Farmington firefighter headed home from rehab center
FARMINGTON (AP) — The last of the firefighters to be released from the hospital after a deadly building explosion in Farmington, Maine, is about to be headed home.
Officials say Capt. Scott Baxter will leave a rehabilitation center in Portland on Tuesday and he’ll be joined by a firefighter escort along the way home to Farmington. The other five injured firefighters are already home with their families.
One firefighter, 68-year-old Capt. Michael Bell, was killed when a propane leak led to a massive explosion at the LEAP Inc. building in Farmington.
One person remains hospitalized. The building supervisor, Larry Lord, suffered serious injuries and is in serious condition at a hospital in Boston.

Portland man pleads not guilty to inflicting fatal beating
PORTLAND(AP) — Court documents indicate a Portland man accused of killing a neighbor told police he had a blackout and didn’t remember fighting with him.
The Portland Press Herald reports that 62-year-old Everett Meserve pleaded not guilty during a brief court appearance on Monday. He was originally charged with elevated aggravated assault, but the charge was upgraded to murder after the victim died days later.
Documents didn’t shed much light on why Meserve allegedly attacked 63-year-old Rodney Cleveland in his home on Aug. 3. Cleveland died on Sept. 15.
The documents indicate Meserve was taken to the police station after Cleveland was found beaten and officers noticed dried blood on Meserve’s face, fingers and pants. An autopsy concluded that the victim died from blunt force trauma to the head.

Woman remembered by friends and family at candlelight vigil
WATERVILLE (AP) — Family members and friends have held a candlelight vigil in honor of a Maine woman who police say was killed, allegedly by her boyfriend.
Centralmaine.com reports about 50 people honored 29-year-old Melissa Sousa at a ceremony Sunday night huddled outside her Waterville apartment building.
Nikkia-Ria Vear, a friend of Sousa’s, says her love for her twin daughters “definitely showed through.”
Sousa was last seen putting her daughters onto a school bus Tuesday. She was found Wednesday wrapped in a tarp in the basement of her building.
Police say Sousa’s boyfriend, 28-year-old Nicholas Lovejoy, is accused of shooting her twice in the stomach.
An affidavit says Lovejoy said he shot Sousa in self-defense after she allegedly pushed him down a staircase and tried to shoot him.
Sousa’s funeral is scheduled Thursday.

2 killed, 3 hurt in Maine crash outside market
SABATTUS (AP) — Police say two people were killed and three others injured in an SUV in Sabattus, Maine.
The Sabattus Police Department said the vehicle, which had four occupants, caught fire after crashing into a beverage truck that was unloading at a market at 5:45 a.m. Monday.
Police Chief Sheila Wetherbee said the driver of the SUV, 60-year-old Wabah Sahal Salat, and one of his passengers, 48-year-old Shariffa Shale Ali, were pronounced dead at the scene. Wetherbee said two other passengers and the driver of the beverage truck were transported to a hospital.
She says two bystanders assisted by extinguishing the fire and removing one of the two survivors.
Police are reconstructing the accident. Wetherbee said all four in the SUV were members of Lewiston’s Somali community.

Pratt & Whitney provides UMaine engineering center with $1M
ORONO (AP) — Aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney is giving the University of Maine’s new engineering center $1 million to help bring new technology to students.
UMaine says the Connecticut company is providing the gift to the E. James and Eileen P. Ferland Engineering Education and Design Center. The university says Pratt & Whitney plans to name the center’s machine tool suite and provide updated space for mechanical engineering technology students.
The groundbreaking on the engineering center is expected for spring 2020, and the university says it should be completed by 2022.
UMaine president Joan Ferrini-Mundy says Pratt & Whitney’s gift “supports our goals of fostering learner success and bringing research into the classroom.”

Mixed bag for northern New England gas prices
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Northern New England gas prices showed a mix of results in the last week, while the average price nationally went down.
The latest GasBuddy price reports show the average price of gas in New Hampshire is down 1.8 cents, averaging $2.43 a gallon. The price went up 1.3 cents in Vermont, averaging $2.62. The price was unchanged in Maine at $2.52 a gallon.
Nationally, the average price of gasoline fell 5.1 cents in the last week, averaging $2.58. The national average is down 6.3 cents per gallon in the last month, and stands 22.4 cents per gallon lower than a year ago.

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