PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire and Maine business owners along the road to and from the broken Sarah Long Bridge are wondering how they’ll survive if the bridge stays closed for five months.

Owners of restaurants, gas stations and shops say their business is way off, some by as much as two-thirds, because of the closure.

The state is planning to post signs reminding drivers that the businesses are open, even if the bridge is not. The bridge is closed to road traffic – stuck in the up position – because of a failure in an underwater cable. It has to be up so boats can get through. The state said originally it could take five months to fix because a special cable had to be made, but now there’s a possibility it could be opened sooner.

Project Manager Alex Vogt said Maine has an extra lift cable that might work until a new cable can be installed. He said he would know this week if the Maine cable would work.

N.H. moose hunt: 67% success rate

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The Fish and Game Department says more than two-thirds of the hunters in this fall’s moose hunt went home happy.

Preliminary figures show hunters bagged 449 moose during the nine-day hunt that ended Oct. 29. That’s a success rate of 67 percent, down from last year’s 78 percent.

The agency said bad weather hampered hunters, with heavy rain, sleet, snow and strong winds off and on throughout the season. Although the success rate was lower than last year’s, the number of moose taken was higher because more permits were issued.

N.H. firearms deer season starts today

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire’s firearm deer season starts today, and early indications suggest that deer are abundant in the state this year.

Many of state’s estimated 60,000 deer hunters will be out during the 26-day season, which runs through Dec. 3, except in part of northern New Hampshire, which ends sooner.

As of Sunday, archery and muzzleloader hunters had taken an estimated 5,197 deer – that’s a 30 percent increase from average harvest at this point in the season for the last few years.

Mainers accused of assaulting son

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – Police have charged a Maine couple with assaulting their 9-year-old son in a store, after witnesses reported the couple knocked the youngster to the floor and kicked him.

Police arrested James and Lori Morrissey of Gorham, Maine, during the weekend on assault charges.

Based on witness accounts and store security video, police said Lori Morrissey pushed her son to the ground, then kicked him in the stomach, and that James Morrissey grabbed the boy by the wrists and hair and pulled him from the store.

The boy and a sibling have been placed with a relative.

N.H. man killed in ultralight crash

BISBEE, Ariz. (AP) – Two men who were killed Nov. 1 when their ultralight aircraft crashed in a rugged canyon near the Chiricahua Wilderness in southeastern Arizona have been identified.

The victims were 22-year-old flight instructor Joel Bitow, who listed addresses in Tucson and Tacoma, Wash., and Robert Gilson, 61, of Nottingham, N.H., according to the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.

The wreckage of the ultralight was found about an hour after the sheriff’s office received a report Wednesday afternoon from Rodeo, N.M., of a possible crash.

The sheriff’s office said the men apparently had taken off from Rodeo.

The accident remained under investigation Tuesday.