AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine attorney general's office has taken civil action against a Biddeford man accused of hurling racially charged insults at a pair of middle school students.
Attorney General William Schneider said Thursday that a Superior Court order forbids 31-year-old Michael Ryan from having any contact with the two students. It also bars him from assaulting or threatening people based on upon "race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation."
Ryan was accused of threatening a 13-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy while they were walking past his home to school. He couldn't be reached immediately for comment.
Schneider says his office is committed to enforcing the Maine Civil Rights Act to ensure that schools and streets are safe from harassment.
CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine (AP) — A pair of skiers who got lost after following the tracks of another skier to an out-of-bounds area of Maine's Sugarloaf resort are safely out of the woods.
Wardens say 16-year-old Bradley Snow and 20-year-old Sven Bergeron, both of Oxford, slipped under the orange rope that marks the ski resort's boundary Wednesday afternoon. They weren't reported missing until hours later, and the search didn't get under way until 11:30 p.m.
Thursday morning, Maine Warden Service Pilot Dan Dufault spotted the pair within nine minutes of arriving on scene. Game wardens used snowmobiles, and snowshoes to reach them.
Sgt. Scott Thrasher says the pair built a shelter to stay warm. He says they weren't harmed, and were allowed to leave with their parents.
(Information in the following story is from: Sun-Journal, http://www.sunjournal.com)
RUMFORD, Maine (AP) — An effort is under way in Maine to boost the state's maple syrup industry.
Democratic Rep. Matt Peterson of Rumford has submitted a resolve to create a 12-member commission to study the potential for expanding the industry and strengthening the brand of Maine maple products. A public hearing is slated next Thursday.
Peterson told the Sun Journal of Lewiston that although Vermont is the leader among U.S. maple producers, Maine forests have more hard maple trees than Vermont.
Vermont was the nation's top maple syrup producer in 2010, with 890,000 gallons, while Maine was the No. 3 state with 310,000 gallons. New Hampshire was the fifth top producer, with 87,000 gallons.
(Information in the following story is from: Kennebec Journal, )
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine's Kennebec Journal says the sale of its newspaper building in Augusta to a counseling agency has fallen through.
The newspaper and Crisis & Counseling had signed a purchase-and-sale agreement last November and expected to complete the deal by the end of January. The newspaper reported Thursday that the mental-health and substance-abuse agency has since determined it can't afford to make the upgrades it needs at the 53,000-square-foot newspaper building.
The Kennebec Journal is selling the property it's occupied since 1961 and moving to smaller offices. Newspaper officials say they'll put the building back on the market.
Crisis & Counseling has been looking for a new home for more than a year. It is leaving its current offices to make way for an expansion of the Kennebec County courts.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The National Weather Service says Portland, Maine's 14-month streak of above-average monthly temperatures has come to an end.
Weather officials say Portland's average temperature in January was 21.4 degrees, which was 0.3 degrees below normal.
It's the first time since October 2009 that Portland had below-normal monthly temperatures.
While Portland was colder than usual last month, northern Maine had above-normal temperatures. For the month, Caribou's average monthly temperature was 14 degrees, which was 4.5 degrees above normal.
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Ward Bird, the New Hampshire farmer freed by a rare commutation of his three-year sentence for threatening a trespasser with a gun, says it was exhilarating to wake up to the sounds of his children knocking around his Moultonborough home.
The forty-nine-year-old Bird tells the Associated Press he can't yet grasp the extent of media coverage and political outcry his case generated.
He told Gov. John Lynch and the Executive Council at Tuesday's pardon hearing that he never waved or pointed a gun at Christine Harris when she drove to the back of his remote house in 2006 in search of property for sale.
Bird says he would have nothing to say if he encountered Harris on the streets.
KEENE, N.H. (AP) — A man charged with killing a New Hampshire family of four in a fire over 20 years ago faces trial in August.
Fifty-four-year-old David McLeod was arrested in California last year and indicted on four counts of second-degree murder. He is accused of setting a fire at a Keene apartment house in January 1989 that killed Carl and Lori Hina, their infant daughter and Carl Hina's 12-yera-old daughter.
Jury selection for McLeod trial is set to start on Aug. 1.
McLeod's arrest was the first resulting from New Hampshire's cold case unit, which was created to review the state's more than 100 unsolved homicides and suspicious deaths.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Republican House Speaker William O'Brien says the House budget for the next two years will spend roughly 2 percent less than the current budget.
O'Brien and Republican leaders released their revenue estimates Thursday for the budget committee to use in building a budget for the two years beginning July 1. The estimates include plans to reduce about $2 million in taxes and fees.
O'Brien said the estimate was a "stake in the ground" that would not change if rosier forecasts are made this spring after the state's big tax revenue months.
Typically, business tax receipts in March and April give lawmakers a better forecast of the economy two years out. O'Brien said any extra money from improved forecasts would be saved or used to reduce taxes.
NH workers would not have to join union under bill
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch says he opposes an anti-union right-to-work bill that would end the practice of requiring nonunion members to pay a share of collective bargaining costs.
In a Thursday letter to the House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee, Lynch said the bill being considered would undercut the good relationship that exists between management and labor in the state.
More than 300 people filled the House chamber Thursday for a hearing on the bill that also would prohibit future agreements from requiring workers to join a union or pay the fair share fee a condition of employment. Most opposed the bill.
State Rep. Al Baldasaro, a Republican from Londonderry and bill co-sponsor, said the fee requirement was extortion.
LACONIA, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire Rep. Frank Guinta is holding his first town hall meeting since being elected to Congress in November.
Guinta, a Republican, will be at the Laconia City Hall on Thursday night to update residents on progress made during his first month in Washington and hear their concerns on issues ranging from federal spending, health care reform and the debt ceiling.
Guinta, the former mayor of Manchester, defeated Democrat Carol Shea-Porter in November to win his first term.
(Information in the following story is from: Portsmouth Herald, )
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — The Portsmouth, N.H., police commission is recommending that the city cut five officers from its force so there will be no need to increase the budget.
Commission Chairman Jerry Howe says the department is going to have to do less with less.
At a Wednesday meeting, Chief Lou Ferland told the commission the only way to keep the $8.4 million budget the same as last year is to cut positions. The department has 64 full-time officers.
Ferland says that over the last two years the department has lost almost 12 percent of its personnel.
The Portsmouth Herald reports Ferland says the department would have to cut a detective's position, two downtown beat officers and two traffic cars.
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire State Police say a parked cruiser was struck from behind on the Everett Turnpike in Nashua.
Police say the emergency lights were activated on the cruiser, which was in the far left lane of the turnpike at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The trooper was waiting for a tow truck to pull out a vehicle stuck in a snow bank.
Authorities said a woman traveling northbound spun out and struck the rear of the state police cruiser.
No one was hurt, but both the cruiser and the SUV were heavily damaged and had to be towed away.
State police say speed was a likely factor in the collision and that charges could be filed.
VERMONT:
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont lawmakers are weighing a bill that would establish a government transparency office to enforce the state's public records laws.
The bill, which would also set up a committee to review more than 250 exemptions contained in the law, is aimed at providing what state government lacks now — a person or office that enforces the law and advises citizens who have been denied in their public records requests.
Secretary of State Jim Condos told lawmakers in a committee hearing Thursday that the state needs a less intimidating process for citizens and one that doesn't necessarily start with litigation.
Private Vt. psychiatric hospital to add beds, jobs
(Information in the following story is from: Brattleboro Reformer)
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — The nonprofit Vermont psychiatric hospital, the Brattleboro Retreat, is going add 14 beds and 35 jobs.
Retreat President Rob Simpson says the expansion is needed because admissions are expected to continue to grow in the coming months.
Currently, the Retreat currently has 95 beds, most of which are full.
The Brattleboro Reformer says national statistics show that last year the Retreat saw its admissions jump by 23 percent. Nationwide, the increase in psychiatric facilities was 3.5-percent.
Last year the Retreat cared for nearly 3,000 adults and adolescents and had as many as 24 admissions a day.
The Retreat has a capacity of 149 beds so it won't have to seek state permission to add the new beds.
(Information in the following story is from: The Burlington Free Press, )
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A group of Republican state lawmakers says Vermont should adopt a "bare roads" policy to completely clear snow and ice from the state's roadways.
House Minority Leader Don Turner made the call as the fire department in his home town of Milton responded to three car crashes Tuesday night on Interstate 89.
Deputy Transportation Secretary Sue Minter says the administration of new Gov. Peter Shumlin will look at plowing practices. But she tells the Burlington Free Press a bare-roads policy would require a doubling of the state's plowing force at a cost of $55 million initially and $35 million a year thereafter.
The state's policy for storm cleanup is safe-roads-at-safe-speeds standard, set in 1981.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders says he wants Vermonters to know that hundreds of contractors found to have defrauded the U.S. military are still doing business with the military.
Sanders made the comments after his office in Washington released a report that found defense companies that defrauded the U.S. military between 2007 and 2009 still received $285 billion in contracts from the Pentagon during the same period.
Sanders says the Defense Department needs to take more aggressive steps to ensure taxpayer dollars aren't wasted.
Sanders says the bulk of the contracts went to 211 companies that had civil judgments against them or settled fraud charges of more than $1 million.
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