State education chief says cuts could imperil aid

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron is warning lawmakers that cuts to the education budget could cause the state to lose federal aid money.

Lawmakers are considering cutting the education budget by at least $38.1 million.

Gendron says the budget is already bare bones and further cuts could risk federal aid to special education, school lunches and from the federal stimulus package.

She spoke Tuesday to the Legislature's Education Committee.

Search yields no sign of Maine shooting suspect

NEWPORT, Maine (AP) - Maine state police say there has been no confirmed sighting of a man wanted for questioning in the killing of his father as a manhunt continued Wednesday.

On Tuesday, officers searched woods and cabins in Newport as three aircraft - one from the state police and two from the border patrol - flew overhead. But there was no sign of 45-year-old Perley Goodrich Jr.

Maine Public Safety Department spokesman Steve McCausland said Wednesday that police were continuing extra patrols, but there was no aircraft and fewer searchers.

CMP awarded $96 million in federal stimulus funds

LEWISTON — The Obama administration has awarded nearly $96 million in stimulus funds to Central Maine Power Co. to invest in "Smart Grid" technology in Maine, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, announced Tuesday.

New poll shows shift in tax, school referendum questions

LEWISTON — A new poll released Monday reveals large shifts in how Maine voters say they will vote on several of the referendum questions slated for the Nov. 3 ballot, compared to a similar poll from earlier this month.

While voters have remained somewhat consistent on the same-sex marriage law in Question 1, the poll showed more voters oppose cutting the municipal excise tax, oppose repealing the school consolidation law and oppose enacting state spending caps (TABOR).

Local lawmakers bills OK'd for short session

LEWISTON — State Rep. Mike Beaulieu, R-Auburn, wants to clarify who is responsible for paying unemployment to workers who are laid off from more than one job.

State Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, wants to strengthen Maine's ballot initiative process by tracking who is collecting signatures. And the entire Lewiston/Auburn delegation wants to make it easier to search for seniors who go missing.

Obama moves to increase loans available to small businesses

LEWISTON — Efforts by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, to expand lending to small businesses got a boost last week when President Obama announced the Small Business Administration would incorporate some of her proposals as part of its new lending initiatives. In Maine, small business leaders and bankers welcomed the moves.

Mainers already heading to polls

AUGUSTA (AP) - As campaigns for and against repeal of Maine's gay marriage law urged their supporters to vote early, the state's top election official said Monday that turnout is on track to be far greater than in a typical off-year election.

No one could say for sure whether the gay marriage question has intensified interest in voting this fall, but "that's the lightning rod issue on the ballot," Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said.

Police seek suspect in connection to Newport homicide

NEWPORT, Maine  — State and Newport Police are investigating the shooting that took place inside a Newport home late Monday night as a homicide.

The victim is 76 year old Perley Goodrich Sr. Police continue to look for Goodrich's 45 year old son, Perley Goodrich Jr. for questioning in connection with the shooting.

The younger Goodrich was last seen leaving the home at 146 Rutland Road shortly before midnight. The younger Goodrich lives at the house with his parents.

Missing union funds brings charge in Augusta

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A former Augusta Fire Department captain is to appear in court Nov. 24 to face a theft charge in connection with missing firefighter's union funds.

The Kennebec Journal says Robert MacMaster, who was a captain with the department until he resigned in July, has been summonsed to appear in Kennebec County Superior on a charge of theft by unauthorized taking.

Baldacci: Vote for gay marriage

BANGOR, Maine (AP) - Acknowledging his past opposition to gay marriages, Gov. John Baldacci is urging Mainers to vote against the ballot proposal to repeal the state's same-sex marriage law.

Speaking in Bangor, Baldacci on Tuesday said he once preferred civil unions to gay marriages. But he said he came to believe a civil union is not equal to civil marriage. He signed the gay marriage bill into law last May.

Maine voters will cast ballots on Tuesday on whether to repeal the state's gay marriage law, which was passed by the Legislature earlier this year.

Acadia Park pondering no fly zone to ensure quiet

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK, Maine (AP) - Acadia National Park officials are working to prohibit aircraft from flying within the park's boundaries as a way to keep the landscape quiet.

Acadia Park Planner John Kelly says the park is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to establish buffer zones that would extend a half mile from the park's boundaries and 5,000 feet in the air.

Any rules would not affect aircraft using the Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton.

He tells the Bangor Daily News it's seen as a way to manage air tours of the park.

Maine TABOR campaign seeks probe

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - The campaign for a taxpayer's bill of rights referendum is asking Maine's attorney general to investigate pre-election activities by two State House offices.

The TABOR campaign questions activities by the legislative staffs of Senate President and gubernatorial candidate Elizabeth Mitchell and House Speaker Hannah Pingree, both Democrats.

Girl with 'mermaid syndrome' dies at 10

PORTLAND (AP) - Shiloh Pepin, a girl who was born with fused legs, a rare condition often called "mermaid syndrome," and gained a wide following on the Internet and U.S. television, has died. She was 10.

Doctors had predicted she would at most only survive for days after her birth. The girl died at Maine Medical Center on Friday afternoon, hospital spokesman John Lamb said. She had been hospitalized in critical condition for nearly a week.

Beyond the trauma

Guy Desjardins had been out of the police academy three months when he responded to his first fatal, a parent and child dead. Their car had hit a tree in Sabattus.

"The accident scene was horrifying enough, but then I was told by the chief and the district attorney I had to attend the autopsy," he said. It was a more routine part of police work in the 1970s, but another on-the-job first for the officer.

He sought out a state trooper friend.

Corporate donations pour in to support school consolidation

LEWISTON — Corporations from all over Maine, and some from outside, have rallied around Gov. John Baldacci's school consolidation law, uniting to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to the group seeking to defeat the referendum question to repeal the law.

L.L. Bean, the Unum Group, U.S. Cellular, Maine Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association and Nestle Waters North America Inc. each has donated $25,000 to maintain the law, according to a state campaign finance report filed earlier this month.

Navy's newest warships top out at more than 50 mph

BATH (AP) — The Navy's need for speed is being answered by a pair of warships that have reached freeway speeds during testing at sea.

Independence, a 418-foot warship built in Alabama, boasts a top speed in excess of 45 knots, or about 52 mph, and sustained 44 knots for four hours during builder trials that wrapped up this month off the Gulf Coast. The 378-foot Freedom, a ship built in Wisconsin by a competing defense contractor, has put up similar numbers.

Flu vaccine slow to ship

The H1N1 flu vaccine is safe, but distribution is behind schedule, according to testimony before a Senate committee Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

The vaccine is as safe as the seasonal flu vaccine, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.

"Because the 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccine is made the same way as seasonal influenza vaccines, we expect it to have a similar safety profile as seasonal flu vaccines, which have a very good safety track record," she said.

Body of Maine urchin fisherman found

LUBEC, Maine (AP) - The body of one of the missing urchin fishermen from eastern Maine has been recovered.

Their boat is believed to have sunk in Cobscook Bay.

WCSH-TV says the body was recovered during a search Wednesday, but officials aren't saying whose body it was.

The Coast Guard's Chris Berry says a helicopter and three boats were searching for the skipper, Joseph Jones, and crewmembers Darrell Cline and Norman Johnson who failed to return home to Lubec on Tuesday.

WNSX radio says they were on board the 32-foot urchin dragger Bottom Basher.

New law allows renters to negotiate for lower heat, rent

LEWISTON — A new state law allows landlords to negotiate with tenants for lower minimal temperatures in exchange for rental rebates, a legal assistance group says.

 The law, passed by the Legislature earlier this year, allows tenants to negotiate for temperatures below 68 degrees Fahrenheit, to a low of 62 degrees, said Matt Dyer of Pine Tree Legal Assistance, a statewide nonprofit with an office in Lewiston. The heating agreements are not allowed in rentals with occupants over 65 or younger than 5 years old, according to the law.

Abbott looking into Blaine House bid

LEWISTON — Steve Abbott confirmed Tuesday a rumor that has been circulating among many Republicans and bloggers for weeks: he is seriously considering a gubernatorial bid.

Abbott, who serves as Sen. Susan Collins' chief of staff, would be running as a Republican.

"I've had a number of people talk to me about running for governor, and it's something that I'm taking very seriously," he said during a phone interview Tuesday.

NPR demanding that group stop using clip in ad

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - National Public Radio is demanding that a political action committee stop using a radio clip as part of its efforts to repeal Maine's same-sex marriage law.

The group Stand for Marriage Maine began airing the ad last week on television stations and the Internet.

The ad uses audio from a 2004 NRP story titled, "Massachusetts Schools Grapple with Including Gay & Lesbian Relationships in Sex Education."

Maine jobless rate 8.5 percent in September

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - The Maine Labor Department says the state's unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percentage point to 8.5 percent between August and September.

Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman says that even though the jobless rate has remained relatively stable since June, many people continue to struggle to find jobs.

But Maine's unemployment rate is still better than the national figure for September, 9.8 percent, up from 9.7 percent in August.

Both Maine's and the national jobless rates for September were higher than they were a year earlier.

Maine bill seeks H1N1 prevention

 

 

AUGUSTA (AP) — The state's senate president plans to introduce legislation she said Tuesday could help curb the spread of swine flu while expanding the state's policies on paid time off.

Elizabeth Mitchell announced she will introduce the yet-undrafted bill during the 2010 session that begins in January.

Her fellow legislative leaders voted unanimously last week to allow the Vassalboro Democrat to put in her bill during a session that's reserved mainly for emergency or governor's bills.

Maine tax curb plan pushed

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The taxpayer bill of rights campaign is pushing a study that says Maine has a poor national ranking for economic outlook due largely to its tax policies.

Jonathan Williams of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an author of the study, told a news conference in Augusta that Maine ranks No. 47 for its economic outlook. Williams compared that ranking to No. 2 for Colorado, which has passed a taxpayer bill of rights. Rhode Island, Vermont and New York ranked 48th to 50th in that order.

Maine bill seeks H1N1 prevention

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine's Senate president is introducing legislation to make sure that people who get swine flu or some other illness get time off from work to recover, or to take care of family members who get sick.

Sen. Elizabeth Mitchell is announcing introduction of her bill on Tuesday. The Vassalboro Democrat says the idea of the legislation is to prevent the spread of H1N1.