1. With strong winds moving into Maine today, Central Maine Power is taking steps increase their response time. Gusts up to 55 mph are expected. Gusts as high as 60 mph in southern Maine and southern New Hampshire are also possible. With much of the state in a High Wind Watch, CMP has crews on standby. (WGME)
2. President Donald Trump, with peace on the mind and “great chemistry” as his ace in the hole, travels to Vietnam today to continue courting North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, into a nuclear deal. At a minimum, US officials hope for a more defined road map that would lead North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. (CNN)
3. In nearly every high school sport, Maine needs more referees. The number of basketball officials has declined by 13 percent over the past decade. Soccer has seen a 9 percent decline, baseball 25 percent. Field hockey plays quarterfinal playoff games over two dates because there aren’t enough officials to cover all the action on one day. Help is needed on occasion from refs in New Hampshire and Massachusetts to ensure coverage of girls’ lacrosse games in southern Maine. Seventy percent of game officials quit by the end of their third year, according to a 2017 survey conducted by the National Association of Sports Officials. More than half of the 17,000 respondents said they felt unsafe at least once while performing their job. (Press Herald)
4. Casco’s Kate Hall won the women’s long jump at the 2019 Toyota USATF Indoor Championships in Staten Island, New York Saturday with a 6.51m jump. Hall will be forgoing her senior season at the University of Georgia to train in Maine for the 2019 World Championships and a shot at qualifying for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. (NewsCenterMaine)
5. According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook routinely receives highly sensitive data from apps that track everything from your heart rate to your menstrual cycle. Not only does this data collection happen without users’ knowledge, but it even happens when app users don’t have a Facebook account. Facebook says, “Sharing information across apps is industry standard practice.” At least 11 popular apps were found to be sending user data to Facebook, including the Flo Period & Ovulation Tracker, Instant Heart Rate: HR Monitor and the real estate app Realtor. (CNBC)
Made Hot in Maine by EZ Advocates! Looking to cancel your timeshare? Call 536 6956 to speak w/ a knowledgeable consumer advocate about your timeshare cancellation options.