SOUTH PORTLAND — City police believe a Lebanon man stole two rings at gunpoint on Aug. 11 outside a Maine Mall Road hotel. Police in two other New England states, meanwhile, also suspect Brice Charest has done the same thing in their communities, after luring victims he found online. Charest, 23, of Upper Guinea Road […]

PORTLAND — New federal flood zone maps raise as many questions as they answer, officials in Scarborough and South Portland said this week. Three years after it withdrew a set of high-tech maps showing flood hazards in Cumberland and York counties, the Federal Emergency Management Agency  released a new set Nov. 5. The preliminary flood insurance rate […]

SCARBOROUGH — With the former Town Council chairman and chairwoman no longer in office, councilors on Wednesday turned to their longest tenured colleagues for leadership in the upcoming year. Councilor Richard Sullivan Jr. was elected chairman and Councilor Jessica Holbrook was elected vice chairwoman, after new Councilors Bill Donovan and Jean-Marie Caterina were sworn into […]

CAPE ELIZABETH — Superintendent of Schools Meredith Nadeau visited two Chinese cities for eight days this month to study the country’s education system. Nadeau traveled as part of the 2013 Chinese Bridge Delegation, which included 381 K-12 and higher-education teachers and administrators from across the U.S. The delegation was sponsored by the College Board, the […]

SOUTH PORTLAND — Electrical generation in the city could have a sunny future after councilors on Monday approved spending for a study of a solar “farm” at the landfill off Highland Avenue. By a unanimous vote, the Town Council allocated $12,500 from city reserve funds for a feasibility study to be conducted by Portland-based Revision […]

SCARBOROUGH — In light of a continuing dispute with Hannaford Bros. Co., the developer of an office complex proposed off Foley Farm Road told Planning Board members Monday the first phase will not include access from Foley Farm Road. Rocky Risbara asked Planning Board members to put the planned 20,000-square-foot, two-story office building on its […]

SOUTH PORTLAND — A proposed temporary ban on bringing diluted bitumen “tar sands” oil into the city is headed to a Dec. 3 Planning Board public hearing. City councilors approved the moratorium, which would amend Chapter 27 of the city code, Monday by a 6-1 vote. It specifically bans “development proposals involving the loading of […]