BRUNSWICK Town councilors on Monday approved a ban on the sale and use of consumer fireworks but voted down a proposed amendment that would have allowed their use in more rural areas of Brunswick. On Jan. 1, a new state law goes into effect that will allow the use, possession and sale of consumer fireworks. […]

THE ANNUAL NEWSMAKERS SERIES profiles local individuals whose circumstances reflect major stories of the year. In January, William Schneider became Maine’s first Republican attorney general of the 21st century. Since taking office, he has waded into the controversy over the legality of the Affordable Health Care Act, coped with a constricted state budget and overseen […]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida A&M University’s president will keep his job while authorities investigate the hazing death of a band member. The university’s board of trustees today rejected a call by Gov. Rick Scott that James Ammons be suspended. “We will stand firm against outside interference, no matter how well intended,” Solomon Badger, the […]

PRAGUE Vaclav Havel wove theater into revolution, leading the charge to peacefully bring down communism in a regime he ridiculed as “Absurdistan” and proving the power of the people to overcome totalitarian rule. Shy and bookish, with a wispy mustache and unkempt hair, the dissident playwright was an unlikely hero of Czechoslovakia’s 1989 “Velvet Revolution” […]

Bank robber flees on bicycle in China CHINA (AP) — Police say a man who robbed a central Maine bank made his getaway on a bicycle before jumping into a pickup truck driven by an accomplice. The Kennebec County Sheriff ’s Department says a man armed with a handgun and wearing a ski mask pulled […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is edging closer to yet another down-to-the wire showdown as House Republicans shun a bipartisan payroll tax cut bill approved by the Senate and prepare to write a package to please rank-andfile GOP lawmakers clamoring for a more conservative version. The House was returning to work today, two days after the […]

Lisbon Arrests Robert D. Rider, 22, of 87 Ridge Road., Nov. 12, 9:53 a.m., charged on a warrant for unpaid fines and fees, on Webster Road. Scott Penney, 48, of 351 Pool St. No. 2, Biddeford, Nov. 9, 12:13 a.m., charged with violating conditions of release, on Booker Street. Collin Amberking, 24, of 22 Hillside […]

Wiscasset student musicians plan concert WISCASSET — The Wiscasset Middle School will present its annual holiday concert at 6: 30 p. m. Tuesday in the school’s gym. Scheduled performers include the fifth grade chorus, the middle school chorus and the middle school band. “Students have been practicing throughout the fall to bring the community a […]

BRUNSWICK — The Brunswick Town Council will enter executive session at 6:30 p.m. at Brunswick Station, 16 Station Ave., to meet with the town’s legal counsel and to discuss tax increment financing districts related to the Midcoast Redevelopment Authority’s work at Brunswick Landing and the Brunswick Executive Airport. At 7 p.m., the council will convene […]

BOWDOIN — The Sagadahoc County Sheriff ’s Department continues to investigate the theft of a pop-up garage from a Bowdoin barn. The incident was reported around noon Wednesday. Chief Deputy Brett Strout said that investigators believe someone entered the barn on Ridge Road some time during the previous week and took a white 10-foot-by-20-foot pop-up […]