Trump picks former domestic policy adviser Brooke Rollins for agriculture secretaryI'm a Celeb fans slam 'aggressive' Dean McCullough in argument with Alan Halsall
LE MOYNE (2-5) Koroma 4-6 1-4 9, Owens 4-8 6-8 14, Carmody 4-9 4-4 13, Jones 1-3 0-0 3, Tekin 2-6 3-4 7, Dancler 0-2 0-1 0, Fouts 3-6 4-6 11, Mosquera 2-7 0-0 4. Totals 20-47 18-27 61. TEXAS A&M-CC (3-3) Clark 7-10 3-3 17, Dease 3-6 0-0 7, Parker 2-4 0-0 5, Walker 2-4 2-2 6, I.Williams 3-7 1-4 7, S.Williams 1-5 3-6 5, Dennis 4-6 2-2 13, Jackson 3-3 1-3 7, Potter 1-2 0-0 3, Roberts 2-3 0-0 5, Torbor 2-3 1-2 5, Villegas 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 31-54 13-22 82. Halftime_Texas A&M-CC 42-20. 3-Point Goals_Le Moyne 3-13 (Carmody 1-2, Fouts 1-2, Jones 1-3, Dancler 0-1, Owens 0-2, Mosquera 0-3), Texas A&M-CC 7-15 (Dennis 3-5, Parker 1-1, Potter 1-2, Roberts 1-2, Dease 1-3, Walker 0-2). Rebounds_Le Moyne 23 (Fouts 7), Texas A&M-CC 35 (Clark 7). Assists_Le Moyne 9 (Owens, Carmody 3), Texas A&M-CC 15 (I.Williams 6). Total Fouls_Le Moyne 17, Texas A&M-CC 22. A_881 (2,000).None
Trump tapping Project 2025 authors and influencers for key rolesCustoms officials in New Zealand are reporting the arrest of a Canadian woman who is alleged to have been caught with 10.2 kilograms of methamphetamine found inside her baggage and wrapped as if it belonged under a Christmas tree. The New Zealand Customs Service Tuesday saying the woman took a flight from Vancouver to Auckland, arriving in the North Island city on Dec. 8. The individual was questioned after landing in Auckland, the customs service said. Officers searched her bag and allegedly found the drugs inside it. On social media, the customs service . But she was not identified by name in that posting, nor in the news release. The customs service said the woman faces "charges of importation and possession for supply of a Class A controlled drug" and that she appeared in Auckland's Manukau District Court on these same charges and has since been remanded into custody. Global Affairs Canada did not immediately provide a response on Tuesday to an emailed inquiry about the reported arrest of the Canadian in New Zealand. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority — responsible for security screening at more than 80 Canadian airports, — told CBC News in an email that it's "not aware" of the investigation in New Zealand and as such has no information about it. The New Zealand Customs Service has reported at least two prior incidents this year involving Canadians flying out of Vancouver, landing in New Zealand, and then being arrested on allegations they were ferrying methamphetamine to the island country. One case involved , while another involved a 27-year-old female . The customs service had directly referred to the individuals in the prior cases as being alleged drug couriers. In the current case, it said only that it works closely "with our Canadian partners and collaborate with them closely to, in some cases, stop the drug couriers even before they board a flight here." Canadians have also allegedly been caught with methamphetamine inside their luggage Down Under in recent months, . In separate cases in October, a 59-year-old man was arrested and a 38-year-old man was . Both had flown to Australia from Vancouver and both had multiple kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in their luggage, according to police.
Bob Casey concedes Pa. Senate race, congratulates Dave McCormick on win
Steady leadership, unmatched wisdom: India’s sports community mourns Dr Singh’s demise PTI Updated: December 27th, 2024, 00:36 IST in Sports 0 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Share on Linkedin New Delhi: India’s sports fraternity Thursday joined the nation in mourning the demise of two-time former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, paying homage to his “calm leadership and wisdom” in stirring condolence messages. Singh, 92, died at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here after losing consciousness at his home owing to age-related ailments. Also Read BGT: It’s probably a safe shot for me, says Konstas on ramps against Bumrah 8 hours ago ISL: Odisha FC to face Mohammedan SC in search of top four spot 8 hours ago “Sad news of the passing of Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji. A visionary leader and a true statesman who worked tirelessly for India’s progress. His wisdom and humility will always be remembered. My heartfelt condolences to his loved ones,” World Cup-winning former cricketer Yuvraj Singh posted on X. Similar sentiments were expressed by his former teammate and Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha member Harbhajan Singh, who described Singh as a thorough gentleman and visionary leader. “What truly set him apart was his calm and steady leadership in times of crisis, his ability to navigate complex political landscapes, and his unwavering belief in India’s potential,” he wrote. It was during Singh’s second tenure that India hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games in the national capital. It was the first international multi-sport extravaganza to be held in the country after the 1982 Asian Games, also hosted by Delhi. Former wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who is now a Congress MLA in Haryana, called Singh a man of “extraordinary wisdom, simplicity and vision.” “Dr. Manmohan Singh was not just a Prime Minister, but he was a thinker, economist and a true patriot. His calm leadership style and economic vision gave the country a new direction, from the 1991 economic reforms to establishing India’s reputation on the global stage. “There was depth in his humility and wisdom in his every word. His services and contributions to the country will always be remembered. You will always live in our hearts, Sir,” she wrote in her emotional tribute on social media. Former cricketers Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman and ex-women’s hockey team captain Rani Rampal were also among those who expressed their sadness at his death. Before serving as Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, Singh was finance minister in the P V Narasimha Rao-led government and was the brain behind the economic reforms of 1991 that marked the beginning of liberalisation in the country. Widely respected for his intellect and grace in public life, Singh had retired from active politics in April this year after over a three-decade run as a Rajya Saha MP. PTI Tags: Manmohan Singh Share Tweet Send Share Suggest A Correction Enter your email to get our daily news in your inbox. Leave this field empty if you're human:
It was around 1am when I discovered my impostor was watching me. I was sitting up in bed, scrolling on my phone through the list of people who had viewed my Instagram story. The audience was the same as it always was: friends, family and a smattering of followers I had picked up over the years. But a tug from my subconscious told me, this time, something was wrong. I scrolled back up and there it was: an account I had never seen before. Their profile photo was a selfie I had taken in a bookshop basement years ago. Have you ever walked by an unexpected mirror and jumped at your own reflection? That’s how it felt as I stared back at myself, unnerved by my sudden appearance. I brought the screen close to my face. The photo was old, from 2016, but it was a day I remembered well. I had just handed in my university dissertation and I was enjoying my newfound freedom. I had been ambling through Cardiff and had taken a snapshot in a mirror to mark the moment. My gold iPhone 5 looked tiny in my hand and I was wearing my favourite flannel shirt. These were familiar fragments of my life back then. Now, someone had seemingly come along and picked them up out of the bin. Was it just a glitch? A strange Meta mess-up that would reset if I clicked on their account? I would feel silly but relieved, then settle into bed with the world returned to how it was. But when I visited their page the image remained. According to Instagram, it now belonged to someone named Paweł Sibilski. Paweł had 691 followers and he was following more than 2,600 people. I couldn’t see who they were, or the four posts he had shared, because his profile was private. In his bio, written in Polish, he described himself as a developer and investor. There was a Facebook link beneath it. I tapped it with a curiosity that swelled into horror. Paweł’s Facebook was like a shrine devoted to my face. His profile photo was a selfie I had taken outside a pub in 2018. His cover photo, directly above it, was a shot of me wearing a hoodie on a frosty day in 2016. There was another photo where I was mid-expression, my hair blown sideways; I couldn’t even remember when that was taken. It was like watching footage of myself sleepwalking; there I was, all over his account, with no memory of how I got there. Panic set in. The account was mostly private, but I pieced together what I could. Every photo (besides a stock image of an empty bar) was a different closeup of me. Paweł had been uploading them since 2020, but they spanned almost a decade of my life. Hundreds of people had liked and commented on them, and Paweł had humbly thanked them. He was incredibly popular, with 4,600 Facebook friends (about six times more than I have on my own account) – and he had spent the last four years convincing them that he was really me. I thought of the hapless hero in Dostoevsky’s novel The Double, when Golyadkin encounters his beguiling doppelganger. The duplicate charms his way into Golyadkin’s life, wins over his colleagues and friends, and eventually replaces him. Golyadkin later loses grip of his identity and has a severe mental breakdown. I know this story because it was the subject of my dissertation, the same one I had handed in before taking that bookshop selfie. Did my impostor somehow know this? Had he read the book as well? What else were we sharing that I had once thought belonged only to me? Paweł’s Facebook account had a longer bio, again written in Polish. I used Google to translate the top line. “Bądź Zawsze Sobą,” it read. “Always be yourself.” I couldn’t decide if it was comical or violating. I was concerned, but also weirdly flattered. I couldn’t help feeling slightly buoyed up by the fact that I had been selected; that my photos were considered worth stealing. But who was Paweł, why had he chosen me and what had he done with my identity? * * * My impostor was more protective of my personal details than I had been in my online life. In order to see what else he had hijacked, I had to become his Facebook friend. A fresh wave of paranoia made me wonder if we were already connected. I rushed back to my private account and scanned my friends list. How well did I really know these people? In recent months I had tightened my social media security, but in the past I had recklessly accepted all requests. I’d had the same Facebook account for over 15 years, and Paweł had clearly been watching me for about half a decade. I tried to view my profile as one of my current 800 “friends” would see it. They would know the names of my family and pets, where I studied, where I worked, where my parents were buried, what my childhood looked like, where I lived, the places I had been and the places I was likely to visit again. It was a fraudster’s cheat sheet, a stalker’s dream. Paweł was accepting compliments about my face beneath my reproduced photos and passing them off as his own. He was clearly a crafty catfish, an online con artist who takes someone else’s images and pretends to be them to deceive others. I decided to give him the same treatment; I would make a fake account and try to catfish my own impostor. Creating an alias was harder than I expected. I didn’t want to use a name that might belong to a real person, but the pseudonyms I came up with sounded ridiculous, like badly written 1950s detectives: would accept a friend request from Eric Pistachio or Dirk Avalanche? I ended up using my middle name followed by the first syllable of my mother’s maiden name. I typed “cartoon character” into Google and used a popular result as my profile photo: an image of the anime ninja Naruto. For a cover photo I went with a generic woodland. It was as easy as that: a fake name and a fake face, made real by the internet. Facebook suggested some strangers I should add, so I sent them all requests to make me look more legitimate. I was surprised when dozens immediately accepted. How easily they had just let a catfish into their lives. I clicked on some of their profiles: family photos, career updates and tagged locations – I had access to the lot. ‘Most girls wanted to have sex with you,’ he told me. ‘I got some nude photos and videos, it was so nice’ I sent Paweł a friend request. It felt sticky and horrible, as if I was betraying myself and playing into his game. Here I was, dressed as a cartoon character while I asked a stranger for permission to look at myself. Everything was out of sync. I closed my laptop, laid down in bed and tried not to think about Golyadkin. The next morning I had 89 new friends, but Paweł wasn’t among them. He had either rejected or ignored my request. Had he somehow seen right through it? In a normal state I would have waited but I was too agitated for patience. I started drafting a message under my pseudonym. It was confrontational, so I dialled it back. I wanted answers, not to scare him off. I told him my name was Andrew, and that I knew he was using my photos, but I said I was more curious than annoyed and simply had some questions. I took a breath and clicked send. “This account can’t receive your message because they don’t allow new message requests from everyone.” I had stooped to the level of a catfish for nothing. In frustration I copied and pasted my message beneath one of his (my) photos. I took screenshots of his accounts and posted them to my Instagram story, to warn my friends and family. Then I took a selfie and pointed accusingly at the camera. My finger loomed large, close to the lens; on the tip I wrote, “Get your own face, Paweł.” My followers reacted just like I had, with a mix of shock and laughter. It was surreal but funny, wasn’t it? A troubling sort of compliment. I had so many messages that I almost missed one. It was sent in such a frantic state it was missing proper punctuation. “Hey do we know each other? Where do you know me from?” it read. It was Paweł. The fake innocence riled me up, along with the subtle accusation that was somehow bothering . He had a new profile photo now, a stock image of a silhouetted concert crowd. I told him who I was and that I wanted answers. He read this straight away and then the chat went dead for 12 minutes. “I think it’s only fair, don’t you?” I followed up. “You have been using my photos for many years without my knowledge and befriending lots of people posing as me. All I’m asking for is an explanation.” He started to type. He typed for a long time. The three dots promised some sort of closure, but his response when it came was disjointed and confusing – eight lines long without any full stops. Paweł later revealed he was translating everything I’d said into his native Polish, and I sensed he was also panicking. So I slowed down and asked him very basic questions. “Would you be happy to share your real name, or your age or general location?” “I’m a bit ashamed,” he replied, and seemed to mean it. He typed like an embarrassed child who had been caught stealing sweets. “How old are you?” I tried again. “I’m assuming you’re a man?” “Yes, that’s right, I’m a man. I gave my age as 25 – I’m generally a bit older.” “How much older than 25?” He was being coy, but I felt as if I was getting somewhere. The chat went silent again for a few minutes. “I live in Warsaw. I’m 42 years old, I have a wife, two children and, as you can see, a double personality.” I reeled back. I had assumed he was a young loner, not a family man. I imagined him now, messaging me while his kids played nearby. It creeped me out again. I tried to keep my questions straightforward and calm, so I didn’t scare him into silence, and slowly he began to reveal what he had done with my identity. Paweł said he initially created the account because he wanted to make money. He had some sort of scheme I didn’t understand, but it involved selling products. He needed a photo of someone “handsome” to lure customers in. He had found me by chance as a Google result because of an old article I had written; then he had tracked down my social media. He had used my face because he thought no one would recognise it. “Pretty boy not very popular,” he wrote. “You are not a celebrity, you are not famous.” I was now being by my impostor. Paweł failed to make money from the account, but somewhere along the line he started to enjoy logging in as me. “I could be free. I wasn’t afraid of anyone,” he wrote. I almost felt sorry for him as he explained how he would come home from a tough, physical job, start drinking alcohol and slip into his online identity. “Then I opened up – I was you,” he wrote. “I could feel like someone else for a moment and express my opinion without fear of persecution.” This made me incredibly nervous. “What sort of opinions did you express using my profile photo?” “Generally you got nice opinions,” he said, as if he was unable to separate the two of us in his mind. The exception, he said, would be in talking to “someone, mainly a woman, who overdid it with plastic surgery. Then I wrote honestly that she was ruining her appearance, and because you are so handsome, they wondered if they were doing the right thing.” I have done nothing wrong to anyone. No one has reported me or anything, Can I still have your account for a while? I felt a pang of helpless shock. Paweł was dressing up as me and haranguing women. I had viewed him as a low-risk fantasist, but he clearly had a cruel streak. Over the following days we continued to message, and Paweł’s revelations became more sinister. “Most girls wanted to have sex with you,” he wrote. “I also got some nude photos and videos, it was so nice.” He said he had used the account to start simultaneous romantic relationships with women who all thought they were talking to me. These lasted for up to six months at a time and ended only because Paweł refused to meet them in person. He said he still had their videos saved in a personal archive. “Did you feel bad that the people sending you nude images thought they were sending them to someone else?” I asked in disbelief, trying not to let my anger show. “Honestly I didn’t think about it, I was amused by the fact that they were so naive,” he wrote. “Maybe something is wrong with my psyche?” I had thought I was the main casualty of Paweł’s deception, but now it was clear that the real victims were the women he had tricked. I felt sickened that he had involved me in this. I asked if his wife knew. He said she almost caught him on the fake account once, but he convinced her it belonged to a friend. She had no idea about his second life and the string of women he had manipulated. “I feel guilty,” Paweł wrote. “It’s good you caught me because I wanted to end it for a long time, thank you.” “Were you worried about being found out?” I asked. “I have done nothing wrong to anyone. On the contrary, [as] you see for yourself, so many years and no one has reported me or anything,” he wrote, having recovered from his short-lived shame. “Can I still have your account for a while as you?” He claimed he was using the catfish account for “good” and acting as a “psychologist” for the people he had tricked, because he talked them through their problems. This just made them sound all the more vulnerable, and his actions all the more despicable. “I would like you to tell anyone you are still speaking to that you are not really me, and to close the account,” I wrote back. “OK, I will do that,” he replied finally. * * * Paweł later told me he had deleted the profile, but I could see it was still intact. He had simply removed my images, leaving empty templates ready to be filled again. At one point Paweł unashamedly liked all of my recent Instagram photos. Part of me feared he had saved them for future use, then I remembered something he had said about AI being so convincing these days that you could use that to make a fake account instead. This was hardly reassuring. I asked Paweł if he would put me in touch with the women he had tricked. I didn’t know what I would say to them even if he agreed; I suppose I just wanted to check they were OK. He ignored this request, then eventually said he didn’t want them to know the truth. Without his help it was impossible to track them down; his friends and followers lists were still private. Even if I somehow gained access, he had amassed thousands of connections; I had no idea which of them, or how many, he had manipulated. I tried to shut Paweł’s account down by reporting it to Meta. I received an automatic response in seconds that said his profile didn’t go against their community standards so they wouldn’t remove it. I emailed Facebook support and tried Meta’s press office, asking about their stance on catfishing and what it would take to remove a fake account, but I received no response. I emailed the Metropolitan police, who advised me to report what had happened, but they told me they weren’t sure where it would sit as a criminal case because the impostor seemingly lived in Poland. It felt as if there was nothing I could do to stop him. I asked Paweł if he had a final comment about his actions. “That’s how it is in life – we don’t always do everything as it should be, it’s important to admit the mistake and change for the better,” he wrote. “I’m busy with work now and I got bored of pretending to be someone else.” Who knows if this, or anything he told me, was true. His Facebook account is still online. For years Paweł secretly followed me; now our roles have been reversed. I find myself occasionally searching his name and keeping tabs on his page, making sure those images are still empty and not filled in with updated photos of my face, or that of someone else completely oblivious to his deception.
Pam Douglas, founder of Pam’s Wreath, stands beside bundles of balsam outside her Harpswell home studio on Nov. 22. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record Pam Douglas started making wreaths in the 1980s, and it’s still part of her patchwork of seasonal jobs. As she wire-wrapped handfuls of evergreen around metal rings at her home studio last month, she recalled her early days as a wreather. “Back then, I ran off coffee and holiday spirit,” she said. “I still can’t believe how far we’ve come today.” It started out in workshop filled with fragrant branches and bows — first in her grandparent’s old, somewhat-dilapidated barn (she would work through the night with a headlamp, snow freezing on her eyelashes), then in her parent’s basement and now in a home studio in Harpswell. The transitions, bumpy as they’ve been, were worth it to Douglas. Early on, she never considered the possibilities behind her grandmother Yovanna’s traditional Christmas wreaths, which she doled out as gifts to family and neighbors each year. When Douglas became pregnant with her oldest son, Sterling, she remembered asking her grandmother, “Why don’t you sell those?” Douglas took 10 wreaths to Cook’s Lobster House, where she worked for 28 years, and sold them for $10 each — a $100 profit that brought tears to Yovanna’s eyes. While Douglas never considered herself “crafty,” she was drawn by the allure of extra cash during the holidays. Under the moonlight, Yovanna laid a sheet on the kitchen floor, with Sterling, now born, in the playpen, and spent three hours teaching her granddaughter the process — bending coat hangers and using carp thread to secure bundles of fir needles. At the time, Douglas was renting a log cabin by the water. She would practice during the quiet hours from sunset to sunrise, relaxed by the crackle of the fireplace and the sound of the waves, accompanied by the steady movement of her hands, attuning to the trade. Maine’s official state animal inspired Pam’s Moose Head Wreath. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record What began as a hobby translated into a part-time gig. S lowly but surely, corporate orders were secured, and everything snowballed. “One day, some customers told me they were moving to Russia and wanted to send 100 wreaths to their friends,” Pam said. “They asked if we could ship, and naively, I said, ‘Of course.’ The house was filled with boxes, and everyone in the family lent a hand to get those orders mailed.” Ambitious as she was, Sterling said his mother never forgot a sports game — even if that meant showing up with her hands covered in tree pitch. Pam kept her work almost secretive, tiptoeing around once the kids dozed off. This would go on from October, after closing down her ice cream shop (Pammy’s Ice Cream Parlor in Harpswell) through Christmas. “If we could start in August, that’d be great,” Douglas said. “But we can only make wreaths when the brush is ready, which forces our season into a few fast (and furious) weeks. I’m lucky if I get three hours of sleep each night.” Gradually, the work has become more modernized, with some shifts receiving more acceptance than others. As a junior in college, an alumna with her own web development company visited Sterling’s entrepreneurship class and handed out business cards. He kept them for some time, considering his mother’s trade options. Douglas vividly remembers when her son suggested that she take the business online. He proposed creating a website where she could share her story, customers could place orders and financial data could be entered into QuickBooks, eliminating the tedious hassle of pen-and-paper accounting. Sterling and Pam Douglas showcase a traditional wreath at their Harpswell studio on Nov. 22. The mom-and-son duo have created Maine-made wreaths together since 2009. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record “It felt natural to collaborate,” Sterling said. “In 2009, we filed the necessary paperwork and became partners. Our website and Facebook were launched, and we began wreath-making together.” Douglas often jokes that Sterling is stuck helping her because she cannot decipher, let alone manage technology on her own. Her comment is a tease but reveals a deeper fear: moving away from traditional values fosters a sense of dependency. “There’s more control taking things into your own hands,” she said. After much reluctance in the early-2000s, Douglas bought a wreath machine. Testing her sales at a roadside stand, she remembers holding up two wreaths, surprised that no one could tell which one was handmade. Slowly, she incorporated more technology to boost production. Due to high demand, Douglas makes larger wreaths by hand but can create traditional wreaths on the machine in about eight minutes. “It’s not the money that motivates me,” she said. “I love what I do. Working in the middle of the night, with no one bothering me, I can focus on making something that I know will bring joy to someone else.” Sterling agreed; his children enjoy helping out in the shop, too. His son can make a wreath in under 20 minutes, and his daughter recently had to be dragged to her birthday party as she was begging to play at the shop instead. While the aim is to keep the business family-run, Sterling is clear about his stance: He will only encourage his children to continue in the trade if they are genuinely passionate about it. He describes the work as a labor of love, noting, “It just feels good to serve others.” As Pam Douglas stated, every order is inspected before it is picked up. Quality is a top priority. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record For Downeast farmers, balsam-harvesting is a welcome change of pace at the end of a season’s crescendo. A bucket of homemade pinecone decorations Sterling and Pam Douglas made using materials found across the Midcoast landscape. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record When the last wildflowers turn golden, temperatures dip and fishermen pull their traps from the water, the time finally comes for “tipping,” or what others may call “brushing.” This is when folks head into the woods to gather the ends of evergreen branches for use in holiday wreaths. The work is physically demanding — hauling the weight of heavy branches and pulling ticks off at day’s end. However, a certain magic comes with noticing the soft patterns in the branches and keeping an eye out for barred owls living in the woodlot. Douglas and Sterling have found this to be true while foraging for supplies. “A lot of companies cut corners,” Sterling said. “That’s why needles fall off wreaths in department stores — they need three frosts before they’re ready to use.” Inside Pam’s Wreath studio in Harpswell. Pammy’s 2024 Tree Sale will be held at 1410 Harpswell Neck Road from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Dec. 7. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record Pam’s Wreaths receives its fir supply from Van Buren. In recent years, the temperatures in the Midcoast haven’t dropped low enough at the right time, so they rely on colder areas where the tipping starts earlier. The remaining materials, such as reindeer moss and pinecones, are gathered from Harpswell and nearby towns. Neighbors and friends contribute by collecting natural items from their properties and delivering them to the shop for decoration. Douglas values quality and will not compromise on it. To uphold these high standards, she checks every wreath before it leaves the shop and avoids wholesale commitments, such as those for hockey boosters or school fundraisers. That said, this year, there will be an exception. Pam’s Wreaths is hosting a tree sale at 1410 Harpswell Neck Road from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7. Locals can grab supplies while they last; a percentage of the proceeds will benefit the Harpswell Santa Fund . The horse-themed design, as pictured, is another signature Pam’s Wreath item. Laura Sitterly / The Times Record Last season, the business sold 2,000 wreaths — a number Douglas and her son hope will continue to grow. By incentivizing early orders with a 10% discount, they already shipped over 400 orders before Thanksgiving. Themed designs highlight Maine classics like the state animal, a moose. Next year, a cat wreath will be available; the wire prototype is almost perfected. Shipments are still sent to established customers, but due to high demand, Pam’s Wreaths focuses on local pick-ups only. Orders must be placed before Dec. 15 to be ready before Christmas. Most purchases can be made online , but call 751-7870 for larger wreaths or bulk orders. “I don’t get a wreath up until after the holidays because things are so busy,” Douglas said. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.” We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use . More information is found on our FAQs . You can modify your screen name here . Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve. Please sign into your Press Herald account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe . Questions? Please see our FAQs . Your commenting screen name has been updated. Send questions/comments to the editors. « Previous Next »HOUSTON (AP) — An elaborate parody appears to be behind an effort to resurrect Enron, the Houston-based energy company that exemplified the worst in American corporate fraud and greed after it went bankrupt in 2001. If its return is comedic, some former employees who lost everything in Enron’s collapse aren’t laughing. “It’s a pretty sick joke and it disparages the people that did work there. And why would you want to even bring it back up again?” said former Enron employee Diana Peters, who represented workers in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings. Here’s what to know about the history of Enron and the purported effort to bring it back. Once the nation’s seventh-largest company, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 2, 2001, after years of accounting tricks could no longer hide billions of dollars in debt or make failing ventures appear profitable. The energy company's collapse put more than 5,000 people out of work, wiped out more than $2 billion in employee pensions and rendered $60 billion in Enron stock worthless. Its aftershocks were felt throughout the energy sector. Twenty-four Enron executives , including former CEO Jeffrey Skilling , were eventually convicted for their roles in the fraud. Enron founder Ken Lay’s convictions were vacated after he died of heart disease following his 2006 trial. On Monday — the 23rd anniversary of the bankruptcy filing — a company representing itself as Enron announced in a news release that it was relaunching as a “company dedicated to solving the global energy crisis.” It also posted a video on social media, advertised on at least one Houston billboard and a took out a full-page ad in the Houston Chronicle In the minute-long video that was full of generic corporate jargon, the company talks about “growth” and “rebirth.” It ends with the words, “We’re back. Can we talk?” Enron's new website features a company store, where various items featuring the brand's tilted “E” logo are for sale, including a $118 hoodie. In an email, company spokesperson Will Chabot said the new Enron was not doing any interviews yet, but that "We’ll have more to share soon.” Signs point to the comeback being a joke. In the “terms of use and conditions of sale” on the company's website, it says “the information on the website about Enron is First Amendment protected parody, represents performance art, and is for entertainment purposes only.” Documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show that College Company, an Arkansas-based LLC, owns the Enron trademark. The co-founder of College Company is Connor Gaydos, who helped create a joke conspiracy theory that claims all birds are actually surveillance drones for the government. Peters said that since learning about the “relaunch” of Enron, she has spoken with several other former employees and they are also upset by it. She said the apparent stunt was “in poor taste.” “If it’s a joke, it’s rude, extremely rude. And I hope that they realize it and apologize to all of the Enron employees,” Peters said. Peters, who is 74 years old, said she is still working in information technology because “I lost everything in Enron, and so my Social Security doesn’t always take care of things I need done.” “Enron’s downfall taught us critical lessons about corporate ethics, accountability, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Enron’s legacy was the employees in the trenches. Leave Enron buried,” she said. This story was corrected to fix the spelling of Ken Lay’s first name, which had been misspelled “Key.” Follow Juan A. Lozano on X at https://x.com/juanlozano70
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'End of an era': Tributes pour in as nation mourns loss of India's former PM Manmohan SinghVALLADOLID, Spain (Reuters) – Atletico Madrid hammered bottom side Real Valladolid 5-0 in a LaLiga encounter at the Jose Zorrilla stadium on Saturday and provisionally moved into second place in the standings. Atletico are on 32 points, two ahead of Real Madrid, who have two games in hand. Barcelona, who lost 2-1 to Las Palmas earlier on Saturday, remain top with 34 points. Clement Lenglet opened the scoring for Atletico after 26 minutes with a close-range finish from Marcos Llorente’s cross from the right, marking the French defender’s first LaLiga goal since 2020. Julian Alvarez doubled the lead in the 35th minute, pouncing on a rebound from goalkeeper Karl Hein who had blocked Antoine Griezmann’s shot but could not deny the Argentine striker from the second attempt. Rodrigo De Paul made it 3-0 two minutes later with a first-time low shot, before Griezmann added another goal seven minutes into the second half after a brilliant move that drew applause from the opposing fans. Alexander Sorloth scored a stoppage-time winner as Valladolid slumped to their tenth defeat in 15 games, leaving them bottom of the table on nine points. (Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City; editing by Clare Fallon) Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content. var ytflag = 0;var myListener = function() {document.removeEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);lazyloadmyframes();};document.addEventListener('mousemove', myListener, false);window.addEventListener('scroll', function() {if (ytflag == 0) {lazyloadmyframes();ytflag = 1;}});function lazyloadmyframes() {var ytv = document.getElementsByClassName("klazyiframe");for (var i = 0; i < ytv.length; i++) {ytv[i].src = ytv[i].getAttribute('data-src');}} Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );