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7:02 p.m.:
Plane search called off
By David Hench, Portland Press Herald Staff Writer
YORK -- Authorities have called off a search launched after a witness reported seeing a missing ultralight plane possibly crash into Chases Pond late this afternoon.
A dispatcher for the York Police Department said emergency rescue crews conducted a search of the area off Scituate Road, but could not find any evidence of a plane crash.
The report of a crash was received at 4:55 p.m. Authorities called off the search around 6:30 p.m.
5 p.m.
York authorities are searching in woods for a reported crash of an ultralight airplane.
An emergency dispatcher for the town could not provide any more details immediately, beyond saying emergency crews were still searching for the downed aircraft at 4:55 p.m.
Ultralight aircraft tend to be small, single-seat aircraft, which are flown generally during the day over unpopulated areas.
3:12 p.m.:
Boy shoots self in foot after first deer kill
By David Hench, Portland Press Herald Staff Writer
A 16-year-old West Newfield boy shot himself in the foot while tracking his first deer.
The boy had shot a spikehorn buck in Newfield and was following its blood trail at 11:30 a.m. when he accidentally shot himself in the middle toe on his right foot, according to the Maine Warden Service.
He was taken by ambulance to Maine Medical Center, where he is being evaluated and may need surgery. The boy was hunting with a friend who assisted him after the boy injured himself. They were unable to recover the deer.
The incident was the fifth hunting-related shooting since Oct. 8, which was during waterfowl season, the warden service said. It is the third hunting injury to a minor this year.
Deer season started Saturday for residents and Monday for all other hunters.
2:58 p.m.:
Snowe urges federal help for lobster industry
By David Hench, Portland Press Herald Staff Writer
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe today requested several agencies step in to support the embattled Maine lobster industry.
Snowe sent letters to the Small Business Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Commerce asking each agency to help lobstermen deal with low prices caused by reduced demand from Canadian processors.
The lobster industry is suffering under high fuel and bait costs, while per pound prices for lobster are their lowest in 25 years, she said. One of the reasons is that the international economic slowdown and credit crunch has reduced demand from Canadian processors, where most of Maine's lobsters are sold.
Prices paid to lobstermen have fallen as low as $2 per pound, she said.
Snowe, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Oceans, Atmospheres, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, urged the agencies to comply with a provision she had included in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act in 2007 which requires them to encourage investment in domestic fisheries by promoting domestic processing facilities.
2:41 p.m.:
Driver in critical condition after I-95 crash
By David Hench, Portland Press Herald Staff Writer
One of the people injured in an Interstate 95 car crash this morning is in critical condition at Maine Medical Center.
Matthew Miller, 26, of South Portland was driving south in a blue Ford Taurus in the passing lane at 6:45 a.m. when a red Subaru station wagon shifted from the middle travel lane to the passing lane, State Police said.
The cars collided and slammed into the guardrail along the breakdown lane.
Miller, who had to be extricated from the car by firefighters, is in critical condition and the driver of the Subaru, Chris Bassingthwaite, 34, of the Brunswick area, is in fair condition, according to the hospital.
11:15 a.m.:
One person was seriously injured in a two-car crash on Interstate 95 in Scarborough this morning.
State Police say one person had to be extricated from a blue Ford Taurus and taken to Maine Medical Center with life-threatening injuries following the crash at 6:45 a.m. The person driving the red Subaru that was also involved in the crash also was taken to Maine Medical Center, though with less serious injuries, police said.
The Subaru was heading south in the middle lane and shifted into the passing lane, but failed to see the Taurus that was already in that lane, police said.
The driver of the Taurus swerved to avoid the Subaru, lost control and the cars collided, sending them both spinning off into the guardrail near Exit 42, with the Taurus rolling over, police said.
The identities of the drivers were not yet available.
Traffic was slowed immediately after the crash and one of the three travel lanes remains closed while the guard rail is replaced, police said.
8:50 a.m.
SCARBOROUGH -- At 8:50 a.m., traffic was down to one lane on the southbound side of the turnpike at the Scarborough exit (mile 42A) because of a two-car crash.
Police were called to the scene around 7 a.m. and found a car rolled over with at least one person trapped inside.
At 8:50 a.m., a state police dispatcher said police are still working at the scene and that there are reports of injury although she did not have any information about the extent or severity of the damage.
12:47 p.m.:
Defense: Richard Reynolds wanted to commit suicide, not murder
By Doug Harlow, Morning Sentinel Staff Writer
SKOWHEGAN - Richard C. Reynolds went to a home in Fairfield the morning of Jan. 12, 2007, with a loaded .40-caliber handgun to commit suicide in front of his wife, not to kill her.
The gun went off when the couple's two young children startled him and Rhonda Wakefield Reynolds, 37, was shot in the head.
She died the next day.
That was how the events of that January day unfolded, defense attorney Peter Barnett told a judge Tuesday morning in Somerset County Superior Court during Day One of the murder trial of Richard Reynolds.
"He is not a killer," Barnett told Justice Andrew Horton in his opening statements. "He is not guilty of murder."
Reynolds has pleaded not guilty to intentional and knowing murder.
Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea, who is prosecuting the case in the jury-waived trial, said Reynolds, 42, had stashed the gun and had planned the shooting of his wife to protect their two boys, then 4 and 6, from a future of perceived neglect and abuse.
"Evidence will show the defendant knew exactly what he was doing," Zainea said in her opening statements.
If Richard Reynolds could not have the children in a custody dispute and ugly divorce, then he would do anything he could to keep his wife from having them, Zainea said the evidence will prove.
The trial continues this afternoon.
12:42 p.m.:
Explosion, fire hit Biddeford incinerator
By David Hench, Portland Press Herald Staff Writer
Biddeford firefighters are on the scene of a fire at Maine Energy Recovery Co. on Lincoln Street.
Firefighters were called to the trash to energy plant at about noon following a reported explosion.
The fire department struck a second alarm to summon more firefighters to the scene.
The incinerator periodically has explosions when discarded propane canisters are mixed with the waste stream.
Witnesses said the fire appeared to be under control by 12:35 p.m.
9:13 a.m.:
Coast Guard can't figure out who stole the bells
The Associated Press
SOUTH PORTLAND -- The Coast Guard says somebody has been stealing bells from several navigational buoys off the Maine coast.
During an annual inspection of the buoys, guard members found bells in seven of the buoys were missing.
The Coast Guard can't say for sure why the bells were stolen, but it's a good bet they were taken for their value as scrap metal.
The bells weigh more than 150 pounds each and are bolted onto the buoys.
The Coast Guard says its main concern is boater safety if the buoys aren't ringing to help guide mariners.
The bells are clearly marked with the letters "USCG," for U.S. Coast Guard.
9:12 a.m.:
Waterville man's murder trial under way
The Associated Press
SKOWHEGAN -- Testimony begins today in the trial of a Waterville man accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife while their two children were in the house.
Richard Reynolds is charged with murder in the death of 37-year-old Rhonda Wakefield-Reynolds in January 2007.
Reynolds, who is 42, is accused of killing his wife while she was staying at her brother's home in Fairfield. The shooting took place the day Wakefield-Reynolds planned to file for divorce.
After the shooting, Reynolds dropped their two sons - who were 4 and 6 at the time - off at day care before turning himself in.
Justice Nancy Mills is presiding over the jury-waived trial in Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan.
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