Latest Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont news, sports, business and entertainment

MAINE:

STATE WORKERS

Contract talks due for Maine state workers

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Negotiations are set to begin soon on labor contracts for thousands of Maine state workers.

The current agreements end June 30.

The talks will start as lawmakers try to close a budget gap and repay debts to the state pension system — and also as a sour taste remains in union members' mouths over sacrifices they made to balance the state's recession-plagued budget in 2009.

The bulk of the workers affected are the 10,000 in the Executive Branch covered by the Maine State Employees Association, Local 1989 of the Service Employees International Union. The MSEA also represents some judicial branch workers and some legislative branch employees.

STATE BUDGET

Maine Gov. LePage to present 2-year budget

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine Gov. Paul LePage will present his two-year budget to the Legislature tomorrow.

LePage signed a supplemental budget last night..

The budget revision package won unanimous, bipartisan support of the Appropriations Committee yesterday and moved swiftly through the House and Senate.

The budget accelerates repayment of the state's Medicaid debt to hospitals, as LePage promised. It conforms to state and federal tax provisions to ease filing and save the state from reprinting tax forms.

BIW APPROPRIATION

Maine's senators applaud money for Bath shipyard

BATH, Maine (AP) — Maine's two U.S. senators are applauding a $6.7 million contract so the Bath Iron Works can perform additional engineering services on the design and construction of the U.S. Navy's Zumwalt class destroyer.

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both Republicans, say the money from the Department of the Navy will allow the team at the Bath shipyard to continue the critical engineering work.

They say the award is another reminder that the Bath Iron Works remains the crown jewel of the Navy's shipbuilding base.

CRACK BUST

Maine police arrest suspect in crack sales

SACO, Maine (AP) — Maine State Police say a Massachusetts man is in custody on charges of selling crack cocaine in Saco.

Agents with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency arrested 33-year-old Gary Richardson at a Saco apartment on Monday.

Police say Richardson's most recent address was Hyde Park, Mass. Police say he has been suspected of selling crack cocaine in Saco and Biddeford for the last six months.

After placing an order for drugs yesterday, agents followed a suspect to the house where Richardson was staying and witnessed a drug sale.

Richardson, also known as J.P., was then arrested with the help of Saco police. Agents seized 38 grams of crack from the home with a street value of $3,800.

Richardson was taken to the York County Jail. Bail was set at $5,000.

DECAPITATING OWL

Maine biologists nab owl taking heads off chickens

(Information in the following story is from: Sun-Journal, )

BETHEL, Maine (AP) — A Maine barred owl is in rehabilitation after it was caught inside a Bethel barn where it had been decapitating a chicken a day and flying off with the head.

Wildlife Biologist Judy Camuso says owls are having a tough time finding food this winter and the owl was doing everything it could to survive. She says it was near death.

She says many animals that owls live on, such as squirrels and voles, live under the snow.

Camuso says chickens are too big for owls to carry off and owls are notorious for eating heads.

The owl was captured on Sunday. It was taken Monday to Avian Haven, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Freedom.

The Sun Journal newspaper says the owl killed five or six chickens.

DOWNTOWN SKI SLOPE

Downtown Portland getting a ski slope

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Portland is about to become home to a ski slope, even though the city is miles from the nearest mountain.

Seacoast Scaffold & Equipment Corp. starts work today on building a ski slope for the Downtown Showdown, sponsored by Sunday River and Sugarloaf.

The company is up to the task, having erected ski slopes at New York's Rockefeller Plaza for Today Show segments on the winter Olympics. This is the third year that the company has participated in Portland's Downtown Showdown.

General Manager Lincoln Fuller says there will be stairway access to a mountain top that's 20-feet high. On Friday, freestyle skiers and snowboarders will bust a move on the mountain. The event is free to the public.

NEW HAMPSHIRE:

CONNECTICUT RIVER KILLINGS

NH lawmaker wants to spur investigation of deaths

(Information in the following story is from: WMUR-TV, )

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A Keene lawmaker is trying to draw attention to a series of killings in the Connecticut River Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont a generation ago that some believe were the work of a serial killer.

But Democratic Rep. Steve Lindsey says he withdrew a bill to provide New Hampshire's Cold Case unit with $200,000 to exhume the bodies of the victims to do DNA testing.

Lindsey tells WMUR-TV he has since been told DNA testing wouldn't be effective because the bodies of the victims were too decayed.

In the 1970s and '80s seven women disappeared in the Claremont area and nearby parts of Vermont. All were stabbed multiple times.

The New Hampshire attorney general's office says investigators still can't say for sure the cases are related.

TRADE-CANADA

Canadian official talks trade in NH

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Canada's Consul General to New England is coming to New Hampshire to discuss the increasing importance of cross-border commerce.

Patrick Binns will join New Hampshire officials today at a luncheon organized by the New Hampshire International Trade Resource Center.

Prior to taking his current post in September, Binns spent 11 years as premier of the province of Prince Edward Island.

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR JOB

NH high school students plead for job of counselor

(Information in the following story is from: Portsmouth Herald, )

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — More than 40 New Hampshire high school students are hoping the school board will save the job of a Portsmouth High School guidance counselor.

The students were joined at a meeting by 20 community members, parents and teachers, all of whom argued on behalf of Shanyn Grenier, calling her passionate and experienced.

Grenier's is one of five counselor positions that could be eliminated in the city's 2012 school budget.

The Portsmouth Herald says the proposed budget includes the elimination of 11 full-time staff positions.

Board member Carol Chellman says she feels passionately they should find a way to keep Grenier.

The board is trying to pass a $37.7 million budget for city schools that is the same amount as this year.

REFEREE SAVED

NH hoop ref thanks people who saved him after

(Information in the following story is from: WMUR-TV, )

EXETER, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire basketball referee who suffered a heart attack on the court is thanking those who saved his life after he collapsed.

Two weeks after Craig Evans was stricken while refereeing a junior varsity basketball game at Raymond High School he's planning to return to the school and thank everyone publicly.

After Evans was stricken, two nurses, an emergency medical technician and a sports trainer went to his aid. They performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation and used an external defibrillator that the school had on hand to shock his heart.

Seventy-two minutes after he was in the ambulance, doctors reopened Evans' blocked artery.

Evans tells WMUR-TV that he has since learned that some schools don't have automatic defibrillators and he hopes to change that.

THUNDERBIRD VISIT

USAF Thunderbirds to visit NH to promote show

(Information in the following story is from: Portsmouth Herald, )

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — The Thunderbirds are coming to New Hampshire.

The U.S. Air Force elite flying team is scheduled to fly into the Pease International Tradeport tomorrow to promote the 2011 Boston-Portsmouth Air Show in August.

The Thunderbirds are scheduled to land in New Hampshire at 1 p.m. and the pilots will then hold a news conference.

The Thunderbirds have not performed in New Hampshire in 25 years.

Last year's Boston-Portsmouth Air Show attracted 70,000 spectators. That show featured the Navy's Blue Angels flight team.

The show is being produced by the Daniel Webster Council Boy Scouts of America and the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire.

The Portsmouth Herald says organizers are already working on the logistics for the show, including traffic and parking issues and managing long lines.

VERMONT:

GIRL SLAIN

Suspect in killing of Vt. girl says too many know

(Information in the following story is from: The Burlington Free Press, )

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The Randolph man facing a federal death penalty trial on charges of kidnapping and killing his 12-year-old niece says too many people in Vermont know about the case and so the trial should be held elsewhere.

Court papers filed on behalf of 44-year-old Michael Jacques cite a poll done in Burlington last October that found 81 percent of Vermonters said "yes" when asked if they knew about the case.

The Burlington Free Press says the new court papers are a supplemental memorandum to a change-of-venue motion filed last year.

Defense attorneys want Jacques' trial held in Albany, N.Y. Prosecutors oppose the change.

The trial is scheduled to begin in September.

Police say Jacques drugged, sexually assaulted and then killed his niece Brooke Bennett on June 25, 2008.

CONNECTICUT RIVER KILLINGS

NH lawmaker wants to spur investigation of deaths

(Information in the following story is from: WMUR-TV, )

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire lawmaker is trying to draw attention to a series of killings in the Connecticut River Valley of New Hampshire and Vermont a generation ago that some believe were the work of a serial killer.

But Democratic Rep. Steve Lindsey says he withdrew a bill to provide New Hampshire's Cold Case unit with $200,000 to exhume the bodies of the victims to do DNA testing.

Lindsey tells WMUR-TV he has since been told DNA testing wouldn't be effective because the bodies of the victims were too decayed.

In the 1970s and '80s seven women disappeared in the Claremont, New Hampshire area and nearby parts of Vermont. All were stabbed multiple times.

The New Hampshire attorney general's office says investigators still can't say for sure the cases are related.

DEATH PENALTY SYMPOSIUM

Vt. Law Review to examine capital punishment

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont Law Review is planning a symposium on capital punishment that examines the practice from a human rights perspective.

"New Perspectives on Capital Punishment," is set for Friday at Vermont Law School in South Royalton. Organizers say it will encompass theory, litigation strategy, international law and capital punishment. They also plan to honor the late Michael Mello, a former Vermont Law School faculty member.

The Vermont Law Review is a legal journal edited by students that publishes articles by legal scholars and students alike.

VERMONT YANKEE

Entergy boss points to federal say on nuke plant

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — In the clearest sign yet that the fight over the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant's relicensing may end up in federal court, the head of the company that owns the plant says its future is a matter of federal jurisdiction and insists the plant is fit for another 20 years of operation.

In a conference call yesterday with investment analysts, Entergy Corp. CEO J. Wayne Leonard rejected calls by the Vermont Legislature and Gov. Peter Shumlin for the state's lone reactor to close when its current 40-year license expires next March.

One looming question is whether the state of Vermont can make that call, or whether the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over reactors. The NRC is expected to approve Vermont Yankee's continued operation later this year.

GUARD-KOREA

Vt. Air Guard heads home from Korea

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont National Guard says 160 members of the Air Guard are on their way home from Korea after a 30-day mission.

They are expected to return to Vermont tonight.

Another 46 members will remain in Korea for another month to complete their 60-day deployment.

The Guard's six F-16 also will return to the state in March.

The Air Guard members trained with Korean and U.S. partners to maintain peace and stability in the region.

RADON TESTS

Vt. Health Department offers free radon test kits

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont Department of Health is urging Vermonters to test their homes for radon gas this winter.

Health officials say only an estimated 10 percent of homes have been tested for radon, which is the leading cause of lung cancer for non-smokers.

The Health Department is providing nearly 1,500 free test kits and says winter is the best time to test for the gas.

Health Department epidemiologist Lori Cragin says about one in every eight Vermont homes has elevated levels.

To prevent radon exposure, officials say a venting system can be installed for a cost of $800 to $2,000.

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