2:55 p.m.

The Maine Attorney General's Office also is not pursuing any legal action
against the owner of the Oak Hill General Store in Standish.

Thomas Harnett, Maine's assistant attorney general for civil rights
education and enforcement, said the agency has no basis for a civil rights
case without a report from the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office. Although
Harnett was alerted about the sign on Nov. 7, a formal police report is
needed to trigger any state action, he said.

Sheriff Mark Dion said today his agency concluded there was no evidence any
crime had occurred and would not pursue charges.

This item was updated at 12:05 p.m. to clarify the wording of the alleged
sign.

11:05 a.m.

The owner of the Oak Hill General Store in Standish won't face any charges
from local police for a sign posted in the store last week asking customers
to bet on the timing of an assassination of President-elect Barack Obama,
Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion said Friday.

For one thing, store owner Steve Collins denied any knowledge of it when
police arrived to check out a tip last week, Dion said. The sign itself was
nowhere to be found.

Dion attributed the sign to Collins in statements to the media last week:
"Whatever the intent of his expression was, we never located the evidence of
it."

Dion said today that police could not prove whether Collins himself created
the sign or someone else did.

"I think we have the liberty to connect a few dots here. It's unlikely
somebody would walk in from the street and post the sign in the store," he
said. "At least it's an expression that he provided space for in his store."

But, in addition to the denial and absence of the sign itself, Dion said,
the description of the sign that was given to the sheriff's department
doesn't appear to break laws restricting speech.

"It doesn't appear that it was constituting a criminal threat or a
terrorizing incident," Dion said. "If I could produce the board, that's a
different story. But even then, it might not constitute a crime."

An Associated Press reporter and photographer saw the sign late last week,
but reportedly were told to leave the store by an unidentified man there.
The witnesses reported the sign to the town manager, who forwarded the
report to the Cumberland County Sheriff's office.

A description of the sign was included in an Associated Press national
roundup of post-election incidents, most of them racially tinged, decrying
the election of the nation's first black president.

The sign asked customers to wager $1 on the date of an assassination as part
of the "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." At the bottom, it read, "Let's hope
someone wins."

Collins closed the store last weekend and told his landlord he was going
hunting, something customers said is not unusual for the business at this
time of year. He has yet to talk publicly about the incident and it's
unclear how much he knows about the flap created by the sign.

Local lawmakers plan to introduce a legislative resolution condemning it and
other post-election incidents around the state. The Standish Town Council
yesterday passed a resolution calling the alleged activity at the store
reprehensible. And at 5 p.m. today, Gov. John Baldacci and other state and
local leaders are planning to address the incidents at an anti-hate rally at
the University of Southern Maine campus in Portland.

While the sheriff's department does not intend to take any formal action,
the report also was forwarded to the Attorney General's Office and the
Secret Service. Those agencies have not yet publicly responded.

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