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Good morning. It’s Sunday, July 7.

I watched the fireworks from Portland’s Eastern Promenade on Thursday: boats twinkling in Casco Bay, kids waving sparklers, red starbursts lighting up the sky with a boom, and trails of gold glitter dripping quietly down toward land. 

As I walked home through the crowds to the other edge of the peninsula, I heard tourists gabbing about their weekend plans in Acadia and thought of the story we have this week from Joyce Kryszak, about rising ecotourism Downeast. 

Josh Keefe’s story, which looks at a fundamental principle enshrined in the Bill of Rights, was also on my mind. You may have read about the recent fire and shootout in Auburn that involved a man let out on bail because he did not have a lawyer, and the uproar that followed. Some criticized the judge’s decision to release him, while others said the case highlighted the state’s ongoing failure to provide poor defendants with the legal counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment.

In this Sunday’s story, Josh takes a deeper look at the circumstances of the Lewiston judge’s decision, and ones like it playing out across the state, finding, as one judge put it, that “jurisprudence in this area is evolving sort of daily.”

We hope you’ll find it illuminating.

— Stephanie

Across Maine, judges are deciding when the lack of an attorney becomes a constitutional violation

As of July 3, more than 650 people charged with crimes in Maine were unable to afford a lawyer and waiting for the state to provide one. At least 150 were in custody, languishing in jail while presumed innocent and waiting for the legal counsel guaranteed by the Constitution’s Sixth Amendment.

Once a week, the defendants in custody without an attorney are brought before a judge, often by Zoom from a county jail, for a check-in. Some have appeared at these hearings week after week — a few have been attending for months — only to be told that no attorney is available to take their case. At these hearings, judges are deciding when a delay in the assignment of counsel becomes a denial — and a constitutional violation. 

Read this story by Josh Keefe.

Maine has no testing requirement for medical cannabis. Public health advocates want that to change: When a medical cannabis provider tells counterparts in other states that there are no testing requirements in Maine, “their jaws drop.” Read this story by Rose Lundy.

State announces resource center to aid local opioid settlement spending: The announcement follows previous reporting by The Monitor that found some local governments were making questionable spending decisions. Read this story by Emily Bader.

As ecotourism grows, so does the desire to maintain Downeast’s wild character: “They want to build attractions, but the fact that there is nothing here is the attraction,” said Larry Balchen, who believes the region is at an inflection point. Read this story by Joyce Kryszak.

Climate change, rising home costs converge to drive up insurance rates in Maine: A study projects that Maine rates will increase 19 percent by the end of the year, though much of that change will be driven by homes on the storm-exposed coast. Read this story by Emmett Gartner.

The Maine Monitor welcomes Adrienne Washington as rural communities reporter: Washington joins the newsroom as a Roy W. Howard Fellow through the Scripps Howard Fund, and Emmett Gartner turns his focus to environmental reporting. Read this story.

A low bar for public defense

Maine, until recently, was the only state in the country with no public defender system.

A nine-month investigation by The Maine Monitor and ProPublica found that legal services for the poor were left to private attorneys, who faced disproportionately high amounts of discipline and an office that didn't supervise them.

Read this story by Samantha Hogan and Agnel Philip. 

Know of a story that we should be digging into? Send it to our newsroom. 

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