WASHINGTON

Army captain from Brunswick dies serving in South Korea

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe says an Army captain from Maine has died while serving in South Korea.

Snowe said in a statement released Saturday that 30-year-old David Haas, of Brunswick, died Friday. She didn’t release his cause of death.

Snowe says, “He defended this country with limitless courage, and we owe him, and his family, a debt of immeasurable gratitude that we can never repay, and must never forget.”

Haas had served two tours in Iraq. In South Korea, he served with the 403rd Field Support Brigade.

He was a graduate of Brunswick High School and the University of Richmond in Virginia.

MAPLETON

Searchers recover body of Presque Isle swimmer

The body of a 30-year-old man who attempted to swim across a northern Maine lake alone has been recovered.

The Maine Warden Service said the body of Randy Muir of Presque Isle was found Saturday afternoon in Hanson Lake in Mapleton.

Authorities said Muir had gathered with a group of friends who had been drinking Friday night when he decided to swim across the lake, which is about 250 yards wide in the area.

Witnesses told authorities that Muir called for help during his swim, but his friends didn’t see him go under because it was too dark.

Authorities said the water was very murky and filled with stumps.

CARMEL

Wardens suspect alcohol in death of ATV rider

The Maine Warden Service said a 58-year-old Carmel woman died in an all-terrain vehicle accident.

Officials said 58-year-old Joyce Girt was found dead by emergency medical personnel near her ATV in Carmel on Friday evening.

Her husband, 67-year-old Robert Girt, was found underneath his four- wheeler and complained of head, neck and leg pain. He was taken to a Bangor hospital via Life Flight helicopter and then flown to a Portland hospital with serious injuries.

The body of Joyce Girt was transported to Augusta for an autopsy. Wardens said alcohol is suspected as a contributing factor in the accident, which remains under investigation.

ROCKLAND

Ferry passenger capacity will be lessened on occasion

Maine transportation officials say some state ferry riders will face diminished capacity throughout the summer and fall.

Starting Saturday, passenger capacity on the route from Rockland to Vinalhaven will be diminished sporadically.

The most modern and largest vessel in the fleet, the Captain E. Frank Thompson, requires an additional one to two crew hands on board due to federal regulations under Homeland Security.

Because of that security mandate, there will be occasions when insufficient crew members will be available for every run.

There will be times when the MV Everett Libby, a smaller capacity vessel, will have to take the place of the Thompson to meet the needs of Maine State Ferry customers. Riders will be notified when this happens.

FRIENDSHIP

Lobstermen will race boats on Sunday in Harpswell

Lobstermen are competing for bragging rights and prizes while racing their boats in Friendship as part of the ongoing series of boat races along the Maine coast.

Saturday’s races were in Friendship, a lobster-fishing harbor on the state’s midcoast. They are the seventh set of races for the summer.

The races are action-packed contests where lobstermen race their vessels at speeds that can top 60 mph.

More races are being held Sunday in Harpswell.

BANGOR

Police looking for man, 18, for burglarizing businesses

Bangor police said they’ve been investigating a rash of downtown business burglaries in the past week.

Burglars broke into the businesses in all cases, and electronics, cameras, computer equipment and cash were among the items taken.

On Thursday, police executed a search warrant in a Bangor apartment and recovered a number of the stolen items, including some computer equipment, cameras and checks made out to a business.

Police said they are trying to locate an 18-year-old man in connection with the thefts.

MONTPELIER, Vt.

Maine enters 19 buildings in EPA’s efficiency contest

Some 328 buildings across New England are among more than 3,200 structures competing in the 2012 competition Battle of the Buildings.

Building owners and managers are going head-to-head to improve energy efficiency, and find out who can be the biggest energy saver in the third annual EPA and Energy Star-sponsored competition.

Commercial buildings in the U.S. are responsible for about 20 percent of the nation’s energy use, at an annual cost of more than $100 billion in energy bills. The EPA says that by improving the energy efficiency of office buildings, hospitals, retail stores and schools, competitors will reduce energy, save on utility bills and reduce greenhouse gases.

Connecticut has 177 entries; Massachusetts, 79; Rhode Island, 22; Maine, 19; Vermont, 16; New Hampshire, 15.

LITTLE COMPTON, R.I.

224-year-old general store closing its doors today

Gray’s Store in Adamsville village brought in customers for years with its old-fashioned marble soda fountain, cigar and tobacco cases, and Rhode Island johnny cakes.

The 224-year-old business may be the oldest operating general store in America, although others have staked similar claims. The Rhode Island store near the Massachusetts line opened in 1788. Now owners say this year is its last.

Gray’s is set to close Sunday afternoon.

Owner Jonah Waite inherited the shop after his father died of cancer last month. He said Saturday it was a hard decision to close the store and leave behind all the history, but the shop’s finances aren’t sustainable and a supermarket down the street has siphoned away business.

Waite, 21, who will be a senior at the University of Hartford in Connecticut in the fall, also is consumed with pursuing a career in sports journalism.

EXETER, N.H.

Technician was also fired in Pittsburgh, hospital says

A traveling medical technician accused of causing a hepatitis C outbreak in New Hampshire had been fired by hospitals in Pennsylvania and Arizona, hospital officials said.

David Kwiatkwoski was found inside an area of a Pittsburgh hospital where he was not assigned in 2008 and fired, a statement from UPMC Presbyterian said. He had worked there for 47 days. UPMC said it notified Kwiatkowski’s employer, Maxim Staffing Solutions.

The CEO at an Arizona hospital where Kwiatkwoski worked also has said he was fired after testing positive for cocaine and marijuana. He had also worked in Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York, in addition to Pennsylvania, before being hired by Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire in 2011.

Kwiatkwoski is being held on federal drug charges in New Hampshire, and authorities are trying to determine whether he spread the virus elsewhere. Testing has been recommended for about 4,700 people in New Hampshire alone.

Police said Kwiatkwoski wrote a suicide note the week before his July 19 arrest saying he “couldn’t handle this stress anymore.”

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.

Police find car involved in hit-and-run fatality

Springfield police say they’ve found a car involved in a hit-and-run accident that killed a 30-year-old woman while she was pushing a stroller across a city street. The toddler in the stroller was seriously injured.

Police told The Republican of Springfield that they were trying Saturday to identify both the driver of the car and the woman who died.

Authorities said the driver struck the woman on Sumner Avenue shortly after 8:30 p.m. Friday. Police say a 2- to 3-year-old girl was thrown from the stroller, which got caught under the car and was dragged several blocks. The woman was then run over by another car.

The woman did not have any identification on her. Officials said the girl is in the pediatric intensive care unit at a local hospital.

— From news service reports