DOWN EAST NOTES

Pine Tree Politics - Gallup published a new study that took a look at each state in the union, and compared the partisan gap between Republicans and Democrats in 2008 and 2009. The results showed that in a large majority of states, the advantage enjoyed by the Democratic Party has slipped – yet it does remain strong. Interestingly, Maine comes in as the seventh highest slip in support for Democrats, losing six percentage points. However, Maine still remains - according to Gallup - a net 13 point Democratic stronghold (48%-35%), earning the "solid Democrat" moniker.

After checking the tree's growth rings under magnification, the Maine Forest Service has declared Yamouth's famous elm, Herbie, to have been 217 years old when cut down recently. It was born in 1793, the same year that George Washington began his second term.

Morning Sentinel - Gen. George Washington's map of the 1781 Battle of Yorktown sold Friday for $1.15 million, making it the highest-priced artifact ever sold at auction in Maine. The pen-and-ink battle plan -- yellow marking the forward lines of the allied French and American armies, red showing the British formation -- was sold at the James D. Julia Inc. auction house on U.S. Route 201. . . It was prepared by the French Lt. Col. Jean Baptiste Gouvion for the Virginia campaign. "It's the record for the most expensive antique ever sold in Maine, at auction," Julia said. "I don't know where it stands in the world of maps, but it is certainly one of the most expensive maps ever sold." The second highest-price item in Maine was a Colt pistol sold by Julia at auction in 2007, which sold for almost $1 million.

Steve Pinkham has written a book, the Mountains of Maine, that comes up with some high altitude facts about the state's hundreds of mountains and hills. Reports the Sun Journal: "He counted eight Black Mountains, seven Hedgehog Mountains and six Sugarloafs." There are 26 Oak Hills. . . Along the way, Pinkham developed a list of superlatives. He calls Mars Hill 'Maine's most abused mountain,' with TV, cell phone and wind towers. Saddleback, he said, is the state's most expensive mountain: Its owner paid $17 million so the top wouldn't be developed. Beehive Mountain in Acadia earns honors as most-climbed in Maine.

MAINE SCREWED BY OBAMA'S HEATING ASSISTANCE FORMULA

Maine Public Broadcasting - Under a new formula adopted by the Obama Administration, colder states like Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and even Alaska are seeing a huge drop in emergency federal funding for low income energy assistance. In Maine, it translates to a decline of about 80 percent. Southern states, meanwhile, are reaping the rewards. . . Usually, every year, Maine gets a sizeable portion. Last year it was close to $30 million. But this year? Less than five. . . . "There's a lot of outrage going on about this and I think you'll see a lot of protesting over the formula," says Maine Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. Pingree says the problem is that the administration's new methadology relies on factors such as population, relative changes in unemployment, income and temperature. "They looked at states like ours where unemployment was stabilizing, or the weather hadn't had dramatic shifts for the cold and they went to states that had unusual temperature drops," Pingree says. "But I think what they're forgetting is: We already had a high unemployment rate, we're already suffering and have many elderly. And we're having a normally cold winter, which we always do."

SHOP TALK

Some strange things have been happening around here. Last night some of our readers trying to check in our main page, got our Down East edition, Coastal Packet, instead. The other day, they were sent to our ecology news archives. We've fixed both problems but want you not to be surprised at this sort of thing happening again over the next month and half. Just let us know when you find it.

What's happened is that Google, as part of its campaign to take over the world, has decided that it no longer likes the venerated file transfer protocol, or FTP. We don't know why it feels this way, but who are we to argue with a corporation that even scares the Chinese?

Although many readers may not know it, a few of the pages that seem to just ordinary subsidiaries of prorev.com are, in fact, produced by the Google subsidiary, Blogger.Com. By March 26, these pages must be free of FTP association or they will end up as uneditable files on our site, which has been served to the world for years by the ever-wonderful Turnpike.Net.

We have already converted two pages to the Bloggercentric paradigm. These are:

Flotsam & Jetsam is now at http://prorevflotsam.blogspot.com


Sam Smith's Essays archives is now at http://samsmithessays.blogspot.com

What is pending, however, is that our main Undernews page and our Coastal Packet page will both have to change as well. We are awaiting further instructions but, it might help if you printed this post out for future reference. Should you be unable to reach either of these sites, try the new links which will be:


http://prorevnews.com for Undernews
http://coastalpacket.com for Coastal Packet

Don't try them now; they won't work. And in the best of all worlds - remember those days? - you'll have a clear announcement that the change is occurring.

Finally, there is the unresolved problem of the RSS feeds for the above. If the current ones stop working, try loading the sites above into your reader. They should work after the change is made.

LICENSE PLATE SCANNERS: ANOTHER UNCONSITUTIONAL TOOL FOR COPS

Shenna Bellows, Maine Civil Liberties Union - Automatic license plate-readers scan and store the license plates of any car that an equipped police cruiser encounters-on the highway, in a parking lot, in a neighborhood. The scanner then checks the plate against databases, watch-lists and the identity and location of the scan is stored in a police database.

Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in 1928, "The makers of the Constitution: conferred as against the government, the right to be let alone - the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men." Mainers cherish our right to be left alone by the government - to think, say, and do what we want as long as we are not hurting our neighbors or breaking the law. ALPRs, like all surveillance, threaten those fundamental privacy rights.

There are three primary civil liberties problems with this technology itself - the cameras, the hot lists, and most seriously, the database.

First, surveillance cameras, in themselves, have a chilling effect on freedom of movement. People behave differently when they believe themselves to be under surveillance. This has been a theory behind prison architecture for decades, and indeed, we have come to expect cameras in situations where heightened security is at issue - at the bank or the airport. Cameras on police cars can be very effective, and indeed, the ACLU has supported them in situations that protect both police and citizens, by videotaping arrests and questioning of suspects. But there is a difference between the camera used to monitor interactions between law enforcement and the public and surveillance cameras that monitor the ordinary activity of us, the people as we go about our daily lives. In a free society, we have an expectation that we are not being monitored by law enforcement unless we are suspected of wrongdoing or involved in a situation that requires police action. All people in America are presumed innocent and law-abiding unless the evidence indicates otherwise. The very nature of these surveillance cameras turns that presumption of innocence on its head - into a presumption that we are all guilty.

Second, the cameras rely on "hot lists," lists fed into the camera by law enforcement to generate automated matches. Even if we can't agree that surveillance cameras in themselves have a chilling effect on a free society, then perhaps we can agree on the dangers of unlimited "hot lists." The technology that many of you have seen and you will hear described in more detail functions using "hot lists" that allow law enforcement to match a photographed license plate to a license plate number on a hot list. This technology allows law enforcement to use any hot list that they like or even to construct a hot list themselves. Imagine the potential abuse of such hot lists. Law enforcement could sweep the parking lot of a No on 1 or Yes on 1 rally. . .or a synagogue. . .or a mosque. . .or a church to record the license plate numbers, which would then enable law enforcement to use that list of license plate numbers to monitor the actions of those participants.

Think that wouldn't happen in America? Ask the Eastern Maine Peace and Justice Center or Senator John Kerry or others who have been subjected to FBI surveillance because of their political activities. We have further concerns about use of some federally compiled lists, like the so-called terrorist watch list, which numbers over one million names and includes names like those of the civil rights leader and current Congressman John Lewis as well as eight-year old Mikey Hicks. Hot list technology that creates an automated match makes this surveillance camera system even more powerful and potentially threatening to civil liberties than an ordinary camera.

Third, the most dangerous aspect of this system is the database that the camera creates and feeds. I have seen this database in my visit to South Portland to meet with law enforcement. The database contains the record of every car law enforcement has encountered with a photograph, date, time and location. This database contains a virtual map of the movements of ordinary citizens about the community. Lieutenant Frank Clark has described this in the newspaper saying, "Information is gold." He is absolutely correct. Already, other jurisdictions are sharing these databases with repo companies looking to repossess vehicles whose owners are behind on payments. The commercial and political interest in these types of databases is enormous. A journalist friend of mine said when I shared with him the details of this information, "I do want to know if the mayor is at the liquor store. That's news." The newspaper. . .or one's political opponents. . .might very well be interested in who visits the liquor store or the adult video shop or a psychiatrist or a family planning center. Commercial entities have a strong interest in who shops at their stores or their competitor's stores. You will hear from supporters of this technology that their interest is very limited, but we know from experience that inevitably mission creep expands uses of these powerful technologies from law enforcement to intelligence gathering to total information awareness, all at the expense of the privacy of ordinary citizens. . .

When the government invades our privacy by collecting information about our private, personal lives, the government then has a responsibility to ensure that we are kept safe from those who would seek merely to embarrass one of us or our neighbors to those who would do us harm. We are concerned that the hasty adoption of this technology has serious and dramatic implications for both our liberty and our security. . .

The three civil liberties problems with the technology itself include the cameras, the hot lists used to create matches, and the database. Each of those technological elements creates liberty and security vulnerabilities. The urge to use the newest, fastest technology is not surprising, but ALPR's simply place too much data mining power in the hands of the police and those who breach their systems.

SNOW DAZE: WASHINGTON AND MAINE

Sam Smith

In part because the media has misleadingly written endlessly about global warming rather than climate change, there are going to more than a few people in mid-Atlantic cities who think the recent snows prove it's all not a problem.

In fact, as a reader recently pointed out, change is just that. It is hard to predict. We know past data definitely indicates a shift but we can't define the precise nature of that shift because we haven't experienced it yet.

Just before the current blizzard, the National Wildlife Federation issued a report that suggested that we shouldn't be surprised by such things:

"Global warming is having a seemingly peculiar effect on winter weather in the northern United States. Winter is becoming milder and shorter on average; spring arrives 10 to 14 days earlier than it did just 20 years ago. But most snow belt areas are still experiencing extremely heavy snowstorms. . . Even as global warming slowly changes the character of winter, we will still experience significant year-to-year variability in snowfall and temperature because many different factors are at play."

Washington, DC, well illustrates the uncertain quality of change. The storm last weekend dropped the fourth largest amount of snow on the city in recorded history. But you need only to go back two years to February 6, 2008, and you'll find the city setting a warmth record for that date of 74 degrees. The coldest February 6 was back in 1895, when the thermometer fell to one degree.

It may help to keep in mind two principles:

- Change is change and doesn't fully define itself until it's happened.

- An average is only an average.

Having recently moved from DC to Maine, I gaze out my window at the remains of 22 inches of snow that hardly slowed things down at all in these parts and recall the number of my friends who said something like, "How are you going to survive those Maine winters?" and I think how grateful I am I wasn't back in DC this weekend.

In fact, Maine has two mre typical advantages over the capital in winter. We have a lot of sun and the cold is dry. Twenty-five degrees on a sunny Down East day is infinitely preferable to a 35 degree cloudy day in DC with the humid cold cutting through any protection you might be wearing.

Here's how I described it back the 1970s:

"The city lived for spring and fall, periods separated by muggy summer and by an unpredictable yet dull winter. In the fall, the gauze of noxious gas that stretched over DC all summer was peeled away, permitting the sun a rare chance to lounge unimpeded against the sides of buildings or ricochet off spires. The air conditioner's monotone was finally silenced and the hint of chill repulsed by a friendly jacket. But the spring was even better; you quickly forgot the snow that didn't come, or that did come but all in one blizzard, and you luxuriated in a few months of unadulterated color and life. Summer was awful and in winter it was best to heed the words of Mark Twain:

"'When you arrived it was snowing. When you reached the hotel it was sleeting. When you went to bed it was raining. During the night it froze hard, and the wind blew some chimneys down. When you got up in the morning it was foggy. When you finished your breakfast at ten o'clock and went out, the sunshine was brilliant, the weather balmy and delicious, and the mud and slush deep and all pervading. You will like the climate-when you get used to it. . . . Take an umbrella, an overcoat, and a fan, and so forth.'"

As for Maine, I don't have to check any data to confirm that the climate has changed. All I have to do is remember the Farm Bureau supper I attended as a kid where I overheard the straw hatted Harold Mann telling a companion, "Ayah. I remembah that wintah of ought eight. We had our first snow the middle of Octobah and come May 1st we were still on runnahs."

Sam Smith, Washington Post, 1987 - Al Thompson is superintendent of roads in Freeport, Maine, with a population about one percent of that of the District. But what Maine lacks in people, it makes up in roads, so Al Thompson has about 12 percent of Washington's asphalt mileage to look after.

Now Al doesn't have anything like the equivalent of Connecticut and Wisconsin avenues in his charge, and the local politicians tend to realize that nature often is impervious to memos, directives and policy guidelines. On the other hand, he works without the benefit of Snow Command Centers, Computerized Cancellation Centers and Codes Yellow. What he does have is five trucks with 12-foot dustpans and 11-foot wings.

How long does it take his trucks to cover 130 miles? Says Al: "An hour and a half, an hour and three-quarters." Then it takes another three hours for a second "cleanup" trip.

To put it in D.C. terms, that would mean, with the number of vehicles we've got (if properly equipped), you theoretically could sweep through the city in a couple of hours. Since it is clear our trucks are outmoded and not properly equipped, let's look at it another way: 25 good snow plows could, using the Maine standard, run through every street in the city in nine hours. . .

Now, before someone at the District Building picks up the phone to tell The Post about "complex urban problems," let me tell you about George Flaherty. He's director of parks and public works for Portland, Maine. Portland is about one-tenth the size of D.C. but has nearly 30 percent of its street mileage. He uses about a quarter of D.C.'s equipment and expects to have the job done in 8 to 10 hours.

I asked if he could explain the logic of a not-uncommon Washington scene: two snow plows working directly behind each other, sometimes with a Department of Public Works pickup truck in the lead. He just laughed and said, "No." Al Thompson agrees: "Doesn't do any good to plow over ice. Got to use salt."

And you don't wait until four inches have piled up before you start plowing. You start when you've got an inch and a half, and you stay ahead of the storm. And you don't leave it to the Almighty once ice-covered streets become mushy. You run the plows through and get the stuff off. Here, even downtown, we let the streets freeze again so the morning traffic reporters will have something to talk about.

"As soon as the storm starts, we salt all our major arterials," Flaherty says. In cases of major storms, "we will salt our critical areas just before it begins to snow.". . .

It will be argued that northern cities are willing to pay a high premium for clearing their streets because they get so much snow. But this year Portland budgeted, like most cities, for the best of all possible worlds: 25 inches, a winter roughly comparable to ours so far. With one-third the street mileage of D.C., Portland still planned to spend one-third more.

Why? Maybe because they know what bringing a city to a halt really costs. Here are some figures that will give you a rough idea of the costs of closing down D.C. for a day: the D.C. government spends $3 million a day on its payroll; the federal government spends close to $20 million a day for its D.C. payroll; private businesses spend another $30 million. What did D.C. budget for snow removal? Just under $1 million. Calculate the odds yourself.

OBAMA WANTS MORE NUKE PLANTS, BUT NO PLACE YET TO STORE WISCASETT'S WASTE

Maine Public Broadcasting - President Obama is calling for $54 billion in loan guarantees for a "new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants." His administration also announced this week that it is dropping plans for underground storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. . .

There are currently five nuclear power plants operating in New England: two in Connecticut, one in Massachusetts, one in Vermont and one in New Hampshire. Second only to natural gas, nuclear power is a major supplier of electricity to New England -- so much that a 2006 report found that nuclear plants could supply all residential households in the region excluding Massachusetts. . .

But Ed Lyman of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists says a doubling or tripling of nuclear plants would have to occur before nuclear power could significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions, and Lyman says government subsidies should not be used to get them off the ground.

"The expansion plans in the 1970s fell of their own weight because of massive cost overruns, and taxpayers and ratepayers ended up having to bail out many projects," Lyman says. "And the economics of nuclear power is no different today than it was then. The fact is that without the loan guarantees and other subsidies, there would not be a single new nuclear plant built in this country."

And then there's the thorny issue of disposing and safeguarding nuclear waste. For more than two decades the federal government has been trying to find a suitable place for a central repository for highly radioactive spent fuel that is a byproduct of nuclear power. Nevada's Yucca Mountain had been investigated and debated and rejected and finally recommended for licensing as an underground storage site.

But this week the Department of Energy moved to withdraw the application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after the Obama Administration eliminated funding for the site. Anti-nuclear activists cheered the move.

Patrick Dostie takes a dimmer view. "Well, what it means is that Maine Yankee down in Wiscasset now becomes sort of a defacto storage site for high level waste."

Dostie is the state's nuclear safety inspector who has seen the Maine Yankee Nuclear Power plant through its operating, decommissioning and storage phases. Before the plant shut down in 1997 because it was no longer economically viable, it was Maine's largest source of electricity. Today, Dostie says it has 60 casks of high-level spent nuclear fuel on the site as well as several that contain the cut-up guts of the internal reactor that were too radioactive to send to a low-level waste site.

Maine had hoped to safely dispose of some of this waste at Yucca beginning in the next ten years. Dostie says the delay is a reflection of the nation's political will. "It certainly puts a wrinkle in the so-called Renaissance. Obviously, you kind of always have to ask questions: Is it appropriate to build nuclear power plants when who knows how long it's going to be before we resolve the issue?"

DOWN EAST NOTES

Only 12 of Maine's 183 school districts are going to get more state aid in the next fiscal year. Overall there will be a $92 million drop in assistance.

Pine Tree Politics - The unbeatable Governor Angus King raised only an anemic $1305.00 in the entire year of 1997 in the lead up to his re-election campaign? In the January 2002 pre-election semiannual (i.e. just the second half of 2001), then Congressman John Baldacci raked in a staggering $329,258.97 for his budding race for Governor, which frightened potential primary challenger Chellie Pingree so much, she folded like a cheap suit.

Seacoast Online - The town of Vienna, Maine, facing the rising price of asphalt and the cost of road maintenance, [has] decided to convert several miles of their roads to gravel. And the selectmen in the town of Cranberry Isle (pop. 118) think they can save $500,000 a year that way.

Good Shepherd Food Bank, Maine's largest, serves 107.900 people a year.

Maine Public Broadcasting - Following a two-and-a-half hour debate, members of the Maine House voted overwhelmingly against a proposal to join a national compact created to elect the president by popular vote. Maine is one of two states that is allowed to split its four electoral votes, but the plan passed by five other states would require Maine to award all four of its votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Kennebec Journal - The Maine Green Independent Party candidate for governor says she's decided to forgo public funding for her campaign in light of tight state finances and will seek private funds instead. Lynne Williams . . . said that while she supports the concept of public funding for gubernatorial elections, she can't accept public money now that might be better used to help people in real need. With the state facing a $438 million budget shortfall, Williams believes the Legislature is poised to dilute the campaign fund and has made it harder for candidates to qualify.

THE SHAKER STORY

Many Mainers know about the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake, but an article in this month's Down East tells about shaking as well as Shakers, including a time when ecstatic worship included "whirling, twirling, it was running, it was leaping, it was dancing, it was rolling on the floor."

Maine is home to one of the last communities of Shakers at Sabbathday Lake in New Gloucester. Part of a religious movement that began in the eighteenth century and spread throughout the Northeast before falling into decline at the turn of the twentieth century, the Shakers became famous for their craftsmanship and unconventional religious beliefs and traditions. The Shakers’ practices of celibacy and “ecstatic worship” (from whence came the term Shaker) prompted suspicion, disdain, and mean-spirited rumors from their neighbors.

The article is based on a new book by journalist Jeannine Lauber shows Shaker life as being different from popular perception. In this exclusive excerpt she documents an eye-witness account of the last ecstatic dance to take place among the Shakers of Sabbathday Lake.

Chosen Faith, Chosen Land is a study of the contemporary Shaker faith. The new book takes readers on a journey, in words and images, through the lives of America’s 21st-Century Shakers. Over a 15-year period renowned journalist and author, Jeannine Lauber, was granted excusive, unprecedented access to the private lives of the last remaining Shakers allowing her to reveal what it means to be a Shaker at Maine’s own Chosen Land that surrounds Sabbathday Lake in New Gloucester, Maine.

Jeannine Lauber pierces many of the misconceptions and myths about the religion - most notably that all Shakers are dead - and she offers a modern-day view of their faith and surrounding community.

WEDNESDAY'S MISSING WATER

Bangor Daily News - The Stonington Water Co. has a mystery on its hands.
Large amounts of water have been disappearing regularly from the system since October, and officials don't know how or why. It does not appear to be a leak, according to water company Superintendent Roger Stone, and the missing water is not running into the town sewer system. There's concern that someone may be drawing water from the system either deliberately or by accident.

Either way, the problem is getting worse.

"It's bizarre," Stone said Thursday.

Since October, approximately 1.2 million gallons of water has simply disappeared from the water company tanks. It always happens on Wednesday, Stone said. Water usage almost doubles on Wednesdays, based on Stone's regular inspections of the water tanks. Usage returns to normal the next day. . .

The problem appears to be getting worse. Stone calculates that about 200,000 gallons was missing in October; it increased to about 400,000 gallons in November; and to more than 600,000 gallons in December.

Stone has discounted a leak, although he continues to check the water lines regularly. A leak doesn't start and stop once a week, he said. There's no indication that the water is flowing into the municipal sewer plant either. . .

Stone has concluded that some individual or individuals are behind the water loss.

"Somebody's doing it," Stone said. "What we don't know [is] if it's malicious or not.". . .

DOWN EAST NOTES

According to the Guttmacher Institute, the lowest teenage pregnancy rates are in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Minnesota and North Dakota, while the highest are in such proudly Christian states like Texas and Mississipi, along with New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona

WGME - Investigators say they may never know what caused a fire that killed 72,000 chickens in a barn in Belfast. The fire early Thursday morning destroyed a three-story, 500-foot poultry barn in the mid-coast town. The owner of the farm says he probably won't rebuild because the cost would be much higher than his insurance coverage. He said he has two other chicken barns with a total of 142,000 birds.

Morning Sentinel - If Maine is vacationland, then Somerset and Kennebec counties are pit stops.. . . Of the eight regions of Maine, the Kennebec and Moose River Valleys region -- which includes the hubs of Augusta, Waterville, The Forks and Jackman -- ranks second-to-last in visitation numbers, behind only Aroostook County. . . Tourism supported the equivalent of about one in six Maine jobs in 2006 and one of every $5 in sales. . . The number of tourists visiting the state has been down by 2.4 percent to 5 percent over the past couple years, said Pat Eltman, director of the Maine Office of Tourism.

NO MORE PLANES AT THE BRUNSWICK NAVAL AIR STATION

FOLLOW THE MONEY: A STUDY OF WHO GETS WHAT IN MAINE POLITICS

FLOOD WATERS RECEDE

ICEBREAKING IN THE KENNEBEC RIVER

THE FIRST DECADE OF SOMALIS IN LEWISTON

Maine Public Broadcasting - Eight years ago, it was the former Lewiston mayor's open letter to the Somali community that made national headlines. In it he expressed concern about the effects of the in-migration on city and school services. "We have been overwhelmed and have responded valiantly," Mayor Laurier Raymond wrote. "Now we need breathing room. Our city is maxed out financially, physically and emotionally.". . .

At the time, there were several hundred Somalis living in Lewiston. Now there are about 5,000, and new mayor Larry Gilbert says the city is a different place. "I look at the apartment buildings that they're living in and I say, 'What if they weren't here? Those buildings would be empty and what would our tax revenue be?' So I really think they're adding to the economy. And I think that that's something that that's people just don't realize. They think that the system is being drained, when in fact, they're contributing to it."

Gilbert says welfare assistance for Somali immigrants makes up only about ten percent of the city's entire welfare budget. And when you look at Lisbon Street, the primary artery running through the downtown, about two blocks are now made up of Somali-owned businesses.


More

WHAT'S HAPPENING TO WINTER IN THE NORTH

National Wildlife Federation - Global warming is having a seemingly peculiar effect on winter weather in the northern United States. Winter is becoming milder and shorter on average; spring arrives 10 to 14 days earlier than it did just 20 years ago. But most snow belt areas are still experiencing extremely heavy snowstorms. Some places are even expected to have more heavy snowfall events as storm tracks shift northward and as reduced ice cover on the Great Lakes increases lake-effect snowfalls.

Even as global warming slowly changes the character of winter, we will still experience significant year-to-year variability in snowfall and temperature because many different factors are at play. Milder winters disrupt ecosystems in some surprising ways. Bitter cold temperatures naturally limit the spread of pests, diseases, and invasive species.

The absence of extreme winter cold across the mountainous West has enabled an explosion of mountain pine beetles and caused a massive die-off of pine forests. Some important plants-for example, walnuts, peaches, and cherries- require a certain exposure to cold in order to flourish. Plants and animals also can be caught unawares when milder conditions are punctuated by severe winter weather. Across the Great Plains and Southeast United States, a cold snap in early April 2007 caused more than $2 billion in crop losses after an unusually warm March led to premature crop growth.

Large economic uncertainty and potential losses are in store for many communities, especially in regions where winter recreation provides significant tourism revenue. Many ski resorts will see shorter, rainier seasons, which will negatively impact the $66 billion dollar industry and the tens of millions of Americans who ski each year. Lakes across the Midwest are freezing later and have thinner ice, often leading to ice conditions too dangerous for safe ice fishing. Roadway snow removal and wintertime flood management also will be complicated by more erratic winter weather; government agencies may have to account for much more year-to-year variability.

Sally Stockwell, Maine Audubon - Warmer winters mean we could see populations of moose, lynx, and pine marten all decline, as these species are adapted to cold temperatures and heavy snowfall. U Maine scientists also predict populations of our state bird, the black-capped chickadee, will become less common or even disappear from much of the state except western and northern Maine. . .

In northwestern Minnesota the moose population has dropped precipitously in the past two decades from 4,000 to 100 moose. After 7 years of study, biologists from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources suspect the ultimate cause of the decline is climate change.

Moose become stressed from the hot weather and die from diseases like brainworm or from heavy. Warmer winters increased deer populations, which carry a brain worm that is harmless to whitetails but fatal to moose. Warmer weather also increases winter ticks that bother moose so much they rub off both the ticks and their thick protective hair, leaving them vulnerable to death from exposure.

Warmer weather along with healthy populations of deer in southern Maine is already leading to a rapid spread of the deer tick and Lyme’s disease throughout Maine.

More southern species like the Carolina wren and opossum are moving into Maine and surviving our winters where they never could before. Other species that are more common south of the border will likely expand north into Maine.


Heavy rainfall on top of snow will lead to increased problems with ice jams and flooding, and washouts of culverts that can’t handle the increased flow, interfering with travel of fish and other aquatic animals up and downstream. This could be especially problematic for our prized wild native brook trout and salmon.

DOWN EAST NOTES

Maine Public Broadcasting - Sales of existing single family homes in Maine were more than 10 percent higher in 2009 than in 2008, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. . . The association says 10,486 homes were sold in Maine in 2009, compared with 9,502 in 2008. Meanwhile, the median price of those homes fell over the year by nearly 9 percent.

CMIO - Hospitals rated in the top 5 percent in the U.S. have a 29 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate and are improving their clinical quality at a faster pace than other hospitals, according to a study issued Jan. 26 by Health Grades, a healthcare ratings organization. . . Thr following states had no hospitals in the top 5 percent: Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and Wyoming.

Kennebec Journal - An ice jam more than a mile long flooded Augusta and Hallowell's downtowns and had authorities in other riverside communities on edge wondering if they could be next. . . Some vehicles in Hallowell and Gardiner were trapped and submerged in the floodwaters. . . Officials said water levels in Augusta and Hallowell reached more than 17 feet -- more than 5 feet above flood stage. In Hallowell, Front Street was completely underwater Wednesday, as were the basements of waterfront buildings. A camper and commercial truck were partially in the water. . . A sign on the door of Dancewear House, which was closed, read: "Flood level store hours: zero feet, open for business, 10-5; two feet, cash only; four feet, wading boots are not dance attire; six feet, Oh my God." Next to the 8-foot flood level, the sign had a simple drawing of what appeared to be bubbles.

Portland Press Herald - Maine's two U.S. senators say the state is going to get $35 million to extend the Amtrak Downeaster passenger train from Portland to Brunswick. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins say the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority will use the money to rehabilitate the 30 miles of tracks between the two cities.

SWEETHEART DEAL FOR TELECOMS PENDING IN AUGUSTA

This is a good example of the sort of corrupt legislation we can expect in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on campaign financing.

Maine Public Broadcasting - A bill crafted to protect private sector interests in the expansion of broadband service attracted an afternoon's worth of attention today at the State House, where supporters and opponents of the legislation squared off on what some critics were referring to as a FairPoint bill. FairPoint Communications supports the measure, which would prohibit state agencies from providing telecommunications services to other state agencies or their tenants.

State Rep. Stacey Fitts, a Pittsfield Republican, insists that his bill is simply an attempt to level the playfield for telecommunications in Maine. . .

In a hearing before the Legislature's Utilities and Energy Committee, Fitts made it clear he was uncomfortable with the University of Maine's telecommunications network that connects the university with the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor. Fitts says the proposed legislation would preserve that link, but would prohibit any further expansion by the university -- something that the lawmaker says would obstruct efforts of companies like FairPoint to expand high-speed Internet service to rural Maine. . .

"We believe that this legislation actually creates a clear directive to the state entities, and essentially what's being asked in this bill is that state funds not be used to inhibit private investment in broadband infrastructure," says Beth Ossler of the Telephone Association of Maine.

Ossler says telecommunications providers have to be assured that they won't have to compete with a large state entity like the University of Maine System.

BUCKS FOR BALDACCI FOLLOWED BY SALES TAX EXEMPTION

Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting - Dozens of organizations and businesses pleaded for exemptions from tax increases in the tax reform bill that was approved last June.

Thanks to Gov. John Baldacci, only two got what they asked for: Realtors and the ski industry.

Realtors persuaded the governor to reverse a tax increase on the sale of luxury homes.

And the ski industry was slated to collect a sales tax on lift tickets - until the governor intervened.

A two-month investigation of the governor's decision, including a review of campaign finance reports, shows that the realtors and the ski areas have supported Baldacci politically and financially and have easy access to him to make their case.

Other groups, such as auto repair shops, had no strong connections in the State House and were not rescued from a new sales tax on their services.

. . . The ski areas are represented by lobbyist Severin Beliveau, a longtime political and financial supporter of the Democratic governor. Their case was also helped by a plea from another longtime Baldacci friend and supporter, Saddleback Maine's general manager, Warren Cook.

Beliveau said the governor's decision "was not a function of our relationship," adding that Baldacci has been opposed to taxing outdoor recreation since he was in the state legislature 25 years ago.

Cook said he spoke to the governor about exempting ski lift tickets and that when the Berry family bought Saddleback in 2003, "Bill Berry went to the governor and the governor pledged to him at the time that he wasn't going to support a tax on ski tickets."

When the proposal to tax lift tickets came up again last year, Cook said, "I just went in and said to the governor, we need your help in this area.". . .

Beliveau gave $1000 to the last two Baldacci gubernatorial campaigns and a total of $4500 to Baldacci congressional campaigns.

In the 2006 governor's race, lawyers in Beliveau's firm, Preti Flaherty, gave $25,000 to Baldacci's campaign. Twenty attorneys in the firm, where he is listed as a founding partner who "directs the firm's Legislative and regulatory practices in Augusta and Washington, D.C. , gave the maximum of $1000 each.

Baldacci's total campaign contributions in 2006 were $1.3 million.

Baldacci's Republican opponent in 2006 was Chandler Woodcock, whose campaign was publicly financed and who received only small contributions as seed money. None of those came from Beliveau or his law firm, according to state records.

In 2002, the records show Baldacci's GOP opponent, Peter Cianchette, received a total of $1,100 from three Preti Flaherty attorneys. In contrast, the same records list more than 20 lawyers from the firm giving Baldacci's campaign $14,000.

In 2009, Beliveau is listed as the registered lobbyist for 23 business and organizations, from Anheuser-Busch to Catholic Charities of Maine to FairPoint, the troubled communications company that the state approved to take over Verizon's phone business.

More. . .

PHOTOS OF KENNEBEC RIVER FLOODING

REPORT TRACKS CASCO BAY CLIMATE CHANGE

Maine Public Broadcasting - Maine's Casco Bay watershed region has grown warmer and wetter over the past century, according to a new report released today by the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership.

The report, titled "Climate Change in the Casco Bay Watershed: Past, Present, and Future," concludes that the region's average annual temperature has increased by two degrees Fahrenheit in the past 100 years. That's resulted in earlier ice-outs on Sebago Lake, and 20 percent more rainfall each year in Portland.

The report also claims a host of other effects, including an increase in extreme weather events, a decrease in snow cover days, earlier spring run-off, longer growing seasons and rising sea levels.

The trends are expected to continue, the reports authors say. Temperatures are projected to increase by as much as three to eight degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, with summer temperatures rising as much as 10 degrees. Under that scenario, floods and droughts would be more likely, according to the report.

 

CLICK ON CHARTS FOR LARGE VERSIONS

From the Report - Overall, the region has been getting warmer and wetter over the last century, and these trends have increased over the last four decades. Detailed analysis of data collected at four meteorological stations in the region (Farmington, Lewiston, Portland, and Rumford) show that since 1965 the region has warmed 1.5 to 3.0 degrees F, with the greatest warming occurring in winter (1.6 - 4.9 degrees F). Overall annual precipitation and extreme precipitation events (both 1" in 24 hours and 2" in 48 hours) have increased in Portland.

The number of snow covered days is decreasing (especially on the coast), and winter snowfall is decreasing. Data collected from ships, buoys, and other observational platforms shows that sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine are warming. Tidal gauge data indicates relative sea level at Portland is continuing to rise.

Finally, analysis of phenological data indicates that ice-out dates on Sebago Lake are occurring earlier.

MAINE REALLY BACKS NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE

Nattonal Popular Vote - A 2008 survey of 800 Maine voters showed 77% overall support for a national popular vote for President.

By political affiliation, support for a national popular vote was 85% among Democrats, 70% among Republicans, and 73% among others.

By gender, support for a national popular vote was 82% among women and 71% among men.

By age, support for a national popular vote was 79% among 18-29 year olds, 67% among 30-45 year olds, 78% among 46-65 year olds, and 82% for those older than 65.

By congressional district, support for a national popular vote was 78% in the First congressional district and 76% in the Second district.

By race, support for a national popular vote was 79% among whites (representing 94% of respondents) and 56% among others (representing 6% of respondents).

DOWN EAST NOTES

Enrollment at the Northern Maine Community College is up 15 percent, the highest since the mid 1990s.

A Skowhegan man caught a record-setting rainbow trout on Lake George in Canaan, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Michael Thebarge of Skowhegan landed the trout that weighed 7 pounds on a certified scale. It wasn't until this week that Mr. Thebarge decided to contact IF&W and the Maine Sportsman, which maintains that state record book, to see if it was a record.

Morning Sentinel - A nationwide initiative to elect the president of the United States by popular vote has reached Maine, and will be considered by the House of Representatives this week. "I think that most Americans feel strongly that we ought to be electing a president by popular vote," said Rep. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, sponsor of the legislation, L.D. 56. "We've had at least three instances where we elected a president (with a minority of the popular vote), and the popular vote was ignored because of the Electoral College method." The bill would require states that enact it to commit all of their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote. If the bill had been in effect in 2000, Al Gore would have become president instead of George W. Bush.

Representative Michael Shaw is practicing the growing political mis-craft of pretending you're doing something useful by either banning it or fining it. Shaw wants to boost the penalties for writing bad checks. . . Maine Public Broadcasting - For example, he suggests that a bad check of $500 or more be made a felony and that those convicted pay triple damages as well as court costs and attorney fees. Jack Comart, an attorney for Maine Equal Justice, a low-income advocacy group, says requiring people to spend more time in jail for writing $500 worth of bouncing checks is the wrong solution. "The bill makes no distinction between those who, through no fault of their own, are not able to tender the amount of the check and fees within ten days," Comart said. "We often deal with people living on fixed incomes such as social security. . . nd many times they don't get their direct deposit check through no fault of their own but through a bureaucratic mixup.". . . And, says John Pelletier, executive director of the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services. . . when low-risk offenders are subjected to stiff sanctions for behavior that is an anomoly they can become high risk offenders. He says making bad check writers pay simple restitution to merchants is probably a more effective sentence. Others say uniform enforcement by district attorneys across the state could also help.

ANOTHER VICTIM OF SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION LAW

Morning Sentinel, Pittsfield - The local school system is already facing several budget "whammies" this year, Superintendent Michael Gallagher says, amounting to a projected $300,000 to $400,000 shortfall. And under state law, School Administrative District 53 is set to take another $185,000 hit. The district needed to hold a vote on merging with another school system by the end of this month to avoid that. But school officials are lobbying to be absolved of a state penalty, saying they've exhausted all options to comply with the state's school consolidation law.. . .

CO-HOUSING IN BRUNSWICK

Two Echo - Cohousing communities like Two Echo are by the people, for the people — which makes them unique among residential developments. Instead of being developed for profit by builders or real estate speculators, these communities are designed and managed by their own residents, whose privately-owned homes cluster around a common house and community-owned open 22 space.

Two Echo - The cohousing concept originated in Denmark over 20 years ago. Today, more than 150 cohousing communities are in various stages of development throughout the U. S. Formed in 1991, the Two Echo group wanted a parcel of land with woods and fields, away from busy roads, noise and air pollution, large enough to provide space for recreation and some possible agricultural uses such as gardening, farming, and raising animals. In 1996, after exploring more than 25 sites, we found a beautiful 92-acre parcel of land that met all our criteria. Off Hacker Road in Brunswick, it has about 15 acres of fields and more than 75 acres of woods. We're just 10 minutes from downtown Brunswick, the home of Bowdoin College. A thriving community, Brunswick offers good schools, a variety of cultural attractions, and proximity to the famed Maine coast.

BALDACCI PLANS TO JOIN THE TEST TYRANTS BIG TIME

Maine Public Broadcasting - Gov. John Baldacci plans to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would link teacher evaluations -- and possibly teacher pay -- to student performance. He outlined his proposal in his State of the State speech last night. . . State law currently bars school administrators from evaluating teachers based on how their students do on measurements such as test scores . . . The Baldacci administration wants to get rid of the prohibition to make it more competitive for federal grant money for education through the so-called Race to the Top program. . .

Says Mark Gray, executive director of the Maine Education Association, whose members are compensated by school districts based on their longevity and educational attainment. . . "If I'm a high school math teacher and I've got four, five sections of math, and I might have a couple of algebra 2 classes, I might also be teaching a calculus class. How does my effectiveness as a teacher get matched up to the fact that I'm teaching a large number of students and I'm teaching students at different levels? Is it an average of all of the test scores of all the students that I see during a semester or during a grading period?"

DOWN EAST NOTES

Green Independent Party gubernatorial candidate Lynne Williams called for to create an economic climate based on sustainability. Currently, Williams said, neither the state's budget process, its economic development efforts or its tax structure reflect a sustainable model. "Farmers understand this concept," Williams said, "and they budget based on multi-year averages of their yields. That way, they can often ride out bad years and use strong years to build up a surplus - a surplus they use only when yearly revenue falls below the average. Municipal governments often work the same way"

Maine Biz - Portland has moved up five places in an annual Portfolio ranking of the best places for small business. The annual small business vitality assessment in 2009 ranked Portland No. 10 in the country, but this year the city moved up to No. 5 in a field of 100 metro areas. The ranking is based on population, employment and small business growth, for businesses with fewer than 99 employees, according to the Conde Nast website. Portland took the No. 5 spot based on its number of small businesses in 2007 (17,747); change in private sector employment between 2004 and 2009 (-2%); 2008 population (514,065); small businesses per 1,000 people in 2007 (34.64); and change in population between 2003 and 2008 (1.61%).

DOWN EAST NOTES

Maine Public Broadcasting - Civil libertarians and religious groups are lining up in support of a bill that would limit the amount of time prisoners in Maine can be put in solitary confinement. LD 1611, sponsored by Rep. James Schatz, a Blue Hill Democrat, would also prevent authorities from placing prisoners with "serious mental illness" in solitary confinement. The measure has the support of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, as well as the Maine Council of Churches. The Maine Psychological Association and the Maine Association of Psychiatric Physicians are also supporting the measure. The groups are outlining their reasons at an Augusta news conference this morning.

WCSH - Employees of the Front Room restaurant in Portland and members of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Maine have filed a federal lawsuit against the owner of the restaurant, Harding Smith, for violations of labor laws. In the lawsuit, workers claim they were forced to pay a portion of their tips to management, were not paid appropriate minimum wages or overtime, and alleges a culture of disrespect at the Front Room. The suit, which asks for $160,000, seeks back wages for misappropriated tips. Eight former employees are taking part in the legal action.

Maine Owl - I understand the desire of a reporter to cover a story like the earthquake in Haiti, and an editor's desire to send them there, but knowing the severity of the devastation, unless there is some truly compelling local angle, is it really necessary for a Maine based reporter to go? Multiply this hundreds of times - won't how much these "local" reporters get in the way far outweigh what they learn? It reminds me of when authorities ask folks to stay home during a blizzard - those that venture out often end up creating more work for the road crews.

Maine Public Broadcasting - Advocates in Augusta are backing legislation that would prohibit health insurance companies from placing caps on the amount of benefits their clients could receive over a lifetime. While the elimination of these caps is included in national health reform bills being considered in Congress, backers of the Maine bill say they don't want to wait. . . . According to a report issued by the Augusta-based organization Consumers for Affordable Heath Care, more than half of those people covered by employer-sponsored health plans are subject to some type of cap, such as an annual or lifetime limit on what insurance companies will pay out in claims.

Maine Public Broadcasting - Maine is one of the oldest states in the country, with more than a quarter million patients covered by the federal Medicare program for the elderly and disabled. So a plan to slash Medicare reimbursement to doctors by 21 percent in March is sounding alarms here. Opponents say this will affect doctors' ability to serve people on Medicare. . . . AARP Maine director Nancy Kelleher urges lawmakers to consider the difficulty that seniors already have trying to find a doctor that accepts Medicare, which reimburses at a lower rate than private insurers. . . Kelleher says she's heard of seniors waiting a month to six months to see a doctor -- a problem exaggerated in rural areas, where there is a shortage of primary care physicians. But even in the state's largest city, many seniors can't see a doctor when they want. Intermed, one of Maine's largest private practices, reports having a waiting list.

Maine Politics - Republican 2nd District congressional candidate Jason Levesque has announced a campaign tour with a name that seems to perfectly fit this kind of political theater. From a campaign email: "Jason Levesque will be kicking off his 2010 campaign with "The Blah Blah Blah Tour", beginning January 21st in his hometown of Auburn. The 6 week tour will take Jason through several parts of Maine's 2nd District." . . .

It was a draft sent out as a final release and Lavesque sent out a corrected version calling it the Kick Off Tour. But then a reporter got this message from a campaign aide: "We got such an awesome reaction to what was seen as Jason's portrayal of what's coming out of DC right now we changed it back and that is now the name. If you cover him today or on other parts of the tour, you just miight hear him say it."

ZERO TOLERANCE AND THE SCHOOL TO PRISON PIPELINE

From the state legislative testimony of Alysia Melnick of the Maine Civil Liberties Union

Our concern stems from research which shows that zero tolerance policies and disproportionate or inappropriate use of suspensions and expulsions contribute to the trend known as "the school-to-prison pipeline." This pipeline refers to the growing practice of criminalizing, rather than educating, our nation's children, and is one of the most important civil rights challenges facing our nation today.

Zero-tolerance disciplinary policies are often the first step in a child's journey through the pipeline because they impose severe discipline on students without regard to individual circumstances or the long term consequences. Under these policies, children have been expelled for giving Midol to a classmate, bringing household goods (including a kitchen knife) to school to donate to Goodwill, and bringing scissors to class for an art project.

Further, there is no evidence that zero-tolerance policies or overuse of suspensions and expulsions make schools safer or improve student behavior. On the contrary, research suggests that these practices may actually increase the likelihood of later criminal misconduct. . . .

Students of color are disproportionately represented at every stage of the school-to-prison pipeline.

Students with special needs are particularly likely to be pushed out of mainstream schools and into the juvenile justice system, despite the heightened protections afforded to them under law. . .

Students who fit within both of these groups - minority students with disabilities - are most vulnerable.

CHARTER COMMISSION LEANING TOWARDS WEAK MAYOR

Tom Bell, Portland Press Herald - The Portland Charter Commission has drafted a job description for a popularly elected mayor. . . Under the commission's proposal, the mayor would be a voting member of the council and have no power to hire or fire anybody. The mayor would chair the council meetings and be assigned the job of managing the budget process for the city and the School Department in a "consensus-building" manner, Plumb said. Any additional power, she said, would come from the political authority of having won a citywide election. The mayor would serve a four-year term. . .

LOBSTER WARS ESCALATE

DOWN EAST NOTES

FWIX - According to the census bureau, the "Portland-South Portland-Biddeford Metro area" comprises three counties and about 60 towns.

Rep. Melissa Walsh Innes, Yarmouth - I spent 9 hours straight today working on my responsible recycling bill, mostly from my couch and computer. I think if they worked out a Maine State legislator's pay rate, over the year, it would be about five cents an hour, so it's a good thing I enjoy this so much.

Village Soup - On Saturday, while many Belfast residents were hauling the week's corrugated cardboard to the transfer station, a dozen local youth, mostly members of local scout troops, were putting their repurposed boxes to use as sleds. The Belfast Parks and Recreation Department sponsored the Cardboard Sled Challenge in part to celebrate the recent reopening of the city ski area, located off City Point Road. . . Volunteers timed the runs with stopwatches and lined the course, ready to give a helping heave-ho to sleds that stuck in the snow, but beyond the trappings of competition - awards were given for fastest time and the most creative design - keeping score took a back seat to having fun.

Maine Public Broadcasting - The owners of more than 240 miles of rail line in northern Maine are planning to abandon the tracks this spring, citing losses of as much as $5 million a year. According to some observers, the last hope for the only rail service in northern Maine rests with the state. The Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, formerly known as the Bangor and Aroostook, operates nearly 750 miles of rail line in Maine, Vermont, Quebec and New Brunswick. The problem, however, involves the 230 or so miles that operate from Millinocket up into Madawaska and Houlton. Robert Grindrod, President and CEO of MMA Railway, says the biggest problem has been a marked decline in demand for forest products. . .

Laurie Schreiber, Village Soup, Mt Desert - The state's attorney general was unable to get convictions in two trap-molestation cases that went to court last year, despite eyewitness accounts by Maine Marine Patrol officers who said they saw buoys being cut. As a result, the state Department of Marine Resources' Lobster Advisory Council is looking at alternative models to deal with trap molesting. . . It is unlawful for anyone except the gear's licensed owner or a Marine Patrol officer to raise or molest a lobster trap, warp, buoy or lobster car. Conviction for a violation carries a mandatory three-year loss of license. Some ideas that have come up for a different model include setting up a licensing review board, establishing a jury of peers, or giving the DMR's commissioner the discretion to impose a milder penalty for a first offense.

Maine Politics - Al Diamon has made his predictions for this year's gubernatorial race: "I think it'll come down to Abbott and Rowe in November, with the Republican taking the Blaine House by a narrow margin, thanks to Cutler and Williams siphoning votes from the Democrat." Diamon was spot on in 2006, but that wasn't exactly a hard race to forecast.

MAINE DEMOCRATS' WAR AGAINST THE GREENS