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The Kennebec Montessori School in Fairfield is receiving a grant to help build expanded upper elementary-level classes. According to centralmaine.com the school will get $700,000 as part of the USDA’s Rural Development fund program.

Gov LePage has indicated that 2 Maine companies that employ about 400 people may be closing because of high energy costs. According to centralmaine.com he said business were concerned about a recent increase to the minimum wage and high state income taxes, but mostly was focused on energy costs.

From the Associated Press:

The Republican minority in the Maine House of Representatives is getting smaller because a lawmaker says he is leaving the party. Rep. Kevin Battle of South Portland says he is going to become an independent. The Portland Press Herald reports that Rep. Stephen Wood, a Sabattus Republican, says he might also leave the party. Battle's departure means the House Republicans will now have 71 members while the Democrats have 77. He will join two representatives who are not affiliated with either party.

Republican Gov. Paul LePage is set to unveil his budget proposal on Friday. His plan would reduce spending and cut taxes for the state's highest earners.

The Republican minority in the Maine House of Representatives is getting smaller because a lawmaker says he is leaving the party. Rep. Kevin Battle of South Portland says he is going to become an independent. He was recently elected to his second term.

Everyone agrees Maine needs a new psychiatric care residence for people once charged with a crime but found not guilty because of mental illness. But lawmakers appear to be losing their fight for public oversight of Republican Gov. Paul LePage's plan to build a secure, privately-run unit.

President Barack Obama says he hopes tensions between President-elect Donald Trump and the intelligence community will be reduced once Trump's team is put together. Obama says in an interview with NBC Chicago that presidents "can't make good decisions unless we have good intelligence." On Friday, senior intelligence officials will brief Trump on how they determined that Russia interfered with the presidential election by hacking Democratic groups.

Does President-elect Donald Trump still push for Mexico to pay for a wall along the border? Three congressional and transition officials say the latest discussions between congressional Republicans and Trump's transition team would be to use existing legislation authorizing fencing and other technology along the Southern border. And Congress would be asked to ensure that enough money is appropriated to take additional new steps to build the wall.

The last major economic report card for the Obama presidency comes out Friday. Economists surveyed by the firm FactSet predict that employers added 173,000 jobs in December, slightly rising the jobless rate to 4.7 percent.

A train crushed two motorized rickshaws on an ungated crossing in central Pakistan Friday, killing seven schoolchildren. Police say the rickshaw drivers apparently misjudged the speed of the coming train in heavy fog while trying to cross the tracks. Another five children and one rickshaw driver were critically injured.

A man in upstate New York didn't want people reading about his Dec. 29 drunken-driving arrest. The owner of the 12,000-circulation Times of Wayne County says Joseph Talbot bought nearly 1,000 newsstand copies of the New Year's Eve edition at $1.25 each. And police say they had to charge Talbot with refusing to be fingerprinted or photographed. Talbot had told them he didn't want his mugshot in the newspaper. Talbot may not have realized that the paper also published his mugshot online.

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