Phoenix contributor Dan Kennedy swung through the FCC hearing last night. Read his take on his blog, Media Nation.

6/29/2007 1:53:13 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

Late last week, the US Senate passed its version of a federal energy bill, which included crucial increases in the nation’s fuel-efficiency standards (although one wonders whether 10 miles per gallon over the next 10 years is really the fastest progress we can make).

 

Tucked into the bill is a $60 billion allocation for ‘abrupt climate change’ – and according to the Portland Press Herald, “the University of Maine…is involved in that research.”

 

We dug a little deeper to find out: a) what abrupt climate change is, and b) how UMaine is involved.

 

Turns out the Climate Change Institute, housed at the Orono campus, is involved in cutting-edge climate change research, studying glacial deposits and ice cores for what they can tell us about the atmosphere, weather patterns, and climate history.

 

What they’ve found, in Antarctica, New Zealand, Greenland, and the Arctic (among other locations), is a history of “abrupt climate change events…that coincide with major changes in civilization,” says Institute director Paul Andrew Mayewski, who studies ice cores.

 

What kinds of major changes? Oh, just the collapse of Mesopotamia, the Mayan Empire, and the Norse colonies.

 

“When they occur, they’re very dramatic and long lasting,” he says. And when they’ve happened, it’s because of a dramatic increase in one of the things that controls climate (i.e. the composition of the atmosphere). In other words, right now, as humankind increases the amount of greenhouse gases in the air, “we’re potentially setting ourselves up for abrupt climate change. Whether or not we can actually offset what’s happening, we still need to understand it.”

 

Several institutions will compete for their share of the $60 million. With their chunk, the Climate Change Institute researchers hope simply to reach as many places as they can -- after all, their specimens are melting, Mayewski points out. “There’s great immediacy in collecting records before they begin to disappear.”

6/29/2007 11:34:10 AM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

Well, there's that much-ballyhooed FCC Localism hearing at Portland High School today, starting at 4 pm and running until 11 pm. (Hey, if someone brings a keg, maybe it'll run 'til 1 am!) Don't get your hopes too high for actual change anytime soon.

While plenty of people have signed up in advance to speak, and others will attend to get their moment of glory, there should be an interesting set of principles. Some folks, taking the extreme, will argue that local is better, no matter what. It's an interesting perspective, arguing that a locally owned broadcaster (even one with no money, no staff, and only doing what its volunteers can fit in beside their work and family lives) is inherently better than a large company (even one with tons of money, experienced paid staff, and resources to use investigating all kinds of stories).

Not many people would dispute that a locally owned broadcaster that has tons of money, experienced paid staff, and vast resources would be better than a broadcaster owned by a giant company that didn't have any money or staff, or even an office in town. If you can find either of those in reality. (And you'll have to look far beyond Maine. MPBN is the closest thing we have to a strong local media outlet, and while they have an experienced paid staff, even those staffers wouldn't say they have "tons of money" or "vast resources.")

And there are plenty of people - including Suzanne Goucher of the Maine Association of Broadcasters, interviewed on Channel 6 last night - who argue that the bigger companies can do more than the local ones. Again, if you can find the local broadcasters.

And as Charlie Gaylord noted the other day in an e-mail to the Phoenix, an FCC rule related to localism just forced Citadel-owned WCYI to stop simulcasting WCYY - thereby cutting off midcoast listeners from Mark Curdo's local-music show, Spinout. And the same rule is forcing the sale of Citadel-owned WCLZ, which has for years - minus a brief, misguided hiatus - broadcast local musicians' work, including on Charlie's show, Greetings From Area Code 207. What'll replace it? Nobody knows yet, but if the big companies see the value in promoting local music in Maine, is the problem really as big as some people appear to think?

But either way you want to argue it - or some other way - don't expect a ton of action on your viewpoint. The nice part of that? Don't expect any action on the viewpoints of people who think differently.

The FCC's localism Web site, which is very thorough (including comments from all previous localism hearings around the country - which all took place in 2003 and 2004), says, right up at the very tippy-top, that the localism effort will "Make recommendations to the Commission in the Fall of 2004 on how the Commission can promote localism in television and radio."

Three years later, they're still holding hearings.

6/28/2007 10:44:52 AM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

Here's the extended version of my interview with Linda Greenlaw, which appears in this week's Phoenix:

 

Fishing-boat captain Linda Greenlaw, who immortalized lobster boats and fisherman’s tales in her previous non-fiction books such as The Hungry Ocean and The Lobster Chronicles, has changed course in her most recent work. Slipknot is a mystery novel set in the fictional port town of Green Haven, Maine, where a lively former detective finds herself mixed up in wind-farm politics, small-town grudges, and the murder of an infamous local.

 

We sat down with her for a chat and crab sandwiches at the Dry Dock on Commercial St. (where her last non-fiction book, All Fishermen Are Liars, was set). Read an extended version of this interview online at www.thephoenix.com/abouttown.

 

How was writing fiction different from, or more challenging than, writing non-fiction?

This is book number five for me; and after the conclusion each of them I’ve said, ‘This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.’ This was no exception. With my other books, I never needed an outline. I was writing about myself, my life, and I know how that goes, I know that story. So that was tough, thinking, ‘I do need to outline this thing.’ It was tough making plot decisions. But fun creating the characters. In the past, I’ve written about real people – my crew members, my friends, my parents – and this was just as much fun. You don’t place characters out of nowhere. They’re kind of like composites – everyone you know has some kind of quirk or interesting attribute.

 

At least two additional Green Haven mysteries are on tap. Do you have any ideas for the rest of the series?

I have some ideas. I know that I’m going to start with an outline for book number two. It’s going to be the same core of characters. My editors told me that anyone who was a suspect shouldn’t be in the next book, but I’m wondering about that. In Slipknot, the main bone of contention, as far as Maine issues, was these fishing regulations and the wind farm. I think in book number two I’d like to talk about lobster fishing and aquaculture, because there’s a lot of interesting things going on right now in those two industries, and there is some conflict, not always, but there is some.

 

How much of Slipknot’s main character, Jane Bunker, is based on you?

Before I even started writing Slipknot, my editor warned me that I had to be very careful to make sure Jane Bunker does not become Linda Greenlaw. But what I learned is, no matter what you’re writing, on some level, it’s very personal. It’s still you on the page. And I’ve met already, early in the book tour, people who say, ‘Come on, Jane Bunker is you.’ And I keep denying it. I tried to make her not me as much as I could. I would have loved to have made Jane Bunker a lot smarter than me, but that’s impossible!

 

Have you ever solved a real-life mystery?

No more than anyone else in their average, work-a-day life. I mean there’s always a little intrigue, that’s what keeps life interesting. If you’ve got everything figured out when you wake up in the morning, that’s really not much fun. But I’m not Nancy Drew. I’m sort of torn between thinking, ‘You know, this is really difficult for me because I don’t think along these lines,’ and then on the other hand I read Slipknot and I think, ‘Gosh, this is so good, I’m very devious – how do I come up with this stuff?’ That’s kind of fun.

 

What’s your writing process like?

I’m definitely a morning writer. When I’m writing a book; I sit down every single day. I have to, because I don’t enjoy the process. So any distraction is so welcome – anything, I’m dropping it. So I have to be disciplined about it, to the point of asking my mother not to call until after 10 o’clock in the morning. I write long-hand in a notebook, and make all my corrections on the page.

 

How often do you fish now?

Very part-time. I started setting lobster traps early in May, and knowing that I was going on a two-month book tour, and if I’m not on book tour I need to be writing book number two, I only put about 150 traps in the water – which is very, very, very much part-timing it. My father will haul the traps while I’m on tour. When I’m off tour, I can decide whether to put more traps in the water or not.

 

Between Wednesday, June 27, and Saturday, June 30, Greenlaw will be appearing at bookstores in Boothbay Harbor, Brunswick, Belfast, Bangor, and Blue Hill. (She appears in places that don’t start with the letter ‘B’ too, just not this week.) After that, she’ll head into the rest of New England and beyond. Check www.fishingwithlinda.net for more details.

6/27/2007 10:50:04 AM by Deirdre Fulton | Comments [0] |  

In Washington DC tonight, Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) will host a fundraiser for Maine Senator Susan Collins. According to a Washington Post report, "his support of Collins is payback. She was one of a handful of senators who campaigned for him in the general election following his loss in the Democratic primary to [2006 Democratic challenger Ned] Lamont." 

In response to the fundraiser, MoveOn.org sent out a message to its members, urging them to donate to Collins-opponent Tom Allen, "an anti-war hero taking the fight to a Senate supporter of the war."

6/21/2007 12:03:17 PM by Deirdre Fulton | Comments [1] |  

News for Portland’s arts community: the Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance (PACA) has hired Catherine Valenza as its new executive director – and her primary responsibility, at least for now, will be to run the First Friday Art Walk. (She’ll be taking over for Aucocisco Gallery, which organized the Art Walk for the past few years.)

 

Why does this matter? Money.

 

With a non-profit like PACA at the helm, the Art Walk will be eligible for grant funding – something that wasn’t true when the for-profit gallery ran things. Plus, adds PACA board member Jessica Tomlinson, there’ll be more sponsorship opportunities, which are inherently easier for non-profits to procure.

 

In her 20-hour-a-week position, Valenza will also be able to implement some of the ideas and suggestions that come up at PACA’s Creative Conversations (the next one takes place on August 7, at 7 p.m., at the SPACE Gallery).

 

“We need a go-to person for artists in the Portland community when they have questions,” Tomlinson says.

 

We hope to talk with Valenza soon about some of her ideas, and we’ll post those here.  

 

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Cathy Valenza, a Portland resident who moved here five years ago from Long Island, NY. Valenza, who says she's looking forward to getting to know the "greater art community" (and by that, she clarifies, "I'm talking about not just the visual art community"), doesn't yet know what's in store for the First Friday Art Walk. Before she makes any changes, she wants to hear from as many artists as she can. For that reason, she's especially excited for the August 7 Creative Conversations, at which she'll certainly get that opportunity.

6/21/2007 10:54:19 AM by Deirdre Fulton | Comments [0] |  

Rustic Overtones announced today they have added two more shows, in addition to their previously announced late-July shows at the Asylum. The new shows will be at the Asylum as well, on Saturday, August 4 (21+), and Sunday, August 5 (all ages). Get tix at Bull Moose or the Asylum. Maybe this'll help the folks reduced to offering three times the face value of tickets on Craigslist. Or maybe there will just be more of them.

6/19/2007 3:34:14 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

From a press release sent out by the Maine Fair Trade Campaign:

"The Maine legislature has given its approval to a bill that requires cities and towns to evaluate the impact of large-scale retail development on jobs, local businesses, and municipal finances, and to approve only those projects that will not adversely affect the local economy. The legislation is the first of its kind in the nation.

Late Friday afternoon, the Maine Senate passed the Informed Growth Act, LD 1810, 19-16. This follows earlier passage of the bill in the House 82–49. The legislation will go for final enactment votes in each body later today and then onto the Governor's desk, where it is expected to be signed into law."

This must be great news for local author Stacy Mitchell, who sat down last November with former Phoenix staff writer Sara Donnelly to talk about her book, Big Box Swindle.

In that book, she writes: “There is nothing inevitable about the decline of locally owned businesses. Public policy and our own, often shortsighted, shopping choices have undermined their survival and propelled the proliferation of mega-retailers. But trends are not destiny. The future is open.”

Looks like Maine's taking control of its future.

Check out this week's Phoenix (hits the streets Wednesday) to read about other first-in-the-nation moves by our state legislature.

6/18/2007 4:43:47 PM by Deirdre Fulton | Comments [0] |  

6/18/2007 4:21:53 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |  

Got my Fretlight FG-400 in the mail today! It came with a signed certificate assuring me that it was approved for fun -- thank goodness.

Supposedly, the guitar itself (which is being sold at Daddy's Junky Music in Portland) will teach me how to play electric guitar. The Fretlight comes with lights embedded in the fretboard -- to tell me where to put my fingers -- as well as computer software with instructions and lessons. I do need an amp to use it, so it's lucky that I live with someone who actually owns a real electric guitar (that he learned to play all by himself without the aid of computer programs). With an amp and a computer, I'm in shredding business! 

I'll keep you posted on my progress. In the meantime, here's a picture of the guitar (mine looks slightly different with a light-colored wood body):

 

6/13/2007 11:09:46 AM by Deirdre Fulton | Comments [0] |  

The state enacted a resolution this morning instructing the Maine Public Advocate to study the issue of net neutrality and what role (if any) the state can and should play in deciding, essentially, who owns, who pays for, and who has speedy access to the Internet.

 

A coalition of business owners, the Maine Civil Liberties Union, communications experts, and local politicians (such as Portland Senator Ethan Strimling and former Common Cause president Chellie Pingree) said the resolution underscores the state’s commitment to “full, fair and non-discriminatory access to the Internet.”

 

This is the first such state action in the country. Maine Senator Olympia Snowe has introduced federal legislation that addresses net neutrality.

 

The resolution is a slightly watered-down version of what Strimling originally proposed.

 

We’ll have a deeper look at both net neutrality and the national Real ID system, which the legislature addressed earlier this month, in next week’s issue of the Phoenix.

 

And here’s the official text of the resolution:

 

Amend the bill by striking out the title and substituting the following:

‘Resolve, Regarding Full, Fair and Nondiscriminatory Access to the Internet’

Amend the bill by striking out everything after the title and before the summary and inserting the following:

‘

‘Preamble. Whereas, the Legislature finds that the development and continued enhancement of advanced communications technology in the State is vital to economic development; and

Whereas,  full, fair and nondiscriminatory access to the Internet is critical to the ability of Maine citizens to participate in the information economy and is an important element of citizens’ access to information necessary to their roles as informed participants in our nation’s democracy; and

Whereas,  regulation of the Internet is generally viewed as principally a matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal Government; and

Whereas,  the interests of the State of Maine and its citizens must be vigorously protected; now, therefore, be it

Sec. 1 Monitoring state and federal activity relating to Internet access regulations. Resolved: That the Office of the Public Advocate shall take the following actions to monitor and review state and federal activity on issues relating to full, fair and nondiscriminatory access to the Internet. The Office of the Public Advocate shall:

1. Evaluate the actions of the Federal Communications Commission, the United States Congress and other appropriate agencies of government with respect to ensuring that citizens’ rights to full, fair and nondiscriminatory access to the Internet are not impeded;

2. Monitor the Federal Communication Commission’s inquiry into broadband industry practices, FCC-07-31, WC Docket No. 07-52;

3. Collect information on legislative and regulatory actions of other states on these issues;

4. Review the State’s telecommunications and technology policies, including the ConnectME Authority established pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, section 9203, and evaluate the extent to which those policies are encouraging adequate investment in technology infrastructure to support a strong Internet system and continued expansion of broadband access in this State; and

5. Review the extent of the State’s authority to protect the rights of users of the Internet in the State to full, fair and nondiscriminatory access to the Internet; and be it further

Sec. 2 Report. Resolved: That, no later than February 1, 2008, the Office of the Public Advocate shall submit a report summarizing the results of its activities under section 1 to the Joint Standing Committee on Utilities and Energy.’

 

SUMMARY

This amendment replaces the bill with a resolve. The amendment directs the Office of the Public Advocate to take several actions to monitor state and federal activity relating to full and fair access to the Internet. The amendment requires the Office of the Public Advocate to submit a report summarizing the results of its activities to the Joint Standing Committee on Utilities and Energy by February 1, 2008.

 

6/12/2007 11:50:49 AM by Deirdre Fulton | Comments [0] |  

Perhaps hell is cooling down a bit. Not only has the Christian Civic League of Maine stopped hating homosexuals, but now the group is citing the Portland Phoenix as a reputable news source!

(We are very concerned, and our best quality-control agents are already investigating the personal and professional backgrounds of every staff member, every reader, and every person who walks or drives past a Phoenix box on the street. We hope nobody notices.)

In any case, in the words of one of our friends here in the office, this "makes for one of those unnatural marriages the League rails against." What has gotten the world in such a state that not only would Christian Civic League executive director Mike Heath read the Portland Phoenix, but see something so reputable, so wholesome, so - oh good god we have to say it - God-fearing, that he would not only think, "wow, those people at the Portland Phoenix know what they're doing," but go so dreadfully far as to put out a press release about it?

Which is to say, we're really proud that he liked the story contributing writer Lance Tapley wrote about the fact that the company the state pays to monitor the take at the Bangor racino also gets a cut of that take. And we're glad Heath is worried about corruption (though we fear he may attribute it to the wrong causes, as he appears to have done regarding Massachusetts).

But really, we wish he hadn't told so many people about it - though the rabid minority of lunatic religious zealots may now start picking the paper up, we're downright terrified that the sane, thinking, rational, intelligent, compassionate people of Maine who normally read our paper will suddenly stop. And we know how the numbers pan out in that circumstance.

We're not sure what we did, Mike, but we, too, would like to go back to the good old days when you railed against publications like ours as part of the "lamestream press." We felt much more comfortable there.

(And we wonder whether the Casinos No folks also would prefer you weren't so loudly on their side. After all, we all remember how things went between you and Chandler Woodcock - when he said he'd give you everything you ever wanted, if only you wouldn't endorse him.)



Release Date: 6/11/07

Heath Calls for Maine Gambling Corruption Investigation

The Christian Civic League of Maine believes that an state investigation of
gambling corruption is in order.  Southern Maine's Portland Phoenix
newspaper revealed this week that the same company charged with overseeing
Bangor's Hollywood Slots casino is also receiving a percentage of the
profits from Hollywood Slots.

According to the anti-gambling group Casinos NO, an off-track betting (OTB)
parlor in Waterville is owned by Autotote Enterprises.  Autotote
Enterprises, in turn, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the state's
"watchdog," Scientific Games.  Maine government contracts with Scientific
Games to keep an eye on Hollywood Slots.  Hollywood Slots has given
$1,000,000 to Maine's OTBs.

League Executive Director Mike Heath said, "This sad tale provides us with
one more reason why Mainers will reject the slot machine expansion that is
planned for Washington County."  Mainers will vote on a proposed slot
machine expansion on November 6th.

With less than 500 slot machines installed at Bangor's Hollywood Slots,
Maine is already starting to witness corruption in her government.  Heath
worries about the depths of depravity which we are likely to descend when
Penn National completes the Bangor multi-million dollar expansion (already
approved by voters) in addition to the possibility of an Indian-operated
casino in Washington County.

There is a move afoot to bring slot machines to western Maine also.

Tony Perkins visited Maine in 2003 to warn us.  Perkins, a former Lousiana
legislator and currently head of the national Family Research Council, spoke
in Eliot, Maine.  He gave specific examples illustrating a flood of
corruption that engulfed the politics of Louisiana as a result of the spread
of slot machines.  His efforts in southern Maine led to the rejection of a
casino proposed for Sanford.

"We're looking forward to teaming up with Tony again this year to assure
that gambling doesn't spread in Maine," said Heath.

*

Contact: Michael Heath, The Christian Civic League of Maine
(207) 622-7634
mike@cclmaine.org

6/11/2007 2:34:15 PM by Jeff Inglis | Comments [0] |