1. Republican Gov. Paul LePage says the Trump administration is blocking his latest effort to prevent the use of food stamps to purchase soda and candy. A USDA spokesman says the agency doesn’t want to pick winners and losers in the marketplace or pass judgment on the benefits of individual food. The governor plans to revise and resubmit his request. (NewsCenterMaine)
2. CMP says the total cost of the 2017 windstorm is estimated at $69-million. The utility is trying to recover $27-million and $14-million could come from the company’s reserve funds.The remaining $13-million will trickle down to customers as soon as July. CMP says it could be an additional $1.30 on your bill over a year. October’s storm caused the highest number of power outages in Central Maine Power’s history. (NewsCenterMaine)
3. Amazon.com has released a list of 20 regions in the United States and Canada that the online retail giant is considering as possible sites for its second headquarters. Two long-shot proposals to locate the headquarters in Brunswick or Scarborough did not make the final list. Cities that wished to submit proposals had to be located in a metropolitan area with more than 1 million people, have a “stable and business-friendly environment” and have “the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent.” A number of outlandish proposals failed to make the cut; for example, while Stonecrest, Georgia, offered to change its name to Amazon, it didn’t make the shortlist. (Press Herald)
4. After 17-year-old Tyler Barney exposed Apple’s slowdown issues with older iPhone models on Reddit and a plethora of subsequent lawsuits followed as a result, CEO Tim Cook finally revealed in a recent interview that the company will allow users to disable performance throttling soon. During this ABC News discussion, Cook also mentioned Apple will provide stats on the current status of iPhone batteries to its users via a new iOS feature. Cook left a quick side note saying Apple does not recommend disabling performance throttling as he claims its likely degraded batteries will shut down the smartphone altogether. (HubWav)
5. YouTube is trying to shut down the latest viral internet challenge, where people eat Tide Pods, which are quite literally pods filled with Tide laundry detergent. “YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit content that’s intended to encourage dangerous activities that have an inherent risk of physical harm,” the spokesperson told Mashable. “We work to quickly remove flagged videos that violate our policies.” (Mashable)
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