I’ll be up in October
Only in Maine
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Cool - here come the tourists!
Border Patrol supervisor in Maine accused of modifying government computers
A supervisor at the Port of Entry in Calais faces federal charges for allegedly swapping out government computer parts and exchanging them through an online retailer’s trade-in program.Terry Liu, 39, was arrested after an interview on Sept. 9, during which he reportedly admitted to replacing CBP computer parts with older model parts, according to an affidavit by FBI special agent Christopher White.
Liu has been charged with one count of theft of government property and one count of destruction of government property, both of which could carry a maximum of 10 years in federal prison and $100,000 in fines. He had a first appearance at the U.S. District Court in Bangor on Thursday, and a judge has ordered he remain in custody of the U.S. Marshals pending trial.
Liu’s court-appointed attorney, Phil Noland, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine declined to comment. A spokesperson for CBP was not able to immediately say whether Liu was still employed by the agency at the time of his arrest.
White’s affidavit indicated Port Director Theodore Cummings advised Liu in March 2025 about not modifying computers. He sent Liu an email, reminding him he was not allowed to “move any computers or computer parts.”
“I do appreciate the intent but we should stay in our lane and report deficiencies through the work ticket process,” Cummings wrote.
White wrote that Liu’s alleged modifications were never approved by CBP’s IT staff.
White wrote that CBP’s Office of Professional Standards said in January that it was investigating Liu “related to various actions taken while on duty and in his official capacity.” He is accused of modifying multiple government-owned computers by replacing 14th generation parts with older models, according to White. CBP had reported earlier this year that 46 computers had been modified without authorization between three area ports.
White wrote that CBP’s IT staff found that multiple Computer Processing Units, RAM and hard drives were “swapped out for noncompliant hardware” and that many of the computers were “connected back to the CBP network.”
The affidavit mentions two instances, one in January and one in March, when surveillance cameras, including one installed over Liu’s desk in early March during the investigation, appeared to show him in the Calais office working on computers after midnight, according to White’s affidavit.
“During ‘midnight’ shifts there was typically only one (1) supervisor assigned to cover all open ports in the area,” White wrote. Based on where Liu’s desk was located, opposite from the “cargo” area of where the port accepts traffic, White wrote that “this meant that Liu would expect not to encounter the officers working at that time.”
Liu’s online search history and records from Newegg.com — an online retailer for computer parts — showed that Liu had ordered several older generation parts to his home addresses in Maine and New Hampshire, according to the affidavit. The records also indicated Liu had received trade-in benefits for the CBP parts he is accused of taking and sending to Newegg.
White wrote that investigators found 13 emails from Newegg, recognizing a $200 trade-in value for each of several parts. Financial records also showed that Liu received a $200 credit on three different dates from Newegg, on a Delta SkyMiles Platinum credit card, according to the affidavit.
When questioned about the allegations on Wednesday, Liu “admitted that he knew that the changes made degraded the CBP computer system efficiency” and claimed he did so “because he was angry with how long it took for CBP IT systems to be repaired,” White wrote.
Liu also reportedly admitted to using the CBP parts for Newegg’s trade-in program, “in which he received credit,” White wrote. The affidavit doesn’t address whether Liu reported how much he received in credits.
White wrote that CBP estimated it would cost more than $20,000 to replace the older model parts that Liu used, and more than $105,000 to replace all 46 computers.
There goes the Market Price of my beloved fried clams...
Shellfish harvesters expecting a bountiful season are now assessing their losses and bracing for what’s next after an algae bloom wiped out most of the stock in certain Midcoast bays.
Town and state officials, along with scientists and shellfish harvesters, have been monitoring a significant bloom of the phytoplankton Karenia mikimotoi after it was detected in Casco Bay earlier this month.
The algae bloom, which is not harmful to humans, spurred the Department of Marine Resources last week to close shellfish harvesting in Maquoit Bay in Brunswick and the eastern side of Middle Bay in Harpswell, where clam diggers noticed dramatic die-offs of softshell clams and worms.
More closures could be coming as the bloom shifts to other areas, coastal resource managers in Brunswick and Harpswell said.
“You couldn’t put a number on the generational shell stock that we’ve lost,” said David Wilson, a Harpswell-based harvester. Wilson alerted authorities to the issue after noticing a large concentration of foul-smelling dead species in Middle Bay in Harpswell earlier this month.
Dead clams pile up in Maquoit Bay in Brunswick in a photo taken by town Coastal Resource Manager Dan Devereaux (Courtesy of Dan Devereaux)
K. mikimotoi puts significant stress on shellfish, impacting their ability to feed and breathe. If shellfish aren’t killed by the algae itself, they may be suffocated as the bloom depletes the amount of oxygen in the water.
The bloom appears to be breaking up in Maquoit and Middle bays, but more die-offs are expected because of low dissolved oxygen, said Darcie Couture, Harpswell’s harbormaster and marine resource administrator. In addition, dead species and low dissolved oxygen levels are beginning to appear along the upper New Meadows River and Thomas Point Beach.
“Things with this current event are evolving literally hour-by-hour,” Couture said Tuesday.
In an update Wednesday, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said the bloom appears to be moving into the Penobscot Bay area between Owls Head, Northport and Islesboro. A dense patch of the phytoplankton was also reported south of Vinalhaven.
High nor’easter winds this weekend could shift the bloom to different areas, Brunswick and Harpswell officials said.
Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has mapped an active phytoplankton bloom extending from northern Massachusetts all the way up the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine.
The event is expected to have a huge financial impact on local shellfish harvesters, who, before the bloom, were having a very productive year in the Brunswick area, according to Brunswick Coastal Resource Manager Dan Devereaux.
Devereaux’s office counted 66,000 bushels of harvestable softshell clams last fall along Brunswick’s coastline. In a typical year, the harvestable crop would be about 4,500 bushels, he said.
Brunswick is already a productive clamming port. In 2025, harvesters in Brunswick collected nearly 455,000 pounds of softshell clams and made $1.8 million, more than any other softshell clam port in Maine that year, according to the Department of Marine Resources.
“This is the biggest mortality event I’ve ever seen along the Brunswick shores and in particular in Maquoit Bay, but it’s also the most dense I’ve ever seen softshell clams in this town,” Devereaux said.
Harvesters are now struggling to stay afloat.
Wilson’s been a commercial clammer for 36 years, and has also done aquaculture work. Wild harvesting clams allowed Wilson to buy land in Harpswell and raise his kids, he said. He loves it, but the variability of year-to-year conditions makes it difficult. This month’s events have caused him to make tough financial decisions, like putting off trading in his truck.
He’s finding places to dig, but it is a “fraction” of what he would produce just weeks ago.
“I’m at a loss of words,” Wilson said Wednesday.
Devereaux said the bloom may also cause stressed oysters to close up, meaning they won’t feed enough to survive the winter. Lobsters could move out of the bays, too, due to low oxygen levels.
“The priceless thing that we can’t put on it is, how much ecological trickle-down damage does this have?” Devereaux said.
K. mikimotoi is naturally occurring, but has only appeared in Maine in the last decade, according to Nick Record, a senior research scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. The last time a bloom of the species impacted Casco Bay was in 2017, according to the the Department of Marine Resources.
The laboratory tracks harmful new arrivals like K. mikimotoi — which could have been brought over in the bilges of ships, or by changing currents.
“Harmful algal blooms have been with us as long as we remember,” Record said. But climate change has likely dialed up the frequency of new species popping up in Maine.
“We need to be expecting surprises,” he said.
Harvesters like Wilson have been collecting shellfish samples to send off for testing. Couture, the Harpswell harbormaster, hopes that this event helps scientists predict blooms earlier in the future.
The full impact will become apparent after the bloom moves out of the area, Devereaux said, but he guesses that harvesters have lost millions of dollars.
“We’ll be able to go back this fall and really see how the biomass of softshell clams has shrunk and then put some economic numbers to that pretty accurately,” he said.
The Department of Marine Resources is asking those in the industry to report signs of low oxygen, water discoloration and odors. The department will share updates on the situation on its website.
Midcoast shellfish harvesters bogged down by deadly algae bloom
The bloom appears to be easing in certain parts of Casco Bay, but low oxygen levels could lead to even more dead species.Shellfish harvesters expecting a bountiful season are now assessing their losses and bracing for what’s next after an algae bloom wiped out most of the stock in certain Midcoast bays.
Town and state officials, along with scientists and shellfish harvesters, have been monitoring a significant bloom of the phytoplankton Karenia mikimotoi after it was detected in Casco Bay earlier this month.
The algae bloom, which is not harmful to humans, spurred the Department of Marine Resources last week to close shellfish harvesting in Maquoit Bay in Brunswick and the eastern side of Middle Bay in Harpswell, where clam diggers noticed dramatic die-offs of softshell clams and worms.
More closures could be coming as the bloom shifts to other areas, coastal resource managers in Brunswick and Harpswell said.
“You couldn’t put a number on the generational shell stock that we’ve lost,” said David Wilson, a Harpswell-based harvester. Wilson alerted authorities to the issue after noticing a large concentration of foul-smelling dead species in Middle Bay in Harpswell earlier this month.
Dead clams pile up in Maquoit Bay in Brunswick in a photo taken by town Coastal Resource Manager Dan Devereaux (Courtesy of Dan Devereaux)K. mikimotoi puts significant stress on shellfish, impacting their ability to feed and breathe. If shellfish aren’t killed by the algae itself, they may be suffocated as the bloom depletes the amount of oxygen in the water.
The bloom appears to be breaking up in Maquoit and Middle bays, but more die-offs are expected because of low dissolved oxygen, said Darcie Couture, Harpswell’s harbormaster and marine resource administrator. In addition, dead species and low dissolved oxygen levels are beginning to appear along the upper New Meadows River and Thomas Point Beach.
“Things with this current event are evolving literally hour-by-hour,” Couture said Tuesday.
In an update Wednesday, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said the bloom appears to be moving into the Penobscot Bay area between Owls Head, Northport and Islesboro. A dense patch of the phytoplankton was also reported south of Vinalhaven.
High nor’easter winds this weekend could shift the bloom to different areas, Brunswick and Harpswell officials said.
Meanwhile, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has mapped an active phytoplankton bloom extending from northern Massachusetts all the way up the coasts of New Hampshire and Maine.
The event is expected to have a huge financial impact on local shellfish harvesters, who, before the bloom, were having a very productive year in the Brunswick area, according to Brunswick Coastal Resource Manager Dan Devereaux.
Devereaux’s office counted 66,000 bushels of harvestable softshell clams last fall along Brunswick’s coastline. In a typical year, the harvestable crop would be about 4,500 bushels, he said.
Brunswick is already a productive clamming port. In 2025, harvesters in Brunswick collected nearly 455,000 pounds of softshell clams and made $1.8 million, more than any other softshell clam port in Maine that year, according to the Department of Marine Resources.
“This is the biggest mortality event I’ve ever seen along the Brunswick shores and in particular in Maquoit Bay, but it’s also the most dense I’ve ever seen softshell clams in this town,” Devereaux said.
Harvesters are now struggling to stay afloat.
Wilson’s been a commercial clammer for 36 years, and has also done aquaculture work. Wild harvesting clams allowed Wilson to buy land in Harpswell and raise his kids, he said. He loves it, but the variability of year-to-year conditions makes it difficult. This month’s events have caused him to make tough financial decisions, like putting off trading in his truck.
He’s finding places to dig, but it is a “fraction” of what he would produce just weeks ago.
“I’m at a loss of words,” Wilson said Wednesday.
Devereaux said the bloom may also cause stressed oysters to close up, meaning they won’t feed enough to survive the winter. Lobsters could move out of the bays, too, due to low oxygen levels.
“The priceless thing that we can’t put on it is, how much ecological trickle-down damage does this have?” Devereaux said.
K. mikimotoi is naturally occurring, but has only appeared in Maine in the last decade, according to Nick Record, a senior research scientist at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. The last time a bloom of the species impacted Casco Bay was in 2017, according to the the Department of Marine Resources.
The laboratory tracks harmful new arrivals like K. mikimotoi — which could have been brought over in the bilges of ships, or by changing currents.
“Harmful algal blooms have been with us as long as we remember,” Record said. But climate change has likely dialed up the frequency of new species popping up in Maine.
“We need to be expecting surprises,” he said.
Harvesters like Wilson have been collecting shellfish samples to send off for testing. Couture, the Harpswell harbormaster, hopes that this event helps scientists predict blooms earlier in the future.
The full impact will become apparent after the bloom moves out of the area, Devereaux said, but he guesses that harvesters have lost millions of dollars.
“We’ll be able to go back this fall and really see how the biomass of softshell clams has shrunk and then put some economic numbers to that pretty accurately,” he said.
The Department of Marine Resources is asking those in the industry to report signs of low oxygen, water discoloration and odors. The department will share updates on the situation on its website.
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