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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 11 F E B R UA R Y 2 3 , 2 0 1 5 Minimum wage hike proposed for Bangor A Bangor city councilor is propos- ing a minimum wage increase for the city, though it's a little more modest in comparison to the proposal currently being mulled in Portland. e Bangor Daily News reported that Joe Baldacci's proposal seeks to increase Bangor's mini- mum wage from . an hour to . in , then to in and . in , with subsequent increases based on the previous year's consumer price index. N O T E W O R T H Y N O R T H E R N & E A S T E R N The U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $150,000 research grant to the University of Maine to fund the school's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative in developing a novel mag- netic resonance imaging-based method to better understand the mechanism of internalization of foodborne pathogens. Fox Family Potato Chips in Mapleton announced that the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Northern New England Inc. signed an agreement to be the product's sole distributor in Aroostook County. Online banking with mobile check deposit Smart Business Checking Growing businesses need more than a checkbook and a smile. They need real. Real honesty, real products, and real people with smart ideas who are willing to get out from behind the desk and make things happen for you. At least that's what we think at Gorham Savings Bank. We call it a breath of fresh banking. Spend more time at your business than ours — genius. " My bank doesn't waste my time." * No transaction fees for up to 450 paid or deposited items per statement cycle (additional items $.35 each). Member FDIC. No transaction fees on up to 450 items per cycle* Your personal banker to help along the way No monthly maintenance service charge gorhamsavingsbank.com As public funding for R&D slows, universities feel pinch U niversity spending on research and development rose by less than half a percent nationally in fiscal year , according to data released recently by the National Science Foundation. Such R&D spending is often seen as a gauge of innovation in a state, as research can turn into technology transfer or new companies, and the quality of research can attract top students. Spending by all U.S. universities totaled . billion for FY ended July , . e NSF released data from its higher education research and development survey in early February. Maine universities spent . mil- lion in the most recent fiscal year, down from . million the previ- ous year, but up over the decade from . million in FY. California, Texas, New York and Massachusetts, in that order, were the top four states for higher education R&D expenditures. One factor is reduced support from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of , accord- ing to a web brief by Ronda Britt, a project officer at the NSF. Of Maine's . million in academic expenditures, . million was sourced from the federal govern- ment, with another million from state and local governments, . million from institution funds and the rest from businesses, nonprofit organizations and other sources. e University of Maine spent . million in FY, down from . million; it was the second- lowest amount from the past decade. It was followed by the University of Southern Maine with . million in FY. ose two public univer- sities were followed by the private University of New England at . million, Bowdoin College at . million, Bates College at . million and Colby College at . million. UMaine ranked th among all universities for money sourced from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at . million. Of that, . million went to life sciences, with another , to engineering and , to environmental sciences. UMaine also was ranked nd in funding from the Department of Energy at . million, with . million of that going to engineering, , to life sciences and , to physical sciences. By institutions ranked nationally, UMaine was st . In terms of personnel involved in R&D, UMaine had a total of , people, with of them being prin- cipal investigators, post-doctoral students and the rest in the others category. USM had principal inves- tigators, while Bates had , Bowdoin , Colby and the University of New England . In a separate study released in January, the NSF found that state government agency expenditures for R&D nationwide totaled . billion in fiscal , virtually unchanged (down .) from the almost . billion in fiscal . Maine spent . million, placing it behind Connecticut with . million among New England states, but ahead of the . million in Massachusetts, . million in Vermont, . million in New Hampshire and . million in Rhode Island. B I Z M O N E Y B Y L O R I V A L I G R A

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