TABOR up for vote a second time

Question 4: "Do you want to change the existing formulas that limit state and local government spending and require voter approval by referendum for spending over those limits and for increases in state taxes?"

Maine wind power project gets boost

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine utility regulators have approved a long-term energy supply contract for the Rollins wind-power project in Penobscot County.

The 20-year contract approved Wednesday by the Public Utilities Commission is between Rollins' owner, First Wind, and utilities that buy and distribute its power, Central Maine Power and Bangor Hydro-Electric companies.

It is the first long-term contract to be approved since electric restructuring in 2000.

Maine veterans show support for climate bill

BATH, Maine (AP) - A group of military veterans from Maine is calling on Maine's U.S. senators to support a global warming bill under debate in Washington.

Speaking at a news conference at Bath City Hall on Thursday, retired Maj. Gen. Donald Edwards of South Bristol and two other veterans urged passage of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. The bill calls for pollution reduction measures and a shift of energy policies away from fossil fuels.

Edwards said it's in America's national security interests to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

State offices closed Friday

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine state offices will be closed Friday as part of a series of shutdown days to balance the state budget.

The Legislature earlier this year approved 20 state shutdown days over a two-year period. Most of the unpaid days off are near holiday weekends. State offices will be closed Monday for the Columbus Day holiday. Friday's is the fourth of 10 state shutdown days this fiscal year.

Time to give up on school consolidation?

LEWISTON — Since its passage in 2007, Maine's school consolidation law has been the subject of much debate, from parents at school board meetings to lawmakers in Augusta. Now Mainers will decide whether or not to repeal the law, which appears as Question 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Passadumkeag man enters no contest in rape case

BANGOR, Maine (AP) - A Passadumkeag man is awaiting sentencing after pleading no contest to charges of gross sexual assault and burglary in a year-old case.

Thirty-nine-year-old Derwin "Tiger" Springer Jr. was accused of breaking into a neighbor's home last Oct. 29 and raping the woman who lived there. The Bangor Daily News says he pleaded no contest Monday in Penobscot County Superior Court and is expected to be sentenced later this month or in early November.

Coast Guard searches for missing Freeport boater

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) - The Coast Guard says it is continuing it search for an overdue boater after finding his skiff in the waters off Bar Harbor, Maine.

The Coast Guard initiated a search Tuesday for Dr. John Myers of Freeport, who was last seen Tuesday afternoon after dropping off a sailboat in the town of Hancock and heading back to Salsbury Cove in a 12-foot aluminum skiff.

Search crews found the boat at about 3:50 a.m. Wednesday near Bald Rock Ledge in Frenchman Bay, but there was no sign of Myers.

L.L. Bean to close Waterville call center

WATERVILLE, Maine (AP) - L.L. Bean says it is closing its call center in Waterville next spring.

Spokeswoman Carolyn Beem told the Morning Sentinel that the Freeport-based clothing and outdoor-goods retailer will consolidate its Waterville call center operations with its other call centers in Portland, Bangor and Lewiston.

The Waterville center opened 12 years ago. It employs about 200 people year-round and about 500 more during the Christmas season. It is slated to close at the end of April.

Maine protest targets insurance rate appeal

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Demonstrators on Wednesday backed Maine's insurance superintendent for rejecting a request from the state's largest private health insurer seeking an 18 percent rate hike for its individual insurance plans.

Mila Koffman last spring denied Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's proposed rate increase as being excessive. She approved a revised request for a 10.9 percent increase, which provided for a zero percent profit margin.

Grant to assist laid-off workers in Maine

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a grant to help about 100 textile workers who were laid off when a blanket manufacturer shut its doors in Maine.

Labor officials say the $553,000 grant will assist employees who lost their jobs when WestPoint Home shut down its plant in Biddeford last year.

The grant was awarded to the Maine Department of Labor and will be used to provide support services to laid-off workers as they train for and seek employment in new careers in high-demand sectors of the economy.

ME native killed in Afghan believed in mission

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Relatives of a Maine native killed fighting in Afghanistan say he believed in fighting for his country.

Thirty-year-old Sgt. Joshua Kirk was among eight soldiers killed Saturday in a fierce fire fight in a remote Afghan outpost.

The Portland Press Herald says Kirk's mother, wife and 3-year-old daughter were at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware when his remains arrived in the United States.

Kirk's aunt Christine Arsenault of Winthrop says her nephew believed in fighting for his country.

Nobel Prize winner studied at Bar Harbor's Jackson lab

BAR HARBOR, Maine (AP) - A co-winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine spent a summer studying at Bar Harbor's Jackson Laboratory.

Fifty-seven-year-old Jack W. Szostak s one of three scientists who are receiving the prize for their work in researching chromosomes.

Szostak is a professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Veterans rally to support special license plate

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Some Maine veterans' groups and others are encouraging members to buy the state's specialty license plate that includes the phrase "We support our Troops."

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap says the plate will have to be retired on Nov. 1 unless about 450 more of the $55 plates are sold by then.

That's because state law requires Dunlap to retire special plates if sales are below 4,000 a year. And only 3,565 of the plates have been sold.

Bridgton bank robber sentenced

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby says a man who robbed a Cornish bank last March will be spending five years in prison.

Twenty-four-year-old Matthew Jarvinen of Bridgton was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Portland. District Judge Brock Hornby imposed a sentence of 60 months in prison, plus three years of supervised release.

Jarvinen pleaded guilty in May to the robbery of a Bangor Savings Bank in Cornish. Officials say $3,280 in cash was taken during the holdup and about $1,200 was recovered.

Officials confirm death of Maine soldier

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Air Force officials are confirming the death of a soldier from Maine.

The Air Force said the bodies of Sgt. Joshua Kirk of South Portland and other soldiers killed in Operation Enduring Freedom were scheduled to be returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday morning.

Air Force officials have not provided details on the circumstances of his death.

The Department of Defense had not confirmed the death as of Tuesday morning.

Car excise tax: Too high or necessary?

Question 2: "Do you want to cut the rate of municipal excise tax by an average of 55 percent on motor vehicles less than six years old and exempt hybrid and other alternative-energy and highly fuel efficient motor vehicles from sales tax and three years of excise tax?"

Maine court upholds conviction in 2007 murder

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The state supreme court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a 61-year-old Bangor man for the murder and sexual assault of a Bangor woman in 2007.

Ashton Moores was convicted in a jury-waived trial last November in the death of 43-year-old Christina Simonin. In his appeal, Moores argued that the evidence was largely circumstantial and insufficient to convict him.

Lobstermen fear bait shortage from herring cutback

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Lobster fishermen fear there could be a shortage of bait for their traps next year under a proposal to sharply cut the herring catch in the Northeast.

A fishery management committee met Tuesday in Portland to review and discuss a proposal to limit the harvest to 90,000 metric tons in each of the next three years. The cap this year is 145,000 tons.

Bigfoot museum to open in Maine

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Bigfoot is coming to downtown Portland.

Loren Coleman says his International Cryptozoology Museum will open in a Congress Street storefront on Nov. 1.
As a cryptozoologist, Coleman studies creatures that have been reported to exist but aren't formally recognized by science.

NAACP spearheads prison vote drive in Maine

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The NAACP is registering voters at prisons in Maine, one of just two states that allow all inmates to vote while behind bars, in what is apparently the nation's first such statewide drive.

The relatively few votes at stake - only a few hundred - mean the drive's potential to affect outcomes this fall on such issues as gay marriage, marijuana laws and tax limits is low.

NH man charged in Maine killing may change plea

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A New Hampshire man charged with killing a woman in 1985 in Portland, Maine, is considering changing his plea.

A plea hearing was scheduled for Monday for 61-year-old Roger Roy Bernier in Cumberland County Superior Court, but it was delayed until next week. Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea tells the Portland Press Herald that Bernier apparently wanted more time to think about it.

Same-sex marriage veto question tops ballot

Question 1: "Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

Wanted: Milk Money - The low price of milk and high cost of production is killing Maine's dairy farms.

Amber Waterman/Sun Journal

John Nutting hooks a heifer up to a self-contained milking machine. The cow had been on antibiotics for an infection and her milk has to be thrown away until it tests antibiotic-free. The Maine tier program, a safety net for farmers when dairy prices plummet, is out of money, leaving milk producers nervous about making ends meet this fall.

Ethics panel seeks reports from Maine Leads

AUGUSTA — The Maine ethics commission ruled Thursday that the group Maine Leads is required to file campaign finance reports going back to late 2007 because of fundraising and spending efforts related to a referendum question on the November ballot.

Maine Leads successfully worked to put the citizen initiative that would cut the municipal excise tax on the fall ballot, but lawyer Dan Billings argued that wasn't the group's "major purpose," the burden necessary to qualify it as a political action committee.

TD Bank computer glitch gives customers headaches

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — Computer problems have been causing headaches this week for customers of the financial institution that calls itself "America's Most Convenient Bank."

TD Bank officials say there have been delays in getting transactions to show up in the customer's accounts.

They say the problems sprung from complications integrating the computer systems and Web sites last weekend of the old TD Banknorth and Commerce Bank.

In the days just a few years ago before online banking was not widespread, most customers would not have noticed.