Now covered by Medicare, the preventive procedure – coupled with smoking cessation efforts – expands at Mercy and other Maine hospitals.

The agency needs 100 families willing to care for older children, reflecting a surge in their numbers since 2012 possibly tied to a shift in the state’s remove-from-homes policy.

A bill submitted this week aims to create a new state program to investigate vaccine injury claims.

Led by southern Maine, the state has better numbers than the national median, but some rural counties lag in obesity and smoking rates.

Cutting MaineCare rates and taxing nonprofits would put holes in the social safety net, they say, but the state sees room for hospitals to absorb the hits.

Serving in the Navy, Bill Gardner helped provide support to Marines during the pivotal WWII battle. He has had a lifetime to reflect on the ‘eyelash’ that separated ‘winning and dying.’