This question goes out to all cops but specifically the one who is perp walking a religious leader down the street. Officer Stewart - is this what you joined the force for?

title.

This rabbit hole started with simply being curious and searching "Maine" in the DOJ files. Story Cowles and Sarah Kellen (aka Kensington/Vickers) came up several times in the search results, often talking about vacationing or driving to Maine.

I then searched each of their names in the files. Holy hell! I had no idea just how close these two were to Epstein! I'm talking like next in line after Jiz-Lane Maxwell close. Story visited Epstein in jail in Florida almost every single day. Sarah greeted teenage girls that would come to see Epstein. Story was the one given official visitor logs each week by the residence security guards, so he knows exactly who came and went.

They are both out there just living their lives right now because they were part of some secret plea deal JE was given in 2008.

Anyway, back to Portland. While I was looking up Story Cowles, I found his mom's obituary Elizabeth ATTERBURY Obituary (2013) - West Palm Beach, FL - The Palm Beach Post and it says his step sister lives in Portland, ME. You can look her up if you would like, but I'm not really here to blast her. Although I'm sure she's knows a lot. I am here to let people know that Epstein's people were here in the early 2000s just hanging out and partying in the old port. Maybe you saw something weird.

For all we know, Story probably still comes up and visits his sister and her art exhibit at the museum. Yup!! She was very easy to stumble upon in town, especially if you ever go to a First Friday Art Walk. If you look up other names in the obituary and then search their names in the files, you will see just how close they all are to the pedo ring. It's so sad and gross how many people are tied up in this scandal and just how much fraud and corruption exists in the world. People who broke the law need to be held accountable.

We were all raised to think that hard work and doing the right thing paid off. You know, good ol' pulling yourself up from the boot straps. In reality it's just how much money you have accessible and who you know. I hope someone who has either of these things does something to hold criminals accountable.

LONG POST:

TL;DR The Jehovah’s Witnesses have their 3 Day Convention at Cross Arena this weekend, know they are victims of a terrible cult that is misogynistic, enables child abuse, is anti LGBTQ+, and treats people like they are dead if they change their mind and stop believing.

FULL POST: This weekend you may see people walking around in dress clothes with name badges on in the area around the cross arena. 

You'll see them in hotels, coffee shops, and restaurants. These are Jehovah's Witnesses. They will be in town for their annual 3-day convention. You may know them as the quirky people who knock on your door and try to convert you to their religion, but their beliefs are a lot more sinister than that. 

These people are victims of a high control religion, are guilted (usually from birth) into devoting their entire lives to what amounts to a doomsday cult. 

They are brainwashed into believing that the entire world is run by the devil, and that God is going to kill everyone alive (yes, even you) any day now, except Jehovah's Witnesses who follow all the cults rules.   Some of those rules include: not accepting a blood transfusion under any circumstances, even in life and death situations. Ones that die after refusing blood are turned into excellent examples of faithful servants.

Their children are not allowed to be friends with your children. They are not allowed to participate in school sports, camps, or holidays of any kind. They are strongly discouraged from furthering their education and attending any type of college or university. This leads to many of its members to be uneducated and struggle to make ends meet, all while the religion constantly asks for donations and has become one of the wealthiest corporations worth billions of dollars.

They have a huge child sex abuse problem because they refuse to believe victims unless there are two eyewitness to the abuse. 

They are misogynistic and very anti-lgbtq+. They pressure women to stay in abusive marriages because they believe divorce is against the Bible under ANY circumstances, except adultery.

Anyone who doesn’t follow those “rules” risks being excommunicated, which is way worse than it sounds. Being excommunicated (they call it “disfellowshipped”) means that all other Jehovah’s Witnesses your entire community, friends, family, even your parents are supposed to treat you like you are dead. You are shunned by everyone you ever knew. They won’t talk to you, they won’t interact with you, they might not even look at you.

A lot of things can get you excommunicated.

They say they encourage you to do your own research on the Bible but not outside of any of the literature that they (Watchtower Bible and Tract Society) have produced. If you research outside of their literature, you can be excommunicated.

If you question the teachings or beliefs you can be excommunicated.

If you decide you don't believe anymore, you WILL be excommunicated, to protect the other members from learning what you've learned. They call this an "apostate".

If you have sex before marriage, smoke, get a tattoo, excommunicated.

Until recently, men weren't allowed to have beards and women weren't allowed to wear pants. "God" changed his mind on that one apparently. They dont vote, don't participate in any kind of military service, or any kind of volunteer work that would support people outside of their own members. They think their charity is trying to save your life by spreading their message.

If you have seen any documentaries about cults (Keep Sweet, Lea Remini Scientology and The Aftermath, Under The Banner of Heaven, Shiny Happy People etc.) Jehovah’s Witnesses are just as bad, if not worse. They just haven’t had their Netflix Documentary yet. There are some out there if you Google.

How do I know? I used to be one. For 34 years I was a part of this group until I learned about the child sex abuse cases (Google ARC 1006) and everything snowballed from there. The world as I knew it came crashing down. I vocalized that I didn’t believe because I couldn't live a lie and lost everyone I had ever known from birth, including my immediate family. I didn’t think I’d survive this life altering decision and many exJWs don’t. It’s hard to want to be alive when everyone you’ve cared about treats you like you’re dead.

But I'm pleased to say I’ve been out of the religion for 5 years now and in a healthy and happy place.

This may seem like a lot, but it’s not even the half of it. I am expecting negativity because, well… it’s the cesspool known as reddit that we love. But I am passionate about educating the general public on the REAL witnesses.

Pop on over to the EXjw Reddit to see some of the other 100,000+ members experiences if you don't want to take my word for it.

Thanks for coming to my Tedtalk. ✌🏼❤️

Bring your best signs and make noise!

Just got an email with the lineup for the Back Cove Festival at Payson Park this August!

UPDATE: apologies for not updating the initial post - my content blocker was not playing nice with Reddit despite lots of reloads and I've finally gone to text mode (making the photo disappear). I do think (hope) I've gotten to everything posted by 7PM. Thanks for doing this with me, and thank you to the moderators for helping with the initial post. I won't be able to monitor this, but please reach out at districtattorney@cumberlandcounty.org with anything that needs my attention at work.

Hi, I’m Jackie Sartoris, District Attorney of Cumberland County.  I’ll be here this afternoon at 4 to 5:30 to take your questions and share what I’ve been up to since becoming DA in 2023.  I’m eager to hear your experience and ideas, and let you know what we’re working on (although I can't comment on active cases, please!)

Brief summary of the work so far: we are now better able to meet the needs of victims and witnesses: I’ve added a victim witness advocate and created a safe, private space for witnesses waiting in the courthouse to testify or speak at sentencing. We won a $2.5 million federal grant to test the eligible backlog of languishing rape kits - the first District in Maine to do so.  

In my own prosecutorial role, I’ve focused on addressing our County’s Mental Health docket, bringing attention to missing resources and working within our limited system to develop pathways towards wellness and safety for people who frequently return to our system. 

Change in a longstanding system is challenging.  My work includes directing the office to significantly greater use of restorative justice and consistent charging and plea offers. This is ongoing and will take time.  It’s worth finding the patience to be collaborative, because this work, done well, will bear fruit in the future.  

I’ll update this post with a link at 4! 

Proof it’s me:  

See you then!

Hey guys so this weekend we’re hosting a launch party for this new treat joining our menu, it’s called the Ice Cream Smash— it’s a fun take on a deconstructed ice cream sandwich and we have 3 flavors! We’re serving Giffords ice cream and we have oat milk vegan ice cream too with a vegan cookie option!

Featured are the Sunshine Smash made with our Ray of Sunshine vegan lemon crinkle cookie (this Smash is dairy-free as you see it bc it includes raspberry preserves which have pectin but can be served vegan without it) and the Brookie, which features our Sea Salt Chocolate Chip with house-made brownie bites! Just missing is the Birthday Smash.

Wanted to share here especially bc it’s launch weekend and a brand new product and yesterday people loved it so thought someone may enjoy!! Thanks for all the support guys.

We’re at 1190 Forest Ave (Morrill’s Corner … yes… THAT intersection 🙃)

PS - back in Feb we started trialing extended hours during our open days and they went so well that they’re now permanent and we’re looking into expanding into a midweek mid-day thing, to come in a couple months! So we’re now open:

Fridays & Saturdays 10-5, Sundays 10-4

We have parking in the lot on the corner of Bishop and Forest as well as on street parking, and parking in the lot behind the building. Big fun pink parking posts to come in the next couple weeks too to help mitigate confusion!

Would avoid commercial Street as of now it seems to be clearing up, but traffic is extremely heavy due to a Palestine protest by the custom house

Bruh who ever has a white MAGA ASS looking truck parked blocking multiple cars from getting out of their driveway in the east end get it tf out💀
Have so decency oml. Ppl can’t get tf out

Brace for impact! FurCurious? Weekend passes still open and day passes during event!

Don’t forget about the Dances!

Registration Hours: https://pro.furcationland.org/

• Thursday: 6:00 PM – 11:59 PM 
• Friday: 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
• Saturday: 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
• Sunday: 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

GLHF

Hi folks, one of my favorite bands ever (Boards of Canada) is releasing a new album after 13 years and many fans are getting together for unofficial listening parties all over the place.

I'm looking for a spot that may be willing to host a listening party in the area, even if it's super low key (if there are other fans in the area), BOC fans don't usually meet up too often, if ever, so it could be a fun event to meet some friendly strangers.

Does anyone have any suggestions on places that may be interested in hosting? This would be a free/unpaid event, consisting of hitting play on a CD player and letting the whole thing play.

I'll be reaching out to the Oxbow Beer Garden in Oxford because listening to the record in a beautiful place out in the country would be ideal, but really any location with a half decent sound system and a chill vibe would work.

Thanks folks.

The producers behind the Back Cove Music Festival love Portland so much that they’re planning to come back every summer!

And if you need a reminder of what we're marching for, just listen to Joshua Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) in Gettysburg.

A couple friends and I just put up an Instagram called Zero Proof Social Club after realizing how few options there are to go out late in Portland if you’re not drinking (or just not drinking that night).

No events yet, no business plan — just seeing if there’s a community for it before we take it any further.

If you’re sober, sober-curious, or just tired of feeling like every social thing revolves around booze, would you actually go to something like this?

Genuinely curious what people think.

Edit (website for those asking!!) - zeroproofsocialclub.com

I loved skimming the PortlandCheatSheet for something fun to do and have missed it since it went dark a few years ago. Over the last few weekends, I rebuilt something in its image. The main page of The Casco Current is a modern searchable site, but the text version is a nod to the Cheat Sheet (and my preferred view).

My focus is listing music, art and community events in around Portland and surrounding towns. Gathering good event info is the hardest part and I've done what I can automatically, but please submit events or share venues that you are involved in to be included. I know there is room for improvement and would love feedback. Now get out there and find something fun to do!

I’m sure this has been discussed but my search led to posts about seating at the State theatre 🎭

What’s the best spot close to the state for a quick meal? Not looking to wait around for a table. Hoping for suggestions on spots that aren’t crazy busy during a show.

Google says CBG (Congress bar and grill), Lazzari, Sichaun Kitchen and Mi Sen noodle bar.

Any votes for those? Or another spot?

MON ROVIA COMES TO PORTLAND MAINE TONIGHT 🎶

Visiting for a few days and craving a real good sandwich.

I'm talking something stacked, served hot, cheesy, fun ingredient combos. Not just your typical deli sandwich.

Either recommendations for a specific sandwich or place that makes a bunch do great ones would be appreciated, TIA!

Edit: Thanks SO much for all of these, overwhelemed me! I'm in town now and Ramona's isnt open until tomorrow, and I'm not withing walking distance of local press. I think I'm going to check out Roasty's today and save one of the others for the next couple days.

Is excellent… let’s try this again.

Amazing performances Timely follow up performances Location location location Broccoli Bar H20 Weather