News Minute: Here's the latest Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont news from The Associated Press - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

News Minute: Here's the latest Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont news from The Associated Press

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MAINE:

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) - A man convicted of raping three women in Massachusetts has been sentenced to 36 to 40 years in prison more than three decades after he fled the state and began living a secret life in Maine. Gary Alan Irving was sentenced today in Norfolk Superior Court. He could have faced a possible life sentence.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine Democratic legislative leaders say Governor Paul LePage is threatening to move his office space out of the State House by July 1st. Democrats say the Republican governor made the announcement after a meeting with legislative leadership today. LePage's decision stems from a disagreement over a television screen outside LePage's office. The TV notes the number of days since LePage introduced his budget and hospital-debt proposals.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Despite the threat of a certain veto, the Maine Senate has given final approval to a bill to pay off a $484 million debt to Maine hospitals and expand Medicaid. The Senate passed the bill by a 20-15 vote today and sent it to Governor Paul LePage, who threatened to veto it.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Ralph Nader has lost his bid to punish Democrats he has accused of trying to keep him off ballots in Maine during his failed presidential run in 2004. Maine's highest court has affirmed a judge's dismissal of several counts of Nader's lawsuit and ordered that the remaining counts against the Maine Democratic Party also be dismissed.

NEW HAMPSHIRE:

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire's Senate has rejected phasing in a 12-cent hike in the gas and diesel tax to raise money to repair deteriorating roads and bridges and blocked all discussion of the issue in budget negotiations with the House next month. The Senate has also rejected a 20-cent increase in the tobacco tax, siding with convenience stores and grocers who said increasing the tax would be potentially disastrous to their businesses.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire soon could join 18 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing seriously ill people to use marijuana to treat their conditions. The state Senate voted today to pass a bill legalizing marijuana use and possession by patients with conditions such as Crohn's disease and cancer.

DOVER, N.H. (AP) - Authorities in Dover say a discount beverage store owner has been indicted on charges of selling products containing "synthetic marijuana." Police say Vipulhumar Patel is owner of Downtown Discount Beverage in Dover. Police say they started investigating in September after receiving reports the store was selling the substance.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The Mount Washington Observatory museum is planning a major overhaul designed to give summer visitors a feel for the extreme winter weather atop the Northeast's highest peak. The new project, unveiled Thursday, calls for entirely replacing the existing museum with modern, hands-on exhibits that will educate the public about what it takes to research the world's worst weather.

VERMONT:

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - The National Weather is warning about flash flooding across Vermont. A flash flood watch is in effect through tomorrow morning. The weather service says thunderstorms this afternoon and night could produce rainfall of 1 to 2 inches an hour. Heavy rains flooded streets in Burlington yesterday.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The state of Vermont has rejected the application of a newly formed health care cooperative that had wanted to offer health insurance as part of the federal health care reform plan. The Vermont health Co-op was formed last fall to sell health insurance beginning next year, but it must receive both state and federal approval.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Vermont, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut are petitioning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a more thorough review of issues connected with storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste at plant sites. Thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel are piling up at reactors like New York's Indian Point, the Vermont Yankee plant and the Pilgrim nuclear station in Massachusetts, as the federal government's 30-year-old promise to find a permanent waste site remains unfilled.

COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) - A Massachusetts developer is hoping to carry renewable electricity from northern New York to the New England power grid via a power line that would run under Lake Champlain. The proposal by the company called Anbaric Transmission would carry 400 megawatts of electricity from Plattsburgh, N.Y., under the lake to Vermont. Anbaric CEO Ed Krapels tells Vermont Public Radio utilities in Massachusetts and Connecticut need more renewable power in their mix to meet clean-energy mandates.

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