Central Maine News: Nov 10, 2015

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

A woman said her 11-year-old son has been in a hospital emergency room for a week waiting for a room to open up in a psychiatric hospital. DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew said it’s a problem they're trying to fix, but they need help from the legislature. Meanwhile, many families are waiting far too long to get the services they need.  The family adopted the boy when he was just 5-months-old. He was born with autism and fetal alcohol syndrome. Last week she said he became aggressive. The mom brought him to Maine General in Augusta to try to get him into a psychiatric hospital. The boy will be heading to Spring Harbor Psychiatric Facility Tuesday morning, but she's afraid this could happen again.  (WGME)

The average retail price of gasoline has risen 2.1 cents per gallon in the past week. GasBuddy's daily survey of 1,228 gas outlets in Maine says prices are averaging $2.22 per gallon. The national average has increased 2.7 cents per gallon in the past week to the same price. Maine gas was about 79 cents more expensive per gallon at this time last year, and it was also 2.4 cents per gallon higher a month ago. The national average dipped 10.4 cents per gallon during the last month and is about 71 cents less than a year ago. (AP)

Police say details regarding who was involved in a car crash that killed a Maine high school student will be withheld until prosecutors can review the case. Police say a vehicle crashed into multiple trees and a telephone pole Thursday morning in Buxton. Four teenagers were involved. One of them, identified as 16-year-old Angel Greene of Bonny Eagle High School in Buxton, died at the scene. She was ejected from the SUV. The three others were hospitalized with serious injuries.The  the crash remains under investigation. (AP)

Gov. Paul LePage is headed to Newport for his latest town meeting. The Republican governor will deliver remarks and answer questions Tuesday evening at Nokomis Regional High School. The governor is expected to touch on a broad range of issues, including his goal of reducing energy costs and the state's personal income tax and reforming welfare. (AP)

A Bangor-area lawyer is facing a telephone harassment charge for a phone message he allegedly left for Auburn Mayor Jonathan LaBonte. The racially charged message, left on the mayor's mobile phone, makes references to lynchings and a recent change in state law that allows adults to carry concealed handguns without permits, and took a jab at Gov. Paul LePage. Attorney According to the Sun Journal, 50 year  old Joseph Connors of Bangor, was issued a summons to appear in Lewiston District Court on a charge of harassment by telephone or by electronic communications device on Aug. 10, 2015. (Sun Journal)

Maine has earned an “F” on an integrity index measuring the laws and systems in place to prevent corruption. According to the Bangor Daily News,  a national nonprofit news organization released an investigation into each state’s level of transparency and accountability. The Center for Public Integrity didn’t examine incidents of corruption itself but the strengths and weaknesses of each state’s safeguards. Based on 245 detailed indicators, Alaska earned the best grade in the nation — a C. Just two states earned better than a D+. Maine, which earned a numerical score of 59, was among 11 states receiving failing grades. Maine also earned an F when the center published the results of its first inquiry in 2012. (Bangor Daily News)

Two companies have stepped forward with their qualifications to indicate they’re interested in redeveloping the old TW Dick site in Gardiner. Gardiner is looking to redevelop the area into a medical arts building to house expanded facilities for MaineGeneral Medical Center. Both companies have experience developing projects in Maine. (centralmaine.com)

The Senate is expected today to pass a bill that would ban moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States. The legislation is part of a $607 billion defense policy bill, which passed the House last week. Congress has repeatedly thwarted President Barack Obama's efforts to close Guantanamo Bay's military prison and relocate the remaining detainees to the United States. (AP)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is praising the ruling by a federal appeals court in Texas to continue to block President Barack Obama's plan that would protect some 5 million people from deportation. Twenty-six states have challenged the plan since Obama announced it last November. In a statement, Abbott calls Obama's plan a "lawless executive amnesty program." (AP)

The remains of seven crew members missing since the USS Oklahoma capsized in the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor have been identified. The military says the names of the seven will be released after their families have been told. They were ID'd using dental records. In June, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began digging up the remains of nearly 400 USS Oklahoma sailors and Marines from a veterans cemetery in Honolulu where they were buried as "unknowns." (AP)

The Department of Veterans Affairs has made progress, but it appears it will miss its targets of ending veteran homelessness this year and ending the backlog in disability claims. The latest count available shows about 50,000 homeless veterans on a single night in January 2014. That's a decline of 33 percent from January 2010. Updated results are expected later this month. The number of disability claims pending for more than 125 days has gone down from more than 611,000 in March 2013 to 76,000 currently. (AP)

Chinese authorities say the easing of the country's one-child policy should add more than 30 million people to the country's labor force by 2050. A spokesman for the National Health and Family Planning Commission says more than 90 million people will become eligible to have a second child when China formally moves away from the one-child policy to allow all couples to have two children. (AP)