PORTLAND — Assistant Police Chief Vern Malloch last week introduced a panic-button system that will alert police to domestic violence emergencies. As part of a partnership with security firm Protection 1 and social service agency Family Crisis Services, police will provide the in-home alarm system to victims of domestic violence or threats of violence. The […]

PORTLAND — A $150,000 federal grant announced Dec. 10 will help create a new type of vessel that could restore coastal cargo shipping through the International Marine Terminal. The grant to the Maine Port Authority will pay for design of a tug-barge hybrid whose lower cost and smaller crew would make it suited for moving […]

PORTLAND — City councilors voted unanimously Monday night to give themselves a 1.5 percent raise. Mayor Michael Brennan, City Manager Mark Rees and City Clerk Katherine Jones also will receive the salary bump. Councilors, who now receive a stipend of $5,600, will see that amount increase by $84 a year. Brennan, whose current salary is […]

PORTLAND — A $2 million investment from the city has allowed the School Department to purchase 660 new computers for elementary school teachers and students across the district. Before the $2 million was allotted from the city’s capital improvement plan, elementary schools were relying on obsolete technology that did not meet teacher’s instructional needs, the department […]

PORTLAND — In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, the School Department has created a video to help parents and students deal with the aftermath of the tragedy. In the video, Sophie Payson, a social worker in the district, explains the importance of listening to children and looking for any changes in their […]

PORTLAND — The Portland Community Free Clinic may keep its doors open a little longer, thanks to a $25,000 challenge grant from the Emanuel and Pauline A. Lerner Foundation. Mayor Michael Brennan and Eliot Cutler, chairman of the Portland-based philanthropy, announced the grant Dec. 14, and called upon other organizations and individuals to match it. […]

PORTLAND — Developers of a proposed 131-room hotel on the western edge of the Old Port are grappling with how to fit a square peg into a round hole. Or, rather, a parallelogram. In October, real estate company J.B. Brown & Sons announced plans to construct a six-story structure that would include a Courtyard by […]