AUGUSTA (AP) — The Le- Page administration is launching a program to encourage business development by tagging eligible Maine communities as business friendly. Gov. Paul LePage announced the Certified Business Friendly Community program at the Blaine house on Tuesday. Communities meeting standards for business collaboration, licensing and permitting will get formal state recognition including an […]

AUGUSTA (AP) — A proposal to overhaul the agency that regulates development in the nearly 10 million- acre region of Maine known as the Unorganized Territory is heading for votes by the full Legislature. A vote Thursday by the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee to send the bill to the House and Senate comes after […]

ROCKPORT ( AP) — The founder of the Maine-based Institute for Global Ethics has died in Florida. Rushworth Kidder was 67. The institute said Kidder died Monday of natural causes in Naples, Fla., where he moved late last year. He is survived by his wife, Anne Elizabeth Davidson Kidder, and two daughters. Kidder was a […]

PRESQUE ISLE (AP) — It’s down to finalists from Maine, Wyoming and Colorado in the search for a new president at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. The three finalists are Jon Connolly, vice president of academic affairs at Sheridan and Gillette Colleges in Sheridan, Wyo.; Linda Schott, dean of the School of Arts, […]

PORTLAND (AP) — With unemployment in Maine hovering around 7 percent, a forum on joblessness is being held at the University of Southern Maine. Organizers say today’s event comes as some political leaders suggest that unemployed workers are at least partially responsible for their own plight and have advocated erecting barriers to unemployment benefits or […]

SOUTH PORTLAND (AP) — It’s still winter but there’s a sign that spring is around the corner: The Coast Guard is ready to bring ice breaking operations on the Kennebec River. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Bob Albert said Tuesday that people should remove their ice shacks and fishing gear as soon as possible. Starting […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — A former Maine legislator accused of pulling a loaded gun on a stranger in the parking lot of a Waterville doughnut shop is expected to plead guilty. An attorney for former Republican state Rep. Frederick Wintle told a judge on Tuesday that a deal has been reached and a hearing was […]

AUGUSTA (AP) — A bill that would require people filling prescriptions for painkillers and some other drugs to show photo identification at the pharmacy is making its way through the Statehouse. Representatives of Maine doctors and pharmacies testified in favor of the bill at a public hearing Tuesday. Civil libertarians and others raised concerns about […]

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A man arrested after a homemade cannon blasted through his mobile home, killing his girlfriend, “liked to live life on the edge,” his brother told a San Diego newspaper. Richard Fox, 39, was arrested for investigation of exploding a device resulting in death after the Tuesday blast in a mountain community […]