AUGUSTA

House rejects bill requiring missing-child notification

A bill requiring notification of authorities when a child is missing, prompted by the Caylee Anthony case in Florida, has been overwhelmingly rejected by the Maine House.

Representatives voted 110-31 on Tuesday to kill a bill making it a crime to fail to report a missing child under 13 years of age or to fail to cooperate in the investigation of the death of a child.

The bill was prompted by the acquittal of Casey Anthony of murder in Florida in the case of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Anthony. Maine lawmakers received hundreds of emails demanding a law addressing non-reporting on a missing child.

But opponents said that while the bill may have a feel-good effect,  it violates the constitutional protection against self-incrimination.

Three Republicans file U.S. Senate race petitions

Three Republicans have filed petitions to appear on the primary ballot for candidates hoping to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Maine Republican Olympia Snowe.

Small-business owner Scott D’Amboise and former state Sen. Rick Bennett filed their petitions Monday, and Secretary of State Charlie Summers did the same Tuesday.

They’re the first three Senate hopefuls to submit 2,000 or more signatures following Snowe’s decision not to seek re-election. The deadline for doing so is Thursday evening.

Other Republicans collecting signatures include Attorney General William Schneider and state Treasurer Bruce Poliquin. No Democrats had filed for Senate as of Tuesday afternoon.

In the 1st Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree is assured of a GOP competitor with petitions filed Monday by Senate Majority Leader Jon Courtney.

BANGOR

Psychiatric hospital plans to lay off 45 employees

One of Maine’s two state-run psychiatric hospitals is laying off 45 employees in an effort to cut a $7 million budget shortfall.

The Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor is cutting 91 positions in all, about half of which are unfilled.

Superintendent Linda Abernathy said at a news conference Tuesday that the hospital’s budget gap stems from a $2.5 million cut in funding approved by legislators this winter.

The Bangor Daily News reported that the jobs range from medical staff to groundskeepers.

BELFAST

Searsport man accused of sexual contact with children

A 31-year-old Searsport man has been charged with having sexual contact with three pre-teen children.

Authorities said Brian Doucette was arraigned Monday in Waldo County Superior Court. Bail was set at $25,000. He is accused of committing crimes against children in Searsport, Winterport and Stockton Springs.

The alleged abuse dates back at least a year. Prosecutors told the Bangor Daily News that the alleged victims are 11, 9 and 6.

Doucette is charged with visual sexual aggression, unlawful sexual contact, sexual misconduct with a child and unlawful sexual touching.

Visual sexual aggression against a child means “exposing yourself or having a child expose themselves to you.” The charge of sexual misconduct stems from Doucette allegedly showing pornography to a child.

PORTLAND

Coast Guard: Despite warm weather, water still cold 

The warm weather will tempt boaters this week, and the Coast Guard says boaters need to be aware of the dangers associated with spring-like weather and winter-like water temperatures.

Lt. Garrett Meyer said hypothermia can set in quickly because the water temperature is still in the 40s off the New England coast.

Meyer, of the Coast Guard in Boston, said boaters need to be sure their boats are in good order and that proper lifesaving equipment is on board. 

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Conservationists applaud ruling on river herring

Conservationists have won a round in a legal battle trying to force regulators to offer more protection for declining populations of river herring.

A federal judge in Washington ruled Friday that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hasn’t done enough to protect river herring – a collective term for alewives, blueback herring, American shad and hickory shad – from commercial trawlers that catch Atlantic herring in the ocean.

The ruling will force regulators to take steps to give the fish added protections, said Roger Fleming, a Maine-based lawyer with Earthjustice who represented a recreational fisherman, a charter boat captain and the Ocean River Institute in the lawsuit, which was filed in 2011.

“The agency is going to have to go back to its Atlantic herring fishery management plan, add river herring and shad, and set catch limits and other conservation measures,” Fleming said.
A NOAA spokeswoman said the agency is reviewing the ruling.