Central Maine News: Oct 14, 2015

These are some of the stories central Maine is talking about today.

Maine health and human services officials say the number of state residents enrolled in the food stamps program has dropped below 200,000 for the first time in more than six years. The state Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Family Independence says 199,157 people were enrolled in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, in September. There were slightly less people receiving food stamps in February 2009. Officials say the figure is a decline from a high of 255,663 in February 2012. State officials say one explanation for the drop is that Maine's unemployment rate has fallen from 8.3 percent in July 2009 to 4.5 percent in August of this year. There were 155,492 Maine residents receiving food stamps in January 2005. (AP)

Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders have clashed over U.S. involvement in the Middle East, gun control and economic policy in the first Democratic presidential debate. The two vigorously outlined competing visions for a party seeking to keep the White House for a third straight term Tuesday night in Las Vegas. Yet in a moment of political unity — and levity — Sanders leapt to Clinton's defense on the issue of her controversial email practices as secretary of state. While the five candidates onstage took issue with each other, they also repeatedly sounded traditional Democratic themes that are sure to carry over to the general election campaign against the Republicans. They also sought to cast the GOP as a party focused on sowing division and denigrating minorities and women. (AP)

A Maine woman who shot her husband in May while turkey hunting has been ordered to take a hunter safety course and donate to an anti-poaching group. 58-year-old Janice Jacques pleaded guilty on Sept. 21 to assault while hunting after accidentally shooting her husband, Reginald Jacques, in early May in China. The Maine Warden Service said Jacques fired her gun and inadvertently hit her husband in the face and arm. He was hospitalized with injuries that were not considered life-threatening. The charge will be dropped if she completes all the conditions placed on her for the year, including attending a hunter safety course and making a $150 donation to a nonprofit program that rewards information about fish and wildlife poaching. (AP)

There is a push in Augusta to let convicted drunken drivers keep their driver's licenses if they agree to submit to alcohol screening twice a day. A Maine lawmaker is working on a bill that she said will mirror a similar program in South Dakota. Under the proposal, offenders would pay for the costs of their daily testing, but there are questions about the burden that such a program would put on local law enforcement agencies. Police officers and sheriff’s deputies would still have to administer the tests. Members of the legislative council will meet next Thursday to decide whether the proposal moves forward. (WMTW)

A memorial service is being held for a Maine man who was a crew member on a cargo ship that sank in Hurricane Joaquin. Michael Holland's celebration of life will be held at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Jay Community Building. Holland was one of 33 people on board the El Faro cargo ship when it departed from Florida on Sept. 29. Family members have said three others are from Maine. The El Faro lost power and went down in water east of the Bahamas on Oct. 1 while attempting to outrun Hurricane Joaquin on its regular route from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico. The Wilton man was one of five Maine Maritime Academy graduates who died on the ship. (AP)

A group that hopes to ask voters statewide to change the way Maine votes in 2016 will begin its campaign in earnest later this month. According to the Sun Journal Ranked Choice Voting Maine wants Maine to become the first state in the U.S. to fully use a ranked-choice ballot system for its elections and has gathered the more than 61,123 signatures from registered voters needed to add a ballot question to next November's election. Ranked-choice voting would allow voters to rank candidates in multi-candidate races in order of preference, creating a so-called "instant runoff" for when no single candidate gets more than 50 percent of the total vote. (Sun Journal)

The Winslow Town Council voted to table a vote on accepting a federal grant to hire a new police officer and asked police Chief Shawn O’Leary to provide more information before councilors take up the item again next month. According to the KJ, the $125,000 grant would fund 75 % of a full-time patrol officer for the next three years. The overall cost to the town would be roughly $82,000. That is causing anxiety among councilors who worry about budget issues in the years ahead.  (centralmaine.com)

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says "The American people are sick and tired" of hearing about Hillary Rodham Clinton's emails. The crowd at Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate roared with applause, and fellow candidate Clinton reached over a shook his hand. Five Democratic presidential candidates took to the stage in their first debate, including former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former U.S. senator from Virginia Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee, the Republican-turned independent-turned Democrat from Rhode Island. (AP)

Authorities in Palm Springs, Florida say there are an "unknown number of victims" after a small plane crashed into a mobile home park Tuesday, setting two of the homes on fire. An AP reporter on the scene saw workers loading two stretchers into a white van. Each stretcher appeared to hold a covered body. One man says his 21-year-old daughter was inside one of the homes hit by the plane, but he says he couldn't get to her. (AP)