The Maine ethics commission will decide Wednesday whether to probe the campaign finance reports of the political action committees behind a failed proposal to allow a casino in downtown Lewiston.

State officials and legal experts said Gov. Paul LePage doesn’t have the power to close the state’s schools — something he said he’d do May 1 if the Legislature doesn’t accept spending cuts in the Department of Health and Human Services budget.

AUGUSTA — Questions about payments to vendors, sponsorships and politics dominated a testy meeting of the Maine State Housing Authority Board of Commissioners on Friday.

VASSALBORO — Town employees used statistics and spreadsheets to show selectmen they are paid an average of 25 to 30 percent less than the average of workers in comparable Maine towns.

SKOWHEGAN — The former vice president of operations at the Verso Paper Corp. mill in Bucksport has been named the new managing director at the Sappi Fine Paper North America’s Somerset mill in Skowhegan.

Residents of southern Maine awoke Friday to a deeper-than-expected blanket of snow, particularly in inland communities, where cold temperatures and southwest winds combined to push snow totals above 9 inches.