AUGUSTA GOP Gov. Paul LePage said Wednesday his administration will change the location of a proposed mental health facility in Augusta following transparency concerns raised by Democratic lawmakers. The state Department of Health and Human Services wants to build a $3 million forensic facility that would be a step-down unit for mental health patients housed […]

PORTLAND (AP) — A Maine landlord who owned a building were six people died in a fire two years ago is scheduled to be sentenced for a misdemeanor code violation. Gregory Nisbet is set to be sentenced Thursday. Prosecutors described rooms in a Portland house he rented as “death traps” during his trial, which ended […]

PORTLAND (AP) — A Portland man is headed to prison for more than a decade for his role in two bank robberies last year. Sixty-five-year-old Neil West Sr. was sentenced Wednesday in Portland to 14 1/2 years in prison. He was convicted in July of charges of armed bank robbery and conspiracy to commit bank […]

PORTLAND (AP) — Federal securities officials want a former Portland, Maine, developer to pay a nearly $6 million fine he accepted in a 2010 settlement. The Portland Press Herald reports the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a motion in September in Philadelphia saying Michael Liberty, of Windermere, Florida, hid money and lied about being unable […]

HOULTON (AP) — Jury selection is getting underway in the trial of a man charged with killing a couple before setting fire to their home in the northern Maine town of Oakfield. The trial for Matthew Davis was moved to Washington County Superior Court in Machias after a judge was unable to seat a jury […]

AUGUSTA (AP) — The Maine Governor’s Energy Office says heating prices have climbed slightly in the last two weeks. The office says the average price for heating oil rose 2 cents over the past week to $2.04 per gallon. Kerosene prices also rose 2 cents to $2.56 and propane prices climbed 2 cents to $2.31 […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The final version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision to require the Department of Defense to provide military recruits with American-made shoes. Maine U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and Maine Rep. Bruce Poliquin championed the change and announced its presence in the authorization act on Wednesday. […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — Maine’s state government is giving money to a pair of groups to tackle the problem of invasive forest pests. The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is giving $35,000 to the Maine Association of Conservation Districts Employees Committee and $5,000 to the Saco River Recreational Council. The agriculture department says […]