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The Town of Scarborough broke state law when its Finance Committee held a closed-door meeting in March, a Cumberland County Superior Court justice has ruled. Justice Susan Calkins, in a ruling handed down Thursday, said town officials violated the law when the Finance Committee went into executive session March 19 to discuss proposals from law firms vying to represent the town. At the end of the meeting, the list of candidates for the work was winnowed from nine to three firms. Guy Gannett Communications, the parent company of the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, sued the town the next week, arguing the public has a right to know how government operates - a right protected by the state's Freedom of Access Act.

Democratic voters in Portland's Parkside and Bayside neighborhoods went to the polls Tuesday with divided loyalties. They liked first-term state Rep. Michael W. Quint, but they remembered the good that Herbert Adams did in Augusta. In the end, by a count of 339 to 231, voters decided to return the 39-year-old Quint to the House District 33 seat. The Democratic nominee faces no Republican opponent in November's general election. The choice was so hard for voters in the heavily Democratic district because many are fond of and even friendly with the candidates. Adams, a writer who has lived in Parkside for more than 20 years, held the House District 33 seat for four terms, until the state's term-limits law forced him out in 1996.

The owners of Jackson Brook Institute filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, ceding control of the psychiatric hospital to an independent manager who will get it ready to be sold. \"The filing . . . will secure the ongoing, safe operation of the hospital,\" said Kevin Concannon, commissioner of the Department of Human Services, during a news conference at the hospital. Vendors who were owed money by the hospital either stopped doing business with Jackson Brook or demanded cash up front for services. And this week, the hospital stopped admitting patients.

Rita Lachance has gone to work in the mills every day for the past 46 years. Monday, she'll return to her job as the pattern-maker at Biddeford Textile, but with one important difference - she'll be going to work for herself. Lachance and her 370 co-workers Friday became 33 percent stakeholders in the new Biddeford Textile Corp. The workers' union, local investors, mill management and a Maryland-based investment banking firm purchased the electric-blanket shell manufacturer from Sunbeam for $10.5 million. The 33 percent stake held by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees as part of a stock ownership plan represents the largest share in the privately held company. American Capital Services of Bethesda, Md., a labor-friendly investment bank that specializes in funding employee buyouts, will own 29 percent of Biddeford Textile.

After just 21 months, the conservative first-term Republican is in jeopardy of losing his job to Tom Allen, a former Portland city councilor. Allen has the backing of President Clinton and the benefits of a $700,000 advertising campaign waged against Longley by organized labor and other interest groups. Labor's advertising campaign has taken its toll on Longley. But Longley, who is usually quite intense, has kept a sense of humor about the tough battle he faces. The son of Maine's late independent governor, Longley rode a Republican wave to Washington in 1994. Now he's fighting against the backwash, with national polls showing a surge of popularity for Democrats.

Robert A.G. Monks demanded an apology from W. John Hathaway during a televised debate Thursday for labeling his U.S. Senate campaign as the source of news stories about an investigation into Hathaway's alleged sexual abuse of a minor girl in Alabama. Thursday's debate, televised by WGME-TV, was marked by angry exchanges between Monks and Hathaway. The two Republican candidates have clawed each other viciously in recent days in the aftermath of news reports that Hathaway had been investigated for the alleged abuse in 1991. Hathaway has blamed Monks for providing information about the investigation to reporters. Monks has called Hathaway's assertions lies.

In an interview with the Press Herald on Tuesday, Evans said his office in 1991 investigated \"very serious allegations against John Hathaway and a relationship he allegedly had with a minor.\" U.S. Rep. Robert Cramer, D-Ala., who served as district attorney of Madison County in Alabama, confirmed that his office initially investigated an allegation of \"sexual abuse\" made against Hathaway. The girl who made the allegation against Hathaway is the daughter of a friend of the Hathaway family. The girl also baby-sat for Hathaway's children.

Maine Republicans mourned the loss of former President [RONALD REAGAN] on Saturday, even as political scientists began assessing the legacy of his time in office. Many said Reagan will be remembered for his vision, his ability to bring the party together, and his contribution to the end of the Cold War. Richard Maiman, a political science professor at the University of Southern Maine who teaches a course on the American presidency, said Reagan understood instinctively that Americans like a president who is positive, self-confident, and able to project an aura of strength. He said Reagan helped restore credibility to the presidency after the office had been eroded for years by Vietnam and Watergate. Douglas Hodgkin, a retired professor of political science at Bates College, said Reagan made the Republican party more clearly a party that was socially conservative on issues such as abortion and affirmative action. That helped realign the electorate, he said, by drawing more conservative Democrats into the party.

A man who was walking along Route 5 with what turned out to be a pellet gun was shot in the stomach by a state police trooper Wednesday after pointing the weapon at the officer, authorities said. [Thomas Harrington], 37, of Limerick was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland, where he was listed in stable condition. The man was \"confronted by deputies along the road, where Harrington pointed the gun toward them and a deputy fired a shot,\" [Stephen McCausland] said. State Trooper Jack Dow then confronted Harrington, who, McCausland said, \"refused to stop advancing toward the trooper.\" Dow fired his gun, hitting Harrington in the stomach.