Remembering Sept. 11, 2001

Let’s take a moment to remember all those who lost their lives in the tragic events of 16 years ago, on Sept. 11, 2001.

Here in Portland, the police and fire departments scheduled a memorial wreath-laying at Fort Allen Park on the Eastern Promenade, one of a number of ceremonies held throughout New England.

On that day, 16 years ago, I had just returned home from college and was making ends meet working at an ice cream shop up in Freeport. I was getting ready for work, and a friend told me to turn on the television.

“What channel?,” I asked.

“Any of them,” he said.

I couldn’t believe what I saw. Sixteen years later, I still can’t.

Here are your headlines to catch up on the last 24-to-48 hours.

What we’re talking about

Maine lobstermen and blueberry harvesters are concerned by a threat by President Donald Trump to back out of a trade deal with South Korea, which is a major market for those food products, the BDN’s Lori Valigra is reporting. Withdrawing from the 2012 U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement could cause the current low taxes to revert back to those of five years ago — 20 percent for lobsters and 40 percent for blueberries. And that would make Maine goods more expensive and less competitive than those of Canada.

School search website Niche has ranked Bowdoin College, just up the road in Brunswick, as the No. 1 liberal arts college in America, as well as the No. 1 small college and No. 1 “test optional” college. The site gave Bowdoin A-plus ratings for its academics, campus and value.

Police are investigating the case of a 54-year-old man found dead in front of 19 Temple St. Portland police have called the death a homicide, the BDN’s Jake Bleiberg is reporting. Police say they believe victim Sunao Yamada Jr. was killed at around 3:20 a.m. Sunday, and was seen at the time with a thin white male, around 25 or 30 years old, about 6 feet tall with short, dark hair. Anyone who may have seen Yamada in the area or thinks they have information about his case is being urged to call the police at 874-8575.

In Troy R. Bennett’s weekly series on Portland history, he tackles the heroic — and ultimately kind of spooky — story of the Dash, a privateer ship that disappeared at sea after establishing itself as the fastest around. Generations later, people on the Maine coast would swear they saw the ghost ship Dash gliding through the north Atlantic waters, inspiring a now-famous poem by John Greenleaf Whittier.

Maine is expected to see a record number of cruise ship visits in 2017. The state is scheduled to receive 423 ship visits — primarily to tourist hot spots Portland and Bar Harbor — and that number is 62 more than last year.

Tweet of the day

From graphic designer Lee Binding:

The Big Idea

Doctors are finding that the oft-stigmatized drug known as “ecstasy” may be the breakthrough they’re looking for in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which ails as many as one out of every five U.S. military personnel who have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. In clinical trials monitored by federal regulators, two out of three chronic PTSD patients who underwent treatment using ecstasy no longer had PTSD after a year.

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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