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A judge will decide if Andrew Balcer is tried as an adult for last year's murder of his parents at their home in Winthrop. Centralmaine.com reports his lawyers says Balcer did not think he would be accepted by his family for his 'gender identity crisis '.

Officials doubt the story that the two dog sentenced to euthanasia by the state superme court broke free while on walk with their owner from the Humane Society Waterville Area.  Centralmaine.com reports the Waterville Police Chief said if the two pit bulls were on the loose in Waterville they would have had a few calls from the public.

Exit 109A southbound of I- 95 is will be closed as of Monday for work.  Centralmaine.com drivers will need to exit at 109B southbound and then reverse direction to head into Augusta on Western Ave.

From the Associated Press:

A lakeside retreat created by an Army veteran who lost all four limbs in an explosion in Afghanistan is extending its inaugural season by four weeks. The Travis Mills Foundation was supposed to serve 57 veterans and their families in Rome, Maine. The extension of the season will bring that number to 89. At the camp, families participate in various activities including kayaking, fishing and tubing.

Maine's Republican governor and a Democratic senator are set to discuss the challenges facing loggers and the state's logging industry. Gov. Paul LePage will attend a logging discussion hosted by Democratic Sen. Troy Jackson in New Canada on Friday afternoon. Jackson wants to establish a "Hire American" tax credit for businesses engaged in the logging industry that hire U.S. citizens.

Interstate fishery regulators will soon begin work on a new effort to get a handle on the population health of horseshoe crabs on the East Coast. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says its assessment of the horseshoe crab stock will begin this month. Horseshoe crabs are economically important in part because of their role in medicine.

A federal agency says it made a mistake with a key piece of data it gave to New Jersey U.S. Sen. Cory Booker as he was seeking to shut down the shark fin trade. The Democrat has cited 500 incidents involving complaints of shark finning as cause to support ending the trade, but the number is 85. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday a worker's error caused the mistake in the number of episodes of shark finning, which involves removing the fins and dumping the shark.

The National Archives has released some 2,800 files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The documents approved for release capture the frantic days after the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination, and include cables, notes and reports stamped "Secret." But President Donald Trump blocked the release of hundreds of other records, citing "potentially irreversible harm" to national security if he were to allow all records to come out now.

A Rohingya Muslim man whose wife and children died when their boat capsized on its way from Myanmar to Bangladesh says he can't stop thinking about their deaths, feels helpless and is overcome with guilt. Alam Jafar recalled the journey, wondering why he and his family fled Myanmar only to have them die in the waters just 1,000 feet of Bangladesh's shore. Bangladesh authorities say 28 boats carrying Rohingya refugees have capsized in its waters since August, killing at least 184 people.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is accusing North Korea of building a nuclear arsenal to "threaten others with catastrophe," and says the Trump administration remains committed to compelling the North to accept complete nuclear disarmament. Mattis pledged solidarity with the South in remarks Friday while inside the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas. He says the U.S. stands "shoulder to shoulder" with Koreans in confronting the threats posed by the regime of Kim Jong Un.

The House has narrowly passed a $4 trillion budget that clears a key hurdle toward President Donald Trump's goal of cutting taxes. The 216-212 vote allows Republicans to begin work on a $1.5 trillion tax cut and move it through Congress without fear of blocking tactics by Democrats. The tax bill is the top item on the GOP agenda and would be Trump's first major win in Congress.

President Donald Trump is promising a "massive advertising campaign" as part of his administration's response to the worst drug crisis in U.S. history. But an AP Fact Check finds that past marketing efforts such as the Just Say No and D.A.R.E. campaigns of the 1980s have shown few results. And experts say other measures could be far more effective in curbing the current epidemic.

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