Republican Governor Paul LePage will speak to the Maine Aggregate Association this evening - that's the group representing Maine's gravel and rock industries. But the public won't be allowed to hear his comments.

Despite LePage's pushing of an East-West highway, and his recent relaxation of mining regulations, an official announcement was issued Monday from the governor's office specifying that the speech will be off-limits to media coverage.

Required reading in this Sunday's Times magazine: Bill Keller's explores the political ramifications of voting for gay marriage if you're a conservative Republican (or at least, a Republican backed by New York state's Conservative Party).

Among the highlights:

• State Senator Mark Grisanti's quote: "I swore with my hand on the Bible to uphold the Constitution; I didn't swear with my hand on the Constitution to uphold the Bible."

I wrote last week about the League of Young Voters' Launch Maine contest. More than 170 ballots were cast at the party last Friday night; ArtVan, which brings art therapy and inspirational projects to youth in low-income neighborhoods around Southern and Midcoast Maine, was the winner of the $500 grand prize. Congrats!

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that six terrorism suspects in the United Kingdom could be extradited to the United States, rejecting the suspects' argument that they would be subject to "inhuman and degrading treatment" in an American supermax prison.

Portland Phoenix writer Lance Tapley (whose long-running award-winning prison series has led national supermax coverage) and prison-rights activist Ray Luc Levasseur spoke to the BBC about prison conditions in an interview from The Studio in Portland (with audio help from Jim Begley).

In this week's Phoenix, out tomorrow, Lance Tapley talks to state senator Justin Alfond about several troubling pieces of legislation still up for debate in Augusta (there are just two weeks left until the end of the legislative session).

One of those is LD 1853, An Act To Improve Environmental Oversight and Streamline Permitting for Mining in Maine, which would change the state's mining laws, making them more lenient.

Yep, Commissioner Gordon's Bar Harbor compatriots don't have nearly the patience for the antics of the Caped Crusader as we might expect. A guy who dresses up like Batman in Bar Harbor has been posting Batman-related items on his Facebook page for some time now. In what he claims was "an obvious April Fool's joke," the man, whom the Associated Press says lives two blocks from the Bar Harbor Hospital, posted a demand for $1 million "or I'll blow up the hospital" on April 1.

UPDATED WITH OFFICIAL COMPANY STATEMENT (below)

Billionaire financier and husband of Chellie Pingree Donald Sussman will own a 75-percent stake in the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram and its sibling papers, according to the terms of a deal announced today. Previously Sussman had been loaning the company $3.

There are only a few days left to vote for a finalist in the League of Young Voters's Launch Maine competition.

The contest, which aims to both spur and highlight community involvement among young Mainers, will award $500+ to the winning youth-led project. Although $500 isn't a ton of money (finalists do have the chance to earn more at the April 6th party/winner announcement), Launch Maine has garnered a ton of interest, with more than 30 teams submitting their projects, which address topics such as home weatherization, kids and the arts, organic smoothies, physical activity and health, and alternative transportation.

Well, that's a relief. Portland Public Schools **don't serve pink slime**! (I wrote about some of the good things they do serve in this piece last year.)

Here's this, from a district release (via the "Seth and the City" BDN blog):

Unlike most other school districts in the country, Portland does not purchase ground beef from the U.

When people were advocating to have an elected mayor in Portland, whose job would be full-time, one of the big arguments in favor was that we could have a full-time lobbyist on Portland's key issues, whether regionally, in Augusta, or in any relevant scope or arena.

Since his election, Mike Brennan has advocated for Portland's need with Governor Paul LePage and state lawmakers.

We wrote last week about Port City Music Hall's application for an after-hours entertainment license, which would allow the music/food venue to stay open until 3 am for late-night parties (booze sales would still shut down at 1 am, per state law).

While there was some consternation among law enforcement and city officials regarding the very idea of after-hours events, PCMH manager Rob Evon must have quelled their fears: the Portland Police Department backed off its resistence to the late-night concept, and the city council voted 9-0 last night to allow Port City its permit.

Stay tuned for news about PCMH's first night-owl bash.

The legislation I mentioned in last week's story about girls and the trades, LD 1865, An Act to Enhance Career and Technical Education, was the first of four education-related bills to be heard in Augusta this week. The bill, which aims to make it easier for students to take CTE courses, is the least controversial prong of Governor Paul LePage's education agenda; the education committee and most legislators support improvements to vocational education -- especially those that don't cost anything.

In the department of Pyrrhic victories: The Portland Newspaper Guild, the union representing most of the workers at the Portland Press Herald, is celebrating its non-immolation in contract negotiations and discussions to avoid the newspaper going bankrupt. (See also this, and this.)

We'll give the party planning committee some credit for ironic self-awareness, and assume that they intended things to be a little ridiculous when they planned such an event for April 1.

Alex Irvine, a former staff writer at the Portland Phoenix, has done a good bit of writing since his departure. He's a talented guy, and really into writing for graphic novels, etc. But now you can play a game he's written, right on Facebook! It's called Marvel: Avengers Alliance, and was written up in Variety magazine (Irvine says it's the first time his name has appeared in that esteemed publication).

Go check it out! And let us know what you think!