Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce is getting a nearly 10 percent raise, in addition to his annual cost of living adjustment.  County commissioners voted 4-1, with Susan Witonis opposed, on Monday to increase Joyce’s salary from $100,000 to a little over $109,000.  The salary increase stems from a request by the sheriff, who is an elected official, according to […]

BRUNSWICK — In her 22 years as a teacher in Brunswick, Felicity Beede has had a lot of “highfalutin ideas” for things she would like to bring into her classroom, but it wasn’t until the advent of the Brunswick Community Education Foundation’s grants that she ever thought they might be funded. Beede is one of […]

DRESDEN — In a shift in town policy, voters have decided that town office staff ought to be appointed and not elected.  At a special town meeting Monday, residents voted 41-14 after about 45 minutes of discussion to authorize the Board of Selectmen to eliminate the elective town clerk and treasurer positions and hire those […]

AUGUSTA – A former state lawmaker faces a court appearance Thursday to answer charges that he fraudulently obtained or possessed a hunting license for the last three years by failing to disclose he had a felony criminal record. Jeffrey Pierce, a Republican from Dresden, was pardoned by former Republican Gov. Paul LePage for a felony […]

Two men facing hate crime charges for allegedly attacking a black man in Biddeford last April have been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with another racially motivated attack in Portland on the same day. Maurice Diggins, 34, and Dusty Leo, 28, both of Biddeford, allegedly assaulted a black man, breaking his jaw, […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — A man who said he drove cross-country to confront Google officials has been arrested in California with three baseball bats in his car’s trunk. Police in Mountain View, the San Francisco-area city where Google’s based, were warned by two other agencies, including Waterville Police, that Kyle Long was on his way […]

AUGUSTA — A legislative committee voted Monday to kill a bill that would have changed the Maine state flag to an earlier and more simplistic 1901 design. But the panel didn’t lower the halyard entirely on a state flag redesign, approving a bill that would direct Secretary of State Matt Dunlap to design a special […]

PORTLAND (AP) — Former Gov. Paul LePage suggested Monday that the Democratic Party’s money comes mostly from Jewish people.  The Republican told WGAN-AM that Jewish people should be “insulted” by a Democratic congresswoman’s statements that some viewed as anti-Semitic.  “The Jewish people in America have been great supporters of the Democratic Party,” LePage said. “In […]