NEW GLOUCESTER

Turnpike car-truck collision injures Cape Elizabeth woman

A Cape Elizabeth woman was in serious condition at Maine Medical Center Monday night following a collision between her sedan and a tractor-trailer truck on the Maine Turnpike.

State Trooper Fern Cloutier said a Honda Civic sedan operated by 59-year-old Barbara Pierce of Cape Elizabeth collided with a truck driven by 55-year-old Otis Rogers of Ruleville, Miss., near mile marker 70 in New Gloucester. The accident was reported around 5 p.m.

Pierce suffered a head injury. Rogers was not injured, but his trailer bed blocked the turnpike, which forced police to shut down both southbound lanes until it could be removed.

Cloutier said police were eventually able to reopen one lane of southbound traffic. But traffic was restricted between Exit 75 in Auburn and Exit 63 in Gray for about three hours. The turnpike did not completely reopen until 8 p.m.

Cloutier said the cause of the crash remains under investigation.

ALFRED

Vendor listed by candidate adds to spending questions

More questions are being raised about expenses claimed by a publicly funded legislative candidate in southern Maine.

Republican Rep. David R. Burns of Alfred claimed $475 in expenses for campaign signs in 2010.

But the Journal Tribune of Biddeford says the vendor who was listed in a spending report never made the signs and never received payment.

The matter is under review by the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, which will review that and other campaign cases Wednesday.

The commission staff is recommending that Burns’ case be referred to the attorney general for possible criminal investigation. It also asks the commission to find that Burns illegally mingled Maine Clean Election funds with personal funds, made false statements, used funds not related to his campaign and committed other violations.

CASTINE

Schooner Bowdoin’s role in war to be part of exhibit

Maine Maritime Academy’s historic schooner Bowdoin, known for its 28 Arctic voyages, will be the subject of a 2012 exhibit.

Since its launch in 1921, the Bowdoin has left in its wake tales of adventure and exploration from its Arctic voyages.

Next year’s exhibit will reveal the schooner’s previously uncelebrated contributions to the strategic operations of the Coast Guard and Navy during World War II as part of the Greenland Patrol.

That effort by the United States to support Greenland during the Nazi occupation of its mother country, Denmark, relied heavily upon private and non-military vessels.

The Bowdoin serves as Maine Maritime’s traditional sail-training flagship.

The exhibit at the Castine Historical Society will run from June 25 through Oct. 15.

AUGUSTA

Man charged in stabbing of apartment neighbor

A Cony Road man was behind bars Monday after a weekend stabbing left one man recovering at a Lewiston hospital.

Malcolm Robert Moore, 37, was charged Sunday with aggravated assault after allegedly stabbing another man during a confrontation in the apartment building the men share at 226 Cony Road.

The victim, Aaron Francis Brunelle, 32, was taken by a LifeFlight of Maine helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center with what police described as life-threatening injuries. Brunelle was listed in good condition Monday morning, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Police responded to the Cony Road building around 1:15 a.m. Sunday for a report of a stabbing.

Witnesses told police Moore stabbed Brunelle after he told Moore to clean up a mess Moore had made in the kitchen, said Augusta Police Detective Tori Tracy in an affidavit filed in Kennebec County Superior Court.

Moore told police he stabbed Brunelle after he confronted Moore in the hall and yelled that Moore had been evicted from the building. Moore said Brunelle placed him in a headlock and that he stabbed Brunelle to escape.

BANGOR

Black Friday driver dispute leads to tire stabbing charge

Police say a man who reportedly was blocking traffic in a parking lot on Black Friday apparently got so mad when another driver made a comment that he stabbed the driver’s tire.

Sgt. Paul Edwards told the Bangor Daily News the victim said something to William Joy, 25, of Bangor while driving by him on Friday afternoon. He then parked and went inside a store.

Edwards said when the man came out of the store about 20 minutes later, he found a knife in the side of one of his tires and the tire was flat.

An eyewitness got the man’s license plate number and a description of the car and gave it to a store manager.

Joy was charged with criminal mischief.

MONTPELIER, Vt.

Northern New England gets repair funds after flooding

The U.S. Department of Transportation is sending Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire millions of dollars to help repair roads that were damaged by storms earlier this year.

Vermont will get the most money – $15.3 million – for damage from spring floods and Tropical Storm Irene in August.

Some estimates say the repairs could ultimately cost as much as $250 million.

Maine will receive almost $755,400, and New Hampshire will get $132,000.

The grants are part of $215 million being released to 37 states and territories.
 

Copy the Story Link