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

Wednesday at 6pm, there will be an update on Hallowell's 2018-2019 Water Street reconstruction project during a public meeting. According to centralmaine.com it happens at  City Hall auditorium.

Gov LePage would like to see special education services for preschoolers with developmental disabilities or autism move from the state to public schools. According to WGME schools would need time to deal with space and staffing issues and some parents are worried about the impact on the children.

Next year Thomas College in Waterville will offer the $10,000 scholarships to a student from every high school in New England! According to WABI about 2,000 high school students in New England, including 260 in Maine, will be eligible for the $2500 each year for a 4 year program.

Maine officials are  looking at adopting building codes for tiny houses. According to centralmaine.com over 30 were on hand for a meeting on the subject.

From the Associated Press:

A Maine man is dead after his vehicle rear-ended a flatbed truck carrying pieces of granite on an interstate in Etna. Maine State Police say 56-year-old Joseph Lawler, of Jay, crashed into the flatbed around 2 p.m. Monday. WABI-TV reports several motorists, including three nurses, stopped at the scene of the crash and attempted to perform first aid on Lawler. Lawler later died in an ambulance at the scene. The driver of the flatbed wasn't hurt. Investigators are asking anyone with information to contact them.

Maine's governor is urging supporters of the state's Republican party to back the proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act.  The Sun Journal reports Republican Gov. Paul LePage wrote in an email to supporters Sunday he is "absolutely convinced this is our last chance."  Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy and Lindsay Graham introduced a bill last week that would repeal the health care law and give block grants to states to help individuals pay for health coverage. The bill needs a 50-vote majority in the Senate by Sept. 30 to pass. Cassidy says he has 49 votes.  A spokeswoman for Republican state Sen. Susan Collins says she has concerns with the proposal, and she is waiting for an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

A 102-year-old Maine resident and Holocaust survivor has died. The Portland Press Herald reports Kurt Messerschmidt died Tuesday at a Portland hospital, 72 years after surviving a "death march" toward the end of World War II. Messerschmidt was a leader in the local Jewish community. He led choir groups and taught music programs at Temple Beth El before retiring in 1985.  He married his wife, Sonja, in 1944 while they were prisoners at a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. The two were separated by the Nazis but reunited at a refugee center in Germany months after the war ended. Sonja Messerschmidt died in 2010.  A lifelong musician, Messershmidt told the newspaper in 2004 he "presented the beauty of what they (the Nazis) tried to destroy."

The National Science Foundation is giving $100,000 to help with a University of Maine citizen science project geared at protecting the water quality of lakes. The project began in 2015. The university says the grant will help extend it into next year and beyond. UMaine says Maine lakes contribute about $4 billion to the state's economy through recreational and other uses. They are also experiencing a decline in water quality.

Bath Iron Works and a union representing more than 700 workers are trying to reach an agreement before week's end to avoid a strike. The Bath Marine Draftsmen's Association Local 3999 authorized a strike but returned to work as negotiations continued. The extension ends late Sunday.

An executive at a Maine bank has lost their job because of anti-Muslim images they posted on Facebook. The Portland Press Herald reports Kennebunk Savings bank announced on Friday on its website that it no longer employs a member whose "personal Facebook page contained some disturbing and offensive images." Kennebunk Savings has not identified the employee.

Hurricane Maria is sweeping over the small island of Dominica with catastrophic Category 5 winds, starting a charge into the eastern Caribbean that threatens islands already devastated by Hurricane Irma and holds the possibility of a direct hit on Puerto Rico. Fierce winds and driving rain have lashed mountainous Dominica for hours, causing flooding and tearing roofs from homes. In a harrowing series of Facebook posts, the island's prime minister described being rescued at his damaged home.

China's foreign minister says Beijing "understands and supports Myanmar's efforts to maintain national stability." Wang Yi also said China would provide emergency aid to Bangladesh to deal with the flood of refugees arriving there after fleeing violence in Myanmar. "China looks forward to the war falling silent as soon as possible, when innocents will no longer be hurt," the envoy said while in New York for a U.N. meeting.

Rohingya Muslims are quite literally being wiped off the map in Myanmar. More than 500,000 people _ roughly half their population _ have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in the past year, most in the last three weeks. The Arakan Project is documenting attacks on the three townships in northern Rakhine state where Rohingya are concentrated. And Human Rights Watch released satellite imagery that shows the near-total destruction of 214 villages.

U.S. President Donald Trump and French leader Emmanuel Macron are expected to take the spotlight at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations _ but discussions will be dominated by the tough global challenges from the nuclear threat in North Korea and the plight of Myanmar's minority Muslims to the spread of terrorism and the impact of climate change. The six-day meeting opens Tuesday with a state-of-the-world speech by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is promising to root out the U.N. problem of sexual abuse "once and for all." The military personnel of some countries have been accused of sex crimes while serving on U.N. peacekeeping missions. Guterres has established a group to prevent sexual abuse and exploitation in the U.N., and the leaders of 57 countries joined the group at a meeting Monday.

More From Kool AM