Central Maine News: June 4, 2015

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

A 19 year is accused of posing as a state trooper and bringing a loaded gun to a high school lacrosse meeting. According to WGME the Maranacook High School boy’s lacrosse team had just finished a game at Kents Hill School. 19 year old Caleb Jackson showed up claiming to be an officer and he wanted to talk to the students about sexting. Jackson apparently used his uncle's navy badge and a .22 caliber pistol, belonging to his mother's boyfriend, to convince the coach and athletic director he was an officer. Jackson was arrested and charged with impersonating a public servant, carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a gun on school property. (WGME)

Maine's House of Representatives has supported a proposal to waive work requirements for some food stamp recipients. Since October, healthy adults without children have been had to work at least 20 hours a week, volunteer or participate in a work-training program to receive benefits after three months. It was the result of Gov. Paul LePage's decision to no longer seek a federal waiver, which it had used since 2008. Since the requirements kicked in, more than 9,000 people have been removed from the program. The bill seeks to waive the rules for people who live in areas with high unemployment. It heads to the Republican controlled Senate. It faces an almost certain veto from LePage. (AP)

The triggerman in the Pamela Smart murder case is being released from prison. Billy Flynn becomes a free man today after serving nearly 25 years for shooting Gregg Smart in Derry, New Hampshire. Flynn was 16 years old in 1990 when he and three friends participated in what prosecutors said was Pamela Smart's plot to kill her husband. Flynn pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and served his sentence in Maine. Also being released on parole Thursday in New Hampshire is Patrick "Pete" Randall, who restrained Gregg Smart while Flynn shot him in the head. Pamela Smart, who was 22 when her husband was killed, is serving life in prison without the chance of parole. She admitted seducing Flynn but said she didn't plan her husband's murder. (AP)

Maine officials say a pro-marijuana group can begin collecting signatures in support of a statewide referendum supporting legalization. The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project will ask residents if the question of legalization should be on the ballot in 2016. The group can now begin collecting the 61,123 signatures it needs to get the question to voters. Another group called Legalize Maine got approval to collect signatures for a legalization drive earlier in the spring. (AP)

The Maine Senate has amended a bill that allows adults 21 years old or older to carry concealed handguns without permits. According to the Sun Journal the amendments ensure veterans and active-duty military members who are at least 18 would also be able to carry. Current law requires those wishing to carry concealed handguns to obtain permits from state or local law enforcement or local town officials. The permit requires a criminal background check, an in-state check of an individual's mental health records and proof of handgun-safety training. It also allows for discretion by the issuing agency or officer as to whether the applicant possesses an upstanding "moral character." (Sun Journal)

A Fairfield man was arrested Monday after allegedly strangling a small dog and backing into a woman with his car during an allegedly alcohol-fueled in Winslow.
According to the KJ, 57 year old Reginald Gatto was arrested Monday at his homein Fairfield and charged with cruelty to animals and assault, class D misdemeanor offenses. The dog was not killed in the incident. (centralmaine.com)

More bodies have been pulled from the wreckage of a Chinese cruise ship, but there's been no sign of any survivors after rescuers cut three holes into the overturned hull. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV says the death toll from Monday's capsizing in the Yangtze River now stands at 65, but more than 370 others are feared dead. Only 14 are known to have survived. (AP)

A candlelight vigil is planned in Hong Kong to mark the 26th anniversary of the Chinese government's violent suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square. The vigil is the only large-scale public commemoration of the victims on Chinese soil. The event is taking on greater meaning this year for young people in Hong Kong after last autumn's pro-democracy demonstrations sharpened their sense of unease with Beijing. Hundreds and possibly thousands were killed when soldiers and tanks moved in to crush the Beijing protests in 1989. (AP)

Defense attorneys in the Colorado theater shooting trial now get a chance to cross-examine the state-appointed psychiatrist who concluded James Holmes was mentally ill but legally sane during the 2012 attack that killed 12 people and wounded 70 others. They'll try to counter 22 hours of sometimes chilling videotaped interviews of Holmes talking in a flat, mechanical tone about killing strangers to increase his self-worth. Prosecutors have shown the videos and questioned psychiatrist William Reid over a week. (AP)

Lawyers for former New England Patriots player and convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez are due in court in Boston, where a judge could set a date for his double murder trial. Hernandez is accused of killing two men over a spilled drink at a nightclub in 2012. He's also accused of shooting a witness to the killings in the face, leaving him for dead. Hernandez is not expected to attend Thursday's hearing. He is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted of killing of an acquaintance in 2013. (AP)

Pennsylvania state police are trying to determine why a tractor-trailer collided with a charter bus taking Italian tourists to Niagara Falls, killing three people. More than a dozen people were injured, four of them critically, in Wednesday's crash on Interstate 380 in the Pocono Mountain region. (AP)