Wednesday, August 12th, 2026: Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition says ICE has arrested at least five people at the Portland Jetport in recent weeks

From Maine Public Radio and Mainepublic.org, I'm Carol Buske, with the news on this day in Maine, Wednesday, August 12, 2026. This day in Maine is made possible in part by Now You're Cooking. Celebrating 26 years of selling cookware, kitchen tools, gadgets, and fine wine on historic Front Street in downtown Bab. Open seven days a week. The Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition says ICE has arrested at least five people at the Portland Jetport in recent weeks. Policy and advocacy director Ruben Gallego Torres says it seems to be a new tactic aimed at increasing detention numbers. It's not really targeting public safety threats, but more so focusing on trying to drag net capture. share as many folks as possible, which is more congruent with a quota approach. A city of Portland spokesperson said in an email Tuesday that TSA announced at a meeting earlier this month that ICE activity was being planned for the jet port. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement that information sharing between TSA and ICE is essential to, quote, keep our skies and our country safe. A Portland man who was misidentified and erroneously deported to his home country of Guatemala seven months ago is expected to return to Maine today, according to his lawyer. Ari Snyder has more. Attorney Kerry Doyle says her client, Domingo Totkeep, was at a bus stop headed to his restaurant job when he and a friend were detained. According to court records, ICE officials thought he was another man who had a final order of removal, and they deported him to Guatemala days later. Doyle believes he was racially profiled. I think it's very troubling to think that if you are brown-skinned and sitting at a bus stop, that you can be targeted by ICE or customs or police. for potentially being undocumented without more than that. In court records filed in April, an ICE official said the agency understood, quote, the gravity of the inadvertent removal and was trying to facilitate Totkeeps return. For Maine Public Radio News, I'm Ari Snyder. A federal judge has ruled that an antitrust lawsuit against Bowden and 30 other selective colleges over their use of early decision admission will be allowed to proceed. The lawsuit filed last August alleges that the schools use early decision admissions to artificially reduce competition and therefore charge higher tuition rates and offer less financial aid.

The colleges sought to have the case thrown out, but a judge ruled the case could proceed. She did dismiss claims against two college application platforms and the consortium on financing higher education saying that they should not be part of the complaint. In the western Maine town of Denmark, Ryan Cullen expects the well at his camp on Long Pond to run dry. But Cullen is more concerned that the pond has dropped more than five feet below normal. Speaking at a public hearing Tuesday, Cullen asked the town select board to impose tighter restrictions on the Poland Spring Bottling Company. Though water is not directly withdrawn from the pond, the company is seeking to renew a permit to extract up to 432,000 gallons a day from a local aquifer. I would like for this pumping to stop. I'd like for the town to keep up its efforts to be stewards of the land and the people who live in it and be able to stop the water extraction when we hit a drought immediately. Last year, when Denmark was in the midst of a persistent drought, Cullen says Poland, Spring, elected to increase its water withdrawals. A company hydrogeologist said in response that the company adaptively manages the site and has cut back withdrawals this year. Jeffrey Colburn, the school bus driver that struck and killed a 12-year-old student in Rockland last year, will avoid jail time under a plea agreement reached with the state. The manslaughter charge against 65-year-old Colburn has been dropped in exchange for a civil charge of a motor vehicle violation that resulted in a death. Colburn has lost his driver's license for four years and can never again have a commercial driver's license, according to his lawyer, Jeremy Pratt. Colburn must also complete 180 hours of community service in the next year. The Ten of Wells says public beaches are closed to swimming Wednesday after a white shark was spotted offshore. The town's fire department says a 10-foot juvenile shark was seen about 500 yards from Wells Beach. A number of recent shark sightings have been reported near popular southern Maine beaches. Last Saturday, a lifeguard in Scarborough was reportedly dragged underwater when a white shark grabbed his flotation device. And the main wildlife park has announced the passing of its resident moose, Byron, the second animal, to die in as many weeks. Park officials say Byron, who came to the park in 2013 as an orphaned calf, died over the weekend at the age of 13 due to natural causes. At the end of July, the park's black bear, Louvi, died suddenly. The cause has not been released.

And that's today's main news. For more stories, visit mainpublic.org and join Irwin Grads for morning edition tomorrow starting at 5 a.m. I'm Carol Buske. Thanks for listening.