1. Most of Maine’s electricity customers will pay higher rates next year. The prices apply to customers of Central Maine Power and Emera’s Bangor Hydro district who receive the “standard offer,” a fixed rate approved by state utilities’ regulators each year as a default electricity option. The rates for 2018 are the result of a months-long regular review process by the Maine Public Utilities Commission, unrelated to the recent storm outages. The total average residential bill will rise about 5 percent monthly, according to the PUC. That percentage includes the electricity rate, distribution costs, taxes and other costs. Which comes out to about an extra $4.52 per month for the average household. (BDN)
2. December 6th in Cape Elizabeth, food sellers will begin charging 5 cents for single-use carry-out bags and will no longer be allowed to use plastic foam food containers. The Town Council approved the environmentally motivated ordinances this week, following South Portland, Portland, Falmouth, Freeport and other Maine communities. (PH)
3. Aron Baynes matched his career high with 21 points, Kyrie Irving scored 19 and the Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers 107-96 on Wednesday night for their 10th straight victory. Celtics: Host Charlotte on Friday night. (W6CSH)
4. Uber unveiled plans to bring affordable flying taxis to Los Angeles by 2020. The vehicle is intended to soar over traffic congestion, sharply reducing city travel times. Uber hopes it will eventually become a form of mass transport and cost commuters less than using their own car, though initially it will be more expensive than that, according to the company. Uber is joining NASA’s project to expand air traffic systems. (ABC7)
5. Instagram is rolling out an update that will allow users to upload any video or picture from their library — regardless of whether it was taken within the past 24 hours. Previously, the workaround was to re-save, screenshot, or edit the metadata on the image or video so that it appears new in your library, tricking Instagram into thinking you’d just captured some fresh new content. Since Stories debuted on Instagram in August 2016, the app has seen a huge rate of growth, adding 200 million daily users as of September 2017. Snapchat’s growth, on the other hand, has slowed since the feature launched on Instagram.
(Verge)
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