Things You Need to Know: Maine’s Fall Hunts Are Entering the Busiest Part of the Year

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

Zone forecast from Maine.gov

The old DOT building on Capital Street in Augusta is all but gone. According to centralmaine.com two new office buildings are being built; one will have state offices and one for the Maine Public Employees Retirement System.  The old MPERS building on the corner will come down and a new space for DHHS.

From the Associated Press:

Maine's fall hunts are entering the busiest part of the year for hunters who pursue deer, moose, foxes and other animals.  The longest stretch of the moose hunt will take place from Oct. 30 to Nov. 25. The season for hunting deer with firearms takes place over the same span. Monday's the first day of the state's fox hunt, which runs until late February. Seasons for small game animals such as gray squirrels, raccoons and snowshoe hares also got started on Oct. 1. Turkey season also started Oct. 1. The skunk and opossum hunts start Monday. The bear hunt's winding down. It's still legal to hunt bears with dogs until Oct. 27. It remains legal to hunt them without dogs or bait until Nov. 25, but few hunters do that.

Maine's GOP gubernatorial primary is expected to become more heated after Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins announced she won't run. Auto body repair chain owner Shawn Moody this week announced he was registered as a Republican and may seek the party's nomination. Lobbyist and former Republican House leader Josh Tardy has also said he's considering a gubernatorial run. Maine Democratic Party Chair Phil Bartlett said GOP candidates represent the fringe of the party.

A Winslow woman says jurors should decide whether her dogs should receive court-ordered euthanasia for killing a 10-month Boston Terrier. A judge had previously found Jones guilty of two counts of keeping a dangerous dog. Jones' lawyer argued Friday before justices the case should have been considering a criminal case, not a civil one. Prosecutors said the dangerous dog statute that allows for euthanasia is a civil matter.

A Maine police officer is getting lots of likes for cooking dinner for an elderly man. Cumberland Police Sgt. Thomas Burgess learned that the local resident was running low and food and had not eaten. So he went to a local food pantry, personally delivered the food _ and then cooked dinner.

An Oregon brewery is demanding that a Maine beer maker change the name of its signature India pale ale. Mason's Brewing Co., owned by Chris Morley in Brewer, says it received a letter from 10 Barrel Brewing demanding it stop using the name "Hipster Apocalypse." The Bangor Daily News reports the Oregon brewery has brewed "Apocalypse IPA" since 2009.

A Portland law firm is hosting an event about business growth in the Arctic in which a pair of Greenland executives will provide the keynote address. Verrill Dana is hosting the full-day seminar on Thursday at its offices in response to changing shipping routes that it says make the Arctic and northern Europe more important for Maine businesses.

A lawmaker wants to fix a new voter-approved voting method that Maine's highest court ruled unconstitutional for some elections. The Legislature's veterans and legal affairs committee on Monday will consider Rep. Kent Ackley's bill to bring ranked-choice voting into compliance with the Maine Constitution. Ackley's bill would only allow ranked-choice voting for elections for president and Congress, along with state primaries for all offices. Some lawmakers have called such a move confusing.

Maine's fall hunting seasons are entering the busiest part of the year for hunters who pursue deer, moose, foxes and other game animals. The longest stretch of the moose hunt will take place from Oct. 30 to Nov. 25. The season for hunting deer with firearms takes place over the same span. Monday is the first day of the state's fox hunt, which runs until late February.

By cutting off federal payments to insurers, President Donald Trump is shaking up America's health care and political worlds alike. His move threatens to boost premiums for millions and rattle insurance markets. It also could shove Republicans into a renewed civil war over their efforts to shred the Obama health care law. Trump is halting subsidies to companies for lowering costs for low- and middle-income earners. Those are reductions insurers are legally required to make.

President Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon has declared war on the Republican establishment, and now he's amassing his troops. Bannon is promoting challengers to GOP incumbents and the party's preferred candidates in next year's midterm elections. It's an insurgency that could imperil Republican majorities in the House and Senate.

Qatar's foreign minister says his country's diplomatic mission in Somalia was hit by the massive truck bombing in Mogadishu. The foreign minister said on Twitter early Monday morning: "The attack on #Qatar diplomatic mission in Mogadishu will not deter our support for #Somalia's democracy, security and stability." He did not elaborate.

An Iraqi Kurdish commander says federal forces have seized an oil and gas company and other industrial areas south of Kirkuk in fighting with Kurdish forces that caused "lots of casualties." Brig. Gen. Bahzad Ahmed, a spokesman for Kurdish forces, said Monday the Iraqi troops have "burnt lots of houses and killed many people" in Toz Khormato and Daquq, south of the disputed city. His claims could not be independently verified.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company officials say they expect to restore power to all its customers in the fire zones by late Monday. The company said in a statement Sunday that power has been restored to more than 92 percent of homes and businesses that lost power during the wildfires, but about 21,000 electric customers remain without power. The company says safety work on gas pipelines should be completely by the morning. It wasn't immediately known when service would be fully restored.

Jefferson County, Texas, was drowned by more than 60 inches of rain during Hurricane Harvey. Now some Republicans who live there believe President Donald Trump should no longer deny the threat of climate change. The county chose Trump last November and is economically dependent on oil refineries that pollute. Residents are grappling with how to tackle global warming without putting people out of work.

Venezuela's National Electoral Council proclaimed candidates with the socialist movement founded by the late President Hugo Chavez won a vast majority of the 23 governorships up for grabs in Sunday's regional election, a vote the opposition was widely projected to win and that threatened to further divide the already polarized nation.