Things You Need to Know: Gas Prices Up for Maine
Here are the things you need to know today......
A tick-borne disease, besides Lyme, is rising in the state. WGME reports the Maine CDC had 500 cases of "anaplasmosis" this year. Only 94 cases were reported a few years ago. It comes from the Deer tick. The CDC says symptoms of anaplasmosis includes fever, headache, and muscle aches.
Augusta is working on plans to improve the snow removal plan this winter. Centralmaine.com reports they will skip trash pick when they coincide with a strom to drivers can plow instead and use all tap into other department for help during a storm.
From the Associated Press:
The price of gasoline up in Maine. GasBuddy’s found Maine prices were up 3.8 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $2.55. The national average went up 1.5 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.55. It’s 8.6 cents per gallon higher than last month, and 39.8 cents per gallon higher than a year ago.
The Maine Legislature is expected to consider options including burying power lines and adopting more aggressive tree cutting after a wind storm knocked out power for up to 10 days. Democratic Rep. Seth Berry, co-chair of Joint Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology, tells WGME-TV that his panel will review proposals that could've reduced the number and duration of the power outages. Central Maine Power spokesman John Carroll said the utility is proud of the swift and safe response to the storm. He said that if there's going to be a review then the Maine Public Utilities Commission is in the best position to do so.
The cold weather that's crept into Maine is good for ski resorts that are starting to open. Sunday River opened last weekend and already is running seven days a week. Sugarloaf had enough snow to open last weekend, and it will reopen on Friday for the season.
Officials at a Maine park for native animals say the facility has recovered from the damage done by a heavy fall storm. The Maine Wildlife Park had to shut down for three days due to the damage from the Oct. 30 storm. WGME-TV reports the park reopened without power for the rest of that week. Maine Wildlife Park Superintendent Curt Johnson says power was later restored.
Federal fishing regulators are considering requiring more commercial fishermen to assist with a program that seeks to protect sea turtles. The National Marine Fisheries Service requires observers to be placed on fishing boats in some fisheries to collect data that help with minimization of harm to turtles. The service says it wants to include a group of mid-Atlantic fisheries to the program next year because of the need to collect more data about accidental catch of sea turtles.
Maine officials say they are notifying some 2,100 people of an incident that might have caused their personal information to be temporarily exposed. The Maine Office of Information Technology says the potential breach happened on Sept. 21 as part of a system upgrade. The office says a contractor posted information from a Maine Department of Health and Human Services child welfare database to a third-party website not within the state system.
President Donald Trump's oldest son has released a series of private Twitter exchanges between himself and WikiLeaks during and after the 2016 election, including pleas from the website to publicize its leaks. Donald Trump Jr.'s release of the messages on Twitter comes hours after The Atlantic first reported them. Trump Jr. downplayed the exchanges as he released them.
A special counsel could be appointed to look into Clinton Foundation dealings and an Obama-era uranium deal. The Justice Department says, in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has directed senior federal prosecutors to "evaluate certain issues" raised by Republican lawmakers. The committee is holding an oversight hearing Tuesday.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is promising to rebuild the country's earthquake-devastated area in the "shortest" timespan possible. Rouhani, who was visiting the area Tuesday, said his administration plans to support reconstruction with both handouts and loans.
President Donald Trump says he's hopeful that three American college basketball players detained in China will get to come home soon. Trump says he had a long conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the case. Trump says "they're working on it right now." Chinese authorities detained the UCLA freshmen after they were arrested on charges of shoplifting before a recent game against Georgia Tech in Shanghai.
Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama is disputing a new accusation that he sexually assaulted a 16-year-old waitress in the late 1970s. The allegation was made by Beverly Young Nelson at a tearful news conference in New York Monday. Moore, who faces Democrat Doug Jones in a Dec. 12 special election, says the allegation is "absolutely false." Moore says he did not know Nelson and "never did what she said I did."
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