Accident Victim Dies
(Bangor) – It’s not clear what, if any, charges an Eastbrook woman will face now that a passenger in the vehicle she crashed last week has died. 54-year old Trudy Pickard died surrounded by family at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor Saturday night. She was a passenger in the vehicle that 52-year old Darlene Haslam drove last week. Haslam pulled into the parking lot at the Eastbrook Community Center and spun the vehicle around. It hit a utility pole guy wire then accelerated across the road and slammed into a tree, mortally injuring Pickard. Deputies reconstructed the crash and turned their findings over to the District Attorney’s office.
Blue Hill Treasurer Resigns
(Blue Hill) – The Blue Hill town treasurer has stepped down, and Selectmen say they’re looking for missing money, but they’ve stopped short of confirming the two events are related. The Ellsworth American reports Jody Murphy resigned Friday following the latest scheduled closed door meeting. Back in August, the town’s auditors reported deposit irregularities to the tune of more than $10-thousand dollars. Another two thousand or so in the transfer station fund is also missing. Selectmen placed Murphy on administrative leave in early October and held a series of secret meetings to discuss her employment.
Helicopter Retrieves Cell Phone
(Bar Harbor) – A pair of attack helicopters raised some eyebrows this weekend in Bar Harbor when one landed on a baseball field while another circled overhead. Their mission: cell phone retrieval. One of the marines training with the New Jersey based choppers apparently left his phone at the Thirsty Whale Tavern earlier in the day. The Mt. Desert Islander reports a restaurant employee met the helicopter at the downtown ballfield and returned the phone.
Brewer Fire
(Brewer) – A Brewer woman suffered minor injuries in a late night fire during the weekend. WABI-TV reports firefighters responded to the house fire on Wiswell Road. They were able to get the fire out after it caused extensive damage inside the home. The 9-1-1 call came in shortly after 11:30 Saturday night. The injured woman went to the hospital.
Bulldozer Arson
(Sandy River) A second man is charged in connection with setting fire to a Caterpillar D5 bulldozer in Sandy River Plantation near Rangeley. The State Fire Marshal’s Office reports to Star 97-7 that fire investigators on Thursday charged 37-year-old Alexander Allan of Dallas Plantation with arson, following the Tuesday arrest of his 18-year-old roommate Devon Clark. The estimated damage is $100-thousand-dollars. The burned out bulldozer was found in a swamp by hunters last week on land owned by Cousineau Wood Products of Wilton. An excavator was also stolen from the property and damaged. Allan and Clark were taken to the Franklin County Jail; more arrests are likely.
Tannery’s Future
(Hancock) The future could be bright for an empty building sitting lifelessly on a hill overlooking Route 1 in Hancock. The Ellsworth American reports the town of Hancock has applied for 2 grant applications to clean up and transform the Hancock Ellsworth Tannery. Brownfield grants totaling $480-thousand dollars would convert the space to be occupied by businesses and housing. The town of Hancock has owned the land since 2015 when the previous owner defaulted on taxes.
Feztival of Trees
(Bangor) The Anah Shriners’ Feztival of Trees is back in Bangor. The organization’s fundraiser continued to draw big crowds hoping to win a Christmas tree showered with gifts and prizes that are donated by area businesses. This year’s Feztival features more than 20 trees at the Shriners’ building on Broadway. The venue will be open again on Black Friday thru Sunday the 26th.
Elver Trafficking Sentence
(ME/VA) A New York man accused of using his Maine elver fishing license to illegally traffic baby eels caught in Virginia will spend 18 months in federal prison. The Bangor Daily News reports 43-year-old Tommy Zhou is one of 18 men facing federal charges in 3 different states as a result of Operation Broken Glass, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service sting operation to catch people who illegal traffic in elvers. Court documents say Zhou got a permit in Maine in 2013, but during a 3-year period he used the license to traffic $150-thousand dollars worth of elvers he knew were caught in Virginia, a state that prohibits the practice. Zhou has until December 18th to turn himself in and begin serving his sentence.
ME Unemployment
(Maine) Maine’s unemployment rate fell slightly in October. The Maine Department of Labor says the preliminary- seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.5-percent in October was down point-2 percentage points from September. It was also slightly down from 3.9 percent a year ago. Maine’s unemployment rate was lower than the national rate of 4.1 percent and the New England rate of 3.8 percent, which also both dipped slightly from the previous month.
Dunlap-Voter Fraud
(Augusta) Maine’s secretary of state is asking a federal judge to issue an injunction to force President Donald Trump’s voter fraud commission to turn over documents about what it is doing. Matthew Dunlap is one of four Democrats on the 11-member Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. He wants the judge to compel Trump’s commission to turn over the documents now and in the future so he can “fully participate” in its work.
Sports
- New England Patriots 33 Oakland Raiders 8
- Philadelphia Eagles 37 Dallas Cowboys 9
- Tonight: Atlanta Falcons at Seattle Seahawks
- Alabama is atop the College Football rankings again
- The Celtics look for their 16th straight win as they face the Mavericks in Dallas
