PORTLAND Maine’s blunt-spoken governor doesn’t mince words when opponents dare to cross him but he’s saved some of his harshest criticism for newspapers, once telling schoolchildren he isn’t a fan of papers and another time saying that reading one is “like paying somebody to tell you lies.” Now it’s gone to an extreme, with Republican […]

SKOWHEGAN (AP) — A former Somerset County sheriff ’s deputy has been sentenced to four years behind bars after pleading guilty to sexually molesting four young girls at his wife’s Norridgewock day care center. Horace Barstow was sentenced Wednesday to serve four years of a 10-year prison sentence to be followed by 10 years of […]

PORTLAND (AP) — A man described as a major player in a New York-to-Maine drug smuggling operation has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. Hasan Worthy of Portland also was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 10 years of probation upon release. He was convicted in November on four charges.

AUGUSTA (AP) — The Maine House of Representatives has voted to override the governor’s veto of an energy bill that aims to expand the region’s natural gas infrastructure and lower energy costs. The House early today voted 121-11 to override a veto by Gov. Paul LePage late Wednesday. The state Senate is expected to take […]

BLAINE (AP) — Fire officials say a 72-year-old northern Maine man has died after being critically burned while cutting up an old heating oil tank with a welding torch. The state Fire Marshal’s Office says Reginal Otis of Blaine died in the overnight hours after being flown to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston with burns […]

PORTLAND (AP) — Independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler is calling on his likely opponents to support either a run-off election or ranked-choice voting in the 2014 election to ensure Maine’s next governor earns at least 50 percent of the vote. In a letter Wednesday, Cutler asks Republican Gov. Paul LePage and Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike […]

PORTLAND (AP) — Maine is getting a low grade on the condition of its bridges. In a new report examining the state of the nation’s bridges, Washington-based Transportation for America ranked Maine ninth in the percentage of bridges classified as deficient. The report said that nearly 15 percent of the state’s 2,408 bridges required significant […]