Poisonings Maine’s top story of ’03

The arsenic poisoning at a church in New Sweden that killed one parishioner and put 15 others in the hospital was voted the top Maine news story of 2003.

Members of Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church became sick in April after drinking coffee spiked with the deadly poison at a church social after the Sunday service. A church member who shot himself to death six days later was blamed for the poisonings and investigators later concluded that he did not act alone.

At year’s end, victims of the arsenic continued their slow recovery and faced medical tests well into the future. The investigation remained open amid questions of who else was involved, as well as the motive.

The top stories were selected in a year-end survey of Associated Press member newspapers and broadcast stations and AP staff members in Maine.

Finishing a close second in the poll was the November referendum in which voters overwhelmingly rejected a plan by two Indian tribes to develop a $650 million casino in southern Maine but, by a closer margin, approved slot machines at two harness racing tracks.

The racino question drew scant notice because so much attention was focused on the heavily financed casino campaign.

But once the votes were counted, racinos emerged as a major issue as Scarborough Downs shopped around for a new home and the state looked into the background of the company that wants to install slots at Bangor Raceway.

The No. 3 story was the January rally by a white supremacist group in Lewiston that sparked a simultaneous and far larger pro-diversity rally about a mile away. The events, which drew a large police presence, were an outgrowth of the controversy over migration of Somali immigrants to the city and a letter written last year by the mayor who sought to slow the migration down.

There was a tie for fourth place between key events during Gov. John Baldacci’s first year in office and the impact in Maine of the Iraq war and its aftermath.

Drawing on bipartisan support, Baldacci overcame a projected shortfall of more than $1 billion and won enactment of a state budget that called for no new taxes, a pledge he made during his campaign. He came away with another victory when lawmakers backed his Dirigo Health plan, which seeks to expand access to health care for all Mainers while holding down the costs of care.

The Iraq war hit home with the deaths of five troops with ties to Maine: Maj. Jay Aubin, a Marine helicopter pilot who grew up in Skowhegan; Marine Cpl. Brian Kennedy, whose mother lives in St. George; Army Sgt. Daniel Cunningham of Lewiston; Marine Lance Cpl. Cedric Bruns, whose grandparents live in Bangor; and First Sgt. Christopher Coffin of Kennebunk.

As the year progressed, the military drew upon National Guard and Reserve units in Maine in support of the Iraq campaign. The 500 members of Maine’s largest Army National Guard unit, the 133rd Engineer Battalion, were poised at year’s end to deploy to the Middle East.

The No. 6 story was the long-awaited U.S. Supreme Court ruling that enabled Maine to overcome a pharmaceutical industry challenge and push ahead with its landmark Maine Rx program to provide discounts on prescription drugs.

After the 6-3 Supreme Court decision in May, the Legislature approved a revised version of the law, now called MaineRx Plus, which is scheduled to take effect next month.

Ranked seventh was the state referendum on school financing that gave a boost to efforts to promote property tax reform. A ballot question to immediately raise Maine’s share of local school costs to 55 percent got the most votes but fell short of a majority in the three-way vote, setting the stage for a run-off election next year. Meanwhile, lawmakers are exploring options in hopes of crafting a compromise.

It was a tough year for Maine fishermen, who worried that a 24 percent cutback in days at sea and other strict groundfishing rules adopted last month by regulators could drive them out of business, a story voted No. 8. A month earlier, a scallop boat based in Waldoboro went down off Cape Cod, Mass., with the loss of all four crewmen aboard.

As paper, shoe, textile and wood products plants closed or scaled back operations, Maine continued to hemorrhage manufacturing jobs. A report released this fall showed that Maine lost 17,800 factory jobs, or more than 22 percent of the total, over the past three years, the highest percentage of any state. The story was ranked ninth.

Rounding out the top 10 was a related story, the collapse of Great Northern Paper, one of the state’s giants of industry.

The company halted production a year ago and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, idling more than 1,100 workers at the Millinocket and East Millinocket mills. Toronto-based Brascan Corp. bought Great Northern at a bankruptcy auction, renamed it Katahdin Paper Co., and has resumed production at East Millinocket.