A bear frightened an Auburn woman Friday as she was relaxing with the newspaper.

Rosi Chicoine began shaking as she looked up from her paper and glanced out her Chicoine Avenue window, seeing the bear mangling a wrought-iron bird feeder.

“I said ‘Oh my God’ to myself and dialed 911,” said Chicoine, who was home alone.

The bear spent several minutes chomping on the feed before Animal Control Officer Wendell Strout arrived. Then, the bear dashed into the woods.

The bear’s appearance was the second Friday, after a nearby woman called police because a bear had run across her back yard.

Strout estimated the bear weighed as much as 300 pounds.

– Daniel Hartill
Lag time

Red Sox fans trying to escape the Fox TV network’s playoff commentary by Yankee fan Tim McCarver were faced with a new dilemma this week.

The old solution of turning the TV sound off and turning on the radio doesn’t work anymore.

Veteran radio announcers Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano were there as usual. And their commentary was as good as ever.

But it was out of synch.

The TV network apparently works on a one- or two-second delay. The result was play by play before the play happens.

It was disorienting and anticlimactic.

On the radio: “And that’s the third strike to Derek Jeter for the out.”

On TV, a moment later: whoosh.

– Daniel Hartill
Vocationally challenged

During a conference held Friday, Gov. John Baldacci praised the work of Maine’s vocational and technical teachers and cited the importance of skilled workers in the future of Maine’s economy.

To prove the point, he talked about growing up as one of eight children in a family that ran a restaurant.

His parents needed a big family to make sure they had enough workers, Baldacci joked.

But he and many of his siblings weren’t trained as electricians, Baldacci told the crowd gathered at Lewiston Regional Technical Center. They weren’t trained as plumbers. They weren’t trained as carpenters.

Instead, they went into politics.

“My mother said, ‘I don’t really have anybody around who can do anything,'” said Baldacci as the room erupted into laughter.

– Lindsay Tice
Smokescreen

When bingo and beano halls went smoke-free across the state Sept. 13, the air cleared with one exception: high-stakes Indian bingo.

It’s unclear, or at least unlikely, that the same exception would apply to a proposed Passamaquoddy and Penobscot casino in southern Maine.

Smoking is already barred in restaurants and most public buildings in Maine, and come Jan. 1, pool halls, bars and lounges will be added to that list. Still allowed: specific smoker rooms in off-track betting parlors.

On its face, the casino couldn’t take advantage of the high-stakes bingo exemption for two reasons: high-stakes bingo is only allowed on tribal lands and each tribe can only get one license per year for games.

“We’re assuming the ban applies; so do the tribes,” said Think About It spokeswoman Erin Lehane. She said they’re not looking to pursue the smoking issue.

But then again, counters CasinosNO!’s Dennis Bailey, the upcoming referendum, if passed, would allow the tribes to host any and all types of games.

“There may be a set of laws at odds to each other,” Bailey said. “I think there’s some wiggle room. We’ve asked our lawyers to look at it.”

Local bingo folks, already reporting dropped attendance after the smoking ban went into effect, would take a hit if a casino opened in southern Maine, Bailey said. Allowing smoking there would be a “double hit.”

– Kathryn Skelton