Nominate your favorite Maine businesses for Best of Maine!

Maine News You May Have Missed

Fitbits for lobsters, vaccination incentives, a celebrity chef sighting, and more.

Portland

Local rapper and Somali immigrant Munye Mohamed (aka Shine)’s music video for “Aspirations,” the title track on his debut album, got more than a million YouTube views within a week of dropping.

North Haven

While filming an episode of National Geographic Channel’s Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted, Ramsay went clam harvesting off the midcoast island. Among the celebrity chef’s other Maine exploits: baiting lobster traps, sawing timber, and cooking with Primo chef Melissa Kelly.

Walpole

In an attempt to decrease lobster mortality between when lobsters are caught and when they’re sold, UMaine’s Lobster Institute is hooking them up to Fitbit-like monitors to measure stresses they experience during that interval. It’s probably easier to rack up steps with 10 legs.

Rockland

After closing its Camden outpost earlier in the pandemic, Maine’s oldest bookstore, Sherman’s, is opening a new spot in nearby Rockland, plus in Topsham and Windham, upping its total number of shops to eight.

Bangor

Bangor Savings Bank is the second-best bank in the country, according to Forbes’s 2021 ranking of banks based on surveys about financial advice, overall trust, and digital services. Camden National Bank came in a five-spot lower, at seventh.

Augusta

As if immunity against a deadly disease weren’t motivation enough, state officials dangled a Maine-y set of incentives to entice Mainers to get COVID-19 vaccines — L.L.Bean gift cards, Portland Sea Dogs tickets, and hunting and fishing licenses.