It was less expensive to live in Maine, on average, than in the U.S. as a whole, in 2015.

In the Portland-South Portland area — one of Maine's three metropolitan areas — the cost of goods and services was just above the national average, however. Rent in this area was also almost 10 percent above the national average.

Comparatively, rents in Lewiston-Auburn were only about 80 percent of the national average and about 90 percent in Bangor.

The State Senate has supported legislation on a 31 to 4 vote, phasing in an increase in the legal age to buy and use tobacco to 21. Sen. Paul Davis, a Republican from Sangerville, sponsored the bill.

“It's peer pressure that controls people smoking. I believe that, especially when they are young. When they are in high school they want to be like the other boys, the other girls. They pick it up. It’s peer pressure," said Davis.

PARIS — A French prosecutor says a man who was killed when he drove a car packed with arms and explosives into a police convoy had pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State group.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said Thursday the attacker had a huge cache of weapons both at home and in the vehicle used in Monday's rampage.

Molins said evidence from the investigation shows the suspect wanted to join IS forces in Syria and Iraq.

The LePage administration is relaxing certain requirements for child care providers who look after children in their own homes, while unilaterally increasing the amount of money they receive for enrolling low-income children with state-funded subsidies.

The administration says it’s overhauling the way the state treats this particular type of child care setting because it wants to reverse a long-term decline in the number of in-home child care providers and make affordable child care more widely available in rural areas.