WINDHAM

Centenarian dies days before receiving Boston Post Cane

The would-be recipient of the town’s Boston Post Cane died Sunday, before officially receiving the honor.

Ruth Grant, 100, was a resident of Windham Center Road for 95 years, until she moved last year to Ledgewood Manor nursing home, where she died. Town Clerk Linda Morrell had planned to present the cane to Grant on Thursday.

Morrell selected Grant as the recipient of the cane after a months-long search for someone who deserved the honor, meant to be given to the town’s oldest resident. Although Grant wasn’t the oldest, Morrell chose her for her strong ties to Windham, where she lived and worked nearly all her life.

Morrell has chosen another resident of Ledgewood Manor as the new recipient. From searching through voter registration records, Morrell believes 104-year-old Clista Loring is the oldest resident of Windham.

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Morrell said she knows of one other person who is 104, but he is three months younger than Loring. She plans to present the cane to Loring on Sept. 19.

RAYMOND

Man who drowned in lake was Massachusetts resident

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office has identified the man who drowned Thursday in Crescent Lake as William Prouty, 87, of New Hartford, Conn.

Prouty and his wife, Chantel, were closing up their seasonal camp on a small island in the lake when Prouty left to pick up the maintenance van on the mainland. When he did not return, his wife went looking for him. She found him in the water near the island’s dock at 9:25 a.m. and called 911. The boat was still tied up.

Police do not consider his death suspicious. The cause will be determined by the state Medical Examiner’s Office.

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PORTLAND

Police fix error, end access to Social Security numbers

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office says it has corrected a software mistake that exposed the Social Security numbers of about 180 people who were arrested from Aug. 27 to Sept. 4 on the county’s Facebook page.

Sheriff Kevin Joyce said the error was discovered within 45 minutes after a software update was done Tuesday. The error gave about 70 people access to the Social Security numbers of longer-term inmates and people who were arrested, brought to the jail and released on the same day, Joyce said.

The software was updated to enable the sheriff’s office to send a weekly arrest report to media outlets and to post arrests to the county’s Facebook page. Ten media outlets and about 60 Facebook followers had access to the information during the 45 minutes the numbers were posted.

The software update has been customized and will not include Social Security numbers in the future.

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Bowles to speak on efforts, ideas to lower national debt

Former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles will be in Portland this weekend to talk about the national debt and the effort he led to reduce the deficit.

Bowles will take part in a town hall event Sunday at the University of Southern Maine that was organized by the Angus King for Senate campaign. King invited Bowles to participate in the campaign event and has said he agrees with the overall approach of the report.

“While I may not agree on all the details, I think the overall approach … makes a great deal of sense: cut spending in an intelligent way, simplify the tax code, cut tax rates and eliminate most loopholes to generate additional revenue,” King wrote in a statement on his website.

Bowles, a Democrat who served President Bill Clinton, was co-chair of the bipartisan commission along with former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming. The commission was appointed by President Obama and released an outline last year of ways to reduce the national debt by $4 trillion by 2020, mostly through spending cuts.

The forum will be held in USM’s Hannaford Hall from 12:30 to 2 p.m. It is open to the public but requires registration. It also will be streamed online at www.Angus2012.com.

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Group’s website to let voters compare candidate positions

A nonpartisan group has launched a website to help Maine voters determine where congressional candidates stand on the issues.

Montana-based Project Vote Smart says its “VoteEasy” website allows people to compare their own views on central issues to presidential and Maine congressional candidates.

“VoteEasy” uses information submitted by the candidates in response to questionnaires, and through research using candidates’ voting records, backgrounds, issue positions, campaign contributions, interest group ratings and public statements.

Mainers can go to the http://votesmart.org/ website and click on 13 issue tabs including abortion, the economy, health care, education and immigration. They can type in their own views to see how well candidates’ positions match their own.

SCARBOROUGH

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Town sets candidate lineup, puts firetruck bond on ballot

The lineup of candidates for open seats on town boards has been set.

Voters in November will fill three Town Council seats, elect three people to the Board of Education and fill two seats for the sanitary district. The deadline for candidates to submit nomination papers was Wednesday.

Four residents are running for two, three-year terms on the Town Council: Councilor Jessica Holbrook, and Paul Andriulli, Edward Blaise and Christopher Coon.

William Donovan and Katherine St. Clair are running to serve two years on the council. The winner will complete the term of Karen D’Andrea, who resigned because of work commitments.

Four candidates are seeking three open seats on the Board of Education. The winners will serve three-year terms. Incumbents Jacquelyn Perry and Jane Wiseman are joined in the race by Donna Beeley and Christopher Caiazzo.

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Nick Rico and Ben Viola submitted nomination papers to run for two sanitary district seats.

The council voted Wednesday to place on the ballot a bond to buy a new ladder truck for the fire department. The truck, which could cost as much as $900,000, would replace Ladder 2, a 1988 truck used at the Black Point Fire Station.

Town officials say Ladder 2 has been used by the town for 25 years and must be replaced because of serious frame corrosion. With interest estimated at 2 percent, the total cost to borrow money for a new truck would be $1.08 million.

ROCKLAND

Suspect accused of pushing wife off cliff seeks dismissal

A man accused of trying to kill his wife by hitting her over the head with a rock and pushing her off a cliff has asked a judge to dismiss the charges, claiming prosecutors improperly obtained his medical records.

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Authorities say Charles Black, 69, tried to kill his wife in April 2011 by pushing her off Maiden Cliff on Mount Megunticook in Camden.

She fell a short way but survived. Authorities have said money may have been the motive for the attempt.

The Bangor Daily News reported that his lawyer told a judge Wednesday that 540 pages of medical records were improperly obtained. Prosecutors said only the investigator has seen the records.

Black has pleaded not guilty to charges that include attempted murder and elevated aggravated assault.

Canadian man plans to open new lobster processing plant

Rockland officials say a Canadian man plans to open a lobster processing plant in the city.

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Officials say details aren’t yet complete, but that plans are to locate the plant in an 11,000-square-foot building that once housed a newspaper printing plant. The Bangor Daily News said the building went idle in July 2011 when the Village Soup community newspaper company closed the facility.

Maine officials have been encouraging the development of more lobster processing plants in the state to add value to lobsters that are caught in Maine waters, rather than shipping them to Canada to be processed.

There are now three large processing plants in Maine, with a fourth plant opening last week in the midcoast town of St. George.

AUGUSTA

Groups urge state to ban bisphenol-A from packaging

Environmental groups, including the Alliance for Clean and Healthy Maine, tried to persuade state regulators Thursday to ban bisphenol-A from baby and toddler food packaging.

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“Now is the perfect time for regulation in the state of Maine,” said Michael Belliveau of the alliance. Belliveau and others argue that BPA, which is used to harden plastics, can cause health problems for children, including anxiety and obesity.

The state Department of Environmental Protection and the state Board of Environmental Protection held a joint hearing Thursday in Augusta to get public input on a proposed citizen-initiated rule to expand an existing state ban on BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups.

The Maine State Chamber of Commerce and others said the new ban is unnecessary and that existing state regulations are working.

After a public comment period ends Sept. 28, the DEP will consider the evidence and make a recommendation about whether to adopt or reject the proposed new rule.

Soldier who died in Kuwait to be buried this weekend

A Maine National Guard helicopter crew chief will be laid to rest this weekend in Augusta.

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The funeral for Staff Sgt. Jessica Wing, 42, of Glenburn will be held Saturday at the Augusta Armory, followed by burial at the Maine Veterans Cemetery in Augusta.

Wing was on her third deployment when she died in what the military described as a non-combat incident in Kuwait. The Defense Department has not divulged details of the incident, which remains under investigation.

Wing served in the guard for eight years and was on active duty in the Army for 11 years before that. She was assigned to the First Battalion, 126th Aviation Medevac Company out of Bangor.

 


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