NORTH YARMOUTH (AP) — Ten rural Maine businesses are receiving grants to install renewable energy systems and make energy efficiency improvements. A top U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development official and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree will be on hand when the grants are announced Friday at Cozy Acres Greenhouse in North Yarmouth. The businesses are […]

PORTLAND (AP) — A Portland man who pleaded guilty to making false statements to obtain Medicaid, food stamps and federal housing assistance funds while drawing a six-figure salary is going to prison for two months. A judge also ordered Dafle Abdullahi Ali to pay restitution and sentenced him to two years of supervised release. Prosecutors […]

ALFRED (AP) — A Saco man on Maine’s sex offender registry is facing new charges of raping a girl in her early teens after giving her alcohol. Arthur Grant Jr. has been indicted by a York County grand jury on charges including gross sexual assault, gross sexual assault by employing alcohol and sexual abuse of […]

ROCKLAND (AP) — After he failed to show up in court, authorities are looking for a man charged with killing an Maine State Prison inmate in a wheelchair four years ago. John Thibeault faces a manslaughter charge in connection with the death of 64- year-old Sheldon Weinstein in April 2009. Weinstein, who used a wheelchair, […]

AUGUSTA (AP) — The Bank of Maine has sued former executives of the defunct Associated Grocers of Maine to recoup $2.5 million. The Gardiner-based bank seeks “to recover damages caused by negligent misrepresentations made to the bank by AGME and the other defendants.” Seventeen defendants are named. One defendant, Craig Burgess, of Bath, a former […]

PORTLAND California has its raisins. Florida its oranges and Vermont has maple syrup. Now, Maine’s lobster industry is trying to market its brand more broadly and increase sales of the state’s best-known seafood. The annual marketing budget for lobsters will increase more than sixfold to $2.2 million under a law taking effect in October, launching […]

PORTLAND A $2.5 million renovation of the Casco Bay Lines ferry terminal on the Portland waterfront was kicked off with a celebratory groundbreaking this week. The project combines with $900,000 in repairs to the pilings and support structure at the Maine State Pier site to represent approximately $3.4 million in work to help stabilize the […]

WASHINGTON U.S. employers added 169,000 jobs in August and much fewer in July than previously thought. Hiring has slowed from the start of the year and could complicate the Federal Reserve’s decision later this month on whether to reduce its bond purchases. The Labor Department said today that the unemployment rate dropped to 7.3 percent, […]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro said he called the mother of one of his captives and told the woman her daughter was alive and had become his wife, according to a videotaped FBI interrogation. Castro also told investigators that authorities missed opportunities to capture him while he held the three women captive […]

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — George Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, says she stood by her man “through everything” but once he was acquitted of murder charges in the 2012 shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin, he left her with “a bunch of pieces of broken glass.” Zimmerman, who filed for divorce from George Zimmerman on Thursday, told ABC’s […]