Le Journal

The Penobscot County commissioners may not slash $1 million from the proposed 2026 budget, despite the advisory committee telling them to. The advisory committee last week approved a $35.1 million budget, but that budget only included one department’s funding. The motion instead pushed the responsibility to make specific cuts to the commissioners. But commissioners may not be held to the motion, meaning the final budget could be more or less than the committee intended. The three commissioners, Andre Cushing, Dave Marshall and Dan Tremble, said finding $1 million to cut from the budget would be hard in what they said was already a lean year. This is the first time commissioners or county officials knew of the committee approving a budget amount rather than a departmental budget. Approving an amount without line-item funding requires the commissioners to make cuts that would previously have been the committee’s decision. The commissioners spoke out against the large budget decrease during the December committee meeting but didn’t say if they would adhere to the motion or not. The county’s proposed 2026 budget spiked from the previous year, mainly due to a $3.5 million shortfall as of the beginning of the year. Funding the jail through undesignated funds instead of budget funds in previous years has created a $7 million budget crisis. The commissioners are expected to vote on the budget at their Wednesday meeting. There will be a public hearing on Dec. 23. Cushing said he wants the budget to get “as close to the request as possible,” while Tremble said “reasonable reductions” would be made but may not amount to the committee’s motion. “[The committee] sincerely wants to give us the opportunity to make decisions,” Cushing said. The committee’s approved budget can be overruled by the commissioners if they vote unanimously, which commissioners seemed to agree to do. Voting unanimously also avoids calling the committee back to pass a line-item budget, which may have been needed to move forward, according to Rudman Winchell attorney Tim Pease. Pease advised the commissioners on what legitimacy the committee’s motion had before they moved forward. The motion is not direct, he said, partially because state statute isn’t clear if the committee has to pass just a budget figure or an itemized budget, but the commissioners have multiple options to move forward. The three options Pease presented were that the 15-person committee could be called back to pass a cost-center budget, the commissioners could move forward based on the figures in the motion or they could vote unanimously. The commissioners are looking into all possible options, not just voting unanimously, Marshall said. Before discussing specific changes, Tremble brought up $465,000 in revenue from the fund balance that the county may not have. The funding hadn’t been brought up in the previous two committee meetings. County officials don’t know what the fund balance is, County Administrator Gary Lamb said. They won’t know what the balance is until the 2023 audit is complete. The 2023 audit is supposed to be finished in the coming months, Treasurer Glenn Mower said at the committee meeting last week. Tremble and Lamb questioned if the fund balance would have the $465,000 budget for. Without knowing, the amount will be removed from revenue and be factored into the funds commissioners are looking to cut. There are no determined changes to the budget, but commissioners spoke about multiple departments that would have their funding slashed. That includes a possible $120,000 cut from building and improvement, $40,000 from the Penobscot Regional Communication Center, $26,000 in natural gas savings in county buildings due to new heating systems, and $40,000 from information technology. Sheriff Troy Morton spoke about what possible cuts from his department and the jail could be. The sheriff’s department could freeze one clerical position that paid $57,700, cut $15,000 from officer buyout…

Le Royaume-Uni a quitté Erasmus, auquel il participait depuis 1987, lorsqu'il est sorti de l'UE début 2021.

NEW YORK (AP) — A posthumous memoir by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s best known accusers, Virginia Roberts Guiffre, has sold 1 million copies worldwide two months after its release. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced Tuesday that more than half the sales for “Nobody’s Girl,” came out of North America; in the U.S., the book is now in its 10th printing after an initial run of 70,000 copies. Guiffre’s book, co-written by author-journalist Amy Wallace, was published in early October. It helped revive criticism of former Prince Andrew, whom Guiffre alleged had sex with her when she was 17. And it heightened demands that the Justice Department release its files on Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Guiffre died by suicide in April at age 41. “This is a bittersweet moment for us,” Guiffre’s family, including siblings Sky Roberts and Danny Wilson, said in a statement. “We are enormously proud of our sister, and the impact she continues to have on the world. We’re also filled with so much sorrow that she couldn’t be here to witness the impact of her words. In her absence, our family remains committed to ensuring her voice is everlasting.” Within weeks of Guiffre’s book being published, King Charles III stripped Andrew of his remaining titles and evicted him from his royal residence. Andrew has long denied Giuffre’s claims but stepped down from royal duties after a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to rebut her allegations. He paid millions in an out-of-court settlement in 2022 after Giuffre filed a civil suit against him in New York. While he didn’t admit wrongdoing, he acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.

The 5-year-old kindergarten boy who was fatally hit by a school bus in Standish on Tuesday morning has been identified. The boy has been identified as Simon Gonzalez, according to Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce. The child was struck at around 8 a.m. on Route 35, just blocks from the Edna Libby Elementary School, where he attended classes. There is no confirmation yet on exactly how this happened. According to Joyce, one other student was on the bus when the collision occurred. The school bus was towed away and will be impounded by the sheriff as evidence. Bonny Eagle Superintendent Clay Gleason issued a statement to the community on Tuesday morning saying that the elementary school would be dismissing at 11:30 a.m. Gleason said that he has been in communication with the sheriff and that a full investigation will take place to determine how fatal crash happened. “In this difficult time please keep those directly impacted in your thoughts – first and foremost the family of the student, as well as the students and staff of Edna Libby. Speculation or blame on social media is not productive or helpful and is disrespectful to the memory of the student and their family,” Gleason said. “The immediate focus is on supporting the family, and students and staff at Edna Libby. We have counselors on site to support students and staff.”

Nés en 2019 au 39 rue des Remparts d’Ainay, les Ateliers ont comme fondateurs, Olga Azocar, experte en maroquinerie, décoration intérieure et brocante, puis Nicolas Mazard, artisan cordonnier.