Things You Need to Know: Heating Oil Prices Down Recently

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

Waterville's downtown parking committee has been working on idea and suggestions on the issue of parking as downtown grows. According to centralmaine.com the committee is looking at their ideas and a study that was done.

The Buker Community Center has an indoor Petanque Court! Centalmaine.com reports the Mill Park Pétanque Club can play in the winter as they wait for the petanque courts at Mill Park open in the spring.

The price of heating oil in Maine has dropped 4 cents from mid-February. The statewide average cash price for No. 2 heating oil was $2.26 per gallon this week. According to the Sun Journal, the statewide price of kerosene was also down 4 cents, to $2.79. Propane prices have fallen 4 cents in that time and are now down to $2.55 per gallon.

From the Associated Press:

A $29 million spending package that bolsters the state's rainy day fund and expands access to drug treatment has become law. The supplemental budget includes using $4.8 million in state and federal funds to expand medication-assisted treatment to 400 low-income and uninsured individuals.

Eight county jails in Maine facing shortfalls are asking for $2.9 million in additional annual funding. Law enforcement and corrections officials say the 2015 overhaul of the state's county jail system has failed to fix crowding and budgetary issues.Jail officials said they are being as fiscally responsible as possible, while some lawmakers expressed concern about higher state and county taxes.

A Portland man who was convicted of shooting another man in 2014 and then fled the state is due to be sentenced. Abdirahman Haji-Hassan  was convicted of murder in December, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

The chairman of the City Council in Bangor, Maine, says the city would have a better chance to gain tax revenue from legal marijuana if it got into the business of selling it. Joe Baldacci's comments come as cities and towns around Maine are gearing up for the state to approve regulations governing marijuana sales.

A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's revised travel ban hours before it was to take effect. The judge in Hawaii rejected the government's claims that the ban is about national security, not discrimination. The judge also said that Hawaii's tourism industry would suffer. Trump calls the ruling an example of "unprecedented judicial overreach."

President Donald Trump wants to privatize the nation's air traffic control operations, a top priority of the airline industry. In the president's budget proposal, he says spinning off air traffic operations from the Federal Aviation Administration and placing them under an "independent, non-governmental organization" would make the system "more efficient and innovative while maintaining safety."

President Donald Trump is about to unveil a $1.15 trillion budget that would cut funding from a dozen departments but would increase military spending significantly. The $54 billion boost for the military is the largest since President Ronald Reagan's Pentagon buildup in the 1980s. The proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would receive an immediate $1.5 billion infusion in the ongoing fiscal year.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says cooperation with allies Japan and South Korea is "critical" to addressing the threat from North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. Tillerson is in Japan, meeting with Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on his first trip to Asia as the top U.S. diplomat. He'll meet later Thursday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.