Eco-grafitto

This could be bigger than the Valentine's Phantom. Imagine if moss graffiti started springing up all over town.

Ron Paul Mainers

Instead of belaboring the insultingly reductive question of whether Hillary supporters will back Sarah Palin just because she's female, perhaps we should be wondering how all those die-hard Ron Paul-ians are going to vote this November. After all, there were a lot of them in Maine. They're talking about it over at AsMaineGoes. 

City Council to consider smoking regulation

It's not on tonight's online agenda, but the City Council will consider a compromise proposal to ban smoking on bar decks and patios until 10 p.m.

If you're like me, you don't start smoking until 10 p.m. anyway, because that's when you start feeling tipsy.

FairPoint and New England 911 callers - three for three!

That's right, FairPoint problems were behind 911 call failures in Maine in April, May, and June and in New Hampshire in late June. (See "We Told You So," by Jeff Inglis, July 4.) Now Vermont has been struck, too, according to an Associated Press report, beautifully headlined, "Vt. 911 calls go to 'black hole.'"

 How long will it be before no phone calls go through at all?

Where do you want our money going?

From the Boring-But-Important files: There are several Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Priority Task Force public hearings coming up -- and they give Portlanders the opportunity to weigh in on where they think millions of dollars of federal funds are most needed. 

On September 3, 8, 9, and 10 (that's tomorrow, and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week), the task force will seek public input on how to prioritize approximately $2.1 million in federal funding. Tomorrow and Monday, the focus will be on education, employment, public health, and "safe and strong communities," according to a release sent out by the city. Next Tuesday and Wednesday, the focus will shift to economic development, housing, and public infrastructure needs (the first night is for residents and local business people, the second night is for the "development community").

"The projects that come forth under those priorities are the ones that will be funded," says Housing and Community Development program manager and CDBG point person Amy Grommes Pulaski. "Until the applications come in its difficult to know what will be funded. However, historically the program has funded a number of social service organizations, sidewalks and parks."

Keep in mind that water infrastructure improvements, the skate park, and bicycle paths could fall under some of these subject headings. So could energy efficiency measures / projects. "Considering the current cost of heating oil, it is likely energy efficiency will be discussed at some or all of the meetings," Pulaski says. 

Savaging Sarah Palin

The McCain campaign can hardly say they didn't ask for it, by selecting someone who two years ago was the mayor of a town smaller than Cape Elizabeth - and who couldn't vote on town council business unless there was a tie. But it's actually kind of surprising how much material there is now becoming available on Alaska governor Sarah Palin. Not much of it looks very flattering.

Here are three items from today's blogosphere, one about Sarah Palin's amazingly right-wing position on abortion, and two to do with Sarah Palin's announcement that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant (and the fact that the announcement was intended to counter allegations that Trig, the four-month-old baby with Down syndrome, was really Bristol's and not Sarah's).

On the Salon "War Room" blog, Thomas Schaller writes:

Both Sarah Palin and John McCain back abstinence-only education. No surprises there.

What's galling is this: When the subject is a pregnancy to an unwed, minority teenage mother growing up in some (presumably Democratic) urban area, that pregnancy becomes fodder for lectures from conservatives about bad parenting, the perils of welfare spending and so on. But when the subject is a pregnancy to an unwed, white teenager from some small town in a Republican state, that pregnancy is...a celebration of the wonders of God's magnificence--and choosing life!

"at first glance it seems to indicate that the Republican party is so pro-life that they'll happily broadcast the pregnancy of a minor to the world if it somehow seems to quash rumors of that same minor's potential pregnancy of a few months ago."

And Drew Westen on Huffington Post says this:

"the position she and others on the right have articulated gives every rapist the right to pick the mother of his child. That position is tantamount to a Rapist's Bill of Rights, which privileges the rights of rapists and child molesters over the rights of their victims. Those are McCain-Palin's "family values," and they are not mainstream American values."

NBC Nightly News asks: Press Herald's 'final edition?'

In a case of struggling media reporting on struggling media, Brian Williams closed last night's NBC Nightly News broadcast with a report from Portland, Maine, with people talking about the troubles the Portland Press Herald has been having.

The graphic for the segment was the Press Herald's logo over the words "FINAL EDITION?"

It streams here.

I know they did at least one interview that never aired as part of the segment. Portland state Rep. Herb Adams spoke with the reporter, and even offered them the opportunity to film his own personal copy of the issue the Portland Phoenix put out two years ago this week. The cover story then? This one.

Sadly, NBC didn't use that clip.

When I talked to the reporter last week, I sent her links to some of my stories about the PPH, and she asked if I was willing to appear on camera. Despite my willingness, I never heard from her again - and still haven't.

And NBC didn't mention the Phoenix or any other media in town at all in their piece, leaving the impression that if the Press Herald closed, the whole city would be without any news at all.

"Environmentally progressive sport"

A Portland man will travel next month to Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats to drive an electric race car (fashioned in his basement!) at the World of Speesd 2008 event. C. Michael Lewis will drive his 10-foot-long, one-person vehicle around a closed-loop course for one hour, to see how far he can get on one kilowatt-hour of battery. In the past, he’s gotten 53 miles, a national record for Electrathon, an organization aimed at advancing both the technology and public awareness of electric vehicles.

Venue watching, Free Street edition

Rumor has it that...

On September 1, Arabica will close temporarily as it relocates down the street to 2 Free Street -- the storefront formerly occupied by the Oyster gift shop. Expect to see a few more professor-types wandering the streets. 

Head Games Salon, which picked up Best Haircut, Best Mani/Pedi, Best Massage and Best Place to Get Pampered in this year's Portland Phoenix Best awards, will be moving to 116 Free Street (the Portland Conservatory of Music building), and joining forces with a new eco-conscious healing arts center, The Landing.

A little insider info from the PPH

In Sunday's Washington Post, ex-Portland Press Herald DC correspondent Jonathan Kaplan laments the decreasing number of Washington correspondents reporting for regional and local newspapers around the country. It's as much a plea for his old job back as anything else - of course, the guy might properly claim to have been duped, as in December 2007 the PPH hired him away from The Hill, where he had worked for five years, and then barely six months later laid him off

But his piece also shows how well the Press Herald brass handled the layoffs - while he was being interviewed before being hired, PPH execs were "proud ... they had a bureau in Washington ... (and) never implied that the lone Maine reporter's seat in the Capitol was in jeopardy of growing cold."

But lo, on June 23, a human-resources staffer sent Kaplan himself an e-mail intended for his bosses, asking when he'd be canned. It wasn't until three days later that the editor actually bothered to confirm what, at that point, had to be some serious suspicions.

And he ends the piece with an ironic bit political-theater reporting that Kaplan says justifies keeping DC correspondents. Back in May, he tells Post readers, US Senator Susan Collins praised an aspect of the farm bill, and then voted against the entire bill.

If that's his strongest argument for having a Washington bureau, it's a weak argument indeed - Kaplan was on the job in May, and never told his readers about that event.

Stay sober on Labor Day

There could be an extra price to pay for Mainers who drive drunk over Labor Day weekend. Yes, we know it's always a bad idea, and it comes with various fines and jail or prison time. But this year, the Maine State Police and the Maine Beverage Company (the private company contracted to operate the state's liquor monopoly) will have video crews in police cars to film arrests - footage that will then be used in TV ads to discourage drunk driving.

The announcement of the new initiative says the ads will be in the style of the Cops television show - and we know how that show's arrestees look, even if the narrator does announce at the beginning that "all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law."

Pagans at the DNC

I love it when Mike Hein of the Christian Civic League sends out email blasts that are intended to incite indignation and disgust -- often, they alert me to something interesting and Maine-related that I might have otherwise missed. Take the email he sent out on Sunday, in which he reprints excerpts from Blue Pagans at the DNC, a blog penned primarily by Democratic Mainer Rita Moran, about pagan involvement at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. I think the excerpts are supposed to inspire outrage by themselves; Hein doesn't indulge in his typical editorializing (other than a few emphases added -- which, of course, he doesn't point out for the reader).

Moran's blog (on which her Kennebec County Democratic Committee co-chair Ed Lachowicz is also posting) contains thoughtful observations about the intersection of religion and the Demcratic Party, from a perspective that's not frequently voiced. For more observations and anecdotes from Denver, check out this week's Phoenix, where we'll have interviews with Lachowicz, state rep Jon Hinck, Portland's NAACP president Rachel Talbot Ross, and Danny Muller of Peace Action Maine. 

Bid farewell to Portland's hip-hop jamz

95.9 FM (WRED), Portland's hip-hop station, is going off the air. The station serves as something of "a main artery for a lot of hip-hop fans," according to local hip-hop artist Sontiago. Beginning on September 1, the station's hip-hop beats (sorry, I mean "rhythmic top 40") will be replaced by sports programming from Boston's popular WEEI, which will also broadcast on 95.5 FM (WJJB). That station's programming (JJB's that is) will jump to 96.3 (WLOB), Southern Maine's news/talk radio station. In turn, WLOB's programs will only be heard at its AM dial position -- 1310 AM -- and, in the case of the WLOB FOX Morning News show, on FOX 23 TV.

Hey Tom Allen, the answer is Yes

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee just sent us a quick note saying they had a bunch of videos showing a "behind the scenes" look at the race for US Senate, which pits Democratic US Representative Tom Allen against Republican incumbent Susan Collins.

Here are the names of the five videos they told us about (they're linked, but trust us and finish reading before you click).

"Canvassing in Maine"

"A day on a lobster boat"

"Fly fishing with Tom Allen"

 "Is Tom Allen boring?"

"On the trail with Allen"

 So which one of those boringly titled options do you think we watched first? You're right. And the answer is above. Even as a canned piece of promotion not paid for by Tom Allen's campaign, the idea of posing such a question (even rhetorically) is dangerous. And then when the answer is a sleepy video with a lullaby soundtrack, the DSCC should know it's missing the boat.

Give it try for yourself. (NSFW only because you'll fall asleep at your desk.)

A daily paper notices our prison series!

Well, sort of. While Maine Public Broadcasting has been good about paying attention to our ongoing revelations about the conditions - living and working - at the Maine State Prison, none of the state's daily papers has picked up what appears - to us - to be a major story. (Never mind, we like owning scoops for two-and-a-half years and counting. Thanks, daily journalists!)

But today the Bangor Daily News has broken the silence. Admittedly, it's with an opinion piece by someone not on the paper's staff. But now, at least, readers of the BDN who happen not to read the Phoenix will find out about how badly Maine officials have been treating Maine inmates - Mainers torturing Mainers - for years.

Thanks, John Buell of Southwest Harbor!