WATERVILLE

Missing girl’s mother offers to take polygraph exam

The mother of a 21-month-old girl who has been missing for a month says she’s arranging with investigators for her and others in her family to take polygraph tests regarding her daughter’s disappearance.

Trista Reynolds told the Bangor Daily News on Monday that she has offered to take a lie detector test since the day her daughter disappeared.

Ayla Reynolds was reported missing Dec. 17 by her father, Justin DiPietro, who told police she wasn’t in her bed that morning in his home in Waterville.

DiPietro said last week that he took a polygraph test shortly after Ayla disappeared, but neither DiPietro nor police would say what the results were.

LEWISTON

Suspect wanted in Montana gets arrested in Lewiston

A man on Montana’s most wanted list in connection with a throat slashing has been arrested in Lewiston.

The Sun Journal reported that Kelly Zuhlke, 49, formerly of Gallatin County, Mont., was arrested last week in Lewiston, where police said he was using his dead brother’s name and Social Security number. He had a court hearing Friday.

Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin said the investigation was a joint effort with the U.S. Marshals Service and Maine authorities.

Zuhlke was charged with felony assault with a weapon in Montana in 2008 after prosecutors said he slashed another man’s throat outside a transmission shop. The man survived the attack. The Sun Journal reported that Zuhlke is also wanted in Wisconsin on a burglary charge.

Lewiston woman charged with stabbing her boyfriend

A Lewiston woman has been charged with stabbing her boyfriend in the back.

Police said Liberty West, 24, was charged with domestic violence aggravated assault shortly after midnight Sunday at an apartment in Lewiston where she lived with her boyfriend.

Police Sgt. David St. Pierre told the Sun Journal that the man, whose name has not been released, was treated and released at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center.

BANCROFT

Man accused of setting girlfriend’s car on fire

Police say a man from northern Maine is accused of setting his girlfriend’s car on fire while under the influence of bath salts.

Maine State Police said Shawn Birtz, 33, of Lee was hallucinating while on the drug Saturday when he somehow set fire to the car while he and his girlfriend were driving on Bancroft Road in Bancroft.

Officials said Birtz and his girlfriend, Brittany Osgood, escaped uninjured as the car went up in flames.

Bath salts is a synthetic drug that can cause disorientation, extreme paranoia and violence.

Birtz was taken to Houlton Regional Hospital for treatment before being taken to the Aroostook County Jail. He is charged with arson and domestic violence reckless conduct.

AUGUSTA

Insect experts to peel bark looking for tree-killing bugs

Insect experts with the Maine Forest Service will lead what’s known as a “bark-peeling” workshop aimed at finding evidence of tree-killing bugs.

Using a method reminiscent of an old-fashioned husking bee, entomologists will hold two bark-peeling workshops today and on Jan. 24 to look for evidence of the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that’s threatening Maine’s forests.

Ash-tree owners from central Maine, who created tree traps this year to look for the borers, will bring wood samples to the workshops, where they will be peeled by volunteers and examined for signs of the insect.

The emerald ash borer has killed millions of ash trees across the nation and threatens all of them in Maine, from backyard shade trees to stands of white, green and black ash in the forests.

BANGOR

Three finalists for chancellor to visit campuses this week

The finalists for the job of overseeing Maine’s seven universities are making campus visits this week.

The University of Maine System last month announced the finalists to replace Chancellor Richard Pattenaude, who is retiring.

The finalists are Meredith Hay, a special adviser to the chairman of the Arizona Board of Regents for Strategic Initiatives; James Page, CEO of the James W. Sewall Co. in Old Town; and Rebecca Wyke, vice chancellor for finance and administration in the University of Maine System.

The finalists are visiting the University of Southern Maine in Portland, the University of Maine in Orono and the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

Page will make his visits today and Wednesday, Hay will visit Wednesday and Thursday, and Wyke will visit Thursday and Friday.

PORTLAND

Maine Jewish Film Festival announces highlighted films

The Maine Jewish Film Festival has announced some of the highlighted films that will be shown this year.

The festival, now in its 15th year, will be held March 17-22 with a lineup of American and foreign films.

Among the highlighted films are “Between Two Worlds,” a 2011 documentary exploring community and family divisions that are redefining American Jewish identity and politics, and “David,” a 2011 feature about a young Muslim boy who inadvertently befriends a group of Jewish boys.

Other highlights are the 2011 Israeli comedy “This Is Sodom,” and “Little Rose,” a Polish thriller based on the 1968 student uprising against the Communist Polish government.

Festival tickets will go on sale Feb. 17. More information is available at www.mjff.org.

Maine’s coldest locations include Fryeburg, Sanford

Northern New Englanders awoke to frigid temperatures Monday, with the mercury well below zero across much of the region.

The National Weather Service said some of the cold spots in Maine at 6 a.m. were Fryeburg, which was minus 20, and Sanford, where the temperature was 13 below zero.

In New Hampshire, the temperature was minus 18 in Berlin and minus 14 in Whitefield.

And in Vermont, the temperature in Montpelier and St. Johnsbury was 15 below zero at 6 a.m.

FREDERICK, Md.

Pilot headed home to Maine makes emergency landing

A pilot who was on his way home to Maine made an emergency landing in a field in Maryland when his small plane ran out of gas.

The Frederick News-Post reported that the man made an emergency landing Sunday afternoon in Frederick. No one was injured.

A neighbor whose husband talked to the pilot told the paper that the man was trying to land at Frederick Municipal Airport when he was told to circle until the runway was available. He said he ran out of gas in the tank he was using and didn’t have time to switch to another tank.

The paper did not report the man’s name or hometown.

NEW HAVEN, Conn.

UNE medical school joins Joining Forces program

The White House says six medical colleges at New England universities are among 130 nationwide participating in a program to teach their students how to better serve military veterans’ unique physical and mental health needs.

The University of New England medical school has joined the initiative, called Joining Forces.

It’s intended to train the next generation of U.S. doctors to better understand and treat traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems.

The medical schools have promised to provide specialized training for students, develop new research and clinical trials, share their findings with each other and collaborate with federal agencies.

The other New England medical schools participating are at Yale University, the University of Massachusetts, Harvard, and Boston and Tufts universities.

– From staff and news services