PORTLAND

National Endowment gives $892,500 to state art groups

The National Endowment for the Arts distributed more than $74 million to U.S. nonprofits, including $892,500 in Maine.

The largest Maine recipient is the Maine Arts Commission, which received $720,000, or about half its annual budget.

An additional $107,500 supports the arts in Portland. The city of Portland received $35,000, Portland Museum of Art, $30,000, PORTopera, $12,500 and Portland Ovations, $30,000. Other Maine recipients include the Bangor Folk Festival, $40,000, and the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, $25,000.

Thursday temperature drop in Portland sets a record

The National Weather Service says the temperature dipped to 22 early Thursday in Portland, breaking the old record of 24 set in 2003. In Montpelier, Vt., it was even colder at 14 degrees, breaking old record of 17, also in 2003.

And in Concord, N.H., the temperature dipped to 18, tying the record set in 1908.

BUXTON

Robbery, assault victim offers reward for arrests

A Buxton woman who was tied up and assaulted when she walked in on a robbery in progress in her Callahan Road home is offering a $500 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Deborah Nielson, who goes by the nickname “Nonny,” arrived at her house shortly after 9 p.m. last Friday and found two men and a woman inside, robbing her house, Buxton police said.

She was then tied up and assaulted by the trio, who took some cash from the house and left The assailants are described only as in their late teens or early 20s.

RUMFORD

Attorney in bomb threat case resigns after new charge

A Rumford attorney convicted of calling in bomb threats to the Wilton schools has submitted his resignation in the wake of a new charge of domestic violence terrorizing.

Ronald E. Hoffman, 54, of Sumner, is accused of threatening to harm his wife in a comment made Feb. 7 in front of workers at Rumford District Court.

J. Scott Davis, bar counsel for the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, which regulates attorney conduct, told Justice Donald Alexander that Hoffman should have known better since he had been allowed to continue practicing law under special restrictions set following the bomb scare conviction.

Hoffman’s work is being monitored by another attorney under an order Alexander signed last Sept. 30. That order says Hoffman has been licensed to practice law in Maine since 1997 and has had a solo practice based in Rumford since 2002. It also outlines the details of the bomb threats called in March 29, 2012, to Academy Hill and G. D. Cushing elementary schools in Wilton, which forced the evacuation of 360 children.

Hoffman’s attorney, James Martemucci, told the judge Hoffman and his wife have separated and that a young foster child they had planned to adopt was returned to state custody recently.

ALFRED

Registered nurse sentenced on several drug theft charges

A registered nurse in York County has been sentenced on several charges of stealing drugs and falsifying private records in connection with the theft of the prescription opioid from the hospital where he worked.

Michael T. Worrick-Soule, of Wells, pleaded guilty in York County Superior Court on January 31 to 10 counts of stealing drugs and three counts of falsifying private records after several thefts of meperidine, hydromorphone, fentanyl and morphine from York Hospital in 2011 and 2012. Worrick-Soule had recently become licensed as a registered nurse when he began stealing drugs from the hospital’s emergency room, according to a release from the Maine Attorney General’s office.

Worrick-Soule was sentenced on March 26 on two of the drug charges to two years in prison with all but 6 months suspended. He was sentenced to a second consecutive term of two years in prison, all of it suspended, and 4 years of probation.

He received concurrent sentences of two years in prison, all suspended, on the remaining drug charges and concurrent sentences of six months, all suspended, on the charges of falsifying records. He was also ordered to pay $4,000 in fines and $8,318 in restitution.

He is also prohibited from accepting any employment that would give him access to controlled substances. His nursing license is under suspension.