Fridays with Fossel
The weekly update for Friday, June 20, 2025
Welcome to this week’s recap, everyone - for Friday, June 20, 2025.1
Hey, it’s officially summer! Well, at precisely 10:41PM Eastern Standard Time, anyway. Phish’s summer tour begins in Manchester, NH tonight at 7:30, so the spring, technically. Still, let’s roll with it!
Last week was Flag Day, but this upcoming week, on Wednesday, June 25, we have Flagg Day - don’t worry, I’m talking about Cooper, not Randall. If you don’t know who the latter one is, trust me, focus on the former.
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🗳 Maine News & Politics🗳
Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-01), who began her career in politics as an advocate for campaign finance reform, violated financial disclosures. Yes, you read that right, the former head of Common Cause forgot to tell anyone she sold a stock. I’ll let that one sink in for a bit.
The Maine Legislature went after concert price gouging, a good thing - even if the bill isn’t perfect. This needs to be dealt with at a federal level as well, however. I’ll have more thoughts on the bill in the column this week. Last week, I went after Trump’s domestic policy bill, which is almost as bad as Janet Mills’ budget. I like to call it the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Bill.
Unfortunately, the Maine Senate rejected an effort to withdraw from the ridiculous National Popular Vote scheme. Even if you support ending the Electoral College, that’s not the way to go about it.
Janet Mills suffered some embarrassing defeats this week: The compromise budget would end her signature program to enact free community college, and then it failed enactment on its first vote in the Maine House thanks to defections from fellow Democrats, though it eventually passed. It won’t go into effect until September, but when it does, the price of your streaming services will all increase, since they’ll be covered by the sales tax.
Yeah, that’s right, Janet Mills just made your Netflix more expensive - and she had to fight her own party to do it. So, work that in to your budget now - and while you’re at it, work in an extra $5 a month to subscribe to this newsletter. A subscription gets you access to the full archive, including all prior political maps - like of every gubernatorial election Paul LePage ever ran in.
🏀 Sports 🏀
The Boston Red Sox traded away third baseman Rafel Davers for almost nothing. Travis Lazarczyk of the Portland Press Herald hates the deal, and he’s completely right. I have friends who were optimistic about the Red Sox early in the season; I almost fell into that trap myself. I’m going to do a shout-out to them - I hate that I was right about this again - and also a wellness check. How are you all feeling right now? Hauntingly familiar season so far, right? It’s starting to seem as if the Red Sox are a farm team for the West Coast, and that John Henry doesn’t care about winning any more. I’d write about all of this, but I think my post from three years ago (!!!) still stands.
The Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup. Huge congrats to former Boston Bruin Brad Marchand, who’s the best.
Newport, Maine native Cooper Flagg is going to be drafted first overall by the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA draft next Wednesday, June 25. There’s no suspense here about who will be picked first or whether a trade will occur. He’s predicted to be a generational talent around whom one would build a franchise. That’s perfectly justifiable and not a case of overrating or exaggeration.
In case you’ve somehow gotten away with never seeing him before, here’s some highlights:
🍺 What I’m drinking 🍺
Scrugsy (7.1%), 4.04 rating on Untappd, by Belleflower Brewing out of Portland, Maine, is a perfectly delightful, smooth New England IPA. It subtly bursts with juicy goodness, ideal for, well, any circumstance imaginable when you’d be drinking beer. It’s widely available at beer and grocery stores alike these days.
🎵What I’m listening to 🎵
Béla Fleck, the famed banjo player who’s won 16 (!!!) Grammy Awards, has a new album out with a new group, both called BEATrio. It’s a trio along with harpist Edmar Castañeda and drummer Antonio Sánchez. They’ll be in my hometown of Gardiner on July 30, in between Pori, Finland and Groton, MA, an itinerary that is perfectly natural and makes total sense.
Listen to their new album below:
Jim is also a weekly columnist for the Portland Press Herald, Maine’s largest daily newspaper. Follow him on X or on Facebook.
This was written Thursday evening and scheduled for publication Friday morning.