Things You Need to Know: Hurricane Irma Updates + Wednesday’s Spruce Mountain Lockdown
Here are the things you need to know today......
The lockdown at Spruce Mountain Middle School and High School in Jay lasted for three hours yesterday. According to the Sun Journal there was a report of a student who brought a gun to school. It appears to have been a prank.
Police are investigating a case of a male student making threats to female students at Presque Isle High School. According to WABI the 15 year old boy was threatening the girls trying to get them to send naked photos.
The leadership on the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee want DHHS why they did not investigate the deaths of 133 people receiving services. According to centralmaine.com they also want to hear how it can be prevented in the future.
From the Associated Press:
A new report indicates the number of overdose deaths in Maine is on par with last year, suggesting the numbers are leveling off but still averaging one death per day. Data from Maine's chief medical examiner indicates there were 185 drug overdose deaths in the first six months of the year. That's down slightly from 2016.
The lottery that allows hunters to participate in Maine's expanded deer harvesting season is coming soon. Maine uses a lottery to distribute "any deer" permits that allow hunters to harvest deer of either sex. The lottery is scheduled for Friday, and more permits are at stake this year.
Jury selection is starting in the murder trial of the first person in Maine to be forced to take psychiatric medication to restore his mental capacity. Two days have been set aside for jury selection in the trial of Leroy Smith III. Opening statements will be delivered on Monday, after the jury is seated. Smith is charged with killing and dismembering his father in Gardiner, Maine. He told investigators he acted in self-defense because his father was poisoning his food.
Autumn in New England sometimes seems gorgeous enough to stop your heart, but pursuing foliage on foot is a great way to keep it healthy and beating strong. Scenic trails abound, offering leaf peepers unique, off-the-beaten-path vistas. You can snap photos with your iPhone while it silently logs how many steps and miles you've covered. And fall, crisp and finally free of summer's humidity, is the perfect time to start a fitness routine.
Hurricane Irma has blacked out much of Puerto Rico as the dangerous Category 5 storm raked the U.S. territory with heavy wind and rain while staying just out to sea. Authorities are also struggling to get aid to small Caribbean islands devastated by the storm's record 185 mph (298 kph) winds earlier Wednesday. Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne says nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged when the hurricane's core crossed almost directly over the island early Wednesday.
As Hurricane Irma bears down on Florida, an Associated Press analysis shows a steep drop in flood insurance across the state, including the areas most endangered by what could be a devastating storm surge. According to Federal Emergency Management Agency data, in just five years, the state's total number of federal flood insurance policies has fallen by 15 percent. Fully 59 percent of property owners required to have flood insurance to get federally backed mortgages don't have it.
Pakistan is urging the world to put pressure on Myanmar, where renewed violence has forced out tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims. The foreign minister says the Rohingyas' plight is "a challenge to the conscience" of the world. Political parties and clerics have organized rallies across Pakistan to express their solidarity with Rohingyas and to condemn Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the reported massacres of Rohingyas.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have agreed to push for stronger sanctions against North Korea, including cutting off oil supplies to the country, in their meeting in the Russian port city of Vladivostok. Moon's office said the two leaders agreed to strengthen efforts to persuade Beijing and Moscow to back tougher punitive measures against the North, which has recently conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date.
The Syrian army says an Israeli air raid on a military position in western Syria has killed two soldiers and caused material damage. The army said in a statement that the attack occurred early Thursday and hit a facility near the western town of Masyaf that is close to the coast. While largely staying out of the Syrian civil war, Israel has carried out a number of airstrikes against suspected arms shipments believed to be headed to Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.
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