Elvis was scheduled to perform in Portland 40 years ago tomorrow

Forty years ago tomorrow, Elvis Presley was scheduled to perform in Portland.

Unfortunately, he died forty years ago today. Many people here waited years for a chance to see him play, and then waited in line for hours to get a ticket for the show. Only to be heartbroken when they heard the news he wouldn’t make it.

For their part, the Portland Sea Dogs minor league baseball team scheduled an Elvis night tonight at Hadlock Field, where they promised a free ticket to anyone willing to sing “Hound Dog” at the ticket booth and let anyone who still has a ticket to the Aug. 17, 1977, Portland concert throw out a ceremonial “first pitch.”

What we’re talking about

The last two Republican presidents before Trump joined the chorus of voices denouncing racism and anti-Semitism in the aftermath of the white nationalist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush issued a joint statement from their famous family vacation compound in Kennebunkport, using stronger language that was described by reporters as an “implicit rebuke” of current President Donald Trump’s more lukewarm condemnation.

A long-planned expansion of the veterans’ health clinic in Portland took another big step forward this week with the final passage of a federal law that approves about two dozen new Department of Veterans Affairs facilities and $3.9 billion in funding for VA health programs. The Portland clinic will be expanded to about six times its current size, its staff will be tripled and many new services will be provided, the BDN’s Jake Bleiberg reports.

Folks who were hoping to see the Goo Goo Dolls perform in Portland tonight were probably disappointed to learn that the alt-pop-rock show was canceled somewhat last moment. The band best known for singles like “Iris” and “Name” had to call the concert off because lead singer Johnny Rzeznik has a cold and lost his voice. And he doesn’t want the world to see him, because he doesn’t think that they’d understand.

The husband of a woman who was murdered in a Shaw’s grocery store in Saco two years ago is suing the company, arguing it has a track record of inadequate security and violent crime on store properties. The attorney representing Shaw’s asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, arguing that the now-convicted murderer Connor MacCalister alone was responsible for crime, in which he followed 59-year-old victim Wendy Boudreau into the store and to the ice cream aisle before attacking her from behind and slitting her throat.

A Portland woman is facing multiple charges, including aggravated assault, after allegedly hitting a guy with her car in Falmouth. “[Paula Finley, 51], accelerated her vehicle and struck the resident, throwing him over the hood and into the windshield. The resident rolled off the vehicle and onto Foreside Road as Ms. Finlay fled the scene,” Falmouth police said in a Facebook post.

Tweet of the day

From our own Jake Bleiberg:

For newsletter readers, his email is also down below The Big Idea.

The Big Idea

Some dangerous infections become even more dangerous when there are elevated levels of carbon dioxide, BDN Health Editor Jackie Farwell is reporting. University of New England researchers in Maine led by Dr. Meghan May made the breakthrough in their work helping on a mysterious case of a woman who came down with a rare lung infection out-of-state. May’s team discovered that higher levels of carbon dioxide — as can be found in the lungs — activated an antibiotic-resistant gene “like a light switch,” she said. The finding promises to have far-reaching effects on which antibiotics doctors prescribe for infections and how.

Got any interesting story ideas, suggestions or links to share? Email us at jbleiberg@bangordailynews.com or skoenig@bangordailynews.com or tweet @JZBleiberg or @SethKoenig.

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