AUGUSTA

Decision against licensing CanaRx will affect Mainers

Maine officials’ ruling that CanaRx, a Canadian company that distributes prescription medications by mail, cannot be licensed in Maine will affect 1,200 Maine households using the company’s services.

The Sun Journal of Lewiston reported that Attorney General William Schneider’s decision imperils more than $3 million in annual savings budgeted for the state employees’ health plan.

CanaRx senior program adviser Chris Collins said the decision affects about 1,200 Maine households and also poses financial repercussions for the city of Portland and Guilford-based Hardwood Products Co., both of which have contracted with CanaRx for years.

CanaRx offers reduced prices to plan providers and does not charge co-payments to participants, resulting in significant savings for both.

Flags lowered to honor soldier killed in Kuwait

Flags were lowered to half-staff as a Maine National Guard helicopter crew chief was laid to rest Saturday.

Staff Sgt. Jessica Wing was on her third deployment when she died in what the military described as a noncombat incident in Kuwait. The incident remains under investigation.

The funeral for the 42-year-old Wing, of Glenburn, was set for Saturday at the Augusta Armory, followed by burial at the Maine Veterans Cemetery in Augusta.

Wing served 11 years in the Army before joining the Maine National Guard and serving eight years.

She was assigned to the First Battalion, 126th Aviation Medevac Company, out of Bangor.

Cancer Survivors Day at hospital celebrates life

Hundreds of people were expected in Augusta for the 14th annual Cancer Survivors Day.

Saturday’s event was held at MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care.

The event is a celebration of life for patients, families and the community, and features health education and screenings, food, games and activities, and speeches from a cancer survivor and a caregiver.

GRAY

Thunderstorms, high surf forecast for parts of Maine

A tornado watch was posted in Vermont as a late-summer storm blustered up the East Coast on Saturday.

No watches had been issued in Maine or New Hampshire on Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service said. But a high-surf advisory was in effect until Sunday evening along beach areas of New Hampshire. The high-surf advisory extending into Maine also included threats of lightning strikes.

But southern portions of New England — western Connecticut and Massachusetts — did have tornado watches.

In Maine, forecasters said thunderstorms packing high winds could hit much of the state. Meteorologist Tom Hawley said New Hampshire can’t rule out a severe front moving through about midnight.

“I will be shocked if any points east of the Penobscot (River in eastern Maine) will get severe weather,” Hawley said Saturday.

PORTLAND

Cruise ship visits for day, departs for Bar Harbor

Portland’s late-summer cruise ship season got under way with the arrival of a 990-foot ship.

The Enchantment of the Seas arrived Saturday in Portland. It is the first large cruise ship to make a port call for the late summer and fall cruise ship season in September and October.

The ship carries more than 2,200 passengers and nearly 900 crew members.

After staying in Portland for the day, the ship departed for Bar Harbor, where it will stop for the day Sunday.

— From news service reports