Things You Need to Know: ME Lawmakers Busy Day + Needed Rain On The Way
Here are the things you need to know today......
Gov LePage reversed his decision to withdraw the nominations for five judicial re-appointments. WGME reports is not clear why both moves were made. All five were confirmed Monday.
SAD 11 board and its communities met to talk budgets and the role of the some officials. Centralmaine.com the district is looking at ways to get out more information to its communities.
Officials will be deciding if Andrew Balcer should be tried as an adult. Centralmaine.com he was about a month away from his 18th birthday at the time he killed his parents last Halloween at their home in Winthrop.
Colby College starting its largest fundraising campaign ever undertaken by a liberal arts college in the U.S. WMTW reports its for $750 million, it started last year and $380 million already has been raised. Co-chair Bill Alfond said the campaign is about giving the college the best tools, and finding bridges between the college and the Waterville community.
From the Associated Press:
The National Weather Service says much-needed rain that's on the way will help to reduce the fire danger across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Meteorologist Eric Schwibs in Gray, Maine, says the rain will begin on Tuesday and up to 3 inches could fall before it ends by Thursday morning. That will help with a spate of wildfires across the region.
Maine Republican and Democratic lawmakers have voted to delay a new voting system and to rewrite the state's recreational marijuana law. The House voted 68-63 on Monday to delay until 2021 the voter-approved ranked-choice voting law that Maine Supreme Judicial Court justices warn may be unconstitutional for some elections. The Legislature's Monday votes are not enough to withstand vetoes from Gov. Paul LePage.
Maine Republican and Democratic lawmakers have voted to delay a new voting system and to rewrite the state's recreational marijuana law. The House voted 68-63 on Monday to delay until 2021 the voter-approved ranked-choice voting law that Maine Supreme Judicial Court justices warn may be unconstitutional for some elections. The Legislature's Monday votes are not enough to withstand vetoes from Gov. Paul LePage.
Maine police say a 14-year-old boy has been charged with threatening people at a Bath YMCA with a BB gun that resembled an actual handgun. Bath Police Lt. Robert Savary says the YMCA went into lockdown Monday afternoon, and responding police were able to quickly identify the boy. The Portland Press Herald reports the 14-year-old teenager was taken into custody and charged with criminal threatening. The teen was taken to a youth detention center in South Portland after he was booked at the Bath Police Department. He is scheduled to appear in District Court on Dec. 4.
State police are asking for the public's help in identifying the body of a man found floating off of the Maine coast 27 years ago. Authorities say the body was found 8 miles south of Schoodic Point by a boater in August 1990. They say efforts to identify the man over near three decades have proven unsuccessful.
Interstate fishing regulators are about to close the public comment period on potential changes to the way they regulate a fish that serves as a key piece of the ocean food chain. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is taking the last comments on its menhaden plan on Tuesday. Menhaden are small, schooling fish that make up one of the largest fisheries in the U.S. by weight.
The top U.S. general is trying to clear up some of the murky details of the assault that killed four American troops in Niger and has triggered a nasty political brawl. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says the U.S. special forces unit ambushed by Islamic militants didn't call for help until an hour into their first contact with the enemy. Dunford acknowledges that there are still unanswered questions nearly three weeks after the attack.
The widow of fallen U.S. soldier La David Johnson says she cried when President Donald Trump didn't remember her husband's name during a condolence call last week. Trump insists the call was "very respectful" and that Myeshia Johnson's accusation was not true. Mrs. Johnson said in an ABC interview that she wasn't allowed to see her husband's body. She told "Good Morning America," "they won't show me a finger, a hand."
The ruling Communist Party has formally lifted Xi Jinping's status to China's most powerful ruler in decades, setting the stage for the authoritarian leader to tighten his grip over the country while pursuing a more muscular military and foreign policy. The move to insert Xi's name and dogma into the party's constitution alongside the party's founders came at the close of a twice-a-decade major congress.
The trial in the murder of the half brother of North Korea's leader has taken a break after one of the suspects became emotional during a visit to the Malaysian airport where Kim Jong Nam was attacked. Indonesian Siti Aisyah was seen sobbing quietly about an hour into the tour of the crime scene. Both women were given water and were being pushed in wheelchairs after the tour resumed.
Hong Kong's highest court freed pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong and Nathan Law on bail pending an appeal of their prison sentences after they were convicted of sparking massive protests in 2014. The pair were imprisoned after the justice secretary succeeded in getting a more lenient sentence overturned, raising concerns about political interference in the courts and waning tolerance for dissent in the Chinese-controlled city.