ERIE, Pa. (AP) — A Maine man has pleaded guilty to two counts in what authorities in western Pennsylvania alleged was a kidnapping and sexual assault on a couple in Allegheny National Forest. The Erie Times-News says 37-year-old Mike Beaulieu, of Anson, Maine, pleaded guilty Wednesday to kidnapping and carrying a firearm during a crime […]

EAST MILLINOCKET (AP) — Investigators have been unable to determine what caused a fire that destroyed a concrete factory in East Millinocket. Sgt. Ken Grimes of the Maine State Fire Marshal’s Office says the extent of the damage at Lee’s Redi Mix Concrete Inc. has prevented an investigator from finding the source of the fire. […]

AUGUSTA (AP) — Legislation seeking $ 300,000 in money from the state of Maine for an east-west highway feasibility study is moving forward, with a change that makes the developer pay back the cost of the study if the highway is built. The House and Senate have already approved a bill calling for a feasibility […]

BANGOR (AP) — A Clifton couple is going to court to try and block a wind farm from being built near their flower farm. Peter and Julie Beckford said in their complaint filed at Penobscot County Superior Court that town officials in Clifton erred in granting Pisgah Mountain LLC a permit for construction of a […]

PORTLAND ( AP) — The University of Southern Maine is under fire for handing out raises as high as 41 percent to 44 employees at a time of fiscal constraint. The $242,000 in raises this year come to light as the university faces $5.1 million in projected budget cuts in the coming year at campuses […]

WASHINGTON ( AP) — The Republican establishment started to coalesce around Mitt Romney in earnest on Wednesday, with Jeb Bush and other leading Republicans pressuring Rick Santorum to leave the race after a thumping in the Illinois primary. But, on what should have been a triumphant day, Romney found himself having to defend his conservative […]

NEW YORK (AP) — The parents of a black teenager shot to death by a Hispanic neighborhood watch captain in Florida told demonstrators in New York they will keep fighting to get justice for their son. “My son did not deserve to die,” Tracy Martin said Wednesday after thanking the hundreds of people who participated […]

TOULOUSE, France (AP) — An Islamic extremist who boasted of killing seven people to strike back at France died today after jumping from his window, gun in hand, in a fierce shootout with police, a French minister said. Interior Minister Claude Gueant said the suspect, who claimed links to al-Qaida, jumped out after police entered […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Rush Limbaugh’s opponents are starting a radio campaign against him today, seizing upon the radio star’s attack of a Georgetown law student as a “slut” to make a long-term effort aimed at weakening his business. The liberal Media Matters for America is using a past campaign against Glenn Beck as a […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid fell to a four-year low last week, bolstering the view that the job market is strengthening. The Labor Department said today that weekly applications dropped 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000. That’s the lowest level since March 2008, just months into the Great Recession. […]