NAPLES

Single-car crash kills teen, injures younger brother

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said a single-car crash in Naples killed a 17-year-old Massachusetts boy and injured his 15-year-old brother.

It happened around 11 p.m. Friday. Sheriff’s officials say the car failed to negotiate a curve on Harrison Road and struck a tree at a high rate of speed.

Officials say the driver, Joshua Bonnell of Haverhill, Mass., was pronounced dead at the scene. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. His younger brother, Austin, was partially ejected from the vehicle but had to be extricated. He suffered two broken legs and a concussion.

The crash remains under investigation.

Sheriff’s officials said a preliminary investigation has found that speed, but not alcohol, was a factor in the crash.

BELFAST

Minor earthquake recorded but goes mainly undetected

A minor earthquake has been reported near the coastal city of Belfast.

Boston University’s Weston Observatory said Friday night’s quake, which had a magnitude of 2.1, was centered about 10 miles east of Belfast in Waldo County.

Maine Emergency Management Agency duty officer Bill DeLong said the quake, which was recorded about 11 p.m., was not strong enough to cause damage and could not be detected by people, unless they were very close to it.

DeLong said his agency received no reports from police or the public about the quake.

MADISON

Family’s cats perish in fire that ruined mobile home

Authorities say a fire originating in a back bedroom destroyed most of a mobile home in the central Maine town of Madison, but the family living there was not harmed.

Madison Fire Chief Roger Lightbody told the Morning Sentinel of Waterville that the bedroom was destroyed in Friday night’s fire and the rest of the interior has extensive smoke damage.

Lightbody said three children and two adults were inside, although no one was injured. The family lost three or four cats.

AUGUSTA

Muzzleloader deer hunt set to begin; firearms hunt ends

Maine’s firearms deer hunting season has come to a close.

The four-week season, which began Oct. 26, ended Saturday.

A total of 34,160 any-deer permits were issued this year, up from 26,390 permits in 2011.

Muzzleloader season begins on Monday and ends Dec. 1 statewide, with a second one-week season running Dec. 3-8 in a limited number of hunting districts.

BREWER

Computer glitches halted some gun sales, FBI says

Glitches in the government’s computers prevented some Black Friday gun sales in Maine.

The FBI told the Bangor Daily News that there were problems with its National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. High call volumes caused intermittent outages in the system.

Bangor-area gun dealers said those interruptions stopped gun sales. Rick Lozier of Van Raymond Outfitters in Brewer said the outages cost him at least half a dozen customers by the time Friday’s business day was only half over.

The FBI’s computerized system tells gun sellers whether a buyer is barred by federal law from possessing firearms. People who want to purchase guns must fill out and sign FBI paperwork first.

KILLINGTON, Vt.

Cow power to run gondola at Killington ski resort

Vermont’s Killington ski resort and Green Mountain Power are highlighting a project that is using cow manure to power the resort’s K-1 Express Gondola.

There were cows at the resort all day Saturday as part of the celebration of the resort’s participating in GMP’s Cow Power program.

The Cow Power program enables customers to purchase all or part of their electricity at a premium and support Vermont’s dairy farms.

The program works by collecting cow manure, mixing it with wash water from the milking equipment and then pumping that slurry into a digester where it is heated for three weeks. The process converts the manure into biogas that is 60 percent methane.

The methane powers a generator.

MENDON, Vt.

Pico Peak ski area celebrates 75th anniversary this year

The Pico Peak ski area that helped launch the skiing career of the first American skier to win two Olympic gold medals in alpine skiing is celebrating its 75th anniversary this season.

Andrea Mead Lawrence was the daughter of the founders of the Pico Ski area, Brad and Janet Mead who opened Pico Peak off U.S. Route 4 in Mendon to skiing in 1937. It was in 1952 that Andrea Mead won two gold medals at the Oslo games.

HANOVER, N.H.

Dartmouth professor plays small part in ‘Lincoln’ film

An associate theater professor at Dartmouth College has good reason to see the movie “Lincoln” multiple times — he has a small role in the Steven Spielberg film.

After Jamie Horton appeared in a campus production last year, one of his co-star’s friends encouraged him to submit an audition tape. Months later, he was cast as U.S. Rep. Giles Stuart, a New York congressman who was bribed to help ensure passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.

Horton acted and directed with the Denver Center Theatre Company for more than 20 years before he began teaching at Dartmouth in 2006. He said it was an amazing experience to be part of what he called an epic movie.

RAYNHAM, Mass.

Anti-personnel mine found in storage; charges possible

Police say a Claymore anti-personnel mine has been found in a storage unit in Raynham.

Raynham police and fire departments responded to the storage facility shortly before 11:30 a.m. on Thursday to investigate reports of a suspicious device.

Detective Ed Reilly and Lt. Brian Carr quickly recognized the device as a Claymore mine, an anti-personnel mine used by the U.S. military.

Police Chief James Donovan told the Taunton Daily Gazette the mine was not rigged to explode.

The state police bomb squad assisted in removing the device.

Donovan says the investigation is continuing and charges may stem from the discovery.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Groups target ordinance aimed at nuisance properties

Several groups want Providence’s mayor to veto a revised ordinance approved by the City Council that targets chronic nuisance properties.

Under the newly worded ordinance, police can issue a $500 fine if they have to intervene to deal with a property deemed a public nuisance more than once in six months. A public nuisance is a gathering where illegal activity creates a “substantial disturbance.”

In a letter to Mayor Angel Taveras, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island and other civil rights groups call the ordinance “dangerous” and say it may encourage racial profiling by landlords.

The groups say it’s impossible for landlords to find tenants who won’t ever interact with police and that most discriminate against would-be tenants “who look a certain way.”

— From news service reports