Things You Need to Know: Report Finds Local Governments Communities Paying More for Education Due to Cut in State + Federal Funding
Here are the things you need to know today......
Wiscasset is suing the MeDOT. According to WGME its to stop the plan to eliminate some downtown parking spots to widen Route 1, with the goal of easing Rt. 1 traffic.
Augusta officials are considering moratorium on recreational marijuana sales until they have some rules in place. Centralmaine.com reports the statewide moratorium on recreational marijuana sales set to expire soon and no local laws in place to regulate sales, this would give them chance to address that.
From the Associated Press:
The Governor's Energy Office says heating oil prices are starting to rise in Maine. A statewide survey conducted on Monday put the average price at $2.44 per gallon, an increase of 9 percent since the heating season begin in October.
A new report from a think tank in Washington, D.C., says that local governments have been picking up an increasing share of education costs in Maine, thanks to cuts in state and federal funding. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says local spending on kindergarten through high school education in Maine was up 12 percent from 2008 to 2015. State and federal funding each declined by 9 percent. The report found that Maine was among the many states that made steep education cuts following the Great Recession that hit in 2007. Rep. Victoria Kornfield, a Bangor Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature's education committee, tells the Portland Press Herald the report shows that the state does not value education highly, but towns do.
Maine police say they are investigating alleged sex crimes at a high school in Bucksport. Police Chief Sean Geagan says the school department told police of allegations involving a former employee of the district and high school students. Superintendent Jim Boothby tells WABI-TV that the former employee is a person of interest in the investigation. Further information was not released. Boothby says there is nothing more important to the school district than protecting children and maintaining appropriate boundaries.
New England shrimp will be unavailable to seafood consumers for at least another year as the fishery struggles with environmental changes. An arm of the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission made the decision on Wednesday in Portland. New England shrimp fishing is based in Maine and has been shut down since 2013.
Maine State Police say an 8-year-old girl was able to climb out the back of a wrecked car and flag down help for her severely injured mother. Police say the girl was in the back seat of a car driven by her mother Tuesday night when the vehicle went off a road and hit a tree. The girl suffered minor injuries. Rescue crew members freed 26-year-old Lili Parady, who was taken to a hospital.
A new report from a think tank in Washington, D.C., says that local governments have been picking up an increasing share of education costs in Maine thanks to cuts in state and federal funding. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says local spending on kindergarten through high school education in Maine was up 12 percent from 2008 to 2015. State and federal funding each declined by 9 percent.
President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been questioned by special counsel Robert Mueller's team of investigators about former national security adviser Michael Flynn. A person familiar with the investigation tells The Associated Press the questioning of Kushner took about 90 minutes or less and was aimed in part at establishing whether Kushner had any information on Flynn that might be exculpatory.
Hero celebrities have come and gone, but in this post-Weinstein world, more fans have arrived at the day of reckoning. News of bad behavior is likely not so new to some. DePaul University professor Paul Booth studies fandom and says rumors of sexual misconduct likely dwelled deep among the die-hards. But that doesn't mean admirers of Matt Lauer, Louis C.K., Kevin Spacey and scores of other disgraced famous men aren't in mourning as they stand with accusers.
President Donald Trump has retweeted a string of inflammatory videos from a fringe British political group purporting to show violence being committed by Muslims. British Prime Minister Theresa May's office said it was "wrong for the president to have done this." Trump fired back in a tweet that Theresa May should focus not on him but "on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom."
The anti-Muslim videos spread around by President Donald Trump mix grains of truth, fakery and shades in between, overlaid with a message meant to be a blunt hammer blow for a cause. His spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, suggested the veracity of the videos wasn't a high priority amid concern over national security and strong borders, saying: "Whether it's a real video, the threat is real."
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