Maine vote dismays gay marriage lobby

SAN FRANCISCO - Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads - and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement - for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate.

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Vt. general store burns again

PUTNEY, Vt. - When a fire destroyed the beloved, centuries-old Putney General Store 18 months ago, some people here cried.

The creaky wooden building where locals arrived for coffee, hardware and gossip, and where tourists ducked in to buy maple syrup by the gallon meant that much to them.

Now, they're crying again.

Tribes claim wind farm would end sacred ritual

MASHPEE (AP) - From a blustery perch over a Cape Cod beach, Chuckie Green gestures toward a stretch of horizon where he says construction of the nation's first offshore wind farm would destroy his Indian tribe's religion.

Rhode Island hospital fined $150K for surgical mistakes

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Rhode Island's largest hospital was fined $150,000 and ordered to take the extraordinary step of installing video cameras in all its operating rooms after it had its fifth wrong-site surgery since 2007, state health officials said Monday.

Sheriff bids to levy fees on inmates

BOSTON - Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson's controversial program to charge inmates for rent, haircuts, medical visits and high school equivalency tests raised $750,000, but outraged inmate advocates who said the fees violated their constitutional rights and amounted to an unlawful tax.

Local aid, education spared ax

WORCESTER - Gov. Deval Patrick said Thursday he plans to close the state's $600 million budget gap with a blend of cuts in state services and programs and up to 2,000 job cuts but none of the local aid and few of the school funding reductions many cities and towns warned would decimate local education and public safety.