1. On her first day in office, Governor Janet Mills lost no time keeping a promise she has been making for months when she signed an executive order to expand Medicaid in Maine. The expansion will make Medicaid available to roughly 70,000 more low-income Mainers. Democrats have been trying to pass the expansion for six years and had little luck under Mills predecessor, Gov. Paul LePage who had vehemently opposed the expansion and refused to implement it even after Maine voters passed it in November 2017. (NewsCenterMaine)
2. Portland police are investigating a bank robbery that occurred Thursday morning near Monument Square. Lt. Robert Martin said a man entered the Bank of America branch at One City Center shortly after 11 a.m. He passed the teller a note demanding money, and he left with an undisclosed amount of cash. (Press Herald)
3. Six college students who hosted parties last February that a 19-year-old from Orono attended before she was found dead in a snowbank the next day pleaded guilty Thursday to the same misdemeanor charge. Alexie Adams, 19, died accidentally of acute intoxication from a combination of cocaine and alcohol, according to the Maine Medical Examiner’s Office. Hypothermia was found to be a contributing factor in her death because the temperature was 2 degrees in Orono the night of Feb. 2, 2018. (WGME)
4. When the official Coachella lineup dropped on Wednesday night, plenty of people were unsure whether listed act “Gucci Gang” was a typo or a legitimate artist. After much speculation, Coachella promoters said the name wasn’t a typo, and the festival’s website updated to clear up the confusion. Coachella’s ‘Gucci Gang’ is Gucci Mane, Lil Pump and Smokepurpp performing together. (Twitter)
5. China became the first country to land a spacecraft on the dark side of the moon on Thursday. The U.S., China and the former Soviet Union have all landed on the near side of the moon, but China is the first to land on the far–or dark–side. “With the landing on the far side of the moon,” China has “raced to the front,” said a Chinese astronomy professor. (AP News)
