{"id":1199,"date":"2026-02-26T05:49:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T10:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/?p=1199"},"modified":"2026-02-26T05:49:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T10:49:01","slug":"local-news-february-26-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/26\/local-news-february-26-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Local News – February 26, 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cutler \u2013 Probation Violation<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Ellsworth) \u2013 Former gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler says he did not break his probation by obtaining more pornography.\u00a0 A hearing is set for April 8th<\/sup> to address motions by the District Attorney\u2019s office to revoke Cutler\u2019s probation.\u00a0 He was arrested earlier this month at a South Portland hotel when state police caught him with DVDs.\u00a0 D-A Robert Granger told a judge this week that Cutler should be incarcerated for another 3-years plus for the violation, a move that was recommended by Cutler\u2019s probation officer.<\/p>\n

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Assault Sentence<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Ellsworth) \u2013 A former Southwest Harbor man will serve at least 3-years in prison for assaulting his now ex-wife.\u00a0 A judge sentenced 38-year-old Justin Long who is currently in prison in Massachusetts for a similar crime.\u00a0 The D-A\u2019s office argued that Long has shown no removed and none of the original 6-year sentence should be suspended.\u00a0 Evidence showed the woman was strangled in 2023 to the point that she passed out, and children were in the house at the time.\u00a0 According to testimony Long suffers from PTSD from his military service.<\/p>\n

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Searsport Wharf<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Searsport) \u2013\u00a0 A section of Searsport\u2019s municipal pier that has been closed for almost 3-years will get repaired soon.\u00a0 The Bangor Daily News says the town will use congressional funding and disaster assistance for the $3-point-6-million-dollar repair.\u00a0 A hurricane in 1997 destroyed much of the pier, and a wharf finger is the last section to get repaired.\u00a0 The town will hold a public meeting to get feedback on the project.\u00a0 Harbor Master Travis Otis says the wharf finger dates back to the 1960s and had outlived its expected life span.<\/p>\n

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State Street Market sold<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>(Ellsworth) \u2013 One of Ellsworth\u2019s more popular sandwich makers has retired.\u00a0 State Street Market hung up the \u201cgone fishing\u201d sign and the Ellsworth American reports Roger Whitmore has sold the business to the former owners of Serendib, a Sri Lankan and Indian restaurant in the Downtown area that closed in December after 10-years\u00a0 Whitmore and his wife also owned Charlie\u2019s Pizza which they sold in December.\u00a0 They had operated the State Street Market since 1999.<\/p>\n

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Hip Replacement Suit<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Ellsworth) \u2013 A civil trial should wrap up this week in Ellsworth where a surgeon at Maine Coast Hospital in Ellsworth is being sued over a hip replacement on a Milbridge woman.\u00a0 71-year-old Mary Shea says Dr. Peter Copithorne read an X-ray that was not hers and the operation left her with permanent physical impairment and nearly $300-thousand dollars in medical bills. Shea said she required two more operations to try to repair things.\u00a0 It\u2019s unknown how long a jury will take to produce a verdict.<\/p>\n

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Boat Registrations<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Augusta) \u2013 Commercial fishermen have waited nearly 2-months to get their annual registration stickers from their towns because the shipment of stickers got delayed through the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.\u00a0 That wait is over \u2013 stickers arrived this week at town offices across the state.\u00a0 Boat registrations run out in December each year, and fishermen who work year-round ran into problems trying to register their crafts.\u00a0 IF&W allowed registrations without stickers and will mail stickers to boat owners who registered in January and February.<\/p>\n

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Senate Poll<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Augusta) \u2013 Political polling is starting to show early trends ahead of the primary elections in June in statewide political races.\u00a0 The US Senate nomination among Democrats seems to have come down to a 2-way race between Sullivan\u2019s Graham Platner and current Governor Janet Mills.\u00a0 Maine Public says the latest poll shows Platner with a very large lead.\u00a0 The two are squaring off to earn the right to run against incumbent Republican Susan Collins.\u00a0 The University of New Hampshire Survey showed 64% of voters favored Platner and 26% supporting Mills.\u00a0 Other polls have shown Mills with a lead.<\/p>\n

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New Music Institute Director<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Ellsworth) \u2013 The Ellsworth Community Music Institute has a new director.\u00a0 Musician and conductor Peter Van Reesema, who has relocated to Downeast Maine from New York City, says he immediately connected with ECMI\u2019s artistic director Nancy Colter and accepted the job as the new director.\u00a0 The institute offers free monthly midday concerts at the city owned Moore Community Center Theater.\u00a0\u00a0 Van Reesema says he looks forward to the institute becoming a hub for conversation and creativity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cutler \u2013 Probation Violation (Ellsworth) \u2013 Former gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler says he did not break his probation by obtaining more pornography.\u00a0 A hearing is set for April 8th to address motions by the District Attorney\u2019s office to revoke Cutler\u2019s probation.\u00a0 He was arrested earlier this month at a South Portland hotel when state police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/star977fm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}