BRUNSWICK Acting on a law that went into effect at midnight on Dec. 29, local same-sex couples stormed the office of Town Clerk Fran Smith seeking marriage licenses Saturday morning. During November’s general election, Brunswick voters lent their approval by a nearly 2-to-1 margin to the statewide citizen’s referendum to legalize gay marriage. In response […]

Taxpayers across the country are subsidizing the manufacturers of assault rifles used in multiple mass killings, including the massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., last month. A Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting examination of tax records shows that five companies that make semi-automatic rifles have received […]

The White House and Senate Republicans sorted through stubborn disputes over taxing the wealthy and cutting the budget to pay for Democratic spending proposals as today’s midnight deadline for an accord avoiding the “fiscal cliff” drew to within hours. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., spoke repeatedly Sunday to Vice President Joe Biden, a former […]

Town schools likely won’t be handicapped by spending cuts ordered last week in Augusta, according to Brunswick schools Superintendent Paul Perzanoski. Gov. Paul LePage on Thursday announced that more than $35 million in the current fiscal year’s budget — including about $12 million in education and $8 million in health services — would be eliminated. […]

The Bath Freight Shed Alliance wants to sell bricks to help fund a new sidewalk in front of the renovated facility on Commercial Street. The engraved bricks would be part of the sidewalk. As such, the City Council needs to lend its approval to the activity. The City Council will consider that and other matters […]

L.L. Bean — the outfitter that converted a hardcore mail-order following into a multichannel Maine-branded retail empire — kicked off its 100th year in business with a range of promotional events in 2012. The company’s birthday was the No. 8 most important Times Record news story of the year, according to an informal poll of […]

Town officials have fielded a litany of complaints as a growing number of residents urges them to pass “quiet zones” at several of the town’s railroad crossings. While the majority of town councilors agree with their constituents that whistle-free crossings are a good idea, the problems to be resolved are of numbers, safety and process. […]

There was a bit of a mix up in the trash pickup last week. The town has always been told that when a holiday falls on a Tuesday, pickup day then becomes Wednesday, and Wednesday gets pushed to Thursday. But that is not how it was done last week: They picked it all up on […]