Central Maine News: August 6, 2015

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

Republican Gov. Paul LePage is bringing together top law enforcement officials, substance abuse treatment advocates and other experts to try to address Maine's growing drug problem. LePage said Wednesday that he will hold a summit this month designed to develop new ways to fight heroin trafficking and addiction in Maine. LePage's announcement comes after law enforcement officials said that at least 14 people overdosed on heroin and other opiates last weekend in Portland.

In a letter Wednesday, LePage urged Senate President Mike Thibodeau and House Speaker Mark Eves to fund additional drug enforcement agents, saying more resources are needed to fight the drug epidemic. Eves says the budget lawmakers passed this year will fund up to six new agents and two new drug prosecutors focused on major drug crimes. (AP)

Officials say that a 75-year-old woman and her dog have died after they were struck by a car in Harpswell. The Cumberland County Sherriff's Office said that Rita Douglas was walking her dog on Harpswell Islands Road on Wednesday when she was struck by a pickup truck. The office said both Douglas and her dog were killed on impact. Officials say the driver was 16-year-old Isabella Slocum, who is also from Harpswell. Rita Douglas' husband, Robert Douglas, told The Portland Press Herald that the two were planning to celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary on Sunday. Robert Douglas said his wife was born in Germany and they met while he was stationed there with the military. (AP)

Police in a Maine town say a man stole three vehicles in one early morning spree, crashing one, driving another into a sand pit and driving a third down a snowmobile trail. The Sun Journal reports police are charging 20-year-old Tye Hall of Livermore Falls with three counts of felony theft and unauthorized taking of a motor vehicle. Police say all three vehicles had keys left inside them. Police say Hall took the first car at about midnight and crashed it in Fayette. He then took another into a sand pit early Wednesday morning. They say he stole the final vehicle at about 5:40 a.m. on Wednesday. Attempts to reach Hall were not successful. It was unclear if Hall has a lawyer. (AP)

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded a large sum of money Maine. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King made the announcement Wednesday. The grant money adds up to a total of $8,711,309. More than 200-thousand is going to Aroostook County, 185-thousand to Washington County. The funds will help the state prepare for, protect against, and respond to potential acts of terrorism or catastrophes. (WABI)

Today is the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Tens of thousands of people stood for a minute of silence at 8:15 a.m. at a ceremony in Hiroshima's peace park near the epicenter of the August 6, 1945 attack. The U.S. bomb killed 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped over Nagasaki three days later, killed another 70,000, prompting Japan's surrender in World War II. Today, Hiroshima's mayor called for President Barack Obama and other world leaders to step up efforts toward making a nuclear-weapons-free world. (AP)

Malaysia says the piece of airplane wing that washed up on the French island of Reunion is indeed part of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared March 8, 2014, with 239 people on board. But authorities in France, the U.S. and Australia are stopping short of full confirmation. A U.S. official familiar with the investigation says the wing piece clearly is from a Boeing 777, but says experts in France haven't yet been able to find anything linking it specifically to the missing plane. (AP)

For the Republican Party, the narrowing of that vast field of presidential hopefuls begins in earnest tonight with the first debate of the 2016 campaign. Ten of the 17 GOP candidates will take part in the prime-time debate in Cleveland. And real-estate mogul Donald Trump will stand at center stage, thanks to his status as the top performer in several recent national polls. (AP)

Police in Shreveport, Louisiana are searching for a suspect who shot and killed a police officer. Police say the officer was responding to the report of a suspicious person inside a home last night. The armed man apparently was inside the home and was threatening to harm people. Police have been searching the area with police dogs, and TV station KTBS is reporting that officers are searching cars and restricting access to the area. (AP)

Police in Tennessee say a man who attacked a movie theater Wednesday was reported as a missing person to the Murfreesboro police department on Monday. Police say 29-year-old Vincent David Montano was carrying a hatchet and a pellet gun when he unleashed pepper spray on the audience in Antioch. Police say Montano also was carrying two backpacks and was wearing a surgical mask, possibly to protect himself from the pepper spray. A SWAT team shot him dead as he tried to leave the theater through a back door. (AP)