Here are the things you need to  know today......

The Secret Santa of Maine stopped by food pantries Naples and Bridgton yesterday handing out $100 bills.  According to WCSH was inspired by the Secret Santa of Portland who recently retired.

An ATM was stolen yesterday from the Hi-Hat Pancake House in Farmingdale. According to centralmaine.com it was bolted to the floor and had about $7000 in it.

The Waterville City Council voted to accept a $50,000 donation. Centralmaine.com reports will be included in the $300,000 they need to raise to match a  Land and Water Conservation Fund donation for the riverwalk project.

From the Associated Press:

Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins is calling media coverage of her support for a tax overhaul "unbelievably sexist." Collins criticized Tuesday "unbelievably sexist" press coverage. She cited an article that originally said she didn't cry after meeting with protesters. Collins said she supports the legislation because it'll grow the economy and includes amendments she proposed. She's also said she has assurances that Congress will pass bills she backs to shore up the health insurance market. Democrats have been claiming Collins is being played by Republicans.

Maine utility regulators are asking the state's two power companies for answers on its response to an October windstorm that left roughly half a million people without power. The Maine Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday said the extent and duration of the power outages called for an investigation of the utilities' preparedness and response to the Oct.29 rain and wind storm.

The Maine ethics commission is set to meet and discuss its investigation into the financing of a failed, multimillion-dollar effort to build a third casino in the state. Ethics commissioners last month levied a record-setting $500,000 in fines against the four committees behind the referendum to allow a casino in York County. Commissioners said the committees missed deadlines for filing disclosures that accurately reflected who was funding the campaign.

A federal judge in Maine has heard arguments on a case concerning the release of funding for job training and workforce development programs. Brunswick nonprofit Coastal Counties Workforce Inc. contended Monday that Republican Gov. Paul LePage is illegally withholding money that the U.S. government has earmarked for workforce development programs in southern Maine. The Portland Press Herald reports LePage's administration contends no one has been denied services of funding at this point.

An AP investigation has found that between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians died in the final battle to drive Islamic State extremists out of the Iraqi city of Mosul. That figure, based on morgue lists and multiple databases tracking casualties over nine months, is nearly 10 times higher than previously reported. AP also found that Iraqi or coalition forces were responsible for at least 3,200 civilian deaths. The coalition has acknowledged just 326 deaths between October 2016 and July 2017.

Senate Republicans have passed the most sweeping rewrite of the nation's tax laws in more than three decades, setting the stage for a final House vote Wednesday. The House passed the bill earlier Tuesday. But the Senate had to make minor changes so the bill would comply with Senate budget rules. The Senate vote early Wednesday was 51-48, with all Republicans in favor and all Democrats opposed.

A Boston attorney who has represented dozens of people who say they were sexually abused by priests says Cardinal Bernard Law's death has reopened old wounds. Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said that "many victims are reminded of the pain." Law, who died early Wednesday in Rome, was the Boston archbishop in 2002 when court documents revealed he had failed to stop priests who molested children.

The public agency that owns the tracks where an Amtrak train derailed near Seattle says a system that could have detected the speeding and automatically slowed the train isn't expected to be completed on the 15-mile span until next spring. The Amtrak train was traveling at 80 mph in a 30 mph zone Monday when it raced off the rails, killing three people.

U.S. investigators say preliminary information indicates that the emergency brake on the Amtrak train that derailed in Washington state went off automatically. National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr told reporters Tuesday that the brake was not manually activated by the train's engineer.

More From B98.5