FREEPORT — After more than a decade of discussion and planning, business owners mingled at the first Freeport Chamber of Commerce meeting Monday night at Buck’s Naked BBQ on Route 1. For the past two years, the Freeport Merchants Association and the Freeport Economic Development Corp. have worked with the town and a Chamber of Commerce […]

Pumpkins glowing at night in Monument Square for the Camp Sunshine Portland Pumpkin Festival on Oct. 16.Bill Sauffer or Scarborough, right, helps his daughters Tory, 6, and Sarah, 8, and their friend Josephine Gellis, 4, carve their pumpkins at Camp Sunshine’s Portland Pumpkin Festival in Monument Square on Saturday, Oct. 16.

PORTLAND — The main issue the city’s Charter Commission is expected to grapple with in the coming year will be the subject of a panel discussion Monday, Oct. 26. Whether Portland should have an elected mayor was the driving force behind the commission being established. Under the existing charter, a member of the City Council […]

PORTLAND — The attorney general last week determined police officers acted in self-defense on April 25 when they shot and killed an armed, intoxicated man in Parkside. Officers Benjamin Roper and Joshua Wiseman shot 26-year-old David Okot the evening of April 25, shortly after responding to the report of a man in the Parkside neighborhood […]

SOUTH PORTLAND — On a cold and gray Thursday afternoon, the first swaths of color were ceremoniously applied to one of 16 Portland Harbor oil storage tanks that will be decorated as part of an international Art All Around competition. A crowd of about 20 supporters watched the opening ceremony at Sprague Energy, hosted by […]

NORTHPORT — The Sun Journal daily and Sunday newspapers were named the best in the state at the Maine Press Association’s annual conference Saturday night. The papers serving Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties took top honors for the second year in a row. The contest was judged by editors at New Jersey newspapers. “I’m very proud […]

PORTLAND — Two people at Longfellow Elementary School are the first in the city schools to be diagnosed with the H1N1 virus, known as the swine flu. One individual with the illness remained home for seven days and is now symptom-free, the School Department said in a press release Tuesday afternoon. The other person remains […]

PORTLAND — The owner of a roofless and windowless building on Washington Avenue has been ordered by the city to demolish the structure. “It is a public safety hazard,” said Penny Littell, the city’s director of Planning and Urban Development. “For several years we’ve been dealing with this.” Littell sent a letter to building owner […]

PORTLAND — Funding for new bleachers at Fitzpatrick Stadium, repairs at the Maine State Pier and a new bridge in Deering Oaks Park was approved Monday as part of the city’s annual $10 million capital improvements budget. The $1.3 million set aside in the budget for new quarters for the fireboat crew, however, was removed […]

PORTLAND — The City Council voted Monday night to amend an ordinance that had resulted in the banishment of Shakespeare performances from a local bar. The council did not, however, support a proposal by Councilor David Marshall to eventually do away with the requirement that bars with entertainment license in the Old Port and downtown […]