Free Republic

The Navy's newest guided missile destroyer was christened Saturday with the name of a fighter pilot who spent 7 1/2 years in captivity in North Vietnam, received the Medal of Honor and served as presidential candidate Ross Perot's running mate. Four Medal of Honor recipients and seven former prisoners of war attended the ceremony at Bath Iron Works that marked a milestone in construction of the 9,200-ton ship named for Vice Adm. James Stockdale. Stockdale's widow, Sybil, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and uses a wheelchair, let loose a champagne bottle propelled by rope that swung across the Stockdale's bow....

<p>BANGOR, Maine â€” Stephen King has fired back at conservative critics who attacked him over a remark he made a month ago at a writers symposium for high school students.</p> <p>A blogger jumped on King’s statement at the Library of Congress about the importance of reading in which he suggested poor readers have limited prospects, including service in the Army.</p>

AUGUSTA, Maine - It is only partially true that in presidential elections "as Maine goes, so goes the nation." The term emerged in the 19th century because at the time Maine held its elections for statewide and congressional offices in September, not November. The proximity of the September-November voting made Maine a bellwether for forecasting how the rest of the country would vote. In modern elections, held with the rest of the country in November, Maine chose Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy in 1960; Hubert Humphrey over Nixon in 1968 (it went for Nixon in 1972), Gerald Ford over...

AUGUSTA, Maine --GOP organizers welcomed Maine caucuses winner Mitt Romney on Friday while warily watching insurgent supporters of Ron Paul as the Republican State Convention got under way. Invited to make the keynote address, Romney praised putative presidential nominee John McCain repeatedly as "tested and proven." "He is a known individual and a strong leader," Romney told reporters. The former Massachusetts governor shrugged off questions about assuming second place on a Republican ticket. "I don't think that's very likely," Romney said, adding he came to Maine to support McCain's candidacy and was not worrying about the vice presidency. "I just...

Each Sunday, worshippers file into the York-Ogunquit United Methodist Church beneath a cross and, since February, a symbol of another sort. The church's roof is now partly covered by an array of solar panels that make electricity to run the lights and heat inside the sanctuary. It's perhaps the most visible evidence yet of a growing environmental ethic spreading through Maine's religious communities. "Certainly we want to lower our power bill," said William Wieting, chairman of church's board of trustees. "But the enthusiasm didn't derive from the monetary value to the church as much as it was the right thing...

The state’s top drug prosecutor was fired on Friday, hours after reports were published that he was under investigation for possessing child pornography. Assistant Attorney General James Cameron of Hallowell, who worked as the drug prosecution coordinator for the Attorney General’s Office, had been on paid administrative leave for several months, according to one law enforcement source.

AUGUSTA, Maine -- Gov. John Baldacci signed into law a bill to tighten standards for getting a Maine driver's license, acknowledging that the measures were a tough issue for lawmakers. Under pressure for the federal government, Baldacci wasted little time before signing the bill Thursday night after the Senate approved it by a 19-15 vote despite criticism from civil libertarians. With the bill's enactment, Maine joins 44 other states, including the rest of New England, in making proof of legal U.S. residency a requirement for getting a driver's license, the governor said. Previously, the state did not require any proof...

VIDEO: Maine College Republicans have posted a video showing the desecration of our American flag at the University of Maine, Farmington, by an 'art' student. Vet restrained from picking flags up off the ground.

New Bill in Maine Makes “Visual Sexual Aggression” a Crime It might be 2008 in the rest of the USA, but in Maine, it’s 1984. A new bill in the Pine Tree State would make it a crime to peer at children in public. It’s been asserted that some legislators can justify making any action a crime–as long as they add the magic words “for the children” to the mix. This Maine bill adds proof to that assertion. State Rep. Dawn Hill, D-York, is the head cheerleader for a bill only a fan of police state actions could love.

Dealing with border-jumping duffers Enhanced security putting the future of unique Aroostook Valley Country Club at risk By Mark Rickard and Madeleine LeClerc Published Friday April 11th, 2008 Appeared on page A2 Will the only golf course that sits on both sides of the Canada-United States border fall victim to enhanced border security? The future of the Aroostook Valley Country Club – which has served both Americans and Canadians for 81 years – is in doubt if United States Customs border patrol officers enforce entry regulations at the club. For more than eight decades, Aroostook Valley has been a unique...

SKOWHEGAN, Maine --Some Maine syrup producers say the season is off to a late start with delays caused by cold weather and taps and tubing hidden by snow in northern Maine. Bob Moore of Bob's Sugar House is busy boiling sap this week, but he'd be a lot busier if he could tap all of his trees. He said at least 75 percent of his 5,000 trees are unreachable. "I have trees that still have 3 feet of snow around them," he said. "It's not looking good right now." Maine's maple syrup production can start anytime between mid-February and late...

AUGUSTA, Maine - While in a small southern Maine grocery store with his mother last June 12 to buy sandwiches, Shane St. Pierre picked up a miniature baseball bat and flicked the switch to see what would happen. A flame shot out, singeing the 6-year-old’s eyebrow and burning part of his face. His parents called the state fire marshal’s office and were surprised to learn that Maine had no law banning so-called novelty lighters. That’s no longer the case. Today, Shane stood next to Gov. John Baldacci as he signed legislation that makes Maine the first state to outlaw the...

WASHINGTON - Homeland security officials on Friday hinted at a possible face-saving deal to end their standoff with a handful of states over new driver's license rules — a dispute that, left unresolved, could cause big air travel headaches. For weeks, the Homeland Security Department has been headed toward a showdown with some states over a law called Real ID, which would require new security measures for state-issued driver's licenses. Yet a late Good Friday letter from a top DHS official suggested Washington may be backing away from a messy fight. South Carolina, Maine and Montana are the only states...

The Blethen family makes the 'painful decision' after a decade of ownership. The Seattle Times Co., parent company of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, is putting its Maine media properties up for sale. Charles C. Cochrane, president and chief executive officer of Blethen Maine Newspapers, said the decision is based on The Seattle Times' need to focus on operating its newspapers in Washington state. "The decision to explore a sale was painful," Cochrane said, "but a sale might be the best opportunity for the long-term survival of our newspapers in Washington and those in Maine." The Seattle Times Co.,...

Trinity graduate has family history of schizophrenia "Voices" in the head of an award-winning Irish computer science graduate told him to rob a bank, it was claimed yesterday. Niall Clarke (27) was suffering from schizophrenia when he carried out a botched bank raid in Maine, a mental illness also suffered by his grandmother, said his solicitor yesterday. The brilliant Trinity graduate from Kilrush in Co Clare was sentenced to almost 10 years in prison earlier this week after the 2006 robbery of the Bangor Bank of America. "He was hearing voices that the bank had to be robbed. He said...

Even if you live in the most heavily taxed state, Maine (which collects an average of 13.5% of residents' income), you might not be ready to high-tail it to Alaska, the state with the lowest taxes (6.6%, and the only state that lacks both sales and income taxes), unless you have an affinity for mosquitoes and seemingly endless tundra. But in certain cases -- say, if you're about to retire and need to make every dollar count -- moving to a less expensive state might make some sense. More on that later. For the rest of us, it's at least...

How Does Tom Allen Keep His Promise to US Vets If....? Would Tom Allen Recognize a U.S. Vet if He Saw One? Tom Allen’s campaign for U.S. Senator website is promoting a feature called, “Keeping Our Promise To American’s Veterans,” with a series of photos. But how does Tom Allen keep his promise to American Veterans if he doesn’t know what one looks like? The picture below from Allen's website is a stock photo of a Royal Navy sailor. A U.S. Navy sailor would not be wearing a beard. The weapon in the picture is a British weapon. This isn’t...

Call him Mr. Goosebumps. No, it's not his real name. The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office announced this week that his true identity is safe with them because, when it's all said and done, he's committed no crime. Still, when you dress up in women's underwear and repeatedly jump out of your car while stunned female drivers pass by, you're more than just what police have ever-so-carefully referred to as a "person of interest." You're a risk taker. You're a walking civics lesson on what does -- and doesn't -- constitute criminal behavior. You're Mr. Goosebumps. "When the private spills over...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed out Maine's law taxing the Internet sales of tobacco products, a statute intended to keep cigarettes out of minors' hands by regulating transportation companies. In a unanimous ruling, the justices concluded the federal government's overall interstate commerce authority trumped the state's public health policing powers. A federal appeals court earlier had found the law unconstitutional. "Despite the importance of the public health objective, we cannot agree with Maine," said Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority. Federal law says "nothing about a public health exception," he noted. Maine's Legislature passed the law four...

Red Alert On Tolerance by: Malcolm A. Kline, February 12, 2008 Look out children: academics are now entranced by something called “Teaching Beyond Tolerance.” Since their emphasis on tolerance netted us about a couple of hundred restrictive speech codes at about as many colleges and universities, who knows what the new fad will yield on American campuses. Shana Agid and Erica Rand give a preview of coming attractions, sort of, in the latest issue of Radical Teacher. “We wanted to imagine another set of possibilities for educators and students alike, grounded in a different set of assumptions: that so-called ‘hate’...

By Karen Dandurant kdandurant@seacoastonline.com February 08, 2008 6:00 AM PORTSMOUTH — Rochester physician Terry Bennett said he rented a city building to people who worked for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign — and skipped town without paying the bill. Making matters worse, Bennett said, the 3,000-square-foot building at 236 Union St. was left trashed. Campaign signs were left lying all over the place, he said. Interactive Map Loading... Landlord: Clinton staff stiffed me on rent 5 km 3 miData ©Navteq,TeleAtlas©2006 Yahoo! Inc.Related Stories Clinton doesn’t pay, others say CLINTON PHOTOS Photo galleries of Hillary Clinton's visits to the Seacoast, N.H....

Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the Conservative Talk Radio Party (CTRP) took a meaningless beauty contest of fewer than 10,000 people in Maine and spun it up nicely on Monday to assure listeners across the country that Maine was proof positive the other McCain surge wasn't working. To be fair, Romney trounced McCain in the weekend caucuses. From various reports, it was pretty clear that the Romney people had a plan and executed that plan flawlessly. The McCain people, on the other hand, had little or no organization -- and it showed. more..

Jeanette Symons was a Bay Area telecommunications wunderkind and a devoted mother to her son and daughter - she'd moved them out of San Francisco a year and a half ago so she could raise them in the country, where they could ski and bike and enjoy carefree childhoods, friends said. Symons and her son were flying back to their home in Steamboat Springs, Colo., on Friday, after a week at a ski camp in Maine, when the jet she was piloting crashed a few minutes after takeoff. Both Symons, 45, and her 10-year-old son, Balan, died in the...

Throughout the state of Maine, people have gathered at their local caucus site over the last two days and cast their vote for conservative change in Washington. With only a few caucus sites left to report tomorrow, Governor Romney issued the following statement concerning his victory in Maine: "Today, the people of Maine joined those from across the nation in casting their vote for conservative change in Washington. All across the state, men and women gathered to help chart the future course of our country. Tonight, they have made their voice known and have endorsed our conservative vision for a...

According to the Associated Press, Mitt Romney won 53% of the vote, followed not at all closely by John McCain, who won 21% and Ron Paul, who won 19%. Mr. Romney's campaign spent money to turn out voters, whereas Mr. McCain's did not. But every statewide elected official was with McCain,

Notice that under the candidate tab of the posted URL that McCain's delegate count is 97 which includes the regular delegates plus unpleged RNC delegates. Notice at the same time that the delegate count for Romney is 74 which is 67 delegates plus 7 unpleged RNC delegates. Romney seems to be way ahead in Maine where there are 18 delegates and 3 unpleged RNC delegates. We can only conclude that in a few hours Romney will have 95 delegates to McCain's 97. If McCain won Maine in 2004 but lost it by a landslide today, this is not by any...

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Mitt Romney maintained his lead in presidential preference voting by Maine Republicans as returns were counted Saturday from the party's municipal caucuses, which were heavily attended across the state. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, had 53 percent of the vote with 47 percent of the towns holding caucuses reporting. John McCain trailed with 21 percent, Ron Paul was third with 19 percent, and Mike Huckabee had 5 percent. Undecided votes accounted for 2 percent. The nonbinding votes, the first step toward electing 18 Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention, were taking place in public schools,...

Feb 2, 2008): Early results in the Republican caucuses showed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney leading Sen. John McCain and dark-horse candidate Rep. Ron Paul by a wide margin. With just over 12 percent of Maine precincts reporting, Romney had 53.2 percent of the vote, with Paul in a distant second at 20.6 percent and McCain at 18.3 percent. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was fourth at 5.2 percent. The only candidate to visit the state leading up to this weekend's primaries, Paul, a 10-term Texas congressman, proved to be far more popular in Maine than in other parts of...

AUGUSTA, Maine - Mitt Romney took an early lead in presidential preference voting by Maine Republicans as the first returns were counted Saturday from the party's municipal caucuses, which GOP officials said were heavily attended across the state. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, had 59 percent of the vote with 3 percent of the towns holding caucuses reporting. Ron Paul trailed with 19 percent, John McCain had 18 percent, and Mike Huckabee and undecided votes each had about 2 percent. The nonbinding votes, the first step toward electing 18 Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention, were taking place in...

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, had 59% of the vote with 3% of the towns holding caucuses reporting. Ron Paul trailed with 19%, John McCain had 18%, and Mike Huckabee and undecided votes each had about 2%.

Romney Leads in Maine GOP Caucuses By Glenn Adams Associated Press Writer Fwbruary 2, 2008 CBNNews.com - AUGUSTA, Maine - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is off to an early lead in the Maine GOP caucuses. Maine has a different way of doing things. It's Republican caucuses began on Thursday, with a couple dozen jumipng in on Friday, but most of them began on Saturday. The remainder join in on Sunday. The stakes are fairly big in Maine, as the nonbinding caucuses are the first stage toward electing the 18 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Turning the tables, McCain...

AUGUSTA, Maine - Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul has a couple of things going for him at this weekend's Republican caucuses: a band of highly motivated supporters and a natural appeal to Maine's like-minded independents. His stop in the state earlier this week also made him the only presidential contender from either party to visit before the caucuses. "I think that (because) he's paid attention to Maine, he'll be rewarded," R. Kenneth Lindell, Paul's campaign coordinator in Maine, said Thursday. Maine's GOP polling Friday, Saturday and Sunday may be the Texas congressman's best shot at winning a state, and such...

Time served, sex offender who killed 6-year-old girl has come to live in Derry By PAT GROSSMITH AND NANCY WEST New Hampshire Union Leader DERRY – A man who strangled, then sexually assaulted a 6-year-old girl and stuffed her body into a storm drain in 1981 is living near the Derry Montessori School, a park and the public library. Douglas Allen Simmons, 47, moved into 71 East Broadway, Apt. 3, Derry, over the weekend, according to police. Yesterday, his name and photo were posted on New Hampshire's child sex offender Web site. Simmons was a 20-year-old sailor when he lured...

FREEPORT -- In the race for the White House, Maine gets to have its say for the first time as a handful of Republican voters gather in Freeport to caucus for a candidate. A total of 15 voters show up, 10 of whom cast their ballot for Mitt Romney. (Provided by News 13)

City officials in Lewiston, Maine, are confronting a problem straight out of a 1950s horror flick as a mysterious blob has taken over a major sewer line through the town, according to a report on WMTW.com

Legislative leaders, voting along party lines on Thursday, rejected proposed legislation that would require parental consent for schools to give children 14 and under prescription drugs, including birth control pills. Republican Sen. Douglas Smith of Dover-Foxcroft, who sponsored the measure, denounced Democratic leaders for not allowing the issue to be considered this session. "This is a fundamental right we are talking about here," Smith said. "This is a parental right to control the prescription drugs their children are taking. The Democratic majority today felt that the state should have the right to intercede in that, and that is an unfortunate...

PORTLAND, Maine - Temperatures dropped to breathtaking levels, well below zero, in extreme northern sections of Maine early Monday. Thermometers registered 34 degrees Fahrenheit below zero at Van Buren, 27 below at Presque Isle and 26 below at Allagash, the National Weather Service reported. In the northern Rockies, Butte, Mont., registered 32 below at 8 a.m. — with a wind chill of minus 47, the weather service said. Another of the nation's usual cold spots, International Falls, Minn., ...

BOOTHBAY, Maine (AP) -- Navy SEALs are tough by nature, but they take a beating from their patrol boats: bruises, bumps and sore backs, even sprained ankles and chipped teeth. An all-composite version of the aluminum Mark V patrol boat is launched n East Boothbay, Maine on Friday. An all-composite version of the aluminum Mark V patrol boat, constructed by luxury boat builder Hodgdon Yachts Inc., is aimed at reducing the wear and tear on boat operators and SEALs by absorbing the impact as the vessel crashes through the waves at 50-plus knots.

Lost "Mohammed" Dog Poster Left in Front of Muslim This happened in Lewiston, Maine, the same place where a ham steak left on a lunch bag was investigated as a hate crime. Check out the phone number on the poster, Tommy Tutone now wanted for questioning.... LEWISTON (NEWS CENTER) -- Members of the Somali community in Lewiston say a poster put up in front of a local Somali owned store is an insult to their religion The poster depicts a vicious "lost" dog named Mohammed. That's the name of the Muslim prophet. It says that the dog is not good...

Hospital Launches Investigation After Man Discharged in Storm Found Dead in SnowbankFriday, January 04, 2008 BANGOR, Maine — A Machias hospital has launched an internal investigation into the death of a 61-year-old Eastport man whose body was found partially buried under fresh snow the day after he was discharged at his own request. Reid Emery left Down East Community Hospital on Tuesday evening against the wishes of doctors and nurses, officials said. His body was found Wednesday afternoon a few hundred feet from the hospital. Emery had walked out into a snowstorm without a jacket and with only slippers on...

A school district following Maine's Human Rights Law and providing special accommodations to a 10-year-old with "sexual orientation or gender identification" issues is being accused of discrimination by a man whose grandson is being denied those same accommodations because of his sexual orientation – that of heterosexuality. The dispute at Asa C. Adams Elementary School in Orono has the school committee on the defense, the grandfather on the march, and the local Bangor News newspaper trying to set rules for "Christian" behavior for the community. Paul Melanson (Photo courtesy Christian Civic League of Maine) At the heart of the issue...

BANGOR, Me. — In October, the N.A.A.C.P. chapter for northern Maine got shocking news. A man from a nearby town had threatened to shoot “any and all black persons” attending the group’s meetings at an old stone church here, and state prosecutors were worried enough to seek a restraining order. Such remarks are not unheard of in Maine, the nation’s whitest state, which has fewer black residents — 10,918 in 2006, or less than 1 percent of the population, according to the Census Bureau — than some neighborhoods of Chicago or New York. But nor are they usually so blunt....

PORTLAND, Maine - When Steve Kahn got a $26,000 tax bill on his airplane, he thought Maine Revenue Services had made a mistake. Kahn lives, works, and keeps his plane in Massachusetts. But the bill was no error. It was part of the agency's efforts to collect taxes on aircraft owned by out-of-state residents, even though they bought their planes elsewhere and brought them to Maine only to visit. A number of other states, from Florida to Washington, are doing the same as they grapple with budget shortfalls and as the Internet makes it easier to track the comings and...

NORTH ANSON -- The Carrabec High School administrator accused of unlawful sexual contact with a minor has stepped down as minister of an evangelical church. Frank "Skip" Gleason, assistant principal and athletic director at Carrabec, resigned Sunday as pastor of Maranatha Assembly on Church Street after accusations against him became public. Meanwhile, supporters of Gleason rallied around him, saying they doubt that the charges are true, but that the publicity has already done irreparable harm to a good man. The alleged abuse of a 15-year-old Carrabec High School student occurred off school grounds, the arresting officer said Monday. Sheriff's Detective...

BRUNSWICK, Maine, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Married Roman Catholic priests affiliated with Rentapriest.com are making themselves available for the many Catholic Churches who will not have full Eucharist services this holiday season because of a shortage of priests. CITI Ministries (Celibacy Is the Issue) has spent 15 years locating and recruiting priests of integrity and promotes them through its website Rentapriest.com for anyone with spiritual needs. In the last few years, married priests have provided ministry to over a quarter of a million people. Weddings on a beach, interfaith marriages, baptisms that were otherwise refused by a local pastor, anointing...

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 16, 2007 – They came from around the country, some with tears in their eyes, putting holiday demands on hold to honor veterans most never knew. In a few hours in freezing temperatures, about 3,000 volunteers yesterday placed more than 10,000 balsam fir wreaths with blazing red bows on graves at Arlington National Cemetery here. “I wish I could lay one on all of them,” said Charles Wright, a Vietnam War Marine veteran and commander of the Kansas City Composite Squadron, a civil air patrol unit. “This is a tribute I’ll remember forever.” Morrill Worcester, owner...

Maine Shoe Company Founder Leaves Every Child Born in State $500 College Down Payment Tuesday, December 11, 2007 AUGUSTA, Maine — Every child born in Maine will be eligible for a $500 college savings nest egg, thanks to the generosity of a shoe company founder who never attended college himself. A foundation started by the late Harold Alfond, founder of Dexter Shoe Co., will give new parents an opportunity to sign up for a $500 down payment for their young son or daughter's college education. The pilot program that kicks off on Jan. 1 through MaineGeneral hospitals in Augusta and...

Republican response to the governor's weekly radio address For weekend of December 8-9, 2007 Hello, this is Rich Cebra, state representative from Naples. One of the most pressing issues in Augusta right now concerns Maine's practice of issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens - people who are in the country illegally. Believe it or not, we also give licenses to people who don't even live here in Maine. I know this is hard to believe, but it's true. If anything has made this problem even worse, it is an executive order by Governor Baldacci from 2004 that has turned Maine...

Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington has for 15 years been donating wreaths and decorating the graves of 4,500 veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. This year's convoy from Maine to Virginia is slated to be the biggest, with between 50 and 300 vehicles joining along various sections of the route. On Sunday, Dec. 9, more than 10,000 donated Christmas wreaths will make their way down Route 1 from Harrington. Rockland Police Officer John Bagley will be escorting the convoy from Harrington through to South Portland. And as the wreath-loaded tractor trailer passes through Rockport Sunday, the Rockland Fire...

12/7/2007 - MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFPN) -- Veterans' memorials and gravesites across the nation will be adorned with remembrance wreaths on Dec. 15 in stirring, solemn tributes to the courage and sacrifice of those who have guarded and preserved the nation throughout history. Through Wreaths Across America, Civil Air Patrol members join with Worcester Wreath Co. of Harrington, Maine, in remembering the nation's departed veterans. CAP units will lead 132 of the 268 observances this year, and will participate with other color and honor guards in approximately 25 additional locations. This year, for the first time ever, members...