Outgoing Portland Police Chief James Craig at a press conference this morning announcing that he has accepted the position of Police Chief for Cincinnati. Note the hat!

Craig said he was proud of the relationship between the police force and civilians. He also suggested that his replacement come from within the force.

I'm no fan of animal cruelty. Which is why I hate PETA. They're unduly cruel and ridiculous to their fellow animals (the human kind) in the name of a good and admirable cause.

Today, for example, a group of PETA activists will get naked (nearly - in their underwear) in Monument Square, to make the point that they'd rather be naked than wear fur.

Representative Diane Russell, a Democrat from Portland, will release An Act to Legalize and Tax Marijuana at Portland City Hall at 10 am tomorrow.

The bill would tax pot at seven percent, "license certain commercial marijuana-related activities while providing provisions to protect minors, employers and schools."

From this week's Phoenix:

It may have receded from the headlines, but the crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station continues.

Reports from Fukushima that one month ago would have triggered international alarm are today absorbed with barely an anxious shrug.

That, at least, seemed to be the reaction to the news when Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency recategorized the disaster, upgrading it from level five to level seven.

From this week's Phoenix, a look at Donald Trump

TRUMP AMONG THE REPUBLICANS

Folically challenged vulgarian Donald Trump has begun a run for president. The Donald is campaigning on an anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-Muslim, and pro-birther platform. It comes as no surprise that — at this point, at least — he is running as a Republican.

A little more than five years ago, Matt Farley, a musician then based in New Hampshire, told us: "I think if you force yourself to write music every day, you only get better. That’s my theory."

The occasion of that quote was the launch of a year-long project conceived of by Farley and bandmate Tom Scalzo, in the experimental-pop duo Moes Haven.

Good thing we checked. When Governor Paul LePage was spouting his various opinions about open government (including that there should be limits to the most transparent administration in Augusta's history), he hadn't taken the legally required training about the state's open-government law. And he didn't take it before heading off on vacation, either.

Call for public art: Mural depicting the glorious contributions of the Maine businessperson.

Seeking designs for a 36-foot-long, 8-foot-tall mural to replace a degenerate, “one-sided” mural at the Maine Department of Labor office in Augusta. Please e-mail jpgs to jinglis@thephoenix.com.

Submissions are encouraged to honor Maine’s grand business history, from logging to ship building, from the brave executives who put down the 1937 women’s strike to steadfast proponents of child labor, from the paper mill bosses who purified our waters with dioxins to those who intrepidly called in the National Guard to restore order in the face of wrong-thinking mobs and crybabies, and surplus and salvage company CEOs who selflessly offer damaged goods for retail sale before giving it all up for public service.

Over the weekend, Governor Paul LePage and some of his supporters made a couple of statements that make clear that "Maine people before politics" is a hollow slogan in the corporate-governor's rhetorical toolkit.

First, LePage unveiled an "Open For Business" sign at the Maine-New Hampshire border on I-95. Adrienne Bennett of the governor's office confirmed in an e-mail to the Portland Phoenix today that the sign unveiled was the exact sign presented to the governor on election night.

The first public in-house criticism of the Portland Press Herald's donation of $46,000 worth of advertising to a political campaign (the elected mayor one) has been published in the Columbia Journalism Review. The text isn't online as of this posting, but you can check here to see if it is now.

It includes criticism from both Greg Kesich, an editorial page writer, and Tom Bell, a political reporter who also heads the employees' union.

Sussman, who is engaged to be married to Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, is rumored to still be upset at Portland Press Herald coverage last year of Pingree's use of his private jet for transportation, despite the House Ethics Committee's declaration that it was not a violation of House rules.

Listen, everyone. We'll have more on the budget moving forward, I'm sure. I'm heading up to Augusta on Wednesday to attend the Maine People's Alliances lobby day and learn more about what various organizations are most concerned (and others are most pleased) about. There have been protests and rallies of various sizes several times over the past few days, with more to come.

New York City just passed a law that would force so-called pregnancy counseling centers to disclose, in advertising, signs, and over the phone, whether or not they actually provide the full spectrum of resources and referrals (including for abortion and emergency contraception) and pre-natal services -- which many do not