PORTLAND — Cumberland County residents can apply through the city of Portland for home repair and homeownership assistance. About $460,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is available to county residents, and an additional $650,000 is available for Portland residents. The HOME program funds roof, window and door replacement, energy audits and […]

PORTLAND — The Police Department is offering a basic self-defense class for women beginning Feb. 2. The Rape Aggression Defense training is open to women 13 and older who live in greater Portland and is designed to teach them how to avoid and escape dangerous situations. Participants will attend four classes and a final “scenario” […]

PORTLAND — While more than 700 adults attended the 29th annual breakfast celebration Monday morning in honor of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., about 150 elementary and middle school kids learned about healthy eating and living and what it takes to be a civil rights leader. The first annual Beloved Community Youth […]

WINDHAM — The Cumberland County Regional Communications Center seeks volunteers to join its 9-1-1 Team. The 9-1-1 Team is a volunteer group of trained, elderly assurance members. Those members volunteer to report to the Windham-based communications center one day a month for two to three hours to make assurance calls to senior citizens in the communities […]

PORTLAND — A Portland author has picked up three more awards, including a prestigious Newbury honor, for his nonfiction book about a young girl’s struggle for civil rights. In an annoucement at the Boston Convention Center, the Young Adult Library Service Assocation cited Phillip Hoose for “Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice,” the story of a […]

PORTLAND — A new schedule for the city’s high schools will be discussed at a community forum scheduled for Wednesday night, Jan. 20, at the Portland Exposition Building. The proposed common high school schedule was drafted by a 28-member task force and presented to the School Committee on Dec. 16. The new schedule is intended […]

PORTLAND — The City Council Wednesday will consider a campus expansion plan for Waynflete School that has attracted plenty of attention and opposition from residents of the Western Promenade during the past year. Waynflete’s proposal would allow the school to purchase specific residential properties and build at a higher density on the current campus.The school […]

PORTLAND — As images of death and destruction continue to stream across the airwaves, local residents are doing what they can to help the people of Haiti, which was devastated by an earthquake on Jan. 12.  Roughly the size of Maryland, Haiti is the poorest and least developed nation in the Western Hemisphere. Many of […]

PORTLAND — The Peaks Island Council will hold a series of meetings during the next several weeks to discuss safety concerns of islanders and potential resolutions. Island resident Julie Fisher Melton, a group facilitator, has offered to run the meetings, Island Councilor Lynne Richard said. Residents have been concerned about what they say is a […]

PORTLAND — Maine College of Art recently received more than $250,000 in grants to complete the renovation of the former Porteous Building on Congress Street. The grants will provide the capstone funding for a $10 million initiative begun in 2004, which raised $4.3 million in new endowment funds and $5.7 million for the Porteous project. […]