DEFENSE INDUSTRY

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard exempt from Trump hiring freeze

At Hannaford in Falmouth, Will Mac puts avocados and tomatoes on display at the front of the store Thursday so shoppers can grab them for game-day guacamole. For Hannaford, Super Bowl weekend is like a holiday weekend in terms of sales, especially when the Patriots are playing. A spokesman said some of the supermarket chain’s locations sell more than twice the usual number of avocados, four times the number of chicken wings and 10 times the number of frozen pizzas in the week leading up to the big game. Staff photo by Brianna Soukup

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is exempt from a government-wide hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration, federal officials announced Thursday. On Jan. 23, President Trump issued a memorandum ordering a hiring freeze at “all executive departments and agencies regardless of the sources of their operational and programmatic funding.” While military personnel were exempt from the freeze, it was unclear whether that exemption extended to civilian workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery as well as other public shipyards and defense facilities nationwide. In response, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard reportedly sent letters to several new hires indefinitely delaying their start dates. On Wednesday, the Department of Defense issued a follow-up memo saying that shipyard workers involved in the maintenance of ships would also be exempt. Read Story

INSURANCE

Unum reports record profits

Disability insurance provider Unum Group achieved record profits in 2016, according to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report released Wednesday. The Chattanooga, Tennessee-based company, which employs about 3,000 workers in Maine, reported net income of $248 million, or $1.07 per share, for the fourth quarter, up 9.7 percent from $226.1 million, or $0.93 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2015. It reported net income of $931.4 million for the year, up 7.4 percent from $867.1 million for 2015. Unum’s total revenue for the fourth quarter was $2.8 billion, compared with $2.72 billion for the fourth quarter of 2015. Its revenue for the full year in 2016 was $11.05 billion, compared with $10.73 billion the previous year. Read Story

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

Avesta sees spike in housing assistance request

A nonprofit housing provider in Maine and New Hampshire says requests for affordable housing grew by 15 percent between 2014 and 2016. Avesta Housing released data about housing demand on Wednesday. The report says the number of households moving into an Avesta apartment remained essentially unchanged as demand rose. The report says the number of housing requests rose from about 3,000 households in 2014 to about 3,500 in 2016. Avesta has almost 3,000 people on its housing wait list. Read story.

Firearms distributor plans Skowhegan location

A federally licensed distributor, importer and exporter of firearms has purchased two lots in Skowhegan’s Southgate Industrial Park with construction plans set for the spring. Civil Arms Inc., based in Windham, with a partner company in Canada, bought the two end lots at the park on Route 201. The town’s director of economic and community development said the company plans a 12,000- to 15,000-square-foot warehouse with office spaces and conference room. According to the Civil Arms website, the company supplies international dealers, distributors and individuals with firearms and accessories which are available in the United States. Services include direct sales, freight consolidation, importing and exporting, licensing, freight forwarding, consulting and compliance training. Read story.

TOURISM

Portland International Jetport set record for total passengers in 2016

More than 1.78 million passengers traveled through the Portland International Jetport in 2016, setting a record as other regional airports in New England saw their passenger numbers decline.

The record year helped Portland hold on to more of its share of the New England air travel market, even as Logan International Airport in Boston is attracting more travelers at the expense of other New England airports. The number of passengers that came through the jetport last year – 1,785,649 – was 3.2 percent more than in 2015, according to jetport data. The number of passengers last year surpassed the previous record of 1.76 million passengers set in 2008. Jetport officials credit additional routes, more trips and bigger planes for the increase. Read story.

Portland terminal improvements raise political ire in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia opposition party leader Jamie Baillie said Monday he will either renegotiate or scrap altogether the province’s “one-sided deal” with Bay Ferries if the next election puts him in power. Baillie, who is the leader of the Progressive Conservatives, said the ferry service between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and Portland harms Nova Scotia taxpayers but benefits the coastal Maine city. If his party rises to power in the next election, which is unscheduled but expected to be called later this year, the service will be scrutinized. Last year, the provincial government signed a 10-year deal with Bay Ferries to operate the high-speed ferry service. The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal said last March that it was providing $19.6 million in funding for the ferry’s first two seasons and another $4.1 million in startup costs, as well as $9.1 million for the ferry’s retrofit in lieu of two years of charter fees. The city of Portland made about $700,000 worth of upgrades to the Ocean Gateway Terminal to accommodate increased cruise traffic, while Nova Scotia spent about $465,000 on other improvements at the terminal. Read story.

ENERGY

Regulators seek middle ground on solar incentives

Homeowners with solar-electric panels would be compensated for the power they produce at a full retail rate for 15 years, but those who wait until 2018 and a period after to go solar would see the credit gradually reduced over time. That was the upshot of a rule approved Tuesday by the Maine Public Utilities Commission, an action that is bound to be challenged in the Legislature. The rule seeks a middle ground in a contentious debate over what’s called net-energy billing or net metering, a longstanding financial incentive meant to promote renewable energy technology. Clean-energy advocates and solar installers say retaining the full credit on net metering is important to growing solar energy use and provides benefits beyond power costs. Utilities and some politicians, including Gov. Paul LePage, counter that compensating homeowners for the excess power they sell to utilities shifts costs to electric customers who don’t have solar panels. They also say that falling prices of solar-electric equipment lessen the need for subsidies. In trying to strike a balance, though, the PUC rejected arguments for retaining the full credit beyond this year. Read story.

AQUACULTURE

Improvements sought to attract aquaculture to South Portland

South Portland officials are taking steps to improve and expand the city’s long-neglected municipal pier in the hope of turning it into an incubator for aquaculture enterprises in Casco Bay. To prove that they’re heading in the right direction, they point to the ongoing development of about 10 new aquaculture leases in the region, which could double the number of commercial operations growing mussels, oysters, scallops or seaweed in the nutrient-rich waters off Maine’s largest metropolitan center. City Councilor Claude Morgan, who lives near the pier, said the effort could support a sustainable working waterfront that could become a force for economic growth in the community. He is pushing a proposal that would add six to eight berths at the pier in the next year or so in the form of floating docks. It would be a first step toward possibly enlarging and dredging the pier over the next few years so it could withstand destructive winter storms and be accessible at all tides. Both conditions are necessary to support year-round aquaculture and commercial fishing. Read story.

ANIMAL HEALTH

Idexx posts double-digit boost in revenue, profits

Idexx Laboratories Inc. in Westbrook reported double-digit increases in both revenue and net income in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to an earnings statement filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Idexx, which develops and manufactures diagnostic testing products for animals, milk and water, reported revenue of $443 million for the quarter, up 10.8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015. The company reported net income of $52.4 million, or 58 cents per share, up 20.8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015. Shares of the company, which trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol IDXX, rose by 6 percent in pre-market trading Thursday on news of the strong earnings report. Read story.

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