‘We will heal together’: Maine residents relieved as shooter found dead

After three days of lockdown, fear and grief, residents of Lewiston and Lisbon prepare to move forward as manhunt ends

The terrified residents of Lewiston, Maine, were afforded a sense of relief amid their shock and grief on Saturday after the “armed and dangerous” gunman who had kept them on lockdown since killing 18 people on Wednesday was found dead.

The body of suspected shooter Robert Card, 40, was found on Friday evening near a recycling area 10 miles from Lewiston, with what the authorities confirmed on Saturday was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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Maine shootings: gunman suspected of killing 18 people found dead

Army reservist Robert Card, 40, was suspected in two shootings that also injured 13 in Lewiston on Wednesday night

A suspect in the killing of 18 people and wounding of 13 in two mass shootings in Maine has been found dead, according to the Associated Press, after authorities issued arrest warrants for multiple counts of murder and launched a huge manhunt for him.

Robert Card, who was wanted in connection with the shootings at Schemengees Bar and Grille and at Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston, is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a law enforcement official told the AP.

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Maine shootings: ‘more and more concern’ as search for suspect goes on

Shelter in place order for the region rescinded almost 48 hours after the shooting even as ban on hunting continues on

Maine authorities continued a massive manhunt on the second day of their intensive search for an army reservist accused of fatally shooting 18 people and wounding 13 at a bowling alley and a bar in the town of Lewiston.

People scoured the woods and searched hundreds of acres of family-owned property. They event sent dive teams with sonar to the bottom of a local river and scrutinized a possible suicide note as they hunted for Robert Card who disappeared shortly after the massacre.

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Maine shooting: police lift shelter in place as search continues for suspected shooter – as it happened

Maine police diving team searches Androscoggin river with air support overhead

Sauschuck said that law enforcement is going to be “putting divers in the water along the Androscoggin River”.

He added that the divers will be checking for evidence and for “potential bodies”.

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Maine shooting victims included parents, bowlers and members of the deaf community

Gunman killed 18 people in attacks at a restaurant and a bowling alley, and details are now emerging of those who died

The mass shooting in Maine left 18 people dead in attacks by a gunman at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston on Wednesday night.

The fatalities included an avid bowler, staff at the alley and at the eatery – one of whom ran at the shooter with a knife to try to stop him – parents, a group from the local deaf community gathering for a games night, and a father and son. The ages of those so far confirmed dead range from 14 to 76, while many others were wounded.

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Maine suspect’s family reportedly working with law enforcement as massive manhunt under way – as it happened

At least 18 people were killed and 13 injured after a gunman opened fire in two locations in Lewiston, Maine. This blog is now closed; please read the following story for more information.

The Associated Press, citing anonymous law enforcement officials, is reporting that at least 16 people have been killed in the Lewiston shootings. Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press dozens of people also had been wounded.

Local officials continue to encourage people in Lewiston to lock their doors and shelter in place. A county wide alert was sent out in the last hour.

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Maine shootings: at least 16 people dead and dozens injured, police say

Local authorities say agencies are investigating ‘two active shooter events’ as police warn residents to shelter in place

At least 16 people were killed in Wednesday night shootings at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine, police say, sending the state’s second-largest city into despair.

It appeared there were incidents at two locations and that the shooter remained at large late into the evening as the city was on lockdown.

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Maine mass shooting: what we know so far

At least 16 reported killed, dozens wounded in Lewiston shooting; police warn residents to stay inside as they search for gunman

At least 16 people have been reported killed and dozens wounded after a gunman opening fire at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, the second-largest city in Maine, on Wednesday evening.

Hours later, police were still looking for the suspect. Lewiston police named Robert Card as a “person of interest” and said he should be considered “armed and dangerous”.

Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office released two photos of the suspect on its Facebook page that showed a shooter walking into an establishment with a weapon raised to their shoulder.

City authorities asked residents to stay inside with their doors locked and to keep off the roads to allow emergency responders to get to hospitals.

Central Maine Medical Center said its staff were “reacting to a mass casualty, mass shooter event” and were coordinating with area hospitals to take in patients. The hospital itself is also in lockdown.

Police identified the establishments where the shootings took place at Sparetime Recreation, a bowling alley, and then Schemengees Bar and Grille, about 4 miles (6.4km) away.

Shots were initially heard at about 7pm local time and the first alert for Lewiston was made shortly after 8pm as the sheriff’s office reported that law enforcement agencies were investigating “two active shooter events”. Officials issued an update around 10pm for what they described as a manhunt.

Local schools will be closed on Thursday and people should shelter in place or seek safety, superintendent Jake Langlais said.

US president Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting and offered full federal support to the state, a White House official said.

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Power outages and one death as Storm Lee swings away from Canadian coast

Tens of thousands without power in New England and Nova Scotia as other potentially dangerous tempests hover over the Atlantic

Tens of thousands in New England and Canada remained without power on Sunday morning after the deadly storm Lee struck Nova Scotia on Saturday afternoon as a post-tropical cyclone.

In Nova Scotia, nearly 100,000 customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.com. The US state of Maine was dealing with about 40,000 outages as of Sunday morning, and New Brunswick had about 12,000, the website also said.

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Tropical cyclone Lee makes landfall in Nova Scotia as thousands lose power

Storm expected to approach New Brunswick, bringing winds of 70mph and relentless rainfall

Post-tropical cyclone Lee made landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Saturday afternoon hours after it battered New England and eastern Canada with powerful winds and rains.

The storm cut off electricity to tens of thousands and inundated coastal roads in Nova Scotia, and left at least one person dead, according to the Associated Press. The 51-year-old man died after a tree limb fell onto his vehicle as he was driving in Searsport, Maine. The tree felled live power lines and workers had to turn off electricity before the man could be taken from his vehicle. He died at a hospital.

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Biden approves state of emergency for Maine as Hurricane Lee approaches

Canada issues hurricane watch for parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with storm expected to bring high winds and flooding

Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Maine as Hurricane Lee rapidly approaches the north-easternmost US state amid the likelihood of a landfall there or more likely in Canada over the weekend.

About 7 million people are now under tropical storm warnings across Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Canadian Hurricane Center also issued a hurricane watch for parts of the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

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Maine and Atlantic Canada face flood warnings as Hurricane Lee heads north

Storm, which has already brought strong winds and heavy rain to Bermuda, is weakening in strength but expanding in size

Parts of coastal New England and Atlantic Canada are under a tropical storm watch this week as Hurricane Lee continues on its path upward.

With maximum sustained winds of up to 100mph, Lee was 265 miles south-west of Bermuda as of Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.

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Power companies spend millions to fight Maine’s proposed non-profit utility

The US’s first state-run public power company could be created when Maine votes later this year – but utilities are fighting it

Residents in Maine are about to be bombarded with a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign aimed at saving the state’s two dominant electric utilities from being voted out of existence in November.

If Mainers vote yes, they will make history – endorsing a first-of-its-kind plan to create a state-level, public power company through a hostile takeover.

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At a glance: what you need to know about Canada wildfires and smoky US skies

Hazy skies hung over north-eastern US a day after the midwest received a similar alert from the Environmental Protection Agency

Canada is dealing with a series of intense wildfires that have spread from the western provinces to Quebec, with hundreds of forest fires burning. Wind has carried smoke from the fires southward, triggering air-quality alerts throughout the United States.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday issued a poor air-quality alert for New England, a day after parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota received a similar advisory. Last week, US officials as far south as Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania reported being affected by the wildfires.

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Mega Millions: ticket holder in Maine wins $1.35bn jackpot

Prize was second largest in Mega Millions history and the fourth time the game has had a billion-dollar win

Friday the 13th proved lucky for one – someone who won the estimated $1.35bn lottery jackpot after a period of three months and 25 drawings that had seen no one across the US win the grand prize.

The winner, whose name is not yet known, overcame steep odds of 1 in 302.6 million and had bought their ticket in Maine, the first time the state has scored the Mega Millions lottery jackpot.

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Save whales or eat lobster? The battle reaches the White House

Fishing gear used by Maine lobstermen is killing right whales. Will boosting a $1bn industry trump protecting an endangered species?

President Macron of France may not have realised it, but he walked into another fishing war earlier this month when he and 200 other guests were treated at the White House to butter-poached Maine lobster accented with American Osetra caviar and garnished with celery crisp.

At issue was the lobster, currently subject to a court ruling designed to prevent Maine’s lobstermen from trapping the crustacea in baited pots marked by lines that can fatally entangle feeding North Atlantic right whales. There are now just 340 such whales, with only about 100 breeding females, making the species one of the most endangered on the planet.

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Paul LePage: is Maine ready to welcome back the ‘Trump before Trump’?

The Republican ex-governor was known for his offensive, belligerent attitude – but this time, he says he’s reformed

In the late summer of 2016, Drew Gattine received a surprising voicemail. The sender was Paul LePage, then the governor of Maine, and he called Gattine “a little son-of-a-bitch socialist cocksucker”.

Amid the inevitable media frenzy that followed, LePage lamented not having the opportunity to engage Gattine, a Democrat in the Maine house of representatives, in a duel. Rather than follow in the footsteps of Alexander Hamilton, who pointed his gun in the air when he dueled Aaron Burr in 1804, LePage told reporters, “I would point it right between his eyes, because he is a snot-nosed little runt.”.

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Metal object falling from airplane narrowly misses hitting Maine man

The FAA was alerted and said the piece appeared to be a metal sleeve from a wing flap of a large passenger jet; no one was hurt

A metal object believed to have fallen from a trans-Atlantic jet came crashing down outside the Maine state house, landing with a loud bang just feet from a capitol police worker, officials said on Monday.

The Federal Aviation Administration was alerted on Friday and returned to the State House on Monday as it investigated the object, according to the capitol police chief Matthew Clancy.

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‘Bomb cyclone’ storm dumps snow across eastern US

Powerful late-winter storm comes with predicted snowfall up to about 13in and potential to cause travel issues and outages

A powerful late-winter storm combining rivers of moisture and frigid temperatures – a phenomenon known to some as a “bomb cyclone” – was expected to dump snow from the US deep south all the way to the Canadian border over the weekend, forecasters said.

With forecast snowfall ranging from about 4in in northern Alabama and Mississippi to about 13in in northern Maine, forecasters expected travel problems and power outages across much of the eastern US.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Bisquey business: Maine politicians bemoan China lobster deal flop

Senator Angus King urges US trade representative to press Beijing to live up to promise to increase spending on tasty crustaceans

China has failed to live up to its promise to buy more Maine lobster under a deal that opened the door to an easing of a trade war under Donald Trump, Maine’s congressional leaders say.

Maine’s lobster industry was hurt by retaliatory Chinese tariffs in 2018 but failed to see substantial export gains after China committed to buying an additional $200bn in US goods, the delegation contends.

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