Basketball Tournament to Help Victims of Domestic Violence Governor Paul R. LePage is encouraging Mainers to lace up their basketball shoes this November to support children affected by domestic violence. November 10 marks the 5th Annual Taylor Tip-Off Tournament, which is an event to raise money for youth who have lost parents by acts of domestic violence. Governor LePage has proclaimed November 10 as Taylor Tip-Off Awareness Day in the State of Maine and joined the Maine Athletic Club and members of Maine Swish basketball on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. at the Augusta YMCA to encourage Mainers to participate in this year’s tournament. The Taylor Tip-Off was started in 2009 by Mark Leclerc of the Maine Athletic Club (MAC) and the Maine Swish basketball team. Kenny Taylor was the assistant coach of Maine Swish, and his then 14-year-old daughter, Kaylee Taylor, played on the team. In April of 2009, Kenny took his own life after murdering his wife, Belinda Taylor, in their Westbrook home. There was no life insurance and no savings account. The Taylor Tip-Off basketball tournament has raised more than $57,000. One hundred percent of the proceeds have been donated to grandparents now raising nine children from four different families impacted by domestic violence in Westbrook, New Gloucester, Winslow and Dennysville, Maine. This year, tragically, there are more children event organizers would like to support, including a two-year-old and four-year-old left parentless when their father stabbed to death their mother in Old Town. “It is an absolute gift to Mark and I to be able to raise money for these families, but we wish they never needed it in the first place,” said Cathy Evers, Taylor Tip-Off tournament co-founder. “A restraining order is just a piece of paper, and it’s no match against a gun or a knife.” Mark Leclerc added, “While our focus remains on directly supporting the families themselves, we fully endorse the electronic monitoring program the governor is supporting in the hopes of preventing children from losing their parents in the first place.” This year, Governor LePage signed a law to develop and implement an electronic pilot project for electronic monitoring of certain domestic violence abusers. In an effort to support the mission of the project $18,000 was provided from the Governor’s contingency fund to match donations raised from the Amy, Coty, and Monica Memorial 5K race/walk held in Dexter in 2012. The Memorial walk raised $36,000, which will go toward implementing a monitoring program. For more information about the Taylor Tip-Off basketball tournament visit taylortipoff.org/TaylorTipOff.org/HOME.html. Math and Reading Proficiency Rates Rise, Work Continues Last week, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) released the statewide results from the 2012-13 Maine High School Assessment (MHSA). The good news? Proficiency in math and reading is on the rise again in our high schools, suggesting students are better prepared for success in college and their careers. Most notable was the nearly 2 percent increase in the number of tested students who achieved proficiency or above in critical reading, up from 47.2 percent in 2011-12 to 48.9 percent in 2012-13, with 8.6 percent of those students exceeding proficiency standards. The percentage of students who tested proficient or above in math also showed a positive uptick, from 47.2 percent in 2011-12 to 48.1 percent in 2012-13, with a record high 4.7 percent of those students exceeding proficiency expectations. It is encouraging to see performance gains in these foundational areas that are used for state and federal accountability and the new state school grading system and that we know are so critical to ensuring student success beyond high school. That said, there is still significant work to do to ensure all students are proficient in math and reading, as well as writing and science, where Maine continued a concerning decline, with drops in writing proficiency from 46.8 percent in 2011-12 to 43.7 percent in 2012-13 and in science from 44.8 percent in 2011-12 to 41.3 percent in 2012-13. High schools have had their 2013 MHSA results in hand since September, and that data is also now available on the Maine DOE’s public data warehouse at maine.gov/doe/dataresources. DOE recommends districts dig into that data to inform opportunities for growth and that they share their improvement strategies and success stories with their communities. Parents are also encouraged to become familiar with their local school’s student performance across all content areas and be asking questions of their teachers, administrators and schools boards about efforts underway to support students and improve their outcomes. Secretary of State Reminds Voters of the Deadline to Request an Absentee Ballot for the November 5, 2013 Referendum Election Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap reminds voters that the deadline to request an absentee ballot for the November 5, 2013 Referendum Election, pursuant to state election law, Title 21-A section 753-B, subsection 2, is Thursday, October 31, 2013. He also encourages all Maine voters to review the Citizens Guide to the Referendum Election. Except in special circumstances allowed by law, voters must request their absentee ballots by the close of business on the Thursday prior to an election. This includes requests to vote the ballot in the presence of the Municipal Clerk. After this deadline, a voter may request an absentee ballot only if he/she completes a Special Circumstances Application and indicates one of four allowable reasons to request an absentee ballot after deadline. The deadline for returning voted absentee ballots has not changed, ballots can be returned until 8 p.m. on Election Day, November 5, 2013. Reward Increased/Eagle Killing The Maine Warden Service was contacted this weekend by John Banks of the Penobscot Nation. Banks indicated that the Penobscot Nation is extremely concerned about Bald Eagles in the State of Maine and they wanted to do what they could to assist with the apprehension of the person who killed the eagle last week in Hermon. The Eagle was located in the area of Hermon Pond near the Souadabscook Stream. Subsequently, the Penobscot Nation has offered to increase the reward by $1000.00 making the total of a $2000.00 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who shot the Bald Eagle in Hermon. Anyone with information should call Operation Game Thief Hotline at 1-800-ALERT-US. Operation Game Thief is a poaching hotline which offers rewards for information leading to arrests for illegal hunting and fishing activities. Callers are able to remain anonymous while still reporting their information and collecting reward money. As we enter into another busy fall hunting season, people are encouraged to report illegal hunting activity that is known to them.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 14:27:29 +0000
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