OGUNQUIT

Massachusetts man who fell into ocean identified

Police have identified the Massachusetts man who apparently drowned after falling from the Marginal Way into the ocean Saturday.

In a news release issued Monday night, Police Chief Patricia Arnaudin identified the man as Bruce Brodigan, 57, of Somerville.

Investigators believe that Brodigan lost his footing while walking along the Marginal Way — a 1.25-mile-long footpath that runs from Oarweed Cove to Ogunquit Beach.

The path winds along rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean. The town estimates that more than 100,000 people walk the path each year.

Police said they got a call about a man in the water around 7:30 a.m. Saturday. When emergency crews arrived, Brodigan was too far from shore to be reached.

They used a boat, owned by a local resident, from Perkins Cove to pull Brodigan out of the water. Brodigan was taken by ambulance to York Hospital, where he died.

Police told the Portsmouth Herald that Brodigan was visiting Ogunquit with his husband. A phone call to the couple’s home in Somerville was not returned.

Arnaudin said the incident remains under investigation.

PORTLAND

Dolloff appeals conviction in beating of husband

Maine’s highest court will hear arguments this week in the appeal of a Maine woman serving a 16-year sentence for beating her husband with a baseball bat and staging it to look like a home invasion.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court hears arguments Wednesday from an attorney representing Linda Dolloff, who was convicted in 2010 of attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault and filing a false report.

Dolloff is accusing prosecutors of misconduct. She further claims the judge erred in allowing certain evidence and statements at her trial.

Dolloff was convicted of beating her husband in April 2009 while he slept at their Standish home. Prosecutors said she then shot herself in the stomach to make it look like a home invasion. The couple was going through a divorce at the time.

Climber to discuss making treks despite his diabetes

Will Cross says it took two years to get ready for his South Pole expedition. Cross also had to convince a lot of people the trek could even be done by a diabetic.

The world-class mountain climber will discuss that trip and others Wednesday when he speaks to University of New England College of Pharmacy students in Portland in a free, public lecture.

Cross will talk about his struggles as a Type 1 diabetic in getting regular meals, monitoring his blood sugar and administering injectable insulin while climbing some of the highest peaks on all seven continents.

Cross says people with diabetes don’t have to be defined by their disease. He says they can manage diabetes successfully and accomplish anything they put their minds to.

Fiona Apple is coming to State for July 1 show

Tickets will go on sale April 20 for Fiona Apple’s July 1 show at the State Theatre.

It’s a general admission show with a ticket price of $48 in advance and $50 the day of the show.

Apple first burst on the scene in 1996 with the release of “Tidal,” home to the songs “Shadow Boxer” and “Criminal.” In 1998, “Criminal” earned her a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance. Her last album, “Extraordinary Machine,” came out in 2005, and Apple is set to release a new album, “The Idler Wheel” on June 19.

SOUTH PORTLAND

One of two men found in crawl space is released

The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office has dropped charges against one of the two men arrested Sunday in a raid at an apartment on Broadway.

Sgt. Steve Webster said Derrick Splude, 27, was released Monday after spending the night in the county jail. Charges of refusing to submit to arrest and possession of drugs were dismissed.

Rourke Sparks, 26, remained in jail Monday night, charged with burglary and refusing to submit to arrest.

Police say they knocked in the door to the men’s third-floor apartment at 919 Broadway on Sunday afternoon after a witness saw Sparks entering a second-floor apartment. Sparks allegedly stole prescription medicine from his neighbor’s medicine cabinet.

Webster said police found Sparks and Splude hiding in a crawl space behind a bedroom wall.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Saco plant to help build gun systems for Navy jets

A General Dynamics defense plant in Saco will share in a $7.8 million contract to help build more than 20 gun systems for the Navy’s Super Hornet fighter jets.

The production work on the 20-millimeter gun systems will be done in Saco, where General Dynamics employs more than 400 people, the company said in a press release.

The program will be managed by a General Dynamics Technology Center in Vermont, according to North Carolina-based General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products.

The Saco plant manufactures medium-caliber weapons such as machine guns for vehicles and airplanes, as well as grenade launchers.

General Dynamics doesn’t break out how much of any one contract goes to Saco versus other facilities. For instance, the company also recently won an $8.7 million contract to produce more than 650 .40-millimeter grenade launchers, but not all of that work will be done at Saco, according to a company spokesman.

The 20-millimeter F/A-18 E/F gun system is made up of a lightweight, six-barrel Gatling gun, General Dynamics said. The weapons system has a maximum firing rate of up to 6,000 shots per minute and is the fighter’s “last line of defense” in an up close air battle.

The company has produced this weapons system for more than a quarter-century, according to a spokesman.

AUGUSTA

LePage signs law to inform electricity consumers of costs

Part of Gov. Paul LePage’s energy package has made it through the Maine Legislature and part remains undecided.

The governor has signed into law a measure to provide consumers with more information about their electricity bills.

The bill, signed last Wednesday, requires the Public Utilities Commission and the Office of the Public Advocate to post on their websites the annual costs of state policies that affect the price of electricity. The intent is to inform Maine consumers as to the total individual cost of each program that increases electricity rates.

A separate bill to remove a 100-megawatt limit to qualify as a renewable resource awaits further votes.

The governor says this change would open the door to long-term contracts with generators and lead to lower consumer prices.

New law helps protect children from sexual abuse

A bill that plugs a loophole in Maine law that protects children from sexual abuse has been signed into law by Gov. Paul LePage.

The law, which was signed Friday by the governor, creates a new crime of verbally soliciting a child to commit a prohibited sexual act.

Maine’s current law prohibits a person from using a computer to solicit a child to engage in a prohibited sexual act. But no such prohibition exists if the solicitation is not performed with the use of a computer.

The bill addressing that lapse was sponsored by Senate Democratic Leader Barry Hobbins of Saco.

WINDHAM

Inmate crew accidentally sets fire that destroys truck

Fire destroyed a pickup truck and damaged a garage at the Maine Correctional Center on Monday morning.

Judy Plummer, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Corrections, said a correctional trades instructor was working on the truck with four prisoners.

Plummer said a metal cutting tool was being used to cut a section of floor out of the truck. The tool generated sparks that went unnoticed when the crew went to take a break, and the sparks set the truck on fire.

The garage was evacuated, and no one was injured.

The flames destroyed the truck but did little damage to the garage, said Windham Fire Chief Charles Hammond.

The fire was not close to the secure area that houses prisoners, and there was no effect on prison operations.

MASARDIS

Truck-train collision knocks car off tracks and spills logs

Maine State Police say a tractor-trailer truck collided with a moving train in the northern Maine town of Masardis, knocking one of the cars off the tracks and spilling a load of logs.

The truck driver suffered a minor injury to his hand. No one else was injured.

Route 11 was closed while crews removed the truck and train, which both had significant damage.

Police said Travis Carll, 32, of Linneus was driving south on Route 11 around noon Monday in a truck loaded with logs when he was unable to stop in time at a railroad crossing and hit the side of the train.

The crash pushed one of the Maine Northern Railway cars loaded with logs off the track.

Police are investigating the crash.

Nighttime repairs on bridge will stop turnpike traffic

Drivers on the Maine Turnpike will encounter intermittent 25-minute traffic stops southbound at mile 94 in Litchfield this week.

The turnpike authority says the nighttime stops, through Thursday evening, will start at 10 p.m. and end at 5 a.m., weather permitting.

The stops are needed to accommodate repairs to a bridge that carries Route 197 traffic.

Motorists should be prepared for significant trip delays or seek other routes.