Things You Need to Know: Dennis’ Pizza in Gardiner GONE
Here are the things you need to know today......
Some Maine schools are reportedly joining a walk out to send a message to Capitol Hill about school shootings. WGME reports Thornton Academy, Brunswick High School, and Casco Bay High School are set to participate in the national school walkout on March 14.
Dennis' Pizza in Gardiner is now gone. WABI reports MeDOT bought the building as part of the project for Bridge Street and Maine Avenue bridges. The bridge replacement is expected to be completed by next year.
From the Associated Press:
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — After an outcry, the organization that controls the release of emojis has added two more legs to the forthcoming lobster emoji to make it anatomically correct. The Portland Press Herald reports that soon after the Unicode Consortium released proposed images of 157 new emojis to be made available this year, Maine residents took umbrage at the lobster emoji's eight legs instead of the correct 10.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — The Maine Republican Party's executive director says he alone was responsible for running an anonymous website that published articles Democrats say slandered their unsuccessful local candidate. The state ethics commission's staff on Friday said GOP Executive Director Jason Savage denied using his party's resources to fund the Maine Examiner website, which Democrats accused of undermining Lewiston mayoral candidate Ben Chin. Savage hasn't responded to a request for comment.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Lawmakers are set to consider a lawmaker's idea to offer tax credits for logging and trucking businesses that hire U.S. residents. The concept bill is sponsored by Democratic Senate Leader Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger whose family still works in Maine's forests. A trade group said Maine has seen the closure of five pulp and paper mills in the last four years along with the periodic idling of two wood energy electric facilities.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Trump administration is once again calling for the complete elimination of low-income heating assistance. And once again, program supporters are vowing to fight it. The administration is using the same arguments from a year ago when it tried to abolish the program, saying it's rife with fraud and that no one would be left freezing. Those claims were widely discredited a year ago. The National Energy Assistance Directors' Association called President Donald Trump's arguments "wrong."
SMITHFIELD, Maine (AP) — The Maine Warden Service says a 53-year-old man was killed when his snowmobile a struck a tree. Game wardens say Brian Gatie, of Smithfield, was operating the first of three sleds traveling together when he crashed on Saturday. They say he wasn't wearing a helmet and excessive speed appears to be a factor in the crash.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Lawmakers may make it tougher for citizens to get questions on ballots as Gov. Paul LePage renews his call to reform a system he's called too representative of liberal-leaning Mainers. In his State of the State on Tuesday, LePage chastised special interests for pushing Maine ballot campaigns. Republicans sponsored a number of bills to reform the referendum process after the 2016 election when voters approved five out of six ballot questions. Some Democrats are supporting the proposed amendment.
BATH, Maine (AP) — Bath Iron Works has won a $14.9 million contract to create a conceptual design for the FFG(X), the Navy's next generation guided missile frigate. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Angus King say the Navy will use BIW's and other designs to develop specifications for the FFG(X). A competitive construction contract for up to 20 ships is expected to be awarded in 2020.
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — A hundred Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students are busing hundreds of miles to Florida's capital to urge lawmakers to act to prevent a repeat of the massacre that killed 17 students and faculty last week. After their trip Tuesday, they plan to hold a rally Wednesday in hopes that it will put pressure on the Republican-controlled Legislature to consider a sweeping package of gun-control laws. The students are also vowing to pressure on Congress for change.
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Survivors of a Florida high school shooting that left 17 dead are channeling their anger and sadness into action. More than 100 students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are heading to Florida's capital to push state lawmakers to do something about gun violence. They also plan to attend what they hope will be a massive march on Washington next month.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Dozens of teens spread their bodies across the pavement outside the White House on Monday to symbolize the dead in the Florida school shooting and call for stronger gun controls. The demonstration took place before President Donald Trump returned to Washington from his holiday weekend at his South Florida estate. As the gun-control push found new energy in the wake of the deadly shootings, Trump offered support for a limited strengthening of federal background checks on gun purchases.
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — A Slovenian hockey player has become the third athlete to test positive for doping at the Pyeongchang Olympics. The Court of Arbitration for Sport says Ziga Jeglic tested positive for fenoterol in an in-competition test. Fenoterol is a drug designed to open the airways to the lungs. Jeglic has been suspended from the games and has been ordered to leave the athletes village. Japanese short-track speedskater Kei Saito and Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky have also tested positive.
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — Even as South Korea basks in the glow of daily competition and the global attention and goodwill the games are bringing, hope is fading that Pyeonchgang will do what it promised during its successful 2011 Olympics bid and turn an ignored, impoverished backwater into Asia's premiere ski destination. With the close of the games this weekend comes serious worry that the Olympics could saddle an already struggling region with white-elephant venues.