TOKYO — Japan ranked its nuclear crisis at the highest possible severity on an international scale — the same level as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster — even as it insisted Tuesday that radiation leaks are declining at its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant.

WHITEFIELD — Maine Farmland Trust, a statewide nonprofit working to protect and preserve farmland, will host a landowner workshop 10 a.m. Saturday at Whitefield Elementary School, 164 Grand Army Road.

AUGUSTA — A Waterville woman was sentenced recently in Kennebec County Superior Court to two years in jail, with all but 45 days suspended, and two years of probation after pleading guilty to domestic-violence assault and two counts of violating conditions of release.

At 4:04 p.m., police received a report of a theft on Townsend Street.

AUGUSTA — Primarily privately funded proposals to create a museum in tribute to the city’s workers, and a branch of a financial institution at Capital Area Technical Center, face City Council scrutiny Thursday.