Here are the 10 most-read stories on SunJournal.com in 2011. Because our website can be accessed worldwide, the stories that appear on this list are a reflection of the quirky, startling, or extraordinary events that happen in our region that have universal appeal. 

10. Intense fire foiled efforts to save sisters

9. Sheriff’s office arrests man in alleged West Paris dog theft

Scarlett, an American bulldog that was reported stolen.

Oxford County Sheriff officials dismissed speculation that the theft was connected to a dog-fighting ring. A West Paris-based animal control officer said earlier in September that nearly 20 dogs from the area had been reported missing.

8. Man held in connection to Lewiston death

Bob W. Ryder, of Lewiston, for the murder of Danita Brown, who was found in the basement of his first-floor apartment at 417 Main St. in Lewiston.

Brown had been found in the basement after a tip came to police from Ryder’s Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, who said Ryder told him that he had killed her and showed him the body.

7. Police use Taser to subdue sword-carrying man

Police shocked a Livermore Falls man with a Taser gun after he failed to move away from a sword he had been carrying and submit to arrest.

6. Rumford woman pleads guilty to charges from a lockdown at Dixfield school

A confrontation in Dirigo High School Principal Michael Poulin’s office with a 15-year-old boy and his mother, Kandice J. Child, 37, of 154 Oxford Ave. in Rumford, led to a lockdown of the school. A principal called police after the boy was found with marijuana in his backpack. When his mother, Child, came to the school to pick up her son, she allegedly grabbed the backpack as her son was arguing with the principal and removed the marijuana from the backpack before the principal could search it.

Child later returned to the office “with a partially full baggie of marijuana and bud,” the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department chief said.

The son was charged with assault and possession of a usable amount of marijuana. 

Child left the school and showed up later at the police station where Pickett arrested her on charges of obstructing government administration and falsifying physical evidence. She was taken to Oxford County Jail in Paris.

5. Maine couple wins wife carrying championship in Newry

4. LePage orders removal of labor mural, sparking outcry

Gov. LePage removed a mural depicting the history of organized labor from the Department of Labor building after a fax from a “secret admirer” said the mural showed a one-sided depiction of the department’s purpose. Worker advocates described the move as a “mean-spirited” provocation amid the administration’s high-tension standoff with unions.

The move garnered national media attention during a time when workers in Wisconsin were protesting their governor’s move to eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees.

3. Redneck Olympics faces lawsuit over name

The Redneck Olympics is facing a legal challenge from the United States Olympic Committee. 

The legal office of the USOC called Harold Brooks, organizer of the event, to tell him he needs to change the name of his event in the future or face a lawsuit.

So far no legal action has been taken against Brooks, and he says he plans to host the event with Olympics in the name next year.

2. Bates Puddle Jump

This story was a video and several photos from the Bates College annual puddle jump in January. Students drill a hole in the ice at Lake Andrews, then quickly dunk in the freezing cold water.

1. Elan School closing after Web campaign to shut it down

The private for-profit boarding school for troubled teens was forced to close, according to owner and Executive Director Sharon Terry of Casco, due to “declining enrollment and resulting financial difficulties.”

The school was opened in 1970 by psychiatrist Dr. Gerald Davidson and businessman Joseph Ricci.

Terry, who is Ricci’s widow, pointed to an ongoing Internet campaign on the site Reddit.com launched by an unknown person, who goes by the name “Gzasmyhero,” as the cause for much of the school’s current financial distress.

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