PARIS (AP) — The Oxford County Sheriff ’s Office is working on a new policy for answering burglar alarms after hundreds of false alarms cost the county more than 1,000 man hours in 2011. Chief Deputy Dane Tripp says of the 327 burglar alarms answered by deputies last year, just three were actual break-ins. The […]

MANCHESTER ( AP) — Maine’s first retail fireworks store is scheduled to open this week. Pyro City is expected to open Thursday in Manchester, just outside Augusta. The state last year voted to allow the retail sale and use of fireworks in Maine for the first time in decades. The law took effect Jan. 1, […]

PORTLAND ( AP) — Preliminary findings from University of Southern Maine researchers have linked wood stoves and pellet stoves with potential indoor air quality problems. The team of faculty and students began its work last spring, examining indoor airborne smoke and ash particles from firewood and wood pellets. Researchers found traces of at least 10 […]

LUBEC (AP) — A federal commission has approved a pilot project license for a tidal energy proposal in Cobscook Bay on Maine’s eastern tip. The Ocean Renewable Power Company of Portland has proposed using five turbine generator units for its Cobscook Bay Tidal Energy Project near Lubec. Members of Maine’s congressional delegation said Monday that […]

BANGOR ( AP) — Court documents indicate a Maine woman charged with murdering a man in a Bangor apartment acknowledged stabbing him because he tried to force himself on her. Gail Judd, 53, told police in an affidavit that she used a knife for protection but didn’t realize that she’d killed 47- year-old Michael Drouin […]

PORTLAND ( AP) — The U. S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the first of two appeals brought by the National Organization for Marriage over campaign reporting requirements in Maine. The Supreme Court issued its order on Monday, upholding Maine’s political action committee laws that the National Organization for Marriage said were vague and […]

ORONO ( AP) — Bank of America is closing its call center in Orono, effective this fall. WABI-TV says employees were told Monday that their last day will be Oct. 31. About 200 people currently work at the Orono center. A company spokesman says the banking company will do everything it can to support the […]

AUGUSTA (AP) — A state survey indicates heating oil prices have risen 7 cents per gallon over the past week in Maine. The Governor’s Office of Energy Independence and Security said Monday that the average price in its weekly survey is $3.86 per gallon. Director Ken Fletcher called for a debate into the “potential role […]

PORTLAND ( AP) — A spokeswoman for Maine Gov. Paul LePage says he missed a White House meeting on the final day of the National Governors Association conference to get back to work in his home state. Spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett says LePage left Washington on Monday ahead of the final event of the NGA winter […]

FARMINGDALE ( AP) — Investigators say a man who started an armed confrontation before being killed by a state police tactical team member was angry after a friend rebuffed his request to play cards. Investigators said that before his death, 41-year-old Paul Fritze locked a man in a basement and fired shots into the door […]