Gabriel Electronics, a longtime Scarborough manufacturer of radio dishes and antennas, has gone out of business and its assets have been purchased by Tri Point Global, an international maker of satellites and radio dishes.

Jim Bongiorno, a Tri Point administrative manager overseeing what’s left of operations in the Gabriel building on Manson Libby Road, said Wednesday that Key Bank foreclosed on the Gabriel Corporation in July.

Army Pfc. Ryan M. Lacourse has deployed to a forward operating location in Afghanistan to support the mission of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Scarborough Town Councilors Wednesday night were expected to approve a compromise solution to slowing down traffic on Maple Avenue – two stop signs along the busy street.

Commuters using Maple as a cut through from Route 114 to Route 1 and back again have been a source of tension in the Green Acres neighborhood for years.

Recently the problem came to a head with the formation of a citizens group, which asked the town to take action.

The compromise to two more radical approaches that would have completely changed the traffic patterns in the area was suggested by Town Manager Ron Owens, after discussion with the police and fire chiefs and Town Planner Joseph Ziepniewski.

The recommendation is to install two new stop signs on Maple, one at the intersection of Maple and Elmwood and one at the intersection of Maple and Hunnewell.

Steve Dougherty, who has been a member of Scarborough’s Planning Board for several years and before that a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, is laying down the mantle of public service he picked up more than 40 years ago when living in Yarmouth.

Scarborough Councilor Sylvia Most had trouble understanding why a proposed bypass to reduce traffic, especially large oil tank trucks, in Gorham Village, hadn’t been completed.

“I lived in Gorham about 10 years ago and this was an issue then,” Most said. “Why isn’t something being done?”

Most and other members of the Gorham and Scarborough Town Councils met Tuesday night in Scarborough to hear what Destination Tomorrow, a three-year regional transportation study completed last week by the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation Committee, recommends as solutions to growing gridlock in their two towns.

Finding a way to channel traffic out of that area has become a top priority, and the PACTS report strongly endorses the construction of two by-pass routes, one on the north side of Gorham and one on the south, around the village.

A master plan for Cape’s 150-acre Gull Crest property is one step closer to getting approved after the Cape Town Council agreed to accept the draft plan on first reading earlier this month.

According to Mike Duddy, chairman of the Conservation Commission, the master plan would ultimately create a spoke and hub system of walking trails that could service every neighborhood in town.

Richard Marsters ran into Willie Johnson one night a couple years ago at the Bridgeway Restaurant. They had grown up together in Westbrook and known each other well because they shared a love of jazz and the man that taught it to them – Don Doane. Twenty years later, they had both come to see Doane perform at his regular spot.

The chance meeting prompted Marsters to call Johnson a few days later. Johnson, who hadn’t played his trombone in years, laughed when he recalled the conversation. “He says, ‘I’m going to try to talk you into playing again,” said Johnson. “I said, ‘Rick, I’ve got my horn in my other hand. I’m practicing right now. ’ He said, ‘good, we’ve got rehearsal in a week.’” The two men, along with seven other musicians, formed a band called “Cool Shade of Blue.” The band has brought together a few musicians who haven’t played together since their Westbrook school days. Last month the band put out its first CD, entitled “Swing Dance at the Church.”

Anne Belden of Cape Elizabeth is pioneering a new set of programs at the Children’s Museum of Maine in Portland and wants parents of preschoolers throughout the area to come play and learn.

She started working there in the summer and the new activities are taking off. They rotate between “KinderCooks,” “KinderTravel,” “Silly Science” and “Famous Birthdays,” each with its own theme and activity, as well as chances to learn and play.

“I try to do a wide variety of things,” Belden said, including multicultural events and ones related to holidays or seasons when appropriate.

For example, a recent event involved exploring German traditions for Christmas, with gifts given in shoes.

This year, freshmen at Cape Elizabeth High School have started their science learning with physics rather than earth and physical science – a new trend in education that says the way science has traditionally been taught is backward.

The science faculty have had to work hard to restructure the physics curriculum to depend less on math and more on the concepts of physics itself, but so far the project seems to be a success. The idea is that physics offers a big picture look at how the universe works and is therefore the most logical starting point in science education.

The town of Cape Elizabeth owns a plot of vacant land directly north of Town Hall and town leaders are wondering what to do with it.

The council got together in workshop session on Dec. 12 and seemed divided between using the land as green space or turning it into a commercial development.

Danielle Plummer, 6, and her brother Wyatt, 2, pose for their mother to take a photo with Santa at the Oak Hill Fire Station in this photo from the issue of Dec. 19, 2002.