AUGUSTA (AP) - The Maine Senate on Wednesday gave final approval and sent to Gov. John Baldacci a bill that's crucial to next week's pending sale of Great Northern Paper Co. to Brascan Corp.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) - Cpl. Eric McCue of South Portland, Maine, proudly pinned his Purple Heart medal on his T-shirt. His new pal, Sgt. John Dale, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was hesitant to put his on.

First off, Dale had only one free hand.

SOUTH PORTLAND (AP) - After being narrowly rejected by the City Council, a proposed declaration of support for American troops could be headed to a city-wide referendum.

A group of South Portland residents has begun collecting signatures to have the issue placed on the ballot.

Organizer Ralph Kilgore said the loosely knit group includes veterans, families of U.S.

SOUTH PORTLAND (AP) - Deputy Commerce Secretary Samuel Bodman traveled to Maine to promote President Bush's $550 billion tax cut package on the home turf of Sen.

PORTLAND (AP) - Maine's highest court has affirmed a lower court ruling that a Bangor strip club violated city ordinances and cannot feature nude dancers.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday also ordered Diane Cormier-Youngs, owner of Diva's, to pay a $2,000 fine for allowing dancers to perform in pasties and thongs.

OLD ORCHARD BEACH (AP) - A Biddeford man in jail on drug charges has admitted shooting a Saco man last week, police said.

No charges have been brought against T. Joseph Glidden, 24, in connection with the shooting.

Charles Raybine, 37, of Saco, was shot on April 7 and has since undergone surgery for bullet wounds.

BANGOR (AP) - Elderly and disabled Mainers who have been receiving prescription drug benefits through a state program are finding out they are no longer covered.

Mainers enrolled in the Low Cost Drugs for the Elderly and Disabled program are seeing costs for some medications rise sharply as a result.

The state Human Services Department, which administers the program, said the rejections come as no surprise.

SOUTH PORTLAND (AP) - Cpl.

SACO (AP) - Police arrested 15 anti-war activists who bound themselves together and attempted to block the entrance to General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products Co. on Tuesday.

An additional 20 to 30 demonstrators held signs, chanted, sang and sold baked goods outside the plant, which manufactures some of the deadliest machine guns in the U.S.

PORTLAND (AP) - A South Portland man has filed notice that he plans to sue two Portland police detectives who already face felony assault charges for allegedly beating a drug suspect.

In a notice served with the city, James J. Ellis accused Detectives Patrick DeCourcey and Brian Regan of arresting and beating him without provocation on Sept. 27 in the Old Port.

MACHIAS (AP) - A 73-year-old man has been charged with assault and disorderly conduct for spraying a fire extinguisher on people holding a peace vigil, police said.

Lowell Miller of East Machias said Monday he may have gone "a little too far" in spraying five members of the group Work for Peace.

No one was injured in Friday's incident, said Machias Police Chief Harold Prescott.

Miller took offense at the group's peace vigil on Main Street in Machias, police said.

He approached the group, asked participants what they were doing and told them th

AUGUSTA (AP) - George Mitchell said Tuesday that hope for lasting peace is not lost in Northern Ireland despite setbacks in the process outlined in the Good Friday accord he brokered.

The former senator from Maine, speaking in the state House of Representatives chamber five years after the historic agreement was announced, acknowledged there have been bumps in the road since then to a stable peace in Northern Ireland.

"But people have seen the benefits of peace," he told lawmakers and a full gallery of spectators.

Mitchell said that when he announced

AUGUSTA (AP) - A compromise bill to remove guns from explosive situations in which domestic abuse is alleged was given a high chance of passage Monday as it was embraced by Gov. John Baldacci and legislative leaders from both parties.

The bill, which drew 100 cosponsors before it was introduced Monday, applies when temporary protection from abuse orders are issued.

AUGUSTA (AP) - A compromise amendment to a bill that would restrict the disposal of pressure-treated wood that contains arsenic is up for a vote Tuesday before the Legislature's Natural Resources Committee.

The bill, sponsored by Rep.

AUGUSTA (AP) - Maine ranks No. 1 in the nation in the percentage of households with telephone service, according to a goverment report released this month.

The latest phone subscribership report from the Federal Communications Commission found that 98.3 percent of Maine's households have phones.

ELLSWORTH (AP) - Sea urchin fishermen in Washington County are frustrated with a mandatory 30 percent cut in next year's harvest that's being imposed even though their fishery appears to be in good condition.

The fishermen voiced their concerns at a Saturday meeting held by the Maine Department of Marine Resources at Ellsworth Middle School.

Department officials explained that sea urchin stocks have been depleted in Hancock County, which falls in the same fishing management zone as Washington County.

BANGOR (AP) - Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart will make a swing through Maine later this week as he weighs a possible bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Hart is scheduled to speak Thursday at the University of Maine and then attend a party luncheon in Bangor.

SHAPLEIGH (AP) - A couple were bound with duct tape and several firearms were stolen during an armed robbery at the home of a longtime hunting supply outfitter in this western Maine town.

Police were trying to pinpoint how many weapons were taken Sunday night when robbers forced their way into the home of Frank Shippee, Lt. Gary Fecteau of the York County Sheriff's Department said.

The thieves beat Shippee and bound the couple's feet and hands, police said.

HOULTON (AP) - Eleven American flags have recently been slashed or stolen from homes and businesses in this small northern Maine town, police said.

Seven of the flags were slashed Thursday at random locations throughout Houlton, apparently with a knife or razor, said Police Chief Daniel Soucy.

The following night, four more flags were stolen from their holders or poles. Soucy believes the acts are related.

"Certainly, it's troubling," he said.

ALFRED (AP) - A Biddeford man has been indicted on a manslaughter charge in the death of an 11-month-old infant he was baby-sitting last June.

The indictment against Shawn Small, 26, was handed up last week by a York County grand jury after the attorney general's office upgraded charges from aggravated assault.

Small allegedly shook Chason Treadwell on June 15, 2002, two days before the infant died at Maine Medical Center in Portland as a result of lack of oxygen to the brain.

Investigators said Small remains free on bail following the indictment.