Things You Need to Know: Dance Instructor Charged with Sexually Abusing a Teen

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

~Zone forecast from Maine.gov~

A North Monmouth man who has taught dance the region has been arrested on a charge of sexually abusing a teenage girl. Centralmaine.com reports girl one of his students. Officials say the investigation is ongoing.      More from WGME.com

The Winslow committee looking at alternatives curbside trash pickup have  three possible options. Centralmaine.com reports they will talk about those with Town Council at a workshop Tuesday night.

From the Associated Press:

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Support is growing for a Maine proposal to increase taxes on high earners to pay for all elderly and disabled people who need help with daily activities in their homes. Democratic Secretary of State Matt Dunlap on Friday says supporters have enough signatures to get the proposal on the Nov. 6 ballot if lawmakers don't pass it first. The ballot question would increase taxes on high-earning Mainers in order to raise $310 million annually for so-called "universal home care" for the elderly and disabled. Maine People's Alliance spokesman Mike Tipping says employers and employees would together face a new 3.8 percent tax on the portion of income above the amount that's subject to Social Security employment taxes. The campaign has reported receiving a $350,000 boost from nonprofits linked to billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

ROCKPORT, Maine (AP) — The largest fishermen's convention in New England is scheduled to take place this week in Rockport, Maine. The Maine Fishermen's Forum is scheduled for March 1 to 3 at the Samoset Resort in Rockport. The event brings fishermen, lobstermen and clammers together with other members of the industry to discuss the biggest issues in commercial fishing.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Some lawmakers want to make sure public officials show up in person to meetings. A bill set for a Tuesday public hearing would no longer allow some officials to use phones or other technology to remotely participate in public meetings. A legislative advisory panel has said elected officials should have face-to-face contact with the public.

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — Maine's secretary of state will appear at a Bates College event this week to talk about his involvement in President Donald Trump's much-debated and now defunct voter fraud commission. Secretary of State Matt Dunlap was a vocal critic of the commission and filed a lawsuit in November contending it violated the Federal Advisory Committees Act. He is scheduled to appear at Bates on Wednesday during an event sponsored by the college's Harward Center.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine businesses could save as much as $27 million this year thanks to a projected decline in workers' compensation insurance claims. Maine Superintendent of Insurance Eric Cioppa said the decrease should result in lower workers' compensation premiums on average across all industry groups. Maine's largest workers' compensation insurance company The MEMIC Group said it amounts to the largest rate reduction in more than 20 years.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A shipyard fighting for tax breaks and California billionaire pushing to pass a victim rights amendment in Maine are among the top spenders on lobbyists so far this year. Maine lobbyists this month are reporting more than $330,000 in pay since December from clients ranging from Verizon to renewable energy companies. Lobbyists reported $5.2 million in compensation last year. Key decisions for Maine's legislative committees remain on Medicaid expansion, marijuana legalization and tax conformity.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A group of scientists says beech trees are dominating the woodlands of the northeastern United States as the climate changes, and that could be bad news for the forests. The scientists are from the University of Maine and Purdue University and say the move toward beech-heavy forests is associated with higher temperatures and precipitation. Their 30-year study is one of the first to look at such broad changes over a long time period in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — From volunteers to support staff to the joint Korea women's hockey team, people from many cultures bid farewell to each other and to the 2018 Winter Olympics as a swath of the eastern Korean Peninsula readied itself for something novel: relative normalcy. Seven years after a successful Olympic bid that changed its people and its landscape forever, Pyeongchang exhaled.

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — The line of students and their parents wrapped around Stoneman Douglas High School, several thousand people entering the Florida campus for the first time since a gunman took 17 lives nearly two weeks ago. They walked solemnly but resolutely Sunday through the gates to collect backpacks and other belongings left behind as they fled the massacre.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress returns to work under pressure to respond to the outcry over gun violence and facing a list of proposals, some of them from President Donald Trump. The Republican leaders in charge of the House and the Senate have been quiet as Trump has proposed raising the minimum age to purchase assault-style weapons and arming teachers. The president also has suggested that arming teachers is an issue for states to decide.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The leader of the California Senate has received more support from the state Democratic Party than his opponent, longtime U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. But Kevin de Leon also didn't get enough backing this weekend to win the party's endorsement for the seat in Washington. Though party activists rebuked Feinstein, polling shows she enjoys wide support among Democratic voters and independents. They are critical in a race without any well-known Republicans.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is putting the brakes on attempts to address dangerous transportation safety problems from speeding tractor-trailers to sleepy railroad engineers as part of his quest to roll back regulations across the government. A review by The Associated Press of the Transportation Department's rule-making activities shows a dozen safety rules under development or already adopted have been repealed, withdrawn, delayed, or put on the back burner since Trump took office.