Lobstermen across Down East Maine, from Cutler to Stonington, moored their boats Monday to protest the low prices they are receiving from dealers. The fishermen are getting a dock price of about $4.50 a pound, but shore dinner fans shouldn't expect to see that kind of price on their restaurant tabs. Dealers are selling bugs for up to $10 a pound, according to news reports. Hard to believe that just a couple of years ago lobster was cheaper than hamburger for a while.

Maybe there's something to all those jokes about "wide-awake drunks" after all. It seems that several liquor companies are trying to ride the Red Bull wave by promoting their products as caffeine-pumped energy drinks with a new kind of buzz, and Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe isn't too happy about it. He and more than two dozen other state AGs have filed a complaint asking the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to investigate the drinks, which they claim are targeting underage drinkers.

Maine's experience with term limits has been mixed. Passed overwhelmingly by referendum in 1993, the law limits legislators to four consecutive two-year terms. Its proponents claim it has succeeded in rejuvenating the legislature with a constant stream of new faces and ideas, while critics point to the need to constantly reeducate at least 25 percent of the House and Senate membership every two years in the intricacies of budgets and finding the right parking spot. A petition drive has put a four-year extension of term limits on the November 6 ballot, and now a PAC named No More Than Four has formed to oppose the proposal.

Meanwhile, a tragic accident on Long Lake in Harrison in which two people were killed when their small boat was sliced apart by a thirty-two-foot, 890-hp speedboat has raised waves that may well wash into Augusta next January. (See Josh Moore's commentary in our NxE section.) The Biddeford Journal Tribune has become the latest newspaper to weigh in on the issue, joining the Lewiston Sun Journal and the Maine Sunday Telegram to editorialize in favor of horsepower limits on Maine lakes. It appears likely that legislators will be asked to deal with the issue.

Time flies. It seems like it was only yesterday that George Popham sailed from England to found a colony in the Maine wilderness. Actually, it was four hundred years ago, and the town of Phippsburg, where Popham set up his ill-fated settlement, is celebrating with brass bands, fireworks, and a parade through this weekend.
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