BANGOR

10 Mr. Paperback bookstores will close by end of April

A bookstore chain that’s been a fixture in Maine for 50 years is going out of business.

Mr. Paperback’s 80 employees will be laid off when its 10 stores close by the end of April. The stores are located in Augusta, Bangor, Belfast, Caribou, Dover-Foxcroft, Ellsworth, Farmington, Presque Isle, Skowhegan and Waterville.

Co-owner Penny Robichaud told the Bangor Daily News that consumers aren’t buying printed materials as much as they used to with the Internet and the growth of e-books.

She said the chain’s sister magazine and newspaper distribution company, Magazines Inc., is being bought out by Hudson LLC, based in Worcester, Mass. Magazine Inc.’s 40 employees are also being laid off.

CARIBOU

Parts of northern Maine get nearly 20 inches of snow

A winter storm dumped nearly 20 inches of snow on parts of northern Maine.

The National Weather Service said the storm that entered the state Friday and left northern Maine on Saturday dropped 19 1/2 inches of snow on Fort Kent and 19 inches on Madawaska.

St. Francis and Eagle Lake got 17 inches, while Presque Isle, Caribou and Limestone all got more than a foot.

Maine ski areas reported healthy doses of new snow, and central Maine received roughly 4 to 8 inches. Some coastal and southern areas got mostly rain.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H.

Enthusiasts by the hundreds sample region’s craft beers

Hundreds of beer lovers sipped and sampled some of the region’s finest craft beers at the inaugural Seacoast Winter Brew Fest.

Saturday’s festival at the Portsmouth Gas Light Co. included 40 types of beer from 19 breweries. The daylong event featured two tasting sessions and served as the kickoff for the third annual Portsmouth Beer Week.

The weeklong celebration officially begins Monday and runs through March 5.

Sean Jansen of 2beerguys.com, which helped organize the festival, told the Portsmouth Herald that the event aims to educate the community on the growing popularity of craft beer.

MANCHESTER, N.H.

High winds knock out power to 16,000 utility customers

High winds knocked out power to more than 16,000 utility customers in New Hampshire.

Public Service of New Hampshire reported more than 14,000 power outages Saturday afternoon, while New Hampshire Electric Co-op reported nearly 1,000. Nearly 500 National Grid utility customers had lost electricity.

Most of the outages were in southern New Hampshire.

The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for the southern half of the state.

— From news service reports