Maine environmental officials have warned residents against fishing in a popular local river after tests revealed contamination linked to an abandoned mill awaiting cleanup.

In an advisory issued October 17, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told Windham residents not to eat fish caught in the Presumpscot River downstream from the Keddy Mill site.

Located near Depot Street along the Presumpscot River, the Keddy Mill site is an abandoned industrial complex that produced steel products during the 1960s. The property covers nearly seven acres.

The Presumpscot Regional Land trust says the river is a major recreational destination for the region. “For the nearly 25 percent of Mainers living in the greater Portland region, the Presumpscot has become a favorite recreational playground for paddling, swimming, fishing, and shoreline hiking and snowshoeing.”

A fact sheet shared in a Town of Windham EPA advisory post on Facebook said recent testing detected elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. These toxic chemicals can accumulate in fish tissue.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued seafood consumption guidance in August advising residents to “consume no more than four meals per year of any fish species” from the Presumpscot River in the Westbrook and Falmouth areas.

The EPA says PCBs have been linked to a range of serious health effects in humans and animals.

“PCBs are one of the most widely studied environmental contaminants. Many studies in animals and human populations have been performed to assess the potential carcinogenicity of PCBs,” the agency states on its website.

The fishing warning has prompted concern among Maine residents living near Keddy Mill, who are questioning how the pollution could affect their health.

“Now tell me all the elderly/handicapped in that apartment complex who live & breathe that right next door daily are safe?” one commenter wrote in a Facebook post.

Another commenter asked: “That was discussed when I was on the council, why did they wait so long to warn the public?”

According to the Portland Press Herald, investigators have found fuel oil in a stormwater tunnel, petroleum in the soil and PCB-contaminated fluid spilled inside the building from aging electrical equipment.

“During the 1960s and early 1970s, manufacturing included flanges and fire suppression materials. It was during this period that significant disposal of hazardous substances, including PCBs, may have occurred at the Site,” the EPA says.

The National Priorities List, a federal program that identifies and investigates hazardous waste locations, designated Keddy Mill as a Superfund site in 2014.

David Tobin, 82, a former Windham town councilor and state legislator, previously told the Portland Press Herald that he was willing to wait for the Keddy Mill cleanup.

“That mill has been a black mark on our neighborhood. If we can get this straightened out, it would be a good thing for us,” Tobin told the newspaper when the site was initially added to the Superfund list.

He told the outlet he has lived near the mill nearly all his life and even had a great-grandfather who was a foreman on the crew who built it. 

‘I don’t think anyone who lives in Windham wants to have their town listed on a Superfund site because it conjures up this image of a huge, industrial wasteland,’ Tony Plante, former town manager of Windham, told the outlet. 

Almost ten years later, the EPA has proposed a plan to clean up the polluted site for an estimated $17 million and over a four-year period. 

EPA officials announced in February 2026 the project will be completed in multiple phases beginning in early 2027.

‘The Site will be cleaned up in multiple phases. The first phase includes demolition and removal of the building, with the potential exception of the westernmost wall, under a Non-Time-Critical Removal Action,’ the EPA wrote on their website.  

Officials reported the fishing advisory at Presumpscot River has been expected to stay in place until the polluted materials are completely removed from the site to ‘protect public health and wildlife.’ 

The Town of Windham wrote in a Facebook statement that they ‘have no official timeline.’ 

The Daily Mail has reached out to Robert Burns, the Windham Town Manager, the Town of Windham Council office, the Presumpscot Regional Land Trust, and Senator Tim Nangle for comments. 

Sir Patrick Stewart, the Star Trek icon, has died at the age of 86.

Stewart died at his Los Angeles home on Wednesday after “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia,” his spokesman, Kelly Bush Novak, announced.

The English actor became an international star as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, appearing in the series from 1987 to 1994. He later reprised the role in several films and in Star Trek: Picard, which ran from 2020 to 2023.

He also won widespread acclaim for portraying Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film franchise between 2000 and 2017.

“His sonorous voice and singular talent will forever be synonymous with indelible performances in every genre,” an emotional statement released after his death said.

“He explored the human condition in all its poetic complexity and brought hope not only to the far reaches of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but into science fiction’s most iconic final frontier aboard the Starship Enterprise.”

“His professional accomplishments were humbly matched by his philanthropy and activism on behalf of human rights, survivors of domestic violence, global refugees, veterans’ mental health services and animal welfare, particularly his cherished foster pitties.”

“He was a Knight, Chancellor, motor sport enthusiast and lifelong Huddersfield Football fan. He will be remembered for the dignity, compassion and humanity he brought to every role—in his art and life.”

Although he was best known for blockbuster films and television, the classically trained actor also built an accomplished career on stage, including performances from the Shakespearean canon.

Stewart joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and made his Broadway debut in 1971, appearing in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

He later won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in Antony and Cleopatra in the West End.

Over the course of his career, Stewart played characters ranging from Claudius to Macbeth. He also regularly performed a one-man version of A Christmas Carol and appeared in West End and Broadway productions of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, sharing the repertoire with his friend Ian McKellen.

Queen Elizabeth II knighted Stewart in 2010 for his services to drama.

The actor, who married three times, is survived by two children. He first married Sheila Falconer in 1966, and they divorced in 1990 after having a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Sophia.

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His second wife was Wendy Neuss, one of the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They married in 2000 and divorced three years later.

Stewart’s third and final marriage was to singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell, 47, whom he married in 2013.

In a 2015 interview with The Mail on Sunday’s Event magazine, Ozell said the most difficult part of their relationship had been meeting Stewart’s children from his first marriage.

She said. ‘That was territory I trod on very lightly. I didn’t want to force myself on them but they were very welcoming.’

And she said the age gap was irrelevant. ‘He is so youthful and I guess I’m kind of an old worry wart so we bridge the gap. It doesn’t come up much. He’s in better shape than me, which infuriates me.’

And Stewart said: ‘I remember my 40th birthday vividly and I swear to God it was last week. I have a little bit of arthritis but I don’t feel any different.’

The couple met through a mutual friend in 2008 when American singer-songwriter Ozell was working as a waitress in New York. 

They married in September 2013 on the banks of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in a wedding officiated by Stewart’s best friend and fellow actor Sir Ian McKellen.

McKellen registered as a minister with the Universal Life Church, which celebrates freedom of religion, in order to officiate at Stewart and Ozell’s wedding on the shores of Lake Tahoe two years ago.

‘It was an immediate attraction,’ said Stewart of his first time meeting Ozell.

‘When she came over to offer us dessert on the house – because her manager had insisted – we got talking.

‘She very kindly said she wanted to see Macbeth and then I gave her my mobile phone number.’

‘Instinct is everything in a situation like that,’ says Stewart, who had only recently divorced his second wife, Neuss.

‘I felt I was talking to a really nice, intelligent, interesting, gorgeous woman. It’s rare that those elements all come together at the same time.’

A woman wearing a burka was escorted from a Florida community meeting after she continued broadcasting the Islamic call to prayer through a microphone, despite repeated instructions to switch it off.

The woman identified herself as Celine Al Jamal. She was removed from Tuesday’s Pinellas County Commission meeting, where residents had gathered to voice opposition to a proposed expansion of a local mosque, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

After almost two hours of public comments, Al Jamal walked to the podium dressed from head to toe in black. A mesh covering obscured most of her face, leaving only part of her left eye visible.

Instead of speaking directly to the commissioners, she played a recording of the Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer traditionally used to invite Muslims to attend the mosque for the five daily prayers.

The recording, featuring a flute and a voice reciting words in Arabic, played for nearly a minute as Al Jamal stood silently at the microphone. Board Chairman Dave Eggers eventually interrupted.

“Ma’am, you’re going to have to stop… stop the music, stop the tape,” he told her.

Another board member explained that the public-comment session was intended for residents to speak to commissioners themselves, rather than submit prerecorded audio.

Al Jamal did not immediately comply. She continued playing the recording while looking toward the commissioners and people seated in the meeting room.

“Stop the tape, ma’am,” Eggers said once more before directing officials to remove her from the microphone.

“Just escort [her] out,” he ordered. “Enough! Enough!”

Two uniformed men then moved toward Al Jamal and took her out of the meeting as some attendees heckled her and others shouted amid the chairman’s decision.

“Tase her,” one person shouted. Another called out, “Shave your legs!” As Al Jamal was taken through the doorway, a third resident yelled, “Jesus is our savior!”

Several people in the room applauded, while others pulled out their phones to record the tense and disorderly removal.

Eggers later asked the audience to settle down, saying: “Please. Just please exercise some decorum and kindness of your own. We’re all people living together here.”

He added that the commission does not permit prerecorded material during public comment. “You can record the meeting, but we don’t allow taped activity like that,” Eggers said. “We ask you to come here and make comments, and that was not a comment. That’s why she was asked to step out.”

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A post-removal photograph showed Al Jamal sitting on a curb outside the venue, with three officers nearby who appeared to be gathering her account of what happened.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that she was escorted from the premises without further incident and would not face criminal charges, according to Fox News.

The chaos unfolded as residents voiced concerns about a proposed mosque expansion, including objections to the wording of zoning documents and the meeting agenda.

Earlier this month, the county commission voted 4-3 to approve a land-use amendment for Masjid Al Rahman, a mosque on a 2.69-acre property at 2577 Keystone Road in East Lake. 

The mosque, which has operated from a home since the 1990s, pursued plans for a larger facility this year. The commission’s latest vote paved the way for the existing structure to be demolished and replaced with one 1,000 feet larger.

County officials described the project as a ‘community assembly facility’ rather than a mosque, prompting Commissioner Vince Nowicki to question at Tuesday’s meeting why it had not been described in plain language. 

‘Residents read these materials to understand what is being proposed near them, and they should get the same plain description in every case, no matter the applicant,’ he wrote in an email to the county administrator, The Print reported.

Others opposed the proposed facility by raising concerns about women’s rights in Muslim-majority countries, with one person declaring: ‘Islam is not good for women’s rights.’

‘It is about the big picture and the long term,’ the unidentified woman told the audience, according to a transcript of the meeting.

‘By allowing this mosque to expand in our area, you are participating in the expansion of a totalitarian ideology which is fundamentally opposed to Western American values. Expansion of the ideology of Islam is not good for women’s rights.’

Meanwhile, others supported the mosque. One woman told the commission: ‘They want to turn it to face Mecca, and they want it to look a little more like a mosque instead of a house.’

‘We have no problems with them,’ she added. ‘We’ve been their neighbors for many years.’

Kyle Sandilands has hit back at critics who suggested his wife could leave him if his financial fortunes declined.

The radio host lost his reported $100 million payday after ARN terminated his contract following the axing of The Kyle and Jackie O Show earlier this year.

Although Sandilands walked away with a $12.09 million settlement, critics questioned whether the payout matched the wealth his wife, Tegan Kynaston, may have expected them to enjoy.

“The most upsetting thing to me reading people’s comments was, ‘Let’s see how long the wife lasts without all that money,’” the 55-year-old said on his Kyle Sandilands Live show this week.

“I don’t mind being insulted, but to insult my wife to say she’s with me for cash is ludicrous and a demented way of thinking.”

Sandilands said he was particularly upset by the “terrible comments” questioning the strength of his relationship with Tegan, whom he married in 2023.

The couple, who live in a $14 million mansion in Vaucluse, share a four-year-old son, Otto.

The radio veteran said those who comment on his marriage appear to be more invested in his personal life than they admit, despite claiming they “don’t care” about it.

“If I don’t care about something that is in the press, I don’t read it; I certainly don’t comment about something that I don’t care about,” he said.

The comments come amid a period of financial setbacks for Sandilands, who was forced to leave his lucrative breakfast radio role and begin again as an independent broadcaster.

Earlier this month, Sandilands was ordered to appear in court over a major dispute with a luxury building company involving the $5.9 million, castle-like mansion he has been unable to sell.

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The radio star has been listed for a special fixture hearing before a judge next month, where he will contest a claim brought by builders involved in renovating his million-dollar Glenorie estate in Sydney’s north-west.

Alter Build Co Pty Ltd, a boutique Sydney construction company, claims Sandilands still owes $240,000 for bathroom, kitchen and laundry work carried out at the six-bedroom, five-bathroom property.

The former FM radio king has refused to pay until the builder explains the bill, arguing that the renovation exceeded the budget he set for the extravagant refurbishment of a gutted 1970s house on the acreage property.

“If I’m in the wrong, I’m happy to pay but if I’m not then I’m not paying,” Sandilands has said.

After Alter Build sued him in a civil Statement of Claim, Sandilands was ordered by the NSW District Court on Friday to file his defence within 28 days. A hearing has been scheduled for late November.

The renovations in question are of a property called Kingsview Estate that Sandilands purchased for $3 million in 2022. 

Sandilands initially listed the property earlier this year with price expectations of $5.7 million to $5.9 million before later reducing the guide to $4.9 million. 

The house still has not sold despite the $800,000 price cut. 

A year after buying the property, Sandilands and his then on-air co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson signed their industry-record 10-year contract with KIIS FM, worth a total of $200 million.

It ended in March, when Sandilands was suspended by parent company ARN and terminated following remarks he made about Henderson.