Cumberland County | featured news

WASHINGTON — Normally, members of Congress would have no problem working together to protect houses of worship from having to pay taxes, especially in an election year when both parties want to earn the faith community’s vote.
But in an era of pervasive partisan politics, not even that is a guarantee.
Some Republicans do want to tweak a portion of their 2017 tax bill that will now force nonprofits, including churches, to pay a 21 percent tax on the value of certain employee benefits. But most others downplay the problem or deny it needs to be addressed.

BERLIN — Norwegian authorities said a polar bear on Saturday attacked and injured a guard who was leading tourists off a cruise ship on an Arctic archipelago. The bear was shot dead by another employee, the cruise company said.
The Joint Rescue Coordination for Northern Norway tweeted that the attack occurred when the tourists from the MS Bremen cruise ship landed on the most northern island of the Svalbard archipelago, a region between mainland Norway and the North Pole that is known for its remote terrain, glaciers, reindeer and polar bears.

SAN DIEGO — With more than 1,800 migrant families reunified under a court-ordered deadline, the question turns to how fast immigration authorities can deport those with final orders of removal.
It looks increasingly likely those families will remain in limbo, at least for now.

OAKLAND — Humid weather and the threat of rain didn’t deter hundreds of people from turning out for the fourth annual OakFest on Saturday, to enjoy live music, visit vendors and watch a parade, among other events.

HARTFORD, Conn. — A high school student has designed an online resource to help immigrant children and teenagers learn how to prepare for the possible deportations of parents or guardians.

PARCHMENT, Mich. — Authorities handed out thousands of free bottles of water Friday for two southwestern Michigan communities where the discovery of contamination from toxic industrial chemicals prompted a warning against using the public water system for drinking or cooking.

ULYSSES, Pa. — The traffic sign that greets visitors on the south side of Ulysses, a tiny town in rural far north-central Pennsylvania, is suitably quaint – a silhouette of a horse-drawn cart reminding drivers that the Amish use the roads, too. But on the north side of town, along the main thoroughfare, is a far different display: a home dedicated to Adolf Hitler, where star-spangled banners and Nazi flags flutter side by side and wooden swastikas stand on poles.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s trade policies are turning long-established Republican orthodoxy on its head, marked by tariff fights and now $12 billion in farm aid that represents the type of government intervention party voters railed against a decade ago.

AUGUSTA — The iconic image of a veterans cemetery, which can be seen everywhere from Normandy in France to Arlington, Virginia, has white headstones aligned with military precision in perfect rows in a carefully groomed setting, a place of honor to last the ages.
That picture is changing.
The Maine Veterans’ Cemetery System, which has four state-run burial grounds, plans to make more options available to veterans, their spouses and their dependents when their time comes.

AUGUSTA — Volunteer Stephen Condon and Kennebec Land Trust interns Jack Daley and Jordan Tanguay followed on the heels of Jean-Luc Theriault who, wielding a chain saw, left a trail of branches behind for them to collect and throw into the woods away from the newly blazed trail as he made his way up Howard Hill.
The four, and a slew of other volunteers, are working to establish new trails on the 164-acre city-owned property, improve public access and remove invasive plant species.