While Maine’s gambling industry has become more proactive in preventing addiction, gambling opportunities are growing in Maine and that could mean more problems in the future.

While Sugarloaf has said it will not bill Nicholas Joy for costs associated with the search and eventual rescue of the skier, the Maine Warden Service says it doesn’t know yet if the 17-year-old will be responsible for the $15,000 it cost.

Nicholas Joy’s tracks in the snow showed how exhausted he was after two nights in the woods.

Tuesday morning, tired and hungry, 17-year-old Nicholas Joy ventured from his snow cave and was found by snowmobiler Joseph Paul, a day and a half after veering off the ski trails at Sugarloaf Mountain and becoming lost.

Maine State Police said there was no threat at Mill Stream Elementary School in Norridgewock on Monday, after the school went into a lockdown after two first-graders said they had seen a threatening man with a rifle outside the school.

The idea that FirstPark doesn’t need a full-time director devoted exclusively to the post has been floating around for a while, and it was revisited recently by both the executive committee and the general assembly.

Area school superintendents say that forcing them to help pay teacher requirement costs will lower the quality of education they can offer, as programs are cut or farmed out to save money.

Viola Hutchins, 79, of Hutchins Road, says her pit bull, Kaiser, fended off an alleged attack by her daughter, Bonny Lou Buzzell, 48, with a rope noose this week.

The former Joseph’s Clothing & Sporting Goods building on Main Street in Fairfield has been sold and is scheduled to be replaced in the coming months, a step forward in the town’s efforts to revitalize the downtown.

As Pope Benedict XVI enters the final day of his papacy, members of Waterville’s religious community are thinking about who his successor will be.