First event delayed a week for renovated civic center

The Cumberland County Civic Center will hold its first event following a $34 million renovation on Feb.
15 and 16, a week later than originally scheduled.

Steve Crane, the arena’s general manager, said Cianbro, the general contractor for the renovation, has told officials that Jan. 31 is the “date of significant completion” for the renovation, but the county will still need to get a certificate of occupancy from city inspectors before it can host an event.

That means the 24th Annual Maine Home, Remodeling and Garden Show, which was originally scheduled to be held Feb. 8 and 9, will instead be held the next weekend.

Other events scheduled for the first few weeks of the arena include the state high school basketball championships and concerts headlined by Casting Crowns and the Avett Brothers.

The Civic Center hasn’t held an event since May, when the Portland Pirates – a hockey team which has since moved to Lewiston amid a dispute with the Civic Center trustees over a new lease – hosted a playoff hockey game at the arena.

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GM sales beat Volkswagen, but Toyota’s another story

General Motors sold 9.71 million cars and trucks last year, probably not enough to beat out Toyota for the global sales crown, but about 200,000 better than Volkswagen.

Toyota, the sales champion in 2012, will report its sales next week. It only needs a little growth to beat GM again.

GM said Tuesday that sales of light vehicles worldwide grew 4 percent in 2013, led by growth in China and the United Kingdom. 

Boeing battery problem resurfaces at Japan Airlines

Battery problems resurfaced on Boeing’s 787 on Tuesday, after gas was discovered coming out of a battery on a plane parked in Tokyo.

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Boeing said the problem on a Japan Airlines 787 was discovered during scheduled maintenance. The company said it appears that a single battery cell released gas.

The incident comes a year after a fire in a lithium ion battery aboard a Japan Airlines 787 parked at Boston’s Logan International Airport. That and subsequent problems prompted the FAA and other authorities to ground all 787s for more than three months.

Fee dispute causes DirecTV to drop Weather Channel

About 20 million DirecTV customers nationwide lost The Weather Channel because of a dispute over fees between the channel and the satellite service.

The two companies pointed fingers at each other late Monday as a midnight deadline for renegotiation of carriage fees paid by DirecTV to The Weather Channel passed without an agreement.


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