Coyotes moving to Cape, deer going to college. Animals are everywhere.

Do the coyotes moving into Cape Elizabeth represent some kind of animal gentrification?

Pretty soon, there will just be restaurants and boutiques catering to their specific tastes (rabbits?), and home prices will… I don’t know, do whatever home prices do when there are a lot of coyotes around.

In case you missed the bulletin, police over in Cape are urging local people to be wary after a pair of coyotes was spotted on a trail near Shore Road, probably looking for property where they can build luxury condos.

Many people don’t realize this, but coyotes are among the few animals whose ranges have expanded as humans developed the natural landscape, making them ideal market capitalists. You could say the same thing about Apple products.

These coyotes aren’t the only animals who are branching out, though. A deer was found wandering the halls of a Concordia University dormitory in Wisconsin this week. It left college after briefly staggering around and destroying furniture, enjoying a post secondary experience much like many of my classmates.

The deer is now $100,000 in debt, I assume.

(“Don’t be ridiculous,” you say. “College is much more expensive than that!” Yes, but the deer was only there for a few minutes.)

On to the news of the day.

What we’re talking about

A state government shutdown seems likely at this point. But you never know. There’s been a flurry of activity up in Augusta as lawmakers scramble to put a budget together before the 11:59 p.m. deadline to avoid a shutdown. Gov. Paul LePage has promised to sit on any budget he doesn’t like for the full 10 days allowed under the state constitution, and he doesn’t like the version being kicked around as late as this evening. But budget talks are expected to continue into the night. Keeping checking back with us on www.bangordailynews.com for updates, or follow our political team, Christopher Cousins and Michael Shepherd, on Twitter.

Investigators are trying to determine why a 34-year-old inmate died shortly after being put in a holding cell at the Cumberland County Jail. According to WGME, CBS 13, Adam Davis Barnes, of Westbrook, was brought to the jail around 6 p.m. after he was charged with failure to stop, possession of schedule W drugs, violation of bail, leaving the scene of an accident, driving to endanger, falsifying evidence and possession of schedule Y drugs. About an hour later, he was found in his cell unresponsive, and corrections officers could not revive him.

The summer sun gives us beach days and… bowling? The BDN’s Kathleen Pierce explains how the popular 20-lane Bayside Bowl has used a vast array of solar panels to light up the alleys and video games, among other attractions.

A judge who demanded a southern Maine woman get married before he’d agree to let her change her name has been overruled. The Portland Press Herald reported that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court threw out a lower court ruling that Carol Boardman, of Standish, couldn’t change her last name to that of her boyfriend without marrying the guy. The judge who rejected the name change said he thought it would be legally deceptive — people would think the couple was married, and they wouldn’t be. But the state’s highest court overturned that decision and allowed the name change.

Tweet of the day

From Cat Food Breath:

The Big Idea

Want to buy an election? Here’s the price tag: About $400,000. We hear about how many millions and millions are spent on a particularly hotly contested race for the House or Senate at any given time, but as we’ve repeatedly seen, the bigger spender doesn’t necessarily always win. A cyber-security consulting firm is saying if you spend they money wisely, it only costs about $400,000 to buy your way into office. The troubling part: Spending that money “wisely” involves a bunch of activity that’s widely seen as corroding our society, like paying for a blitz of “fake news and data leaks.” Here’s a decent database of fake news sites and set of tips for how to identify them, in case you don’t want to be a cog in a cheaply assembled election buying machine.

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.

If someone forwarded you this newsletter, click here to sign up. Or just text PORTLAND to 66866. As always, like BDN Portland on Facebook for more local coverage.