Things You Need to Know Today: Waterville Fire Dept Unveiled New Memorial

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

Waterville unveiled their new fire/rescue memorial yesterday. According to centralmaine.com the memorial has the names of active duty Waterville firefighters who have died since 1900.

From the Associated Press:

Maine Democrats have already requested more than twice as many absentee ballots than Republicans. But the Portland Press Herald reported that Maine's Republican Party will start a public push to encourage early voting.

A large fire Sunday heavily damaged a Dresden center that provides housing for those with substance abuse and physical and mental illness. No injuries have been reported. The State Fire Marshal is investigating what caused the fire.

Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap's office has unveiled a pair of cartoon videos that explain the process of voting in Maine. One is called "Registering to Vote" and the other is "Casting Your Ballot." They are based on the official State of Maine Voter Guide, which is also available as a text document.

An advocacy group says a higher percentage of Maine candidates are using public funds to run for office this fall. Maine Citizens for Clean Elections found that 62 percent of candidates are using Maine clean election funds to fund their campaigns, up from 53 percent in 2014.

The former owners of a farm in Mechanic Falls where a fatal hayride crash occurred two years ago say Pumpkin Land won't reopen until next year. The former owner sold the property at auction months ago after filing for bankruptcy following the October 2014 crash that claimed the life of 17-year-old Cassidy Charette and injured more than 20 others.

The state's efforts to rewrite Maine's welfare-to-work rules are drawing critique from a legal aid group. Maine is facing up to $29 million in federal penalties for not satisfying work participation standards from 2007 to 2014. The state's new proposed rules appear to eliminate work exemptions that GOP Gov. Paul LePage has long criticized.

Colombians are asking what comes next for their war-torn country following a stunning referendum defeat for a peace deal with leftist rebels. In Sunday's vote, those favoring the accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia lost by a razor-thin margin, 49.8 percent of the votes to 50.2 percent for those against the deal. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says he'll continue the search for peace.

Haiti is bracing for flash floods and violent winds from an extremely dangerous Hurricane Matthew. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Matthew is a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph. It's expected to pass to the east of Jamaica and cross over or very close to the southwestern tip of Haiti Monday or early Tuesday.

The engineer of the commuter train that crashed into a New Jersey rail terminal last week told investigators that he was going only 10 mph as he approached the station in Hoboken. The National Transportation Safety Board says engineer Thomas Gallagher has no memory of the crash that killed one person and injured more than 100 others.

Afghan officials say that Taliban insurgents have launched a coordinated attack on Kunduz in the northeast of the country. A spokesman for the provincial governor in Kunduz says the Taliban attacked from different directions Monday morning, but Afghan forces repelled the assault. Kunduz was overrun by the Taliban in September last year, the first time the insurgents had taken a major urban center since launching their insurgency 15 years ago. But government forces took back the city within days.

Afghanistan's leaders will head to Brussels this week, looking for billions of dollars in aid as the country confronts an increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency. President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah hope to secure pledges totaling about $3 billion a year at a conference Tuesday and Wednesday.