TOKYO — A series of earthquakes rattled Tokyo and northeast Japan late today evening but caused no apparent damage or injury in the same region hit by last year’s devastating tsunami. The strongest tremor, off Hokkaido island, was 6.8 magnitude and caused tidal changes that prompted some communities to issue evacuation orders or tsunami advisories to […]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The plodding Republican presidential nomination fight is grinding forward toward Puerto Rico — and a two-man race, with Rick Santorum ascendant and Mitt Romney vanquished in the Deep South. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the former Georgia lawmaker whose Southern strategy stalled, was all but relegated to an asterisk in the […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — The owner of a specialty seafood company in Maine has been named the state’s Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Michael Cote and his partner formed Look’s Gourmet Food Co. in 2003 in the eastern Maine town of Whiting. The company produces specialty seafood products […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — Three Republicans have filed petitions to appear on the primary ballot for candidates hoping to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Maine Republican Olympia Snowe. Small business owner Scott D’Amboise and former state Sen. Rick Bennett filed their petitions on Monday, and Secretary of State Charlie Summers did the […]

BANGOR (AP) — A 69-yearold Maine man is going to prison for a year and a day for bankruptcy fraud. George Rayner, of Baileyville, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor three months after a jury convicted him for failing to disclose his financial assets when he filed for bankruptcy in 2006. He will […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — What started out as a voter identification bill will be weakened to a study if a measure that’s advancing through the Maine Legislature is enacted. The Senate on Tuesday voted to go along with the House and approve the amended bill. In its original form, the bill would have required voters […]

BIDDEFORD ( AP) — As many as eight people sought treatment at the hospital and about 90 people were evacuated from a Biddeford YMCA after higher-than-normal levels of chlorine were detected in the pool area. Authorities say several people went to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford in ambulances and one person drove to the […]

PORTLAND (AP) — Maine U.S. Senate candidate and former governor Angus King is finding that political campaigns these days are a lot different from the last time he ran for office in 1998 thanks to social media. Someone has already set up a fake Twitter account using the handle King Angus. The anonymous holder of […]

PARIS, Maine ( AP) — A Norway man has pleaded guilty to burning down the boarding house where he lived after threatening another resident during a fight over stolen food. Todd Fickett pleaded guilty Tuesday in Oxford County Superior to arson charges. The Sun Journal reports that he was ordered to undergo a mental health […]

AUGUSTA ( AP) — A Somerville man who tried to extort $2,000 from an Augusta couple whose home he broke into has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. Jake Pilsbury was sentenced Tuesday after pleaded guilty last week to three burglaries, theft by extortion, theft by deception and theft by unauthorized taking or transfer. […]