CONCORD, N.H.

Maine snowmobile rider killed in crash on border

New Hampshire Fish and Game officials say a Maine man is dead after he lost control of his snowmobile and crashed into rocks.

Officials say 48-year-old Jim Daigneau of Acton was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident on Wednesday afternoon on a private lane in Wakefield on the Maine border.

Conservation Officer Brad Morse said Daigneau was not wearing a helmet and suffered injuries to his head, neck and upper body. Morse said Daigneau and two companions appeared to have been driving their snowmobiles in circles at a high rate of speed when the accident occurred.

SACO

Woman will face charges in stabbing of roommate

State police have charged Pamela Young with elevated aggravated assault for stabbing her roommate Dale Berube last week, Maine Department of Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland said.

Berube, 50, was found in the bathtub of their apartment at 25 Thornton Ave. with several stab wounds that were inflicted sometime late Thursday night. Young, 48, who made the 911 call early Friday morning, was interviewed by police and released. She was arrested and charged Friday night, McCausland said.

Young made her first court appearance Tuesday in Springvale District Court and is being held on $15,000 bail at the York County Jail.

Berube was listed in critical condition Saturday at Maine Medical Center in Portland. McCausland said he is still at Maine Medical Center, and his condition continues to improve.

OLD ORCHARD BEACH

State releases video clip of Outlaw’s fatal shooting

Maine’s attorney general released a video clip Wednesday of federal agents’ attempt to arrest an Outlaws’ motorcycle gang member last summer at a small house on Sandy Circle.

The agents shot and killed Thomas Mayne on June 15 during a nationwide roundup of 27 members of the Outlaws, four of them in Maine.

Attorney General Janet Mills announced Tuesday that the agents were justified in using deadly force in self-defense against Mayne, 58, a former enforcer with the Outlaws motorcycle gang.

The video is silent for the first 11 seconds, when police can be seen walking slowly toward the brown house, past a car and a pickup truck parked in the driveway.

The sound starts just after several puffs of smoke burst from windows, indicating shots fired from inside the house.

The remainder of the one-minute, 31-second video includes the sound of rapid gunfire and an agent shouting for people to come out of the house with their hands raised.

BIDDEFORD

Police looking for man who robbed pharmacy

Police are still searching for a man who robbed a pharmacy Tuesday night.

The man walked into the Rite Aid on Alfred Street just before 7 and demanded OxyContin from the pharmacist, Deputy Chief JoAnne Fisk said. Witnesses described the man as white, between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10, weighing about 160 pounds. He was wearing dark pants and a gray hooded sweatshirt.

The pharmacist gave the man an undisclosed amount of OxyContin before he ran from the store, Fisk said. The suspect was armed, Fisk said, but declined to identify the weapon. He fled on foot. Anyone with information is asked to call Biddeford Police at 282-5127.

BUXTON

Two men sought in robbery of supermarket at gunpoint

Police are looking for two men who robbed the Hannaford supermarket at gunpoint Wednesday morning.

The men entered the store around 2 a.m. and forced an employee into a walk-in freezer while they stole cash. They had black handguns.

The men wore gray and green hooded sweat shirts, dark pants, gloves and ski masks, according to Police Chief Michael Grovo.

The Hannaford employee was able to get out of the freezer and call police.

Anyone with information about the robbery should call Buxton Police at 929-6612.

WINDHAM

Council appoints Anania to fill seat until November

The Town Council unanimously appointed Peter Anania on Tuesday to fill a vacancy on the seven-member board.

Anania was one of three candidates who applied for the position. He is president of Anania and

Associates Investment Co., which owns Maine Cedar Homes and other Windham businesses.
Lawrence MacDonald and David Nadeau had also applied for the position.

Anania will hold the seat until November, when residents will elect a candidate for the year remaining on the term.

GORHAM

Council takes no action after clerk’s evaluation

The Gorham Council took no action Tuesday after a special meeting scheduled to evaluate the performance of Town Clerk Christina Silberman.

The council and town attorney William Dale met with Silberman behind closed doors for two and a half hours.

“It was nothing more than an evaluation,” said David Cole, Gorham town manager.

Cole said he did not anticipate any more action by the town council on the matter. He declined to comment on the evaluation.

Silberman also declined to comment. She said previously she did not know why the Council wanted to meet with her. Silberman was hired as town clerk in March, 2005, after working as deputy clerk in Falmouth for 10 years.

Councilor Michael Phinney said he expected the council to follow up the evaluation with another meeting with Silberman in April.

AUBURN

Inmate asks to go to trial in 2007 death of baby girl

A Maine man serving 14 years in prison for killing an 8-month-old girl wants to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial.

Todd Gamache pleaded guilty to manslaughter three years ago in the March 2007 death of Emmy Leigh Cole. Gamache told police he accidentally dropped the girl while baby-sitting, but an autopsy showed she died from blunt force trauma to the head.

In a hearing Tuesday, the 27-year-old Gamache told Justice Robert Clifford that he didn’t understand what he was pleading guilty to in 2008. He maintained the baby’s death was an accident.

The judge is expected to make a decision in the coming weeks.

AUGUSTA

Baldacci wants assessment of damage from rainstorm

Gov. John Baldacci is requesting a damage assessment for the torrential rainstorm that deluged eastern Maine earlier this month.

The Dec. 12 storm dropped 6 to 8 inches of rain in places, washing out local roads, flooding basements and closing a border crossing, causing at least $1.7 million in damages.

To qualify for a federal disaster declaration and assistance, the state must show damages of at least $1.65 million.

Washington County was hit hardest, with an estimated $1.1 million in damages.

If a disaster declaration is granted, the federal government will cover 75 percent of the cost of needed repairs.

Donor of kidney to brother in first transplant dies at 79

Ronald Lee Herrick, who donated a kidney to his dying twin brother in 1954 in what’s recognized as the world’s first successful organ transplant, has died in Maine. He was 79.

Herrick’s wife, Cynthia, said he died Monday at the Augusta Rehabilitation Center. She said his health deteriorated after undergoing heart surgery in October.

Herrick made history in 1954 when he donated a kidney to his twin brother, Richard, at what is now the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Because they were identical twins, there was no problem with rejection. The United Network for Organ Sharing says it was the first successful transplant.

The operation on Dec. 23, 1954, kept Herrick’s brother alive for eight years. Lead surgeon Dr. Joseph Murray went on to win a Nobel Prize.

Man who said he was governor guilty of tax evasion

A 42-year-old Maine man’s claim that he was governor so he didn’t have to pay taxes didn’t save him from a conviction on a tax evasion charge.

Attorney General Janet Mills said Joseph Darling of West Gardiner was sentenced to 21 days in jail and ordered to pay $11,388 in restitution of state income taxes he owes for the years 2004 through 2007.

At his sentencing hearing in Augusta District Court, Darling claimed he didn’t have to pay taxes because he was governor of Maine.

Even if Darling were governor, Mills said, he would still have to pay income tax on his state salary.

WATERVILLE

College starts building biomass heating plant

Colby College has begun construction of a new biomass heating plant that officials hope will replace about 1 million gallons of heating fuel each year with wood chips and forest waste.

The aim is to move the college much closer to its goal of carbon neutrality by 2015.

It’s expected that the $11.25 million facility will pay for itself in six to 10 years.

It is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2011. The plant will burn low-grade forest waste and debris including bark and treetops. The college plans to get the fuel from forest operations within 50 miles of the Waterville campus.

The twin 400 hp biomass-fueled boilers will produce steam used for heat, hot water, cooking and cogeneration of electricity.

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