Things You Need to Know: Balcer to Face Charges As Adult

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

Zone forecast from Maine.gov

Outage information Central Maine Power  and  Emera Maine

Andrew Balcer will be tried as an adult. Centralmaine.com reports he was a month away from his 18th birthday at the time he was charged with killing is parents in Winthrop. He has said he was worried  his parents wouldn't support him with his gender identity issues.

Power restoration and clean up continues. Centralmaine.com reports Maine will be looking for disaster aid, missed school days will need to be made up and CMP does know there have been some website issues and how frustrating that has been. Mainers are also being asked to not distract linemen and tree crews while they are working, even if it is with a kindness like an offer of coffee, and to give plenty of space as you drive around a work site.

From the Associated Press:

Police say a hunter has discovered a badly decomposed body in Rockport, Maine. Police say the human remains were found late Wednesday afternoon about 500 feet off Mount Pleasant Road, near the Hope town line. Identifications were found at the scene, but police declined to release the ID. Police say they're treating the case as an unattended death. The state medical examiner's office in Augusta will seek to confirm the identification and to determine the cause of death.

Maine's two major utility companies are still working to restore power in the wake of a storm that throttled the state. Nearly a half million homes and businesses lost power during a fall storm that whacked Maine, knocking down trees and power lines. The storm peaked on Monday and recovery efforts have been ongoing since and will resume on Friday.

New York man has pleaded guilty to introducing misbranded animal drugs into interstate commerce in Maine. Prosecutors say 55-year-old Alain Lamontagne, of Middletown, New York, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in federal court. Court documents say he operated a business in New York that sold dietary supplements, intravenous drugs and other supplies for horses. Prosecutors say the drug bottles in question had fictitious labels and the drug contained a steroid.

The Anti-Defamation League says anti-Semitic incidents have increased in New England. The New York civil rights group that's focused on anti-Jewish attacks said Thursday that there have been 132 incidents reported in the six-state region from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30. The organization says that represents a 32 percent increase over the same period last year and exceeds last year's total.

Money is continuing to pour into the campaign for a casino in southern Maine in the final days leading up to the election. Campaign finance reports indicate nearly $700,000 has been contributed in recent days to Progress for Maine, a political action committee. That includes $450,000 from gambling entrepreneur Shawn Scott's Capital Seven LLC. Only Scott or one of his entities could run the casino if it's approved.

Republican lawmakers have introduced a more than 400-page tax overhaul plan, which would lower the corporate tax rate and simplify the personal code. President Donald Trump tweeted Thursday that "Republicans will hold strong and do what is right for America!" The budget watchdog group Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says the measure cuts taxes by $1.5 trillion over the coming decade, giving most of the tax cuts to businesses instead of individuals.

The eight people killed in a truck driver's rampage have been honored with a nighttime walk down the riverfront esplanade where the victims died as both investigators and terror-weary New Yorkers try to make sense of the crime. Some of the marchers carried candles Thursday night. Others pushed bicycles in solidary with the victims. The walk took place hours after the city began installing protective barriers along the path.

The U.S. flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula in bombing exercises that were a show of force against North Korea ahead of President Donald Trump's visit to Asia. A South Korean military official said the B-1B bombers flown from Guam were escorted by two South Korean F-16 fighter jets during the drills. North Korea's state media denounced the exercise as a "surprise nuclear strike drill."

A day after President Donald Trump called the U.S. criminal justice system a "joke" and a "laughingstock," he backed off his threat to send to Guantanamo Bay the man accused of killing eight people on a New York City bike path. Trump conceded Thursday that civilian courts offer a swifter way to bring terror suspects to justice. And Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expressing confidence that the U.S. justice system can handle terror suspects like Sayfullo Saipov, an immigrant from Uzbekistan.

Government statistics show the nation's gun death rate has increased for the second straight year. The rate had been flat for about 15 years. Suicides account for nearly two-thirds of gun deaths, but experts say an increase in homicides is a big reason for the increase. The report was released Friday.