GRAY

Falmouth man impales leg on branch while riding ATV

An ATV rider impaled his right leg on a tree branch while riding.

Bruce Brown, 47, of Falmouth was on a trail in Gray when the accident happened Monday.

WMTW reported that Brown was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland with what authorities said was not a life-threatening injury.

PORTLAND

Three cruise ships to visit Portland this week

Three cruise ships will visit Portland this week, bringing 2,097 tourists to the area.

American Glory will arrive today with approximately 50 passengers before embarking on its Maine Coast and Harbors tour. On Friday, the Independence will call, with 98 passengers. Both ships will arrive at the Ocean Gateway International Marine Terminal.

The largest of the three ships, the Enchantment of the Seas, arrives Saturday at the Portland Ocean Terminal with approximately 1,950 passengers. It will travel to Bar Harbor after leaving Portland.

Officials expect a record-setting 73 ships and 75,731 passengers to visit Portland this season.

Maine ‘Man v. Food’ episode on Travel Channel tonight

“Man v. Food” will air an episode featuring Maine at 9 tonight on the Travel Channel.

Host Adam Richman filmed the Maine episode in July, making stops at the Tradewinds Cafe in Arundel, Nosh Kitchen Bar in Portland and the Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth.

He also visited the Portland Museum of Art for the online segment of his show, “A Side of City.”

Richman is known for downing outrageous amounts of food in a single sitting. He likes to take on “eating challenges,” such as eating 50 chicken wings in 30 minutes in Boulder, Colo.

In Maine, Richman took the “Manimal Challenge” at the Tradewinds Cafe. The challenge calls for scarfing down, in 20 minutes or less, two dogs, an order of fries, an eight-patty cheeseburger with grilled onions, a can of Moxie and a one-pound butter pecan milkshake that contains coffee cake.

At Nosh Kitchen Bar, Richman ate the “Apocalypse Now” burger made with American cheese, seared pork belly, cured bacon, foie gras, mayo and macerated oranges and cherries.

Veteran’s Bridge accident slows morning commute

The morning commute was slowed Tuesday for drivers attempting to cross Veteran’s Bridge.

Traffic backed up after a three-car accident at 8 a.m. on the northbound side. Both Portland and South Portland sent rescue vehicles.

One person was taken to the hospital for evaluation.

 

City schedules meetings on block grant funds

The city will hold three neighborhood meetings this month to discuss how it should spend about $2.1 million it receives annually from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program.

The meeting for District 2 will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Parkside Neighborhood Center, 85 Grant St.

The meeting for District 1 will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Merrill Auditorium rehearsal hall on Myrtle Street.

The District 3 meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 22 at the West School, 57 Douglass St.

BRUNSWICK

Drivers report seeing naked man walking on 295

State Police picked up a naked man walking in the breakdown lane of Interstate 295 southbound Tuesday and took him to a local hospital, a dispatcher said.

Motorists reported that the middle-age man was walking down the road at 2:30 p.m. around mile 25, wearing nothing but a bushy beard.

STANDISH

Man charged with taking shotgun, computers, DVDs

A 23-year-old local man faces charges of burglary, theft and theft of a firearm after a break-in on Route 25 in Standish Monday afternoon.

The suspect fled when residents returned to their home, deputies said. He was carrying a camouflage bag containing a 12-gauge shotgun, two laptop computers, DVDs and a Playstation 3.

Investigators charged Gary Pelletier of 5 Fawn Drive with burglary and theft and recovered the stolen items, deputies said.

AUGUSTA

Homeowners invited to dispose of old pesticides

Buyers of older homes or farms in Maine often discover they’ve inherited caches of hazardous waste in the form of old pesticides. And chemicals such as DDT, lead arsenate and chlordane can be difficult and expensive to get rid of.

The Maine Board of Pesticides Control has an option for disposal. The agency will accept banned pesticides or pesticides that have become caked, frozen or otherwise rendered unusable at no cost to homeowners.

Board spokesman Paul Schlein said four sites will be set up throughout the state where people can bring obsolete pesticides. The waste will then be incinerated or reprocessed.

Homeowners must preregister by Oct. 1. To register and get details, go to www.thinkfirstspraylast.org or call the BPC at 287-2731.

 

Unity College contingent sets off on solar road trip

A group of environmental activists set out Tuesday for Washington with a well-traveled and recycled solar panel that once stood atop President Jimmy Carter’s White House, carrying hopes of persuading the current president to once again generate energy with the sun’s rays.

Environmental author and activist Bill McKibben is leading Unity College students and staff on the solar road trip, with stops planned in Boston and New York en route to Washington.

They’re toting along the Carter-era solar panel in hopes of drumming up support for renewable energy. They also hope to convince President Barack Obama to install new solar panels.

“I can’t think of a clearer win for the president, a better reminder to the legions of young people who worked on his campaign that he is still focused on the future,” McKibben wrote Tuesday in Yale Environment 360, a publication of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

The solar panels were placed in service on the White House by Carter’s order during the late 1970s as a symbol of commitment to increasing the nation’s use of renewable resources. But they didn’t remain for long. They were removed by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and put in storage.

Unity College later discovered the panels and obtained them from the government. In the 1990s, 16 of the panels were used to heat water in the cafeteria.

 

Price of home heating oil in Maine drops a penny

The average price of home heating oil in Maine remains stable, falling just a penny from last week in the latest survey.

The Maine energy department said Tuesday that the average price was $2.56 a gallon in a weekly survey. Northern and eastern Maine had the highest price of $2.76 per gallon while southwestern and western parts of the state had the lowest price of $2.30 a gallon.

 

Beth Nagusky appointed acting DEP commissioner

Gov. John Baldacci has appointed an acting environmental protection commissioner for Maine, to replace David Littell.

Beth Nagusky will serve as acting commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection. Baldacci announced the appointment Tuesday.

Nagusky is a former state energy director and more recently led the DEP’s efforts to provide incentives to businesses to promote conservation and expand renewable energy. Nagusky also co-chaired the Ocean Energy Task Force, which worked with the Legislature to update Maine laws dealing with renewable resources.

Former DEP Commissioner Littell has been appointed to the Public Utilities Commission.

ORONO

University system official accepts Arkansas post

The University of Maine System’s director of external affairs, John Diamond, has been named associate vice chancellor for university relations at the University of Arkansas.

The appointment is effective Sept. 27.

Diamond previously served an assistant professor of journalism and mass communications at UMaine and served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives during the 1980s, including two terms as House majority leader.

EDDINGTON

Parental dispute forces elementary school lockdown

Officials say a Maine elementary school went into lockdown mode Tuesday morning, but no one was hurt.

SAD 63 Superintendent David Anderson said a parental dispute prompted the principal to put Eddington School into lockdown. He says there were no weapons, and no one was hurt.

He says state police are meeting with parents to “get some clarity” on the situation.