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

40 years ago , Gov. Longley signed into law the bill to removed about 8,500 roadside advertising billboards in Maine. According to WCSH it went into effect on Jan. 1, 1978. It was six to seven years before all the billboards came down.

Senators Collins and King not supportive of the latest heath care bill.  Centralmaine.com Collins was concerned about Medicaid cuts.

The Red Barn settled the noise complaint with Augusta. According to centralmaine.com the council had an update on the situation last night.

The Jay man accused of killing his girl friend allegedly beat her to death with a bat while she slept and accused her of cheating.  Centralmaine.com reports those details came out at his first court appearance.

From the Associated Press:

The Maine man who dumped a cup of live bedbugs in a city center last month says he doesn't regret his actions, even though he is now homeless as a result. Seventy-two-year-old Charles Manning, of Augusta, tells the Kennebec Journal that he released the bedbugs at the Augusta City Center to officials to know what he had been dealing with, but targeted the wrong office.

Police in Maine are searching for a motorist they say injured a 58-year-old bicyclist in a hit-and-run crash. WMTW-TV reports a motorist struck a bicyclist from behind around 3:20 p.m. Thursday in West Bath. Sagadahoc County sheriff's deputies say the driver then left the scene of the crash.

Maine State Police say a man escaped his car just before it burst into flames. According to state police, the Fairfield man pulled over on state Route 3 in Liberty after experiencing engine trouble Thursday. Police say a fire erupted in the vehicle's engine compartment after the man exited the car.

Republican Gov. Paul LePage has named Nick Adolphsen as senior health policy adviser. Adolphsen will counsel the governor on health care and health insurance-related legislation and regulation. Adolphsen replaces David Sorensen, who now serves as speech writer for President Donald Trump

 

Former Democratic House Speaker Mark Eves has become the seventh person to throw his hat into the Maine governor's race. Eves announced his candidacy Thursday night on his Facebook page from a backyard family barbecue at his home in North Berwick. His tenure as speaker was marked by face-offs with Republican Gov. Paul LePage, whom Eves unsuccessfully pushed to impeach.

New England's summer lobster season is off to a slow start, but consumers are still paying a little bit less for the critters than they were a year ago. Lobster fishermen and distributors say the annual summer boom in lobster catch has yet to arrive. Lobster catch typically picks up when many lobsters shed their shells and reach legal harvesting size.

A person with firsthand knowledge of a drug dealer's confession to killing four young Pennsylvania men says the man killed them after he felt cheated or threatened during three drug transactions and then burned their bodies. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the case against 20-year-old Cosmo DiNardo. Authorities are expected to release additional information Friday morning.

In another setback for President Donald Trump, a federal judge in Hawaii has further weakened his already diluted travel ban by vastly expanding the list of family relationships with U.S. citizens that visa applicants can use to get into the United States. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson on Thursday ordered the government not to enforce the ban on close relatives such as grandparents. The ruling is the latest piece of pushback in the fight over the ban.

The new Senate GOP health care bill aims to win conservatives' support while at the same time placating hesitant moderates. But it's not clear whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has achieved the delicate balance he needs after an embarrassing setback last month. As soon as he unveiled the new bill Thursday, he immediately lost two key votes. That leaves none to spare as the party's own divisions put its top campaign pledge in serious jeopardy.

French President Emmanuel Macron is positioning himself as the indispensable intermediary between Europe and Donald Trump. Macron made a point of detailing both the long history of ties between France and America and the areas where he and Trump disagree as he hosted the U.S. president for a Bastille Day visit. But Macron also made clear it was in the spirit of bluntness between friends. He even offered a conspiratorial wink during a press conference featuring the two men.

President Donald Trump was captured complimenting the French president's wife's appearance Thursday as he toured a famous Paris landmark. Video footage posted on the French government's official Facebook page showed Trump telling Brigitte Macron: "You know, you're in such good shape." Brigitte Macron was her husband's former high school teacher and their relationship has drawn international attention because of their significant age difference.

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