Friday, November 20, 2009 in Lewiston, Maine
October's rate also was 2 percentage points below the national rate for the month, 10.2 percent.
Fortman says Maine's lower unemployment rate is due mostly to a declining labor force and is not an indication that workforce conditions have improved much.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that reports of swine flu illnesses were widespread in 43 states last week, down from 46 the week before.
Reports say Officer Troy Garrison found 17-year-old Kourtney Thibeault over an embankment early Friday after he noticed what appeared to be fresh damage to a large tree off Roberts Hill Road in Topsham.
Police later found Thibeault inside the vehicle. She was alert and immediately began speaking to Garrison.
Baldacci issued the order for the fiscal year ending in mid-2010 as preliminary estimates showed an approaching shortfall in the two-year $5.8 billion budget of $400 million, or nearly 7 percent.
Education and Health and Human Services are the hardest-hit departments, accounting for about 80 percent of the cuts.
Dora Ann Mills of the state Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the shortage is very frustrating for those who want the vaccine. Mills says there's only enough vaccine for less than two-thirds of high-priority people who need it, including pregnant women and children.
Phillip Hoose won the young people's literature award for "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice." The 60th annual National Book Awards were held Wednesday night in New York.
But the court avoided declaring that same-sex couples are entitled to all the rights of other married couples.
In a 4-3 decision on the narrow question of benefits, the Court of Appeals did not address whether the state must recognize same-sex marriage. The case was pushed by the Alliance Defense Fund of Scottsdale, Ariz.
Fifty-one-year-old William Hanaman made his first court appearance Wednesday on charges that he killed 47-year-old Marion Shea at his apartment.
Officials for Aetna, Anthem, CIGNA, Harvard Pilgrim and United Health Care outlined those efforts Wednesday at a news conference with state health Director Dora Mills.
Following a press conference, members of the Maine Work and Family Coalition delivered a report that cites the positive public health impact of paid sick leave.
The New England Fishery Management Council on Tuesday voted to reduce the 2009 catch limit by 45 percent because of the uncertain outlook of the herring population. The meeting was in Newport, R.I.
Fishermen say such steep cuts will give herring fishermen less fish to catch, thus reducing supply and driving up the price of herring that lobster fishermen use as bait.
The Berlin Daily Sun says a Coos County grand jury indicted 41-year-old Diane Silsby of Lunenburg saying she was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the July 3 crash.
The crash killed Silsby's mother, 83-year-old Leona Dunn of Lancaster, and 15-year-old Nicole Silsby. Twenty-six-year-old Rachel Metivier of Lewiston, Maine, was killed in the other vehicle.
Leo Hylton pleaded guilty in May to three counts of attempted murder and other charges in connection with the May 2008 home invasion and attack on William Guerrette Jr. and his 10-year-old daughter. Hylton's co-defendant has pleaded not guilty.
Health and Human Services Commissioner Brenda Harvey told a committee that oversees her department that it's not clear yet exactly which services will be cut or how deep the reductions will be.
The Portland Press Herald says lawmakers must cut $30 million from the current budget, and human services must absorb $9 million of that total.
The Kennebec Journal in Augusta reports that Charles "Wick" Johnson III, owner of Kennebec Technologies in Augusta, filed the challenge in Kennebec County Superior Court.
