Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

August 21, 2012

Dispatches

From staff and news services

ORONO

University of Maine ranked 19th on party-school list

The University of Maine, which uses the Maine Stein Song as its school song, has cracked the top 20 for party schools for the first time.

The annual ranking by The Princeton Review put West Virginia University on top as the nation's No. 1 party school.

Down on the list, at No. 19, was the University of Maine, just ahead of the University of Tennessee.

The Princeton Review ranks 62 categories from food to dorms to general happiness.

When it comes to food, Bowdoin College in Brunswick has no peers. The college, which starts the year with a lobster bake for students, came in first place for best campus food as well as "quality of life."

BANGOR

Victims were at gathering, left in white car, friends say

Relatives and friends of three Maine residents who were found dead in a burning car last week say the victims had attended a small gathering and left in a white Pontiac with Rhode Island plates before their deaths, a newspaper reported.

The burning car was discovered early on Aug. 13 in a parking lot. A person was seen walking away from the car in video surveillance images recorded at a nearby business, but it's unclear if that person was the driver.

Authorities identified the victims as Daniel Thomas Borders, 26, of Hermon; Nicolle Ashley Lugdon, 24, of Eddington; and Lucas Alan Tuscano, 28, of Bradford. Their deaths have been ruled homicides, though the exact cause has not been made public.

The Bangor Daily News reported that according to friends and relatives, the three were at a house gathering before getting in the car driven by someone else.

BIDDEFORD

Loss of Nextel tower won't affect MERC buy, city says

A Nextel cellphone tower will be removed from the smokestack of the Maine Energy Recovery Co.'s incinerator, but city officials say the lost revenue isn't likely to affect the city's purchase of the plant.

The City Council voted last month to buy MERC for $6.65 million over the next 20 years. Revenue from cellphone towers on the stack and a tax-increment financing district at Biddeford Crossing will cover most of the purchase cost. The rest will be paid with small tax increases, beginning with an additional 1.8 cents on the property tax rate in 2012-13.

City Manager John Bubier said the Nextel lease generates about $25,000 a year. Once the sale is closed, the city will be able to look for a vendor to replace Nextel, he said.

Sprint, which bought Nextel in 2005, will remove the tower from the MERC stack by the end of September. The company plans to cease service on the iDEN Nextel National Network by June, said Sprint spokesman Randy Spolter. Sprint has taken 9,600 Nextel sites off air to date.

SOUTH PORTLAND

Drunken driving charged after rollover on bridge

A Massachusetts man was charged with drunken driving after he rolled his car early Saturday morning on Veterans Memorial Bridge.

Daniel Thomas, 22, of Shrewsbury, Mass., was arrested by South Portland police after the rollover was reported.

When police arrived, Thomas, the driver and only occupant, was outside of the upside down 2002 Dodge van, according to Lt. Frank Clark.

The crash remains under investigation, but police say speed and alcohol were likely contributing factors. 

Liv Tyler in Times mag: Maine can be 'too good'

Actress Liv Tyler, who stars in the new film "Robot and Frank" and spent much of her youth in Portland, praises her home state in the Aug. 19 New York Times Magazine.

Telling the Times her summer drives to and from the Pine Tree State allow her to observe the shifting manners along the way, Tyler said, "When you leave Maine, everyone's going a little under the speed limit. And when you go through the toll they're like, 'Hi, how are you today?'"

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