The virus precautions, though necessary, now hit workers differently given the availability of the COVID-19 vaccines, which have proven highly effective in preventing severe illness, hospitalization and death.
Maine’s rate of 20 fatal police shootings per 1 million residents over the past six years compares with rates of 6 per 1 million in more densely populated Massachusetts and Connecticut, and 4 in Rhode Island. The more rural northern New England states have seen higher rates, with New Hampshire’s rate working out to 14 fatal police shootings per million people and Vermont’s to 16.
A century ago, the town of Island Falls was a thriving community, with a population of around 1,600 who worked at local tanneries and the National Starch and Chemical Company.
Plants like gooseberries, currants and European black currant belong to the genus Ribes, which includes more than 200 species. And though they have caught on in health food circles and pick-your-own farms elsewhere, plants in the genus Ribes are the required host for a devastating fungus called white pine blister rust, which infects and eventually kills the Eastern white pine trees that fill the forests of Maine.
