Things You Need to Know: Augusta’s New Regulations for Secondhand + Pawn Shops

Here are the things you need to  know today......

Zone forecast from Maine.gov

The Children's Center in Augusta celebrated the completion a completely accessible playground with developmental or physical disabilities.  According to WABI the Center spent 4 years fundraising and designing this play space.

A homeless man in Waterville was arrested this week  and charged with criminal trespass.  According to centralmaine.com it happened after police learned he was building a wooden hut at his campsite which is on land owned by the railroad.

Augusta City councilors approved an ordinance with new regulations for secondhand and pawn shops. According to centralmaine.com the new rules works to balance the business aspect of the shops while also helping police track any stolen items.

From the Associated Press:

Maine's Democratic attorney general says the Republican governor unlawfully transferred $10 million out of the state's consumer protection trust fund. Gov. Paul LePage on Thursday said he directed the Office of the State Controller to transfer the money out of a fund that he said Attorney General Janet Mills can use without oversight. But Mills said LePage lacked legal authority for the transfer.

A delegation from a Norwegian city is visiting Portland in hopes of boosting trade between the two cities. Representatives from businesses and city officials in Tromso, Norway, are visiting the city on a three-day trip that started Wednesday. Organizers say the trip i part of a broader initiative to boost trade between ports in Maine, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway.

The University of Southern Maine is set to host a lecture featuring descendants of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cancer cells continue to have an impact on medicine more than 60 years after they were taken while she was under anesthesia. Family members of Lacks are scheduled to speak on Oct. 13 to discuss her legacy. The cells have been widely used in biomedical research. They came from a tumor sample taken from Lacks _ who never gave permission for their use.

One of the oldest-known examples of a Native American birch-bark canoe is now on display at a museum in Maine. The Pejepscot Historical Society says the canoe dates to the mid-1700s. It is an example of the type of canoe that was critically important to the history and culture of the Wabanaki, the first people of parts of northern New England and Atlantic Canada.

The White House is praising a statement by the National Rifle Association which calls for a federal review of whether devices that allow a semi-automatic rifle to fire continuously comply with federal law. The NRA statement follows last weekend's slaughter of dozens of Las Vegas concert-goers by a man who rained bullets from a casino high-rise. The NRA usually opposes virtually any hint of new gun restrictions

Las Vegas police say the vehicle that authorities announced they were seeking shortly after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history was found Tuesday in Reno. Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill says FBI agents serving a warrant at a home in Reno owned by the shooter, Stephen Paddock, found the Hyundai Tucson but didn't immediately share that information with Las Vegas police.

President Donald Trump has delivered a foreboding message, telling reporters as he posed for photos with his senior military leaders that this might be "the calm before the storm." When a reporter asked, "What storm?" Trump responded, "You'll find out." He also praised those assembled for the photo, saying, "We have the world's great military people in this room, I will tell you that."

The U.S. military says it has halted some exercises with Gulf countries over the ongoing diplomatic crisis targeting Qatar. U.S. Central Command told The Associated Press on Friday: "We are opting out of some military exercises out of respect for the concept of inclusiveness and shared regional interests." The crisis, which began in June, has seen four Arab countries allied with the U.S. launch a boycott of Qatar, home to a major American military base.

The deadline was October 5 for some 154,000 young immigrants eligible for renewed protection from deportation to submit their applications. But Homeland Security officials say only about 118,000 people have turned in their forms. Under a phase-out plan announced last month, more than 150,000 young people covered by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program whose permits were set to expire before March 5 were given a chance to submit renewals.