PORTLAND ( AP) — Maine’s supreme court says a business’ insurer isn’t obligated to cover damage caused by a company driver during an incident of road rage. The court ruled unanimously Thursday in a case brought after The Travelers Indemnity Co. refused to cover the injury damage when one of the owners of Raymond- based […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — A legislative committee has agreed on a long-simmering bill to overhaul the way development is regulated in Maine’s Unorganized Territory. The Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry on Thursday gave final approval by a 12-0 vote, with one absent, to a bill to overhaul the Land Use Regulation Commission. It includes […]

ROCKLAND ( AP) — Samuel Collins Jr., a longtime legislator and former Maine supreme court justice, has died. He was 88. Attorney Stephen Hanscom, who worked with Collins for a number of years, said Collins died Thursday at his home in Rockland. A Caribou native, Collins graduated from the University of Maine at Orono and […]

PORTLAND ( AP) — Maine’s highest court upheld the conviction of a Portland man who’s serving a 40-year sentence for fatally stabbing his girlfriend in 2009. In a unanimous ruling Thursday, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court rejected the appeal of William Hanaman, who was convicted of murder in the death of 47- year- old Marian […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — The Maine Public Broadcasting Network says a $1.7 million funding cut proposed in Gov. Paul LePage’s budget would devastate the service. MPBN executives and supporters spoke Wednesday at a legislative hearing against the cut, which is among others in LePage’s supplemental budget. Maine Today Media says the state provides 17.4 percent […]

AUGUSTA (AP) — Cuts proposed in Gov. Paul LePage’s budget to a program that provides emergency financial assistance would throw poor and disadvantaged people into the streets and foist new burdens on property taxpayers, mayors of Maine’s largest cities said Thursday. As the 10 mayors announced the formation of a Mayors Coalition on Jobs and […]

BOSTON — From her 19th-floor West End studio, Brittney Kirk can see clearly across the city, a commanding perch that sometimes inspires vertigo. “I look out my window, and I think, ‘It’s really, really high,’” she said. “It makes you dizzy.” On Wednesday morning, as temperatures climbed, Kirk decided to crack open a window to give […]

ABERDEEN TOWNSHIP, N. J. ( AP) — More than 900 students at a New Jersey middle school have been told no more hugging. The district says Matawan- Aberdeen Middle School Principal Tyler Blackmore made an announcement that students were in a “no hugging school” following some “incidents of unsuitable, physical interactions.” School Superintendent David Healy […]

NEW YORK (AP) — Bank of America says it has begun a pilot program offering some of its mortgage customers who are facing foreclosure a chance to stay in their homes by becoming renters instead of owners. The “Mortgage to Lease” program, which was launched this week, will be available to fewer than 1,000 BofA […]

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has approved the prosecution’s request and frozen the assets of Catherine Greig, the girlfriend of reputed Boston mob boss James “ Whitey” Bulger, who has pleaded guilty to harboring him for the 16 years the couple was on the lam. The order issued Thursday freezes a bank account with […]