PORTLAND

Bay State man indicted in fatal Westbrook stabbing

A Massachusetts man wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a Westbrook man has been indicted.

A Cumberland County grand jury Thursday indicted Tareek Hendricks, 29, on charges of murder and elevated aggravated assault.

Hendricks is wanted in the April 21 death of 40-year-old Robert Stubbs. Police identified Hendricks, whose last known residence was in Worcester, Mass., from photographs found on a cellphone he left behind at Stubbs’ home.

AUGUSTA

State trooper, civilians honored for contributions

Maine state police honored civilians who assisted investigators following the death of a Texas boy during a ceremony in Augusta that honored law enforcement officers from across the state for their work on other cases.

During Thursday’s ceremony, state police also named Trooper Tom Pappas as its Trooper of the Year.

State police honored two citizens who helped in the investigation into the death of Camden Hughes, whose body was found last month in South Berwick. Based on a tip, police eventually located the boy’s mother in Massachusetts, where she was arrested.

Lisa Gove saw the truck of the murder suspect and reported it to police. Truck driver Steve Scipione saw the truck in Massachusetts and told police.

Julianne McCrery of Irving, Texas, was arrested on a murder charge.

PORTLAND

Grant of $400,000 will help cleanup at former school site

The Greater Portland Council of Governments is getting a $400,000 federal grant to help pay for the cleanup of the former Adams Community School site at 48 Moody St.

The grant, from the Environmental Protection Agency, is being formally announced Friday. It’s one of six EPA grants in Maine for a total of $2.95 million.

The school site, which is being redeveloped into townhouses, will be cleaned up under the “brownfields” project to de-contaminate sites for re-use. Separate grants from state agencies are being used to pay for the cost of asbestos removal and the disposal of contaminated soils from the site.

Prior to its use as a school, the site had a railroad maintenance repair shop and a hand-grenade factory. The school was opened in 1958 and closed five years ago.

Other EPA grants are being awarded to clean up:

The Bridgton Memorial School property, which used to be a rail yard; town-owned property on Shaker Road in Gray, the site of a former gas station; the Greater Maine Auto Auction site on Route 202 at Maine Turnpike exit 63 in Gray; the Main Street fire station in Gray; and a former public works site in Windham.

SACO

Masons to host parade with ‘Community Unity’ theme

The Masons, a fraternal organization, will host a parade to honor military, police, firefighters and rescue workers. The parade will include Masons and the affiliated Shriners from across the state.

The parade is set for Saturday at 10 a.m. on Main Street from Beach Street to Pepperell Square and the theme is “Community Unity: a Salute to our Men and Woman who protect us at Home and Abroad.”

The procession will feature 28 units, including bands and clowns.

BELFAST

State to investigate police shooting of armed man

The Maine Attorney General’s Office is investigating a confrontation in Belfast that ended with a police officer critically wounding a 29-year-old Swanville man armed with a shotgun.

The Belfast Police Department says officers attempted to stop a vehicle shortly before midnight Wednesday that had refused to stop for an officer in nearby Searsport.

When the vehicle eventually stopped at the intersection of Route 141 and Smart Road, police say the driver, Ben Thompson, stepped out with a shotgun.

Officials say Thompson was ordered to put the gun down, and he was shot by Belfast Officer Dan Fitzpatrick.

Spokeswoman Brenda Kielty of the Attorney General’s Office says Thompson was taken by ambulance to a Bangor hospital. He was listed in critical condition.

Kielty declined to release additional information.

WINDHAM

Fourth-grade class picks a G.E.M. of a name to win

A fourth-grade class at the Manchester School in Windham won $500 in a contest to rename the Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp. in Auburn.

The class’s winning entry — Green Energy Maine, or G.E.M. — won’t necessarily become the new name of the quasi-municipal trash-processing facility.

Following the contest among local schools, the company will seek suggestions from its employees and then community members.

Executive Director Joseph Kazar said that the company has been around for 25 years and “many in the public still don’t know what we do and why it’s so beneficial to society and the environment.”

To change that, he said, the board of directors “is going through a process to find just the right name.”

In a letter to Manchester School teacher Donna Morton, Kazar said the board found the students’ entry “to be very descriptive of our mission and a very clever acronym.”

BIDDEFORD

Massachusetts man arrested on crack cocaine charge

Biddeford police and agents with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency have charged a Worcester, Mass., man with possession of crack cocaine.

Drug agents learned a Worcester-based crack cocaine ring was operating in Biddeford and identified two suspects. On Tuesday, police pulled over the rental car they were using.

Jonathan Bethune, 24, of Webster, Mass., was charged with possession of the drug after they found six grams of it, worth about $600, police said. The other suspect was released without being charged.

Bethune is free on bail pending an Aug. 24 appearance in York County Superior Court.

UNE faculty member gets $105,000 research grant

The Maine Cancer Foundation recently awarded a $105,000 research grant to University of New England pharmacology faculty member Todd W. Vanderah.

The one-year award will allow Vanderah to research the mechanisms of breast cancer proliferation and formation of bone metastases, according to a press release from the university. Data generated from the funding will help attract additional funding from the National Institutes of Health to bring drug candidates forward to clinical trials. The funding also helps support a growing biotechnology community in Maine by providing science-related jobs for the state.

Vanderah is an internationally known researcher in the pain field and has authored over 100 scientific publications. He also brings expertise in drug discovery and development to Maine’s neuroscience community.

FALMOUTH

Teacher at The REAL School wins $24,000 fellowship

Richard Meserve, a special education teacher at The REAL School, has been awarded a $24,000 fellowship from the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation in Washington, D.C. The school, an alternative program that’s part of the Windham School District, is on Mackworth Island.

The fellowship will help Meserve pursue a master’s degree in a social studies program that includes a concentration in the history and principles of the U.S. Constitution.

The fellowship honors the fourth U.S. president, who is the acknowledged “father of the Constitution” and author of the Bill of Rights, according to a news release from the fellowship foundation.

Last year, Meserve, who lives in Falmouth, received a $25,000 Milken Educator Award.

Called the “Kid Whisperer” by his peers, Meserve was recognized for his teaching expertise and his unwavering love for students at The REAL school.