What happens when the local Zumba instructor starts selling more than exercise lessons? The whole town gets caught up in scandal. A story like this happens every few years somewhere in the U.S. I guess it shows us that everything is not always as it appears to be. The dance instructor's clients include a former mayor of the town and at least one female.
It also includes one guy who I'm glad is being exposed as a hypocrite...
Notable among them is Donald Fortin,
59, owner and founder of Fortin Construction Inc, a company that boasts
of being 'Number one Maine Home Builder for over 20 years,' and advertises itself online as 'A Christian Family Owned Company.'
Indeed Mr Fortin is such a staunch
advocate of conservative family values. According to state records, he
donated $1000 to Protect Maine Marriage and organization set up to
'defend' marriage in the state from the perceived onslaught from 'gay
rights activists' and 'radical judges' seeking to 'redefine marriage'. He also made a donation of $350 to Senator Garrett Mason a conservative opponent of the state's same-sex marriage ballot.
So you thought the Seinfeld episode where Kramer and Newman drive to Michigan from New York to double their bottle deposits was a joke. Think again. The problem for distributors is especially bad in Maine, where people from New Hampshire drive to illegally return bottles from their state...
In Maine, which has a more expansive bottle-redemption law than neighboring states, three people have been accused of illegally cashing in more than 100,000 out-of-state bottles and cans for deposits, the first time criminal charges have been filed in the state over bottle-refund fraud, a prosecutor said.
A couple that runs a Maine redemption center and a Massachusetts man were indicted this week for allegedly redeeming beverage containers in Maine that were bought in other states.
Thomas and Megan Woodard, who run Green Bee Redemption in Kittery, face the more serious charge of allegedly passing off more than 100,000 out-of-state containers - with a value of more than $10,000 - as if they had been purchased in Maine.
That's just the tip of the iceberg.
An estimated 90 million cans and bottles are fraudulently cashed in each year in Maine, costing beverage distributors $8 million to $10 million, said Newell Augur, executive director of the Maine Beverage Association.
I say Maine should give them a break. At least they're recycling.
Portland, Maine is not that far from Buffalo. In fact, it's where the Sabres' farm team plays. How come we always hear about these events afterwards?
Equal time: Women hold topless march in Maine The Associated Press
About two dozen women drew a crowd of onlookers when they shed their shirts and marched downtown in Maine's largest city to promote what they call equal-opportunity public toplessness.
Organizer Ty MacDowell said the point of Saturday's march in Portland was that a topless woman out in public shouldn't attract any more attention than a man who walks around without a shirt.
The Portland Press Herald reports that by the end of the march, more than 500 people had amassed - a mix of marchers, young men snapping photos, oglers and people just out enjoying a sunny, warm day.
