Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Friday signed into law a suite of gun safety legislation approved by lawmakers after the deadliest mass shooting in state history, expanding background checks for private sales of weapons, bolstering the state’s “yellow flag” law, criminalizing the transfer of guns to prohibited people and expanding mental health crisis care. The governor told lawmakers during her State of the State address that doing nothing was not an option after an Army reservist with an assault rifle killed 18 people and injured 13 others in Lewiston on Oct. 25. The bills drew opposition fro ..read more

A woman was killed and a man seriously hurt in a pileup that temporarily shut one side of the Maine Turnpike Friday morning, police said. A car being driven by a man from Boston hit a minivan and a pickup truck in Wells at about 8:41 a.m., sending the truck rolling across the road, Interstate 95, Maine State Police said. The pickup’s driver, Gloria Cascio, a 53-year-old from Albion, Maine, was pronounced dead at the scene, while a passenger in the vehicle, Vincent Cascio, a 60-year-old from Albion, was flown to Maine Medical Center with serious injuries, police said. The driver of the minivan ..read more

A U.S. Army reservist who sounded the clearest warning ahead of Maine’s deadliest mass shooting is answering questions Thursday from the commission investigating the tragedy. Six weeks before Robert Card killed 18 people at a bar and bowling alley in Lewiston, his best friend and fellow reservist Sean Hodgson texted their supervisors, telling them to change the passcode to the gate at their Army Reserve training facility and arm themselves if the gunman showed up. The Lewiston killings happened Oct. 25 – exactly six months prior to Thursday’s hearing. “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mas ..read more

Police in Maine are searching for a Greenbush man who has been missing for several days. The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office says they received a missing person report on Thursday for 47-year-old Jeremy Hill, and deputies began investigating. Hill was reportedly last seen waring gray-colored clothing. He is 5’10, has brown hair and weighs about 200 pounds. According to officials, deputies have been searching the area by ground with the assistance of Customs and Border Protection air mobility operations. Anyone with information regarding this investigation or the whereabouts of Hill is asked ..read more

Authorities in Maine arrested a man in connection to three armed robberies that happened at church parking lots in the state. Authorities say the robberies happened in Parsonsfield, Cornish, and Baldwin. According to police, the suspect was described as a white male, 20-30 years of age, thin build, 5’8”, black hair wearing a dark blue coat. Police say the man brandished a revolver in one robbery and referenced it in the other two ..read more

The high electricity consumption of a home, its cardboard-covered windows and odor of marijuana drew law enforcement’s attention to an illicit grow operation off the beaten path in rural Maine. The bust of the home with a hidden grow operation and seizure of nearly 40 pounds (18 kilograms) of processed marijuana marked the latest example of what authorities describe as a yearslong trend of foreign nationals to exploit U.S. state laws that have legalized cannabis for recreational or medical use to produce marijuana for the illicit markets in the U.S. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is ..read more

A Maine man convicted of killing a 12-year-old girl more than three decades ago launched his latest bid on Thursday for a new trial by trying to convince a judge that advances in DNA testing raise questions about his guilt. The attorney for Dennis Dechaine called his first witness at the start of a two-day hearing in Knox County Superior Court. Dechaine is trying to make the case that tests conducted by a California laboratory excluded his DNA from several items found at the crime scene, requiring a new trial in which jurors could weigh all the evidence. Prosecutors have contended plenty of ot ..read more

An 11-year-old boy was killed when he crashed an all-terrain vehicle while riding on a neighbor’s property in the northern Maine town of Sangerville, wardens said. The neighbor went looking for the boy and found him unresponsive with the ATV on top of him at about 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, said Mark Latti, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. No one, including first responders, was able to revive him. The boy, whose name wasn’t released, had previously ridden the ATV, which was owned by a family friend, Latti said. Wardens said the crash remained under investigati ..read more

The Maine Legislature approved sweeping gun safety legislation including background checks on private gun sales, waiting periods for gun purchases and criminalizing gun sales to prohibited people before adjourning Thursday morning, nearly six months after the deadliest shooting in state history. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and the Democratic-led Legislature pressed for a number of gun and mental health proposals after the shooting that claimed 18 lives and injured another 13 people, despite the state’s strong hunting tradition and support for gun owners. “Maine has taken significant steps forw ..read more

A woman accused by scam victims of crisscrossing the U.S. claiming to be an Irish heiress is expected in court Wednesday for a hearing that could extradite her to the United Kingdom. Marianne Smyth, a 54-year-old American, will be in federal court in Maine for the hearing that relates to allegations she stole more than $170,000 from at least five victims from 2008 to 2010 in Northern Ireland. United Kingdom officials said Smyth stole money that she had promised to invest and arranged to sell a victim a home but took the money. A court issued arrest warrants for her in 2021, according to legal ..read more