LEGAL

Supreme Court denies DeLorme hearing

The Supreme Court has rejected a request from Yarmouth mapmaker DeLorme to have a hearing on a $6.2 million fine assessed against it by the U.S. International Trade Commission last year. The digital and print map-making company, which was sold to Swiss GPS giant Garmin in February, had hoped to get a hearing before the country’s highest court to challenge the fine imposed in the wake of a patent infringement case. DeLorme had been embroiled in a patent dispute for four years with Virginia-based BriarTek over the Maine company’s inReach GPS satellite handsets. In a ruling in November 2015, a federal appeals court upheld the $6.2 million civil penalty against DeLorme, but it also upheld a lower court ruling that DeLorme had not violated BriarTek’s patents. It was BriarTek’s patent claim that formed the basis for the ITC’s ruling and fine. DeLorme’s attorney at the time said the decision that upheld both the fine and the ruling that the patents weren’t valid was “Kafkaesque.” Read the story.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Illinois company wants to buy FairPoint

Illinois-based Consolidated Communications plans to purchase FairPoint Communications for $1.5 billion in a proposed merger that has been approved by the boards of directors at each company. Consolidated Communications, a broadband and business communications company, entered into an agreement to buy the North Carolina-based FairPoint in a deal that is expected to close by next year. Consolidated will assume FairPoint’s debt, reported at about $887 million as of Sept. 30. Bob Udell, Consolidated’s president and CEO, said Monday that the agreement combines two companies serving 24 states. FairPoint’s largest network is in northern New England. The company serves over 377,000 voice connections, including residential lines, as well as 325,000 broadband subscribers across the country, according to a presentation for investors. Leaders of the unions representing FairPoint workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont said they viewed the sale, which is subject to approval by shareholders and state regulators, with cautious optimism. Read the story.

MANUFACTURING

Buckfield woods product company sold

A Buckfield manufacturer of wood-based products, including colorful Easter eggs used in White House Easter holiday events, has been bought by new owners. Wells Wood Turning and Finishing Inc., which makes housewares, furniture components and promotional items of wood, was acquired by Turning Acquisitions LLC on Nov. 28. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in a press release announcing the sale. Christian Chandler and Simon Varney, principals in Turning Acquisitions, will operate the company as Wells Wood Turning & Finishing, and the plant will remain at its Buckfield location, with all 30 employees in place, according to the release. Founded in 1985, Wells is known for manufacturing rolling pins, which are marketed by partners online and in retail stores across the country. In recent years, the company manufactured multi-colored, collectible Easter eggs used in the annual White House Easter Egg Roll. Read the story.

Orono company wins $100,000 to develop ‘green’ ceiling tiles

An Orono company that is developing innovative products made from the building blocks of wood is among the recipients sharing a $1.3 million award from the Environmental Protection Agency. Revolution Research Inc. won $100,000 to design the manufacturing process for a bio-based ceiling tile that is durable, non-hazardous and can be composted. The tiles also must have higher insulation properties than conventional tiles, according to a Tuesday press release from the EPA. Twelve other companies were awarded grants of $100,000 under the Small Business Innovation Research program to develop green technology. If the first phase is successful, the companies will be eligible to apply for up to $300,000 to develop and commercialize their technology for the marketplace. Read the story.

ENERGY

Wind farm scuttled for now

A 119-turbine wind farm in Aroostook County that would have been the largest in Maine and one of the largest ever planned for New England has withdrawn its application, citing interconnection problems. EDP Renewables has told the Department of Environmental Protection that it’s not going forward for now with the Number Nine Wind Farm. The project was proposed three years ago for ridges west of Bridgewater, but needed new transmission lines to connect it with the New England grid. That has taken longer than expected, and last summer, the project lost a power-purchase agreement with utilities in Connecticut. Since then, a proposal to build new transmission lines from northern Maine was rejected during a bidding process in which the three southern New England states were choosing clean-energy projects. Number Nine Wind Farm would have had an installed capacity of 250 megawatts, which the company said could power 51,400 homes for a year. The project also would have triggered hundreds of millions of dollars in investment in Aroostook County. Read the story.

HEALTH CARE

Health care co-op sees bump in losses for October

Claims were down but losses were up at Community Health Options in October, the Maine Bureau of Insurance said this week. The bureau has been monitoring the cooperative health insurer this year, after it racked up $31 million in losses in 2015 and set aside $43 million in reserves to cover anticipated losses for this year. In its report for October, the bureau said that claims were 12 percent lower than CHO’s financial plan, but the net loss for the month was 31.3 percent worse than the plan. For the year to date, the bureau said, net losses are 6.9 percent worse than what CHO planned for, but the drawdown from the reserve fund was slightly better than the plan. The bureau also said CHO has done a good job of controlling its costs, with expenses 10.7 percent below what the plan anticipated for October and year-to-date expenses 1.9 percent lower than the plan. Read the story.

PHILANTHROPY

Leadership institute gets $1.4 million matching grant from Alfond

The Harold Alfond Foundation pledged Thursday to provide $1.4 million in a matching grant program to support the development of a new generation of female leaders. Greg Powell, chairman of the foundation, made his announcement at a luncheon celebrating the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute, which offers leadership opportunities to girls in high schools throughout Maine. The money, offered as a 1 to 1 match, is intended to leverage a $2.8 million endowment to expand and sustain the program, now in its second year. Snowe started the institute last year to help Maine girls develop self esteem and leadership skills, first with a pilot program in seven high schools in Androscoggin County, where she grew up. More than 150 girls are currently enrolled in the program, which focuses on helping them develop their values, voice and vision through three years of mentorships and other opportunities. Read the story.

ECONOMY

GDP ticks up slightly

Maine’s economy grew a lackluster 0.6 percent during the second quarter this year, lagging behind much of the nation and the region during the April-June period. The federal Bureau of Economic Analysis said Wednesday that the U.S. economy as a whole grew 1.2 percent during the quarter. New England’s regional economy expanded at a 1.5 percent rate during the period. Maine’s growth in gross domestic product, a measure of the output of all goods and services in the state, was 35th among the states nationally and exceed only Rhode Island – up 0.2 percent – in the six-state New England region during the quarter. The BEA said the state’s economic output was led by the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting and the health care and social assistance sectors, both of which contributed 0.4 percentage points to Maine’s economic growth during the quarter. Read the story.

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