PORTLAND

Boston man sentenced on crack-cocaine charge

A federal judge in Maine has sentenced a Boston man to nearly 16 years in prison for his role in trafficking crack cocaine.

Twenty-nine-year-old Tony Sumrall was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Portland to 15 years and eight months. Sumrall pleaded guilty last September to possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine.

According to court records, Sumrall was arrested last July after Maine State Police found crack cocaine hidden in his clothing following a traffic stop.

Sumrall was considered a “career criminal” because of previous criminal convictions.

Maine Island Trail named U.S. best for sea kayaking

Outside magazine has named a waterway along Maine’s coast as the nation’s best sea-kayaking trail.

The magazine’s July issue gives top billing to the Maine Island Trail — a “water trail” that links nearly 200 islands and mainland sites from the New Hampshire border to Canada — in an article about America’s best trails.

The magazine says the Maine Island Trail offers more options and solitude than either Wisconsin’s Apostle Islands or Washington’s San Juans.

The Maine Island Trail Association oversees the trail of ocean properties. Since 1988, it has entered into agreements with island owners to allow recreational access to their islands in exchange for volunteer stewardship services.

WESTBROOK

Police dog helps officers arrest suspect in burglary

A Westbrook police dog helped officers collar a burglary suspect Friday morning after a woman reported that a man she knew was trying to break into her Prospect Street apartment.

The woman called police at 5:45 a.m. to report that Benjamin E. Knudsen was trying to break in, and when police arrived, he ran.

Police K9 Maria tracked Knudsen to a Middle Street building where he was found hiding under a porch, police said. Knudsen refused to come out or show police his hands so they could see whether he was armed, police said.

Officers ended the standoff by releasing Maria. Knudsen was treated at the scene for a dog bite to his left arm and taken to Cumberland County Jail where he is being held on charges of burglary, violation of bail conditions and refusal to submit to arrest.

SACO

Police classify shooting in hotel room as suicide

Police say they now believe a shooting that was reported Thursday morning was a suicide.

Police were called to a room at the Rodeway Inn to check on the well-being of a 27-year-old man who lived there.

The man was taken to Maine Medical Center with a serious head injury and later died. Police said they interviewed family members, motel staff and people in nearby rooms and have classified the death as a suicide.

BANGOR

Local woman sentenced in attempted suffocation

A Bangor woman is going to prison for six years for trying to suffocate an elderly woman at a Bangor nursing home.

Jodi Lynn Holmes, 49, was sentenced Friday in Penobscot County Superior Court after pleading guilty to trying to suffocate a 97-year-old woman at the Bangor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center with a pillow on Feb. 6. Police say she did not know her victim.

The Bangor Daily News said Holmes has a long history of mental illness. She is on federal probation for a series of bomb threats she made in 2007 and was barred from going into nursing homes because she had made threats to harm elderly people.

Holmes has been in jail since her arrest.

ST. FRANCIS

St. John man, 20, dies in speed-related crash

Maine State Police said a 20-year-old man is dead after the car he was driving hit a stand of trees in St. Francis.

Police said Aaron Charette of St. John was traveling south on Main Street at about 1 a.m. Friday when he lost control and skidded off the road into the trees.

Charette was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

A passenger in Charette’s vehicle suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.

Police said speed was a factor in the crash. The investigation is continuing.

BELFAST

Man charged with assault in samurai-sword incident

A Belfast man is facing charges he assaulted a man with a samurai sword at a party.

Belfast police said Anthony Roderick, 22, of Belfast was arrested Thursday on charges stemming from a May 28 incident in which he tried to get the victim to leave a party.

Police said Roderick and the man wrestled and fell to the ground. Roderick is reported to have grabbed the man by the neck, bitten him and scratched him, before somehow obtaining a broken samurai sword and jabbing the man.

The Bangor Daily News said the victim was treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released.

Roderick is facing charges including aggravated assault and criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon. He’s being held for lack of $25,000 bail.

EAST MILLINOCKET

State gets $657,000 to help workers idled at paper mill

The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded a $657,000 emergency grant to the Maine Labor Department to serve workers laid off from the Katahdin Paper mill in East Millinocket.

U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud said Thursday the grant will be used to help the laid-off workers find new employment. It will be administered by the Eastern Maine Development Corp.

Katahdin Paper shut down its East Millinocket mill in early April, putting 450 employees out of work.

AUBURN

Bean fires four for orders of bag discounted in error

A lawyer said several L.L. Bean call center employees were fired after buying a leather tote bag that was discounted in error online.

The workers’ attorney, Rebecca Webber, said the employees were fired after placing orders for themselves on the L.L. Bean website. The bag was originally priced at $169 but for about two days was erroneously marked down to $19.

The Sun Journal said the Freeport-based company canceled the employees’ orders and let them go after they were questioned by company fraud investigators. The employees are claiming they did nothing wrong.

An L.L. Bean spokeswoman said Friday that four employees were let go, but that the company as a matter of policy does not discuss personnel matters.

SOUTH PORTLAND

Anthem donates $100,000 for nursing students’ lab

The Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation has donated $100,000 to develop a high-tech training laboratory for nursing students in Auburn.

The “Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation Nursing Simulation Center” will include life-like patient simulators and allow students at Central Maine Community College to gain clinical experience in a safe environment, the foundation announced Friday.

Dan Corcoran, president and general manager of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Maine, said the gift — along with a previous one to the Northern Maine Community College — will help fill a shortage of trained nurses.

There are over 1,000 nursing vacancies in Maine today and by 2020 the number is expected to grow to over 5,000, according to the foundation.