Things You Need to Know: Trump Declared Opioid Crisis + Maine’s ACA Insurers Get Rate Increases
Here are the things you need to know today......
If you miss Graziano's in Lisbon there might be an answer. The Sun Journal reports that the daughter of the original owner is looking at Grazi to Go! It would be a to-go restaurant with some of the classic recites from the restaurant and some newer options.
Pres.Trump declared the opioid crisis a national emergency. According to centralmaine.com one person dies, on average, a day in Maine because of an over dose and thousands dying each month nationally.
Alexander J. Biddle of Pittston pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with manslaughter in a September 2015 all-terrain vehicle crash that killed 18-year-old Halee Cummings. According to centralmaine.com the ATV went into a ditch, hit trees in Sidney.
Maine’s insurance regulator will OK rate increases for Maine's health insurance providers under the ACA. According to centralmaine.com they range from 17.5% to 27.1% and were lower than the companies requested.
From the Associated Press:
The Coast Guard says it has recovered a body 15 nautical miles off the coast of Kennebunkport. The service says its office in South Portland received a call about the body late Thursday morning. A lifeboat crew from Portsmouth Harbor in New Hampshire responded to the scene and recovered the body, which was transferred to a medical examiner's office.
An airplane traveling from Maine to Boston has had to make an emergency landing because a cabin door opened midflight. The Portland Press Herald reports nine passengers and the pilot were on a Cape Air flight traveling from Rockland on Wednesday when the top section of the boarding door opened, prompting the emergency landing at Logan International Airport. A Cape Air spokeswoman says the plane was flying at a low altitude so it didn't become pressurized and the passengers weren't at risk.
A federal audit finds that Maine failed to ensure that deaths and injuries of people with developmental disabilities were reported and investigated. The report released by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says the Maine Department of Health and Human Services failed 2,640 Medicaid beneficiaries who are allowed under a federal waiver to use community and home-based services rather than state-run institutions.
Politicians at all levels are embracing social media to discuss government business, and their ability to block people from their accounts has led to debate about whether that violates free speech rights. The American Civil Liberties Union sent warning letters to Utah's congressional delegation and sued the governor of Maine this week. Others, including President Donald Trump, have been targeted, and many of them say they only block people who post abusive content.
President Donald Trump says maybe he "wasn't tough enough" when he vowed to unleash "fire and fury" on North Korea if it continued to threaten the U.S. While tensions remain high, U.S. and South Korean military officials plan to move ahead with exercises that North Korea claims are a rehearsal for war. Pyongyang is finalizing plans to launch a salvo of missiles to strike near the U.S. territory of Guam - plans that would be sent to Kim Jong Un for approval around the time the exercises begin.
A government climatologist says last year's weather extremes are a "cause for concern." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says 2016 saw more extremes and records broken than anything approaching normal. A NOAA report released Thursday points to numerous records, including hottest year, highest sea level and record low sea ice.
An Associated Press writer's family divided by the 70-year-old Partition of India and Pakistan has preserved their bonds, but for how much longer? Staying connected was once relatively simple, but relations between the countries have never been the same since a 1971 war. Even with limited opportunities to visit, older generations still have childhood memories to share. But the ties between their children on either side of the border are much fainter.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has canceled an internal town hall meant to address gender discrimination on Thursday after employee questions for management began to leak online from the company's internal messaging service. Pichai said in an email to staff that several Google employees became fearful for their safety and grew concerned about being outed for speaking up at the town hall.
A defiant and occasionally exasperated Taylor insisted during a whirlwind hour of testimony that a Denver DJ grabbed her bare backside and held on for a long time during a meet-and-greet before a concert. The pop superstar used explicit language that seemed designed to avoid sugar-coating what she said was a sexual assault when she posed for a picture with David Mueller in 2013. She used the word "ass" dozens of times in her testy exchanges with a lawyer.
More From B98.5
