BANGOR

Bangor airport now using new full-body scanners

Bangor International Airport is the latest airport in Maine to get full-body scanners.

The Transportation Security Administration unveiled and demonstrated the advanced imaging technology scanner at the airport on Wednesday.

Assistant airport director Tony Caruso Jr. told the Bangor Daily News that passengers’ comments have been almost universally positive since the $130,000 machine was put into limited use late last week.

The 4-foot-wide, 9-foot-tall scanner uses electromagnetic waves to detect explosives and other threats.

They are designed so there are no privacy issues related to body types or images that are considered too graphic.

On Monday, the TSA demonstrated three of the scanners that have been put into use at the Portland International Jetport.

About 540 of the units are now in use at more than 100 airports nationwide.

Sheriff being investigated for comments to minister

The Maine Sheriffs’ Association is investigating the sheriff who publicly raised questions about whether Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross violated ethics and undermined a state police investigation by alerting the target of the investigation, the Rev. Robert Carlson of Bangor.

Ross came under fire from Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith after Ross told Carlson about a child abuse investigation. The minister jumped to his death from the Penobscot Narrows Bridge within hours of two conversations with Ross.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Smith stepped down from the association after learning he’s being investigated for his comments.

Smith says he did nothing wrong by publicly questioning the actions of another sheriff. The association is investigating Ross’ actions as well.

Man gets six months for cashing dead mom’s checks

A Brewer man has been sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay back nearly $70,000 for cashing worker’s compensation survivor checks made out to his deceased mother.

Joseph Lebard, 57, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor for theft of public money.

Prosecutors say Lebard’s mother died in 2006 but continued receiving monthly $1,100 worker’s compensation checks in the mail from the U.S. Department of Labor. Court documents show that from 2006 to 2010, Lebard forged his mother’s name on the checks and mailed them to his bank with a note directing that the funds be deposited in accounts he had at the bank.

Lebard’s mother started receiving the survivor checks after her husband died in 1989.

PORTLAND

Teen charged with attacking two city restaurant workers

Police have charged a teenager with attacking two restaurant workers as they walked to a car in the Old Port on Tuesday night.

Mohamud Abdullahi, 18, was charged with two counts of assault. Police say he punched a male restaurant worker who was walking two female coworkers to their car about 10 p.m., then hit one of the women.

Police say Abdullahi was with a group of other young men in a car near Vignola restaurant at 10 Dana St. The group started making derogatory comments, and one of them said he wanted to fight.

Abdullahi took a swing at the worker but missed, and the worker head-butted him in the face, cutting his own forehead and cutting Abdullahi’s lip, police said. The suspect also hit one of the women in the back of the neck.

Abdullahi left as the three retreated to the restaurant, then returned and vandalized cars, police said. He was also charged with criminal mischief.

Police investigate armed robbery at West End store

Portland police are investigating an armed robbery that occurred Wednesday night at the Cumberland Farms convenience store on Pine Street.

Lt. Robert Ridge said the suspect, described as a white man about 6 feet tall, entered the store shortly after 9 p.m. and pointed a handgun at the clerk.

“He told the clerk, ‘Give me all your money,’” Ridge said. The clerk handed over an undisclosed amount of cash.

The robber ran away. He was wearing a ski mask and a dark hooded jacket.

Police used a dog to track the suspect through the West End but lost the trail on Dow Street.

WINDHAM

Vacant council seat won’t be filled before election

The Town Council decided Tuesday not to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Peter Busque last year.

Three candidates applied to fill the council seat until November, though one of them – Kaile Warren, the founder of Rent-A-Husband and a former councilor – later withdrew his name. The other candidates were Peter Anania and Carol Waig.

Town Clerk Linda Morrell said that after meeting privately, councilors voted 6-0 not to fill the seat before the election in November.

FREEPORT

School district seeks input on high school facilities

Regional School Unit 5, covering Freeport, Pownal and Durham, is seeking public input in developing a master plan to address facilities needs at Freeport High School.

School officials have hired PDT Architects of Portland to produce a master plan to improve the safety, accessibility and appearance of the high school, which was built in 1961.

Lyndon Keck, a principal of PDT, is working with a study advisory committee to assess everything from the building’s capacity to code compliance. The plan is expected to be finished by early April.

Keck recently presented a preliminary assessment of facilities needs at community meetings in Freeport and Pownal. Additional meetings are scheduled for Feb. 2, at 4 p.m. at Freeport High School; Feb. 7, at 6:30 p.m. at Freeport Town Hall; and Feb. 13, at 6:30 p.m. at Durham Town Hall.

AUGUSTA

Transit services get free used buses from New York

Four community transit services are getting free buses from a county in New York.

The Maine Department of Transportation said 14 buses rolled into the state Tuesday from the Westchester County Public Works and Transportation Department in New York. They range in years from 2002 to 2008 and cost more than $330,000 new.

Officials say that even with high mileage, the buses have significant life left in them.

The regional transit services that will get the buses are the Biddeford-Saco-Old Orchard Beach shuttle, the South Portland Bus Service, the Bangor Community Connector and Ellsworth’s Downeast Transportation.

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