State Maine Financial News

Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings wants more researchers and students to ask deep questions about artificial intelligence and its potential to upend human norms. To that end, Hastings has donated $50 million to Bowdoin College, his alma mater, to create a research initiative on «AI and Humanity» — the largest gift to the liberal arts college in Maine since its founding in 1794, the school announced Monday. The aim of the program, Hastings and school officials said, is to make Bowdoin a mecca for studying the risks and consequences of AI. The initiative also aims to help prepare students to grapple with emerging technologies that can manufacture humanlike texts and even produce formulas for potential new drug compounds.

A resolution that challenges United States President Donald Trump’s national security justification for tariffs against Canada, passed in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday evening with bipartisan support.

Canadian tourists contributed over a third of the tourism economy in Old Orchard Beach, a resort town in Maine, reported Global News. However, things are now starting to change.

time travel. For instance, whenever I hear 'Dekha Hai Maine Tumhe Phir Se Palat Ke' from Ravikant Nagaich's Wardat (1981), it takes me back to my childhood in Kadam Kuan, Patna. A bunch of 15-16-year-old boys are listening to Bappi Lahiri's music on a 45 RPM record. The boys are friends of my elder brother, and I, as a 6-year-old, have been banished from their midst. But I am allowed to peek in through the door. One of the boys is a famed dancer of the mohalla and everyone urges him to do his Mithun routine. I don't rate him highly. It is his white leather boots that, I feel, have prejudiced the jury in his favour. After much coaxing, he gets up, throws his arms in the air, and starts disco dancing. With Mithunda, you don't move around much. You just stand and deliver with hand movements and bent-knee hip gyrations. Decades later, I can still see the white leather boots with 2-inch heels and side zippers I coveted every time I listen to Bappi Lahiri sing that song. Lahiri's special genius was that he sang Hindi songs as if they were a foreign language. More often than not, like a slightly campy Welshman. Wardat was Mithunda's second coming as Gunmaster G-9, our own dancing James Bond. Though not as successful as Suraksha (1980), the soundtrack of Wardat is memorable.

US housing market is on the brink of collapse as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) pulls the plug on affordable housing projects nationwide, according to a new report. A report from Mitrade.com reveals that monthly housing costs in the US soared to a record $3,104 in January. «Mortgage payments alone have nearly doubled in the past five years, now averaging $2,237 per month, plus $416 for property taxes and $361 for insurance. At the same time, home prices surged by $31,300 to a median of $446,300—the second-highest in history,» the report stated.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Americans are experiencing serious sticker shock when it comes to the price of eggs, which in some markets has more than tripled. That is, when they can get eggs at all.

Cal-Maine Foods and Rose Acre Farms have engaged in anticompetitive practices. According to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, investigators are preparing to issue civil investigative demands—akin to subpoenas—seeking internal pricing and supply data. While it remains unclear whether the investigation will lead to legal action, consumer advocacy groups and some lawmakers have been urging federal authorities to scrutinise the egg industry’s pricing tactics.

Donald Trump and the nation’s governors turned into a dramatic confrontation when Maine Governor Janet Mills refused to back down on her state's stance regarding transgender athletes. In a packed room at the White House last Friday (February 21), Trump pressed Mills to comply with his executive order banning transgender women and girls from competing in female sports. What followed was a tense exchange that had some governors shifting uncomfortably in their seats.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. When Carolynn Lenhard of Hamilton, Va., booked a cruise in 2022, she couldn’t wait for its stop in Venice. Then, an unwelcome surprise: Thanks to a ban on ships of a certain size at the port of Venice, her ship would instead anchor in nearby Trieste.

cold temperatures that will take hold in much of the country from the Northern Plains to the tip of Maine. Winter storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service have already gone into effect for parts of the Mid-Atlantic through Monday morning, with the forecast projecting up to a half-foot (15 centimeters) of snow.

Christmas is only a few days away and many Americans wait for a white Christmas, but few will end up walking in the snow. The weather is predicted to be warm and above average across the continental US for Christmas week of 2024. This is likely to result in precipitation that falls as rain, not snow, for many parts of the country, as per the CBS news weather report.

New England shrimp will come back to seafood counters in small amounts next year under a research fishing program

President Joe Biden has signed a proclamation establishing a national monument honoring the late FDR-era Labor Secretary Frances Perkins

A pair of conservative groups are challenging a new Maine law that limits donations to political action committees that spend independently in candidate elections

The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is likely to bring big changes to seafood, one of the oldest sectors of the U.S. economy

New Jersey is seeking to drastically reduce the amount of plastics and other packaging material that's tossed out once a package is opened

Kaja Veilleux has been hunting New England attic treasures for more than 50 years

While retailers hope to go big this holiday season, customers may notice that the catalogs arriving in their mailboxes are smaller

A Canadian company will spend $600 million to expand its tissue paper mill in Georgia, hiring 100 more workers