Three communities north of Portland have to decide whether they will steeply increase their financial backing to maintain an express commuter shuttle to Portland that has beaten revenue and ridership expectations since it started in 2016.  Metro, the Portland-area public transportation company, launched the Breez shuttle in 2016 to provide buses linking Portland to Falmouth, Yarmouth and Freeport. Ridership […]

DOVER, N.H. (AP) — A man accused of being married to four women pleaded guilty Monday to bigamy in New Hampshire, but he will avoid jail time if he remains on good behavior for the next five years.  Michael Middleton, 43, married a Georgia woman in 2006, an Alabama woman in 2011 and a New […]

BRUNSWICK — The Composite Engineering Research Laboratory at Brunswick Landing’s TechPlace announced it is leaving Brunswick after almost a decade, in a partnership with the University of Southern Maine designed to “solve the problem of workforce development,” according to Stephen Von Vogt, managing director of the Maine Composites Alliance. “Being at USM will allow us […]

Man accused of marrying 4 women to plead guilty  DOVER, N.H. (AP) — A man accused of being married to four women is set to plead guilty to bigamy in New Hampshire.  Authorities allege that 43-year-old Michael Middleton married a Georgia woman in 2006, an Alabama woman in 2011 and a New Hampshire woman in […]

DURHAM — Teams in an Odyssey of the Mind competition might come up with wildly different solutions to the same problem. Some answers might be more creative than others, some may be more successful than others, but at the end of the day, everything the teams do is “handmade and children-made,” as Durham fourth grader […]

AUGUSTA — The apparent, and still unknown, source of a cyberattack that shut down the city’s computer network and forced the closure of Augusta City Center for two days sought a ransom payment of more than $100,000 to unlock the frozen system.  Instead of paying the ransom, city officials — who as soon as they […]

The amount of gear the East Coast lobster fishery puts in the water must be reduced in order to protect a dwindling species of large whale, a federal government team recommended Friday.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team wrapped up several days of discussion Friday about ways to reduce […]

A 40-year-old mother of four was struck and killed by a car Saturday night in Gray, and a North Yarmouth man was accused of drunken driving in the incident.  Jay Westra, 58, was charged with operating under the influence after his 2015 Honda Civic struck Samantha Rinaldi, 40, of Gray, who was walking on Yarmouth […]

PORTLAND — The tradition of releasing balloons at weddings, birthdays and memorials may soon get deflated by lawmakers in more than half a dozen states.  Critics say the helium-filled balloons pollute the environment, and threaten birds and other wildlife when they fall to earth.  “People don’t really realize that it’s littering. That’s why we want to bring […]