Central Maine News: Oct 2, 2015

These are some of the stories central Maine is talking about today.

An interstate regulatory committee is set to meet to discuss new management possibilities for southern New England's lobster population. The Atlantic States Maine Fisheries Commission's Southern New England Lobster Subcommittee is meeting in Old Lyme on Friday. The group will consider potential management tools to help preserve the species, which has crashed to record low levels. The trend is causing lobstermen in Connecticut and Rhode Island to leave the industry. Scientists say warming southern New England waters is jeopardizing the lobster population. The northern New England lobster population is booming while the southern stock struggles. The loss of southern New England lobsters hasn't made the crustacean less available to consumers. Abundant supply from Maine and Canada is filling the void. (AP)

A 43-year-old Maine woman will spend six months in home confinement and must repay about $20,000 to the government for Social Security fraud. U.S. District Court Judge Jon Levy also sentenced Marie Angel Michaud of Rumford to three years of probation. She pleaded guilty in April. Court records say Michaud was granted and began receiving Social Security benefits in 2002. She remarried in 2010, but did not report the change to the Social Security Administration. Records say she falsely continued to state that she wasn't married. Levy says Social Security fraud is difficult to detect and costs public resources. This story has been corrected to show that records say Michaud falsely continued to state that she wasn't married, not was married. (AP)

A charter school is touting itself as Maine's first solar-powered academic facility that produces more energy than it uses. Officials at Good Will-Hinckley cut the ribbon Wednesday on the newly renovated building to be used by the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, describing it as a fully solar-powered "net positive" structure. For the 2015 school year, the class has grown from 76 to over 122 students representing more than 27 school districts across Maine. (AP)

The Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department says it has made an arrest in a fatal hit-and-run in Turner, Maine. A pickup driver called police after media reports on the death of 21-year-old Brittany Stanhope, who was hit while reaching into her vehicle in the breakdown lane. Stanhope was pronounced dead at the scene on Sept. 19. The driver told police he thought he'd hit a deer. Deputies say the driver didn't stop at the time. The motorist was identified only as a 27-year-old Harrison man. His pickup has been taken to the Maine State Police crime lab for examination. (AP)

The first week of classes at an Oregon community college has been shattered after a gunman opened fire Thursday, killing at least nine people and wounding others. The shooting rampage happened at Umpqua Community College in the small timber town of Roseburg, about 180 miles south of Portland. One survivor says the gunman demanded that his victims state their religion before he started shooting. The shooter, identified as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, was shot and killed by police. (AP)

The deadly Northern California wildfire that grew to nearly 111 square miles has been fully contained. The blaze broke out more than three weeks ago, killed two people and destroyed 475 homes. Another blaze in Lake County that killed four people and destroyed nearly 2,000 structures is 97 percent contained after burning for nearly three weeks. (AP)

Pentagon officials are urging the Russian military to focus its airstrikes in Syria on Islamic State fighters rather than opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday, "What is important is Russia has to not be engaged in any activities against anybody but ISIL." Tensions between the U.S. and Russia are escalating over Russian airstrikes that apparently are serving to strengthen Assad by targeting rebels — perhaps including some aligned with the U.S. (AP)

Hurricane Joaquin is hammered islands in the central Bahamas with torrential rains and winds of about 130 miles an hour. On the Bahamas' Long Island, surging waters reached the windows of some homes. The Category 4 storm generated severe flooding on Acklins, where power went off and phones were down. The Bahamian prime minister is ordering people on Eleuthera island to evacuate to shelters. (AP)

The state of Virginia has executed a convicted serial killer. Forty-nine-year-old Alfredo Prieto was put to death by lethal injection Thursday night at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt. Prieto had been convicted of killing a young couple in Virginia in 2010 and raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl in California. But authorities had linked him to as many as six other murders in both states. (AP)