GARDINER ( AP) — Officials are warning potential entrepreneurs to be wary of certain business investment schemes, especially “work at home” ventures. State Securities Administrator Judith Shaw said Tuesday that her agency is available to help aspiring business people make sound decisions about business investment opportunities, especially “ work at home” ventures marketed over the […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — A legislative committee has endorsed a bill that would bar Maine school districts from expelling students without giving them a time line or plan for returning to class. Sen. Justin Alfond says Maine is one of the few states where students can be expelled without an option for getting back in […]

WOODLAND (AP) — State police are hoping a $ 40,000 reward will bring in tips that lead them to the person who killed a Woodland man nearly four years ago. The body of 56- year- old Darrel Smith was found by his wife in February 2008 inside the small sawmill he operated adjacent to his […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — A former bookkeeper at an Augusta dental practice has been sentenced to six months in jail for embezzling about $120,000 from the business. Celine Davis was also sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation and ordered to have no contact with anyone who works at Augusta Orthodontics. The 43- year- old […]

HALLOWELL ( AP) — Police say a man attending his son’s basketball game at an elementary school went to the cafeteria and stole $40 in student lunch money. Police say 46- year- old Christopher Cope of Dresden told them that he needed the money to buy kerosene to heat his home. Authorities say Cope was […]

PORTLAND ( AP) — A Westbrook woman has pleaded guilty to stealing about $29,000 from her ex-husband’s retirement savings. Martha Collins pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Portland on Tuesday to wire fraud and identity theft. Prosecutors say she stole the money after he refused to lend her $15,000. Authorities say in July 2010 […]

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car of an Iranian university professor working at a key nuclear facility, killing him and his driver today, reports said. The slayings suggest a widening covert effort to set back Iran’s atomic program. The attack in Tehran bore a strong […]

BERLIN ( AP) — Germany’s economy slipped into reverse in the last quarter of 2011 in spite of showing strong overall growth for the year of 3 percent, the country’s Federal Statistics Office said today. While the overall 2011 growth figure was as expected by analysts, the statistics office also said that the German economy […]

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 was named as one of the country’s most gay-friendly employers today. MI5 was ranked 62 out of 100 for being one of the best employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff, according to a list compiled by the equality charity Stonewall. Ernst and Young topped the list, […]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A NASA spacecraft hurtling toward Mars prepared to fire its thrusters today to put itself on course for an August landing. Engineers closely tracked the one-ton rover nicknamed Curiosity, which has been cruising along since rocketing from Earth last November. The engine firing is the most important task Curiosity will perform […]