Talk about your welcome sea change. After suffering through eight years of racist, boorish, bellicose mini-Trump Paul LePage, Mainers this week celebrated the swearing-in of our 75th - and first woman - governor Janet Mills, a wonkish Democratic former Attorney General who often tangled with LePage, who believes in climate change and health care, and who speaks in full sentences. Speaking before 3,000 elated people at her Wednesday inauguration, Mills offered up a promising future with the help of a newly Democratic-controlled legislature, vowing to fund Medicaid expansion, focus on renewable energy, fight the state's opioid crisis and reconvene a council of state agencies to help children in need. The icing on her inaugural cake: The bring-down-the-house performance by two immigrant girls, 11-year-old Shy Paca and 10-year-old Natalia Mbadu, of Alicia Keys' "Girl On Fire." Cue jubilation, and the sense Maine had come back to itself. “Tomorrow we rise before the dawn," said Mills near the end of her speech, "(with) hope in our hearts and love in our souls for a brand new day.” Not a moment too soon.

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Photos by Bangor Daily News