By The Associated Press
Maine’s first lady to lead delegation

AUGUSTA (AP) – First lady Karen Baldacci will lead a state delegation to Japan in early November.

The wife of Gov. John Baldacci will head a group of a dozen to 15 people to Aomori from Nov. 5 to 12 to strengthen friendship ties with Maine’s sister state.

Delegation members represent the Maine Arts Commission, the Maine College of Art in Portland, the Maine State Museum, the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Aomori Council. Maine and Aomori became sister states during the 1980s when John McKernan was governor.

Since then, Maine and Aomori have had student exchanges at the middle school, high school and college levels, Mrs. Baldacci said. The two have also shared cultural exhibits and encouraged tourism.

Skier’s brother critical after crash

LEBANON, N.H. (AP) – Ski champion Bode Miller’s younger brother Chelone Miller was in critical condition Friday after a motorcycle accident, authorities said.

Chelone Miller, 22, lost control of his motorcycle Thursday afternoon in Sugar Hill, just west of his hometown of Franconia, state police said. They said Miller, who was not wearing a helmet, was thrown from the motorcycle and suffered multiple injuries.

He was taken to Littleton Hospital and transferred to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. He was in critical condition there Friday afternoon, according to a nursing supervisor who declined to give her name and said she could provide no further details.

Arrests made in lobster heists

Police cracked a lobster-theft case in southern Maine on Friday while a pair of thieves were allegedly nabbed red-handed lifting lobsters from a Down East wharf.

In Topsham, authorities announced the arrests of two men in connection with a series of lobster thefts from area wharves. A third man is expected to be summonsed in the same case, said spokesman Stephen McCausland of the state Public Safety Department.

Michael Taylor, 38, of Topsham, and Harold “Mickey” Owen, 39, of Harpswell, face charges of receiving stolen property in connection with the thefts.