Cumberland County | featured news

Nearly 4,000 Central Maine Power Co. customers were without power Friday evening, mostly in Cumberland and Androscoggin counties, after a front of severe storms rolled through Portland and surrounding communities.
Roughly 1,500 homes and businesses went dark in Cumberland County, and over 1,700 were without power in Androscoggin County, according to the CMP website at 9 p.m..
Justin Arnott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, said showers were expected to stop Friday night and fog will roll in overnight.

WASHINGTON – Environmental Protection Agency acting chief Andrew Wheeler has withdrawn a break that the agency gave makers of higher-pollution diesel trucks on Scott Pruitt’s last day as agency administrator.
The EPA released a Wheeler directive Thursday night reversing one that Pruitt issued on July 6. Pruitt left office that day in the face of unrelenting allegations he misused his office for luxury perks and other personal and political gain.

Two New Hampshire residents were arrested and charged with drug trafficking after being stopped by Maine State Police troopers in Lebanon.
A member of the state police Pro-Active Criminal Enforcement Team and another trooper stopped a car in Lebanon on Wednesday for multiple violations and found indications of criminal activity, state police said Friday.
A search of the car turned up 30 grams of crystal methamphetamine, fentanyl and drug package materials, police said.

PORTLAND – One of the most historic fisheries in the country hit an all-time low last year as cod fishermen continued to struggle with choking quotas and low abundance of the fish.
Maine’s cod fishery has existed since at least the early 17th century, and it was once one of the strongest in the country. The fishery peaked at more than 21 million pounds of cod, a fish often used with the fish and chips dish, in 1991.

A REAL PERSON
Jeff Daniels fumes whenever he sees those Chevy commercials that introduce a group of folks ogling new cars and trucks as “real people, not actors.”
So, since he’s as passionate about songwriting as he is acting, he decided to write a song about his anger. “Real People, Not Actors” is a blues tune lamenting how it feels to be deemed less real, because one can act.

Portland’s East End Beach remains closed because an initial water quality test found elevated levels of bacteria hours after an estimated 1 million gallons of partially treated sewage spilled into Casco Bay Thursday.
“The City of Portland has decided to keep the East End Beach closed until the results of a second water quality sample come back this afternoon around 4 p.m.,” the city announced Friday. Tests take 24 hours.

STANDISH — The recently fired Standish town manager is “laying low right now” and “pretty upset and disappointed about the way this all went down,” his attorney said this week.

The council voted 6-1 Monday to terminate manager Kris Tucker’s contract without cause, meaning he is entitled to severance and health care payments. Tucker had been on the job for less than eight months.

“The timing of all this was quite curious,” Tucker’s lawyer, Gregg Frame, said in an interview. “Something stinks.”

PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia will stop giving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to a real-time arrest database, accusing the agency of misusing the information to target people who are in the country illegally but are otherwise not accused of any crimes, the mayor announced Friday.
“We’re not going to provide them with information so they can go out and round people up,” Democrat Jim Kenney said.
The decision by the mayor means the city will not renew a contract that expires Aug. 31.

ROCKLAND — The state has dropped a drunk-driving case against a Union man in a case in which the chief witness was a former Rockland police officer accused by a judge of dishonesty.
The District Attorney’s Office dismissed July 25 a criminal operating under the influence charge against Earle J. Studley.
Studley had pleaded guilty in March 2015 to charges of criminal operating under the influence and unlawful possession of suboxone from an Oct. 11, 2013, traffic stop in Rockland, and received a two-year deferred disposition..

A congressional bill that refers to a 2016 effort to keep Bates College students away from the polls would make it a federal crime to willfully spread false information to try to keep people from voting.
The penalty included in the bill submitted by U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., for engaging in deceptive acts includes a fine of up to $100,000 and as many as five years in prison.
The proposal, which is being introduced by Democrats in both the House and Senate, calls “casting a ballot for one’s preferred candidate” a fundamental right.