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The Boothbay Water District and neighbors still having problems with the expansion of the Boothbay Botanical Gardens. According to WCSH the town’s permits for the expansion have been challenged and the Appeals Board will decide what, if any, steps to take.

For the third year in a row, the Augusta Police Department won the Battle of the Badges foot long taco eating contest. According to WABI the money will go to Special Olympics.

Sen. Susan Collins should say next week if she is running in the 2018 gubernatorial race. According to the Bangor Daily News she has been 'conflicted between her senior post in the Senate and her desire to work on state-level economic development."

Some work being done in Downtown Gardiner area should wrap up in a few weeks. According to Centralmaine.com the project will carry over to next year for some paving.

From the Associated Press:

There are great pumpkins. Then there's Elroy Morgan's pumpkin. The Bangor Daily News reports that his ginormous pumpkin grown in Charleston has squashed the record for the heaviest one ever grown in Maine. Morgan's pumpkin weighed in at 1,756 pounds, a state record.

The trial of a Maine man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend before leading police on the longest manhunt in state history is winding down. The Bangor Daily News reports jurors will begin deliberating the fate of 40-year-old Robert Burton after closing arguments Wednesday in Bangor. Defense lawyers say Burton shot 37-year-old Stephanie "Ginn" Gebo in her Parkman home in 2015 in self-defense. Prosecutors maintain Burton acted out of jealousy. Burton turned himself in after 68 days on the lam.

The U.S. Coast Guard says the Piscataqua River near a bridge under construction connecting New Hampshire and Maine will be closed to all marine traffic for a 10-day period, starting Oct. 17. The Coast Guard says the closure will allow the Maine Department of Transportation and a construction firm to install a new lift span for the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge.

A key player in Maine's lucrative baby eel fishery has decided to plead guilty to violating federal laws by trafficking in poached eels. The Bangor Daily News reports Bill Sheldon and federal prosecutors reached the agreement on Sunday. Sheldon was charged with trafficking in more than a half million dollars' worth of poached baby eels.

An official in the Philippines says the Las Vegas shooter's girlfriend was in that country at the time of Sunday's attack. Marilou Danley arrived in Los Angeles on a flight from Manila Tuesday night and was met by FBI agents. Philippines immigration spokeswoman Antonnette Mangrobang says Danley had arrived in the Philippines on Sept. 25 on a flight from Hong Kong.

A Las Vegas shooting from a high-rise hotel that killed 59 people in a packed concert below has forced other cities to examine their tactics for dealing with this kind of nightmare scenario. In New York, which hosts the Times Square New Year's Eve and other major events surrounded by high-rises, police say they use snipers on rooftops and in helicopters to scan for threats, and they make security sweeps of nearby hotels. But they acknowledge there's only so much that can be done.

President Donald Trump says "We're going to have to wipe out" Puerto Rico's debt in the wake of destruction caused by Hurricane Maria. He tells Fox News in an interview that: "We're going to work something out." The White House did not immediately respond to questions about how the president wanted to do that.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers examined samples where VX nerve agent was found in the death of the half brother of North Korea's leader. The court let the lawyers examine the samples before they are entered as evidence in the murder trial of two women accused of poisoning Kim Jong Nam. Prosecutors wore gloves and advised defense lawyers to do the same because the VX-tainted samples could still be dangerous.

A U.S. travel warning for Cuba following mysterious attacks that harmed nearly two dozen American diplomats has come like a bucket of cold water for thousands of private entrepreneurs on the island. Amid a diplomatic thaw since 2014, many Cubans invested in privately run restaurants, homestay B&Bs and taxi cabs in hopes of cashing in on an expected boom of American travelers. Now entrepreneurs worry they will be frightened away _ even though there has been no word of any tourists affected.

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