina is a solidly red state overall, whoever wins Tuesday’s Republican primary is expected to coast to victory in November.

Recent polls have shown a tight race. Trump has endorsed Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, but surveys show her neck and neck with state Attorney General Alan Wilson and Congresswoman Mace, who has at times broken with Trump over issues like the Iran war.

North Dakota’s lone congressional district

Primary day in the Great Plains state of North Dakota is expected to make few waves nationally.

Neither the governor nor the state’s two senators are up for re-election.

Political observers are expecting few surprises. North Dakota has been a Republican stronghold since the late 1960s.

The 435 seats in the US House are distributed among states based on their population size. But since North Dakota has only about 800,000 people, it has just one congressional district.

During Tuesday’s Republican primary, incumbent Representative Julie Fedorchak will seek to ward off a challenge from former State Department project manager Alex Balazs.

Democrat Trygve Hammer, meanwhile, is running unopposed in his party’s primary.

PORTLAND, Maine — Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins says she has a benign essential tremor, disclosing the longtime health condition for the first time in her decades-long political career as she seeks reelection in one of this year’s toughest Senate races.

Collins first confirmed the tremor to WCSH-TV in Maine on Wednesday after facing questions about her health from appearances in recent videos, including her campaign announcement video.

The condition causes trembling in Collins’ hands, head and voice, and she said she has had it for the entirety of her nearly three-decade Senate career. It affects millions of Americans over the age of 40 and “does not interfere” with work, Collins said in a Thursday statement to the Associated Press. She said it is not a neurodegenerative condition.

“The tremor is occasionally inconvenient, and sometimes the subject of cruel comments online, but it does not hinder my ability to work and, as I said, is something that I have lived with for decades,” the statement said.

Health issues and candidates’ ages have drawn increased scrutiny in high-profile elections following Democratic President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek reelection in 2024 at age 81. Those questions have only lingered with Republican President Trump, who’s 79 and in recent months has been seen with bruising on the back of his hand, sometimes concealed with makeup. The White House acknowledged last year that Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency.

Collins is up for reelection in a seat Democrats need to flip to have a chance to take back the Senate. Her likely opponent is Democrat Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran, after Democratic Gov. Janet Mills suspended her campaign last week. Age has been an issue in the contest, with Collins, 73, and Mills, 78, more than three decades older than Platner, 41.

Platner acknowledged early in his campaign his own health problems. He has spoken openly about chronic pain in his shoulder and knees stemming from combat service, and he has said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving at war. Platner has said he has a 100% disability rating from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs but continues to work as an oyster farmer.

“There are a lot of disabled combat veterans, or just disabled vets, at 100%, who still work,” Platner told WCSH last year. “It’s a very normal thing.”

Collins was first elected to the Senate in 1996 and said in her statement that she has had the condition for all of that time. Over the years, the condition has been noticeable in Collins’ debates and frequent public appearances.

As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Collins has been at the forefront of the chamber’s many spending disputes this Congress, often leading the floor debate and providing the GOP’s closing arguments. She frequently engages with reporters in the hallways. Her streak of never missing a Senate vote is up to 9,966 and stands as the second-longest consecutive voting streak in the chamber’s history.

Tremors happen when nerves aren’t properly communicating with certain muscles. Essential tremor, sometimes called benign essential tremor, is one of the most common movement disorders, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The risk of developing it increases as people get older, but at least half of cases are inherited, meaning the tremor runs in the family, and those tend to begin at younger ages. It almost always involves shaky or trembling hands but also can affect the head, voice or lower limbs.

Whittle and Kruesi write for the Associated Press. Kruesi reported from Providence, R.I. AP writers Kevin Freking and Lauran Neergaard in Washington contributed to this report.