Central Maine News: Sept 14, 2015

These are some of the stories central Maine is talking about today.

Maine police have arrested two New Hampshire men they say robbed a Lewiston bank and led them on a high-speed chase into Saco. Police have charged 64-year-old Neil West and 46-year-old Joseph Richards with armed robbery in connection with a hold-up Saturday morning at the TD Bank on Lisbon Street in Lewiston. Police on the Maine Turnpike spotted the pair in a minivan right after the robbery. The driver engaged police in a high-speed chase that ended on the front lawn of a home in Saco. (AP)

23-year-old Jarryd King of Auburn is facing multiple charges after police say he lead them on a high speed chase. Police say a trooper spotted the suspected drunk driver on Center St. in Auburn.  When the trooper attempted to pull him over, he pulled into a Cumberland Farms then fled. State police say King crashed on North River Rd. King is charged with eluding an officer, operating under the influence and operating after suspension. (WGME)

The federal Office of National Drug Control Policy is awarding $2.25 million in grants to Maine health groups and government entities to help prevent youth drug abuse. Maine U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King say $1.125 million of the funding will be allocated for nine new grant awards. The rest will be sent to nine projects around the state that have previously received money from the drug control policy office. The recipients include Healthy Lincoln County, Casco Bay CAN and Sanford Strong Coalition. Collins, a Republican, and King, an Independent, say the funding will help support coalitions that fight the state's growing opioid abuse epidemic. (AP)

Yesterday, L.L. Bean's stores in Freeport closed, hundreds turned out for a memorial service for the retailer's longtime leader, Leon Gorman. The event was held Sunday at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center. Burial will be private. It's unusual that the stores are closing. It's been 48 years since the outdoors retailer has voluntarily closed stores in Freeport, where the company was founded. It has happened only twice before, following the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and L.L. Bean himself. (AP)

A Gardiner was brought to MaineGeneral Medical Center Sunday, following what police are calling a "random" assault. According to WCSH Michael McCabe, 49, was assaulted by a man using the Kennebec River Rail Trail before 10 a.m. in Farmingdale. McCabe told police that he and the other man were both on the trail, and McCabe bumped the suspect by accident. The suspect turned around and kicked him, and the McCabe banged his head on rocks.  Police are seeking assistance from the public in helping to identify the suspect. Anyone with information is asked to call Maine State Police at 207-624-7076. (WCSH)

The Maine National Guard has officially opened its $23.5 million Brunswick readiness center. Brig. Gen. Gerard F. Bolduc, the acting adjutant general, held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday. The readiness center is home to about 200 soldiers from the 133rd Engineer Battalion headquarters, the Forward Support Company, and the 1035th Survey and Design Team. The facility is made up of a 59,500-square-foot building with two unheated storage buildings and waste handling building. The Guard says the facility has over 160 photovoltaic panels, four solar collector assemblies to preheat domestic hot water, a 16,000 square foot vegetated roof, and a rain water collection system used to flush low flow bathroom fixtures. Bolduc says the state-of-the-art facility will provide the soldiers with the very best training space for emergency preparedness. (AP)

European Union interior ministers are meeting for emergency talks today on the migration crisis. The ministers will talk about how to share responsibility for thousands of migrants arriving daily from Syria and other trouble countries and to ease the burden on frontline states. On Sunday, Germany introduced temporary border controls to stem the tide of thousands of refugees streaming across its frontier. (AP)

Egyptian officials say security forces mistakenly fired on a group of Mexican tourists in the southwestern desert Sunday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 10. Egypt's Interior Ministry says a joint military-police force was pursuing terrorists in the area and fired on four cars that turned out to be carrying the tourists. Egyptian Ministry of Tourism says the tour company involved "did not have permits and did not inform authorities." (AP)

Whole blocks of houses are burned to the ground in Middletown, California, about 20 miles north of Napa Valley. That's where a fast-burning wildfire has sent residents fleeing highways, dodging smoldering telephone poles, downed power lines and fallen trees. Fire officials say about 400 homes have been destroyed, as well as up to 1,000 other structures such as sheds and barns. To the southeast, another wildfire has destroyed more than 80 homes. And one person in Northern California was killed. (AP)

Presidential Barack Obama will travel to Des Moines, Iowa today to join Education Secretary Arne  Duncan for a back-to-school bus tour. Obama will announce a change to the college financial aid system that will allow students to apply for assistance three months earlier. Many Republican candidates have been blanketing Iowa recently. (AP)

Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker is calling for sweeping restrictions on organized labor in the U.S. At a town hall meeting in Las Vegas later today, Walker will propose eliminating unions for employees of the federal government, making all workplaces right-to-work unless individual states vote otherwise and scrapping the federal agency that oversees unfair labor practices and making it more difficult for unions to organize. (AP)