Things You Need to Know: Dept of Labor Laying off 10 Due to Low Unemployment
Here are the things you need to know today......
Augusta has two new electric car charging stations. According to WGME they were unveiled at the Sewell Street Garage. The Avangrid Foundation awarded the $50,000 to Maine Clean Communities. So far, the group has installed 18 charging stations around Maine.
From the Associated Press:
The Maine Department of Labor is cutting back hours at its unemployment call center and laying off 10 employees at a time of historic low unemployment. The department's spokeswoman says unemployment claims are at a 32-year low. Participation in a federally funded reemployment program was 47 percent below what was required in February.
The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for most of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Forecasters say heavy rains that could drop 1 to 2 inches of rain per hour are expected as showers and thunderstorms move into the region.
Maine's plan to again increase the number of deer hunting permits in the state is up for a public hearing this week. The state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife says it's planning to offer more than 65,000 permits this year. That's an increase of more than 45 percent from last year's total. The permit proposal will be the subject of a hearing on Wednesday at the Augusta Armory on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The state is awarding $1.5 million more in grants to school districts that are working together to reduce costs. Republican Gov. Paul LePage issued an executive order this year to promote regional efforts at making education more efficient.
Maine State Police are investigating the shooting death of a 41-year-old man outside a West Gardiner home. Police say James Haskell, most recently of Chelsea, was shot at about 2:45 a.m. Saturday at the home on Yeaton Drive. A number of people were in the home at the time of the shooting, all have been interviewed by police and are cooperating with the investigation.
In Maine, a Democrat's bill to allow women to receive up to a 12-month supply of prescribed birth control has become law without Republican Gov. Paul LePage's signature. Most Maine insurance providers currently have a one-month or three-month limit. The law will go into effect this fall.
A vehicle struck pedestrians near a mosque in north London, killing one man and injuring 10 people in what police are investigating as suspected terrorism. Police said the 48-year-old man who was driving the car has been arrested and taken to a hospital as a precaution. The crash occurred at a time when the multiethnic neighborhood was crowded with Muslims leaving the Finsbury Park mosque after Ramadan prayers.
British Prime Minister Theresa May says she will chair an emergency meeting Monday morning following a van crash which killed a man outside a mosque. Eight injured people were taken to hospitals. May said: "All my thoughts are with the victims, their families and the emergency services on the scene."
A member of President Donald Trump's outside legal team says the president isn't under federal investigation. The statement comes even though Trump himself has suggested that he is. The attorney, Jay Sekulow, appeared on several Sunday news programs to counter the impression that Trump has acknowledged he's become a target in the expanding Russia probe.
The sister of a U.S. Navy sailor who grew up in Connecticut and was killed in a collision between a destroyer and a container ship off Japan is describing her brother as "selfless." Ngoc T Truong Huynh was one of seven sailors killed aboard the USS Fitzgerald on Saturday. Lan Huynh told a Connecticut TV station on Sunday the family is coping as best they can.
Maira Maidana was doused in alcohol and burned by her partner in 2011. Fifty-nine surgeries later, Maidana has finally found the courage to tell the truth about what happened to her that awful night. She says she owes that courage to a grassroots movement of tens of thousands of people across Argentina who have mobilized to fight violence against women. Called Ni Una Menos, or Not One Less, the movement has spread rapidly worldwide.
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