DURHAM

Gored teen and his family to exact revenge on bull

A teenager who was gored by a bull this week will have the last laugh. The family shot the bull and plans to eat it.

Vinnie Huntington, 17, of Durham says he was rounding up the bull and a steer when the bull turned on him Monday night. He suffered two dislocated shoulders, two puncture wounds to his back and bumps and bruises when the 1,800-pound bull gored him and flipped him.

Huntington’s mother and a neighbor intervened to save him, and WMTW-TV says he hopes to be released from a hospital today.

He said he’ll be participating in the feast. “I’m going to enjoy it,” he said.

STANDISH

Public’s help is requested in finding robbery suspect

Authorities are asking for the public’s help in finding a man who robbed a Standish convenience store at gunpoint at 2 p.m. Wednesday, then fled on a blue bicycle.

Police say the suspect entered Tabor’s Variety Store at 705 Ossippee Trail West wearing a gray New England Patriots sweat shirt with the hood up and a white bandana with a dark pattern pulled over his lower face, said a release from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.

The robber pulled a dark handgun and demanded money, fleeing with an undetermined sum.

The robber fled west on a bright blue mountain bike. When a witness tried to follow, the robber pointed the gun at the witness, then pedaled into the woods off Shadow Lawn Drive, the sheriff’s office said.

A Yarmouth police dog responded but was unable to track the suspect, the release said.

The robber is described as 5-foot-4 to 5-foot-6 inches tall, weighing 140 to 160 pounds, wearing blue jeans and white sneakers.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office at 774-1444, ext. 2171.

AUGUSTA

Maine-based service gets $4.7 million in stimulus funds

A Maine-based service that gives doctors quick access to electronic data to treat their patients is receiving $4.7 million in federal stimulus money.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says that HealthInfoNet of Manchester is one of 28 nonprofit organizations to establish health information technology centers receiving Recovery Act funding.

The government hopes there will be an electronic health record of every person by 2014.

HealthInfoNet went online last July. The service connect the rapidly growing number of providers using electronic medical records.

Veterans Affairs secretary scheduled to tour Togus

The head of the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to visit Maine.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is planning to tour the Togus VA Medical Center in Augusta on Friday along with U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, D-Maine.

Michaud is the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Health.

Michaud said he’s working with the department and local veterans organizations to expand access to VA health care for Maine’s rural veterans.

BAR HARBOR

Lab receives $1.6 million to study limb regeneration

A Maine research laboratory is expecting to get $1.6 million from the Department of Defense to try to learn why some animals are able to regenerate limbs.

Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory officials said the Department of Defense is interested in the research because of the number of service members who lose limbs during their military service.

Lab biologist Randall Dahn says species such as salamanders, skates and other species can regenerate limbs.

The Bangor Daily News said members of Maine’s congressional delegation helped secure the research funding.

The lab employs about 45 people year-round.

PORTLAND

Rent-A-Husband founder going before grand jury

The founder of the Rent-A-Husband handyman business, who faces charges of securities fraud and theft by deception, plans to go before a grand jury today to say he did nothing wrong and was acting on advice of lawyers.

In an extremely unorthodox approach, Kaile Warren has obtained agreement by the state Attorney General’s Office allowing him to voluntarily go before the Cumberland County grand jury sitting in Portland to share his evidence and documents about the investment accusations.

Warren was indicted in December for soliciting investors based on false assessments of his business prospects. He contends his business dealings were sanctioned by his attorney at the time, the law firm of Preti Flaherty.

The grand jury cannot undo Warren’s indictments, though the Attorney General’s Office could seek to have them dismissed, said Darrick Banda, of the law offices of Daniel G. Lilley, Warrren’s current law firm.

Ocean Energy co-founder lecturing at UNE in Portland

Matthew R. Simmons, co-founder of the Ocean Energy Institute in Rockland, will deliver the third annual Paul D. Merrill Business Ethics Lecture today.

The event will take place at 4 p.m. on the University of New England’s Portland campus. A reception will follow at the UNE Art Gallery.
Simmons will be speaking on “Our Fragile Energy System: Is It Sustainable? If Not, Where Do We Turn Next?”

Simmons is chairman emeritus of Simmons & Company International, a specialized energy investment banking firm.

The Ocean Energy Institute’s focus is to research and create renewable energy sources from the world’s oceans.

Baldacci to help raise funds for Preble Street program

Gov. John Baldacci will host a spaghetti supper in Portland next week to help raise funds for Preble Street’s Homeless Voices for Justice program, which recently lost funding from the Catholic Church.

The event is scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. April 14 at the Italian Heritage Center at 40 Westland Ave.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and the Washington-based Catholic Campaign for Human Development canceled their grants for the homeless program because of Preble Street’s support for same-sex marriage in last fall’s statewide referendum.

As a result, Homeless Voices for Justice lost $17,400 for this fiscal year. Gay activists from around the nation have been sending checks to Preble Street to replace the funding.

Church officials say Preble Street’s support violated its grant agreements. The diocese, which organized the campaign to overturn Maine’s law to allow same-sex marriage, requires grant recipients to avoid taking political stands that are contrary to church positions.

Organizers of the April 14 dinner will ask guests to pay $5, or whatever the individual can afford.

YORK COUNTY

Former Bay State trooperindicted on rape charge

A York County grand jury has indicted a former Massachusetts state trooper on charges of rape and aggravated assault in Kittery on a woman he met through a social networking site.

Police say Joseph Silva, 54, of Newburyport, Mass., arranged to have dinner with the woman on Nov. 22 in Portsmouth, N.H. and then invited her to his room at the Roadway Inn in Kittery, ostensibly to watch a New England Patriots football game.

Silva is charged with raping the woman and assaulting her. Police say she was treated at a hospital.

WINDHAM

Budget workshop moved to April 15 at Town Hall

Windham officials have postponed a budget workshop that had been scheduled for today.

Instead, the workshop will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. April 15 at Town Hall. The budget workshop scheduled from 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesday will be held as planned.

KITTERY

Two women from New York indicted in theft of crystal

Two New York women have been indicted on charges of felony theft for allegedly stealing $17,000 worth of crystal from a store in Kittery.

Police initially arrested Raquel Davila, 49, of Brooklyn and Katiuska Delgado, 32, of Richmond Hill, N.Y., on Jan. 10.

The pair were spotted by a witness leaving a cosmetics store in Kittery. The witness saw that store employees were trying to confront the pair, who drove off, so the witness called police on his cell phone and followed them.

The pair drove into New Hampshire, throwing stolen items out the windows, before eventually being pulled over by Portsmouth police, said  Kittery Det. Sgt. Dan Soule.

Following their arrest on theft charges, police were able to match the women’s photographs with security video taken during a theft at Swarovski, a high-end crystal shop. One of the women allegedly distracted a clerk while the other put small, expensive items into a foil bag similar to that used when purchasing hot food at a grocery store, police said. The foil bag was intended to thwart security systems.

The pair were indicted Monday by a York County grand jury on felony theft charges. Stealing more than $10,000 worth of merchandise or money is a class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

GRAY

Temperatures rise, records fall in northern New England

Records have fallen in Portland, Maine, and Concord, N.H., as the mercury climbed into the 80s in northern New England.

Bob Marine of the National Weather Service says it hit 84 in Portland, breaking the old record of 78 set in 1991.

In Concord, the mercury climbed to 87, breaking the old record of 85, also in 1991.

The temperature hit 92 degrees in Providence, R.I., and Hartford, Conn., and 90 at Boston’s Logan International Airport – also setting records for the day in all three cities.

Marine says the overnight thunderstorms marked the arrival of the warm front.