End of the year round-up on POLITICO cities project

2016 is thankfully about to end, though I suspect we will long for it by the second quarter of next year. In parting, a quick round-up of items related to my series on successful innovations in American cities for POLITICO Magazine.

The Vermont "hack": Burlington Electric, the city-owned utility in Vermont's largest city, is in the news today because they discovered malevolent Russian state "hacker" code on one of their computers. I profiled the utility last month for the series.

Roanoke Times editorial: thanks to Roanoke, Virginia's newspaper of record for this editorial discussing how to move cities forward, with special focus on my POLITICO article on that city, and the work of The Atlantic's James Fallows. Much appreciated.

Bloomberg View on homelessness: Syndicated columnist Noah Smith took up the issue of work and

 homelessness this week, citing my most recent piece for the series on Albuquerque. The column was carried across the country, including at Maine's Bangor Daily News.

And, separately, thanks to columnists at the Herald Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia and the Post Register in Idaho Falls, Idaho for taking up American Nations this month. Much appreciated.

Happy New Year, everyone. Let's hope it outperforms expectations.

Maine: How will Trump administration effect LePage's education reform drive?

In this week's Maine Sunday Telegram, I write about how the incoming Trump administration -- and its education secretary nominee, billionaire school voucher and charter school champion Betsy DeVos -- might effect the landscape for Gov. Paul LePage's school reform drive.

The most likely effect, experts say: new pressure to lift the 10-school cap on taxpayer-financed, privately-operated charters schools. Read on for details.

DeVos is a board member and major contributor to Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, a focus of this 2012 investigation for the Telegram.

How Albuquerque took on homelessness

My latest for POLITICO Magazine's What Works series is on how a concerned Republican mayor and an out-of-control police department created the context for an impressive and comprehensive effort to deal with homelessness in Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest city. From a van that picks willing panhandlers off the street and puts them to work for the day for $9.50 an hour to a drive to get the most vulnerable homeless people into permanent homes immediately, the city has been turning heads and pointing the way toward more effective strategies for helping people get off the streets.

This is my tenth full-length "What Works" piece this year. The others were on how Des Moines went from dull to cool; how Manchester, New Hampshire turned its vast 19th century millyard to spinning high-tech gold; on how Denver built its game-changing light rail system, only to discover its most powerful effects were not what they'd expected; how Cincinnati transformed "America's most dangerous neighborhood"; how Philadelphia repurposed a 1200 acre former naval base;  how Milwaukee breathed life back into a legacy industrial district, creating the manufacturing park of the future; how Roanoke, Virginia went from a train city to a brain city;  how Winston-Salem, North Carolina pivoted from tobacco manufacturing to high-tech innovation and how Burlington, Vermont -- Bernie Sanders' hometown -- became the country's first all-renewable-powered city. In addition -- on the occasion of the Republican National Convention -- I had this shorter story on how Cleveland revamped its long-neglected Public Square.

Where's next for What Works? Hint: for one religious denomination, it's literally the Holy Land.

[Update, 1/16/17: Bloomberg View columnist Noah Smith took up this story in his syndicated column.]

Maine: should casino funds be helping the horses?

Maine's casino industry got its start more than a decade ago by appealing to Maine voters to help the state's agricultural sector: let harness racing tracks have slot machines and that will support horse farmers, which will keep other farmers growing hay for them and so on. The casino industry has expanded away from the tracks  -- the Oxford Casino has no formal tie to harness racing -- but some $8 million a year of their revenues still makes its way to the harness racing tracks, betting parlors, and the purses awarded to the owners of race-winning horses.

As I report in this week's Maine Sunday Telegram, a lot of the horses don't benefit from this. Some 200 leave the track each year -- many at age 3, all by age 14 -- and dozens of those face an uncertain future. The animals live to be 30, but cost a lot to maintain. Some perfectly healthy horses (who were not exceptional racers) are sold for slaughter in Quebec. But horse rescuers and advocates see an opportunity for the state to deal with this problem. Details within.

F-35, criticized by Trump, employs nearly 1000 Mainers

In today's Maine Sunday Telegram, I have a piece on the F-35 program in Maine, occasioned by President-elect Donald Trump's critical tweet earlier this week.

Two takeaways: it employs - directly or indirectly - nearly 1000 Mainers. Secondly, for this reason it has had the enthusiastic backing of both of Maine's U.S. Senators, Rep. Chellie Pingree, and Gov. Paul LePage (who famously seized the opportunity, when inside an F-35 simulator at the local Pratt & Whitney plant, to express his interest in bombing the Press Herald building.) This pattern - minus the fantasy air strikes - is replicated in 45 states across the country, making the program politically bulletproof.

I've also written recently on the possible effects for Maine of Trump's proposals to defund NASA Earth Science research and to take an aggressive stance against Canadian softwood lumber imports.

Trump plan on Canada lumber trade could help Maine sawmills

Last month a Trump transition memo obtained by CNN had Canadian media and politicians expressing concerns about the effect on their country's softwood lumber industry, the people who make spruce, fir, and pine dimension lumber of the sort you frame a house with. Trump, the memo suggested, would take an aggressive stance with our neighbor to the north on its softwood lumber imports.

This had me wondering what the effect of new trade restrictions would be for Maine's softwood lumber mills and harvesters. As I report in this week's Maine Sunday Telegram, they would probably benefit, though the devil is in the details.

On Trump transition watch at the Press Herald, I last reported on how his proposal to slash NASA's earth science missions would damage Maine science.

Republic of Pirates, now in China

A parcel of these arrived in the mail the other day: the handsome, simplified Chinese edition of The Republic of Pirates from Social Sciences Academic Press in Beijing. I'm pleased the book is now available in the world's most populous country. (The title there is apparently

海盗共和国:骷髅旗飘扬、民主之火燃起的海盗黄金年代 精装.)

For those in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, Republic of Pirates is also available in complex Chinese from Taipei's Business Weekly.

My only other title to be translated into Chinese is Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas, but I suspect that's now out of print.

Trump proposal to cut NASA Earth Science would hurt Maine research

Last week, President-Elect Donald Trump's space policy adviser reiterated his desire to cut or eliminate NASA's Earth Sciences programs, including the monitoring of climate and ocean conditions, areas researchers here in Maine excel at.

In today's Portland Press Herald, Maine-based researchers working with NASA data decried the proposal, saying it would essentially leave U.S. scientists without the tools to track and assess changes in the ocean and terrestrial environment.

For a sense of what is at stake in Maine, consider this Press Herald series, which was a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting.

As Trump Age dawns, a dispatch from the city Sanders built

At Politico Magazine, the subjects for the What Works series are picked months in advance, so it's by coincidence that, days after Donald Trump's upset victory in the U.S. presidential election, the series visit Bernie Sanders' hometown. I did field research for this story a couple weeks before election day; now it reads like a dispatch from an alternate universe, where a town with few meaningful fissures is creating a sustainable economy under the guidance of their municipal government, itself run for much of the past four decades by social democrats.

In any case, the new story is on Burlington, Vermont's 37-year drive to build a sustainable city, protected from international fossil fuel markets and the whims of distant corporate boards. The result: the first city able to power itself entirely from renewable energy -- it owns its own grid and generating capacity and could theoretically cut itself off from the outside world without interrupting power -- and one that is now working to become net zero in transportation and thermal energy use as well. It also grows a lot of its own food.

This is my ninth full-length "What Works" piece this year. The others were on how Des Moines went from dull to cool; how Manchester, New Hampshire turned its vast 19th century millyard to spinning high-tech gold; on how Denver built its game-changing light rail system, only to discover its most powerful effects were not what they'd expected; how Cincinnati transformed "America's most dangerous neighborhood"; how Philadelphia repurposed a 1200 acre former naval base;  how Milwaukee breathed life back into a legacy industrial district, creating the manufacturing park of the future; how Roanoke, Virginia went from a train city to a brain city; and how Winston-Salem, North Carolina pivoted from tobacco manufacturing to high-tech innovation. In addition -- on the occasion of the Republican National Convention -- I had this shorter story on how Cleveland revamped its long-neglected Public Square.

Where's next? Hint: They filmed Breaking Bad there.

Maine: Passamaquoddy political struggle persists

Thanks to everyone who has been asking about my take on the U.S. presidential election. I'm intending to write a proper American Nations-driven analysis, but other deadlines and missing data have held me back. Soon, I promise.

Meanwhile, I've written two updates in the Portland Press Herald on another ugly political situation: the power struggles at the Passamaquoddy reservation at Pleasant Point, on the Maine-New Brunswick frontier.

Last week, I had this story on the recall of the sitting Chief, Fred Moore III, by a more than five-to-one margin. Moore says he was ousted because he dared confront an alleged narcotics epidemic within tribal government itself.

Tribal officialdom was mum on why Moore had been removed until yesterday, when I put together this follow-up story. A tribal department director who spearheaded the recall drive against Moore says he was removed for self-enrichment and abuse of power.

All of this follows a more than year-long struggle between Moore and Vice Chief Vera Francis featuring efforts to depose one another, failed recall votes, and accusations of corruption. Before that, there was an unpleasant incident in which an elderly tribal councilor was arrested in connection with her circulation of a recall petition against Moore.

For more background on the tribe, there's this 29-part series.

American Nations in The Atlantic, Brazil, and Switzerland

There must be an epic, regionally-valent election coming up because American Nations has again been showing up in all sorts of places.

I'm greatly honored to have it included in The Atlantic's "Reading List for Those in Despair About Politics." The list was compiled by engaging an eclectic group of thought leaders, and Chai Feldblum, a commissioner with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was kind enough to chose Nations, saying it was "a eye opening experience for me....Many Americans say they love their country. The question is -- which country are they talking about.' There are a lot of other great titles in the list as well, including new works by Ta-Nahisi Coates and Yuval Levin and, most importantly, Mo Willems' Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.

Meanwhile, Brazil's Globo has this posting on the paradigm from University of Sao Paolo journalism professor Helio Gurovitz which has been getting  lot of traction on Twitter.

And, from Switzerland, there's an extended feature -- relate with color maps -- in Saturday's Neue Zurcher Zeitung from their U.S. correspondent Andreas Mink, who came up to Maine this summer to interview me. (Thus, Portland's Arabica has a cameo.) It's not online, alas, but for the one or two of you in Switzerland (or who subscribe to NZZ's e-reader) it's a fun three page spread (in German.)

And if you're a U.S. citizen, don't forget to vote. 

From U.S. cities, some lessons in protecting liberal democracy

This year's presidential election has exposed a long festering crisis: that tens of millions of Americans are ready to endorse a candidate who has pledged to use extra-constitutional means to solve the country’s problems, including the jailing of his opponent, an erosion of first amendment protections for the press, and ethnographic tests for federal judges.

Authoritarianism now has a sizable constituency in American politics, one that won’t be going away on Nov. 9, regardless of who is president-elect. The next president and congressional leaders will still preside over a country that is politically polarized, with differences that are geographic even as they are ideological, but the risks of inaction have grown.

In the new weekly print edition of my old journalistic home, The Christian Science Monitor, I have

the cover story on how we move forward and shore up our liberal democracy. This is the topic of my most recent book, American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good, but it's been reinforced by what I've seen on the ground as I've travelled the country this year for POLITICO, observing successful innovations of various sorts in cities from Utah to New Hampshire.

The story -- which appears in the print edition dated Nov. 7, but went up online yesterday -- explores how people can balance the individual freedom and the need to build and maintain the social and physical infrastructure that allows it to exist.

It's been a few years since I last wrote for the Monitor, but I'm a past Eastern Europe, Balkan, and Global Affairs correspondent for that paper, having written hundreds of stories from dozens of countries between the early 1990s and 2010 from bases in Budapest, Zagreb, Washington, South Texas and Maine. It's nice to be back in its pages again after a long hiatus.

[Update, 12/31/16: This story prompted editorials in both the Des Moines Register and the Roanoke Times.]

Washington Monthly Reviews American Character

Just in time for the 2016 election, Washington Monthly has a review of my recent book, American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good, the sequel to American Nations, in their new issue.

Novelist and journalist Jennifer Miller is the reviewer and focuses on how hyper-charged everything in this history seems in the context of the late phase of this insane election cycle. Of course, the book was finished in the late Spring of 2015 -- when Donald Trump was being discounted as a freak sideshow and nobody was expecting a little known Social Democrat from Vermont to give the Democratic frontrunner a run for the money -- which shows just how much more vitriolic our public discourse has gotten in little over a year.

This results in Miller writing this observation, ending with my favorite line of any review so far: "Even Woodard's discussion of evolutionary biology feels political," she notes of a passage countering the idea that humans' are natural state is to be individuals operating in a state of anarchy. "'Our evolutionary ancestors, Homo erectus, were using fire a million years ago, a game-changing innovation that led them to live in group campsites [and] share tasks responsibilities, and resources,' [Woodard writes.] And yet given the virulence of today's small-government evangelists and Ayn Rand individualists, it's difficult not to wonder: Is this how far back we need to go to make a case for the collective? To fire?"

Indeed, if you're to counter a ideology going back to Thomas Hobbes' musings on the origins of government, you do!

Thanks to Miller and the Monthly for reviewing the book.

How Tech Helped Winston-Salem Shake Tobacco

My latest installment for POLITICO Magazine's "What Works" series is on how the manufacturing city of Winson-Salem, North Carolina reinvented itself as an arts-and-science hub as cigarette manufacturing diminished and local companies were gobbled up by conglomerates. It's a remarkable story of collaboration between a traditional patriarchy, research scientists, city officials and punk rockers.

This is my eighth full-length "What Works" piece this year. The others were on how Des Moines went from dull to cool; how Manchester, New Hampshire turned its vast 19th century millyard to spinning high-tech gold; on how Denver built its game-changing light rail system, only to discover its most powerful effects were not what they'd expected; how Cincinnati transformed "America's most dangerous neighborhood"; how Philadelphia repurposed a 1200 acre former naval base;  how Milwaukee breathed life back into a legacy industrial district, creating the manufacturing park of the future, and how Roanoke, Virginia went from a train city to a brain city. In addition -- on the occasion of the Republican National Convention -- I had this shorter story on how Cleveland revamped its long-neglected Public Square.

What city is next? Here's a hint: Bernie Sanders.

Cleveland Indians were named for a Penobscot; they want Chief Wahoo to go

In today's Portland Press Herald, I have the story of Louis Sockalexis, the Penobscot baseball star for whom the Cleveland Indians are named. His tribe, the Penobscot Nation here in Maine, have asked the club to retire not the name, but rather the controversial "Chief Wahoo" logo and mascot. The team has declined to respond or engage them for sixteen years.

Now Cleveland is in the World Series, and the commissioner of baseball is putting some extra pressure on. Read on from the link for all the details.

The last time I thought about Cleveland was this summer, when I visited the city to write about the re-imagining of Public Square and its other civic spaces for POLITICO.

Maine: Andre Cushing's finances under scrutiny...by his sister

The Assistant Majority Leader of the Maine state Senate, Andre Cushing III, has long had one of the most active leadership PACs, fueled by donations from multinational corporations, many of them members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which Cushing helps lead as a member of the national board of directors and state legislative chair.

But this week, Cushing's finances -- political and otherwise -- have been under scrutiny on account of a dispute with his own sister.

As reported in Tuesday's Portland Press Herald, Cushing's sister has filed a law suit alleging a variety of fraudulent financial transfers involving a family corporation (that both have shares in) and various corporate and PAC entities (which she does not.) She alleges well over a $1 million in fraudulent transfers.

In today's Press Herald, a follow up: the sister, Laura Cushing McIntyre, has filed a complaint with the state's ethics commission requesting an investigation into tens of thousands of dollars of alleged transfers between Cushing's campaign and PAC (on one hand) and a corporation he controls (on the other). The transfers don't show up on Cushing's various campaign finance disclosures, as required under Maine law, meaning either they didn't take place or he's failed to comply.

For details, read on from the links.

Maine: Mystery of the Triple Sunk Lobsterboat

In this week's Maine Sunday Telegram, I have the story of the triple-sinking of a Maine lobsterman's boat in Port Clyde; each time he raised the vessel, someone sunk it again at the first chance they got.

Nobody, apart from the boat's owner, Tony Hooper, seems to want to talk about the unusual situation, possibly unprecedented in modern Maine lobster fishing, not even in general terms.

For those interested in learning more background on how lobstermen traditionally defended their harbor's turf from interlopers, it's covered in my 2004 book, The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier.

Tale of Two Towns: one loves Trump, one despises him

In this election cycle, many Americans are trying to understand how anyone could possibly be supporting the other presidential candidate, and the exasperation is specially acute in regards to Donald Trump, an authoritarian figure who has promised, among other things, to jail his opponent.

For last week's Maine Sunday Telegram, I profiled two Maine towns on opposite sides of the divide. Turner and Hallowell are just 35 miles apart, they each have only a few thousand people, they're each perched on the edge of a larger city, and they have similar income levels and racial demographics. But one, a farming town, embraces Trump in the hopes he will best protect their Jeffersonian world, the other, a micro-city founded by Whig gentry, finds him anathema to everything they hold dear.

Here are links to the Turner and to the Hallowell stories respectively; enjoy. And thanks to all the people who shared their stories and perspectives with me.

And for your moment of zen, here's former Maine Warden Service officer John Ford, who writes cutesy books about his time with the service, speaking at the Trump rally in Bangor this week.

Speaking on American Character in Portland, Oregon

I had a enjoyable whirlwind trip to Portland, Oregon last weekend to deliver the 2016 Oliver Lecture at the First Congregational Church, an event co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Oregon. I spoke about my new book, American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Freedom and the Common Good, which is something of a sequel to American Nations.

Thanks much to the excellent and engaged crowd, to Broadway Books for selling on site (and selling so many) and to the sponsors for having me. I look forward to visiting again when I have  more time.

While in town, I made the obligatory writer's pilgrimage to Powell's, the legendary Portland bookstore, which takes up an entire block and requires its cavernous rooms be color coded just to find one's way around. They now have signed copies (pictured), though Broadway Books has the grandest collection West of the Mississippi.

Also was reassured about Portland fits into American Nations' Left Coast, as the history, founders, and institutional history of the First Congregational (and, indeed, the once-rival Unitarian church up the street) illustrates the Yankee half of the equation so very well. (George Atkinson founded the church, and one of his leading biographers attended the event.)

How Roanoke went from Train City to Brain City

My latest installment for POLITICO Magazine's "What Works" series is on the remarkable and entirely homegrown transformation of Roanoke, Virginia, which has been getting a lot of attention this week. Here's a snippet:

How did a small city in a disadvantaged region four hours from a major metropolis—one that had seen its signature industries atrophy or depart, that lacked so much as a branch campus of a state university—transform itself from the forgotten stepsister of the Appalachians into a formidable rival to Asheville, North Carolina? The answer has lessons for small, out-of-the-way cities everywhere: Roanoke’s people did it largely by themselves, in small steps and with an eye to assets and alliances in the wider region around them. 

Roanoke, at least, has embraced the story. Today's editorial in the Roanoke Times praised the story for not patronizing the city, which I gather has been a problem with national media treatments in the recent past. "Sometimes we're too close to things to fully appreciate them," the Times writes. "The Politico story does an excellent job piecing together how Roanoke has turned itself around."

And, in a first for the "What Works" series, there was this produced news segment on the story from
one of the local television stations, NBC affiliate WSLS. Thanks, Roanokers, for the endorsements.

This is my seventh full-length "What Works" piece this year. The others were on how Des Moines went from dull to cool; how Manchester, New Hampshire turned its vast 19th century millyard to spinning high-tech gold; on how Denver built its game-changing light rail system, only to discover its most powerful effects were not what they'd expected; how Cincinnati transformed "America's most dangerous neighborhood"; how Philadelphia repurposed a 1200 acre former naval base; and how Milwaukee breathed life back into a legacy industrial district, creating the manufacturing park of the future. In addition -- on the occasion of the Republican National Convention -- I had this shorter story on how Cleveland revamped its long-neglected Public Square.

Talking about Milwaukee's reindustrialization with Wisconsin Public Radio

For August's installment of the POLITICO Magazine "What Works" series, I was in Milwaukee, writing about that city's "re-industrialziation" effort and, in particular, their remaking of a blighted industrial zone into a model for what a 21st century manufacturing park can look like. The Menomonee Valley -- once the sacrifice zone for everything the city didn't want anyplace else -- now combines manufacturing with nature trails, parks, trout fishing, New Urbanism-ish design standards, and a landscape that helps control stormwater runoff and flooding.

I was pleased to be the guest Friday on Wisconsin Public Radio's long format interview program, Central Time. Here's a link to the audio of that online.

I was last on WPR in March, talking about my new book, American Character.

Pacific Standard asks: Can fact-checking defeat (LePage's) demagoguery?

A writer from Pacific Standard Magazine gave a call the other day asking about Governor Paul LePage, who is currently in the midst of the greatest of his long chain of self-inflicted scandals, this one over a chain of racist statements regarding drug dealer arrests, violent and profane threats against a lawmaker who called him out for these, and other sundries. The question at hand: can fact-checking -- by the media, or the ACLU or whomever -- put a demagogue in check?

My answer is probably not, at least in regards to such a person's supporters, and I say this from the experience not only of covering Paul LePage, but also of living and reporting in Viktor Orban's Hungary, Franjo Tudjman's Croatia, and the mess that was (and is) post-war Bosnia. Supporters back such people because they believe them to be on "their side" against a wicked internal enemy ("liberals," Serbs, what-have-you), not because the justifications the demagogue comes up with for their policies actually stand up to scrutiny. That's why they've been so dangerous throughout history: they lead people down a fact-free path of resentment, and in some times and places the more polite sectors of society are temperamentally unable to muster a vigorous enough response to the threat until it's too late.

Fortunately the stakes are relatively low in Maine, where the chief executive doesn't have an army, nuclear arsenal, or security state at his or her disposal. Not true of the Presidency of the United States, though, which is why our European allies -- who have far more firsthand experience with demagogues -- are so concerned about Donald Trump.

This long answer isn't in the article, but you can hear takes from the ACLU, Maine progressive activist Mike Tippng and conservative activist Lance Dutson.

Explaining Paul LePage to the wider world in The Guardian

This has been a particularly wild week in Maine politics on account of the cascading, racially-charged and occasionally violent outbursts of our governor, Paul Lepage. National networks have sent teams to the State House in Augusta, my Portland Press Herald colleagues have been interviewed by everyone from the Washington Post to MSNBC to the NBC Nightly News.

Everyone it seems wants to know who this LePage guy is and why he behaves as he does.

My contribution for the day was this explainer-meets-news update for The Guardian, which ran this morning. The paper's subhead: "Who is Governor Paul Lepage, the Donald Trump supporter mulling resignation after racist comments and an obscenity-laced voicemail to a legislator?"

If you're looking for more context, here's a piece I did for Politico in the wee hours after the 2014 election, explaining how he got re-elected; another Politico story from the summer of 2015, which will catch you up on the last time he seriously went off the rails and, for the real scholars out there, my two-part, 10,000-word biography of the governor, which ran in the Portland Phoenix in January 2012. (Thanks to the Fund for Investigative Journalism for supporting that project.)

UK discovers Republic of Pirates

The media is a fickle beast, and most especially the British print variety, which suddenly last week decided they needed breaking news about Blackbeard, the infamous pirate who died 298 years ago. Thus, out of the blue, some of the revelations my nine year old biography of Blackbeard and his gang, The Republic of Pirates, have been making headlines there.

It started with the Bristol Post, the daily in the city that may have been Blackbeard's port of birth. Someone there discovered the two-year old U.K edition of the book and, therein, that Blackbeard's real name was actually Edward Thatch, rather than Edward Teach as is commonly thought. I had an enjoyable conversation with reporter Tristan Cork, who wrote this piece, "Bristol pirate Blackbeard's real name was NOT Edward Teach, American historian conforms." He includes my full email response to his question on this score, for those wanting the details.

The next day, an editor for SWNS.com, a news and PR site out of Bristol contacted me on behalf of the Daily Mail, which apparently outsources to them the troublesome task of actually reporting their stories. I had a thoughtful interview with one of their reporters about Blackbeard, which informed this Daily Mail story on Thursday. The Mail managed to get my name wrong and the erroneously state that I'm based in New York and the byline for the story is of someone I never spoke to. They go on to, ironically enough, report how "the guidebooks, plaques, posters, and history books have been getting [Blackbeard's] name wrong all this time." Fancy that.

But they do say I'm the "leading authority and writer on the golden age of piracy" and give some nice plugs for the book, so I'm not complaining. After all, "it's absolutely true because I read it in the Daily Mail."

The Sun, not to be left out, ran this story Friday which, umm, "borrows" all of its reporting from the Daily Mail story. The tabloid -- Britain's largest circulation paper -- is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

In any case, I'm pleased the pirates' story is getting attention in the country where many of them were born, and glad that my newspaper career has largely centered on this side of the Atlantic.

Worst year on record for puffin chicks at Gulf of Maine's largest colony

Atlantic puffins have been facing challenges as the Gulf of Maine has continued to warm in the past decade. The birds, which breed in several colonies off the Maine coast, must find fish to bring back to their chicks in their burrows. If the right food can't be found, the chicks will starve.

In yesterday's Portland Press Herald,  reported the sad news that the largest colony in the Gulf of Maine -- at Machias Seal Island -- this summer experienced the worst such food famine in the 31 years researchers have been tracking the birds there. The smaller colonies off midcoast Maine -- including Eastern Egg Rock -- fared better.

For broader context, we covered the puffins' problems in 2012-2015 in "Mayday", the Press Herald's six-part series on climate change in the Gulf of Maine, which was a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.

Maine: Democrats have big fundraising advantage in battle for legislature

Here in Maine, the most important electoral issue to be resolved in November -- aside from who will be the President of the United States -- is which party will control the two houses of the state legislature. Currently Democrats control the House, while Republicans have the Senate and the governor's mansion.

There isn't any polling of state legislative races, so voters usually get to surprise everyone each election day. But for those who can't wait, one can always track the money race. In Saturday's Portland Press Herald I have this story on the fundraising situation for the two parties' primary legislative war chests.

Bottom line: Democrats currently have a roughly two-to-one advantage in this regard, mostly because they've received big contributions from the national party (and the Republicans have not.) Even more interesting for politicos is where the money comes from and, perhaps, who the respective parties owe one to.

I last wrote about Maine political finance last month, with this Press Herald story on the "leadership PACs" of Maine legislators and who gives to them.

How Milwaukee shook off the rust

A lot of cities have worked to repurpose their manufacturing districts. Milwaukee has doubled-down on the largest of theirs, creating a model for what the 21st century industrial park might look like. Mixing recreational, environmental, and manufacturing uses, the Menomonee Valley has filled with tenants from near and far. It's the topic of my latest installment in Politico's "What Works" series, which posted Thursday night.

This is my sixth full-length "What Works" piece this year. The others were on how Des Moines went from dull to cool; how Manchester, New Hampshire turned its vast 19th century millyard to spinning high-tech gold; on how Denver built its game-changing light rail system, only to discover its most powerful effects were not what they'd expected; how Cincinnati transformed "America's most dangerous neighborhood"; and how Philadelphia repurposed a 1200 acre former naval base. In addition, last month -- on the occasion of the Republican National Convention -- I had this shorter story on how Cleveland revamped its long-neglected Public Square.

[Update, 9/8/16: I did this interview with Wisconsin Public Radio about the piece.]

Talking New England identity with WNPR's NEXT

WNPR, the Hartford-based flagship of Connecticut Public Radio, has launched a new show on New England. NEXT, which will roll out under the auspices of public radio's New England reporting collaborative, will eventually be syndicated throughout the region.

I was very pleased to be a part of their inaugural episode, talking about the origins of New England's identity, its expansion across a swath of the continent, and the conflicts it has with neighboring cultures, like the Dutch-founded region around what is now New York City, or the Scots-Irish influenced Greater Appalachian region. Readers of American Nations, American Character, and Lobster Coast will recognize much of what we spoke about.

The episode premiered on the stations of Connecticut public radio on Thursday afternoon and is available online now. (My segment starts at 19:20.) It also airs:

On New Hampshire Public Radio today, Aug. 6, at 10 pm.

On Vermont Public Radio Sunday, Aug. 7, at noon.

On the Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network again Sunday, Aug. 7, at 6 pm.

Thanks to producer Andrea Muraskin and host John Dankosky for having me on.

Talking about the crisis in the oceans and the Gulf of Maine, Damariscotta, Aug. 3

I'm speaking about the crisis in the world's oceans and the Gulf of Maine at the annual meeting of the Damariscotta River Association in Damariscotta, Maine this Wednesday, August 3rd. I've just learned, via this article in the Boothbay Register, that the event (a desert potluck) is open to the public, but you need to RSVP.

The event kicks off at 7pm. My talk keys off my first book, Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas (which took me all over the world) and my recent Portland Press Herald series, "Mayday", in how climate change is effecting the Gulf of Maine (which was a finalist for this year's Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.)

At EDMC, former Maine governor McKernan had a questionable legacy

I did a deep dive on former Maine Governor John McKernan's legacy as CEO and board chair of Education Management Corporation, or EDMC, the for-profit college network that ran afoul of the US Department of Justice, multiple state attorneys general, and the inspector general of the US Department of Education.

Here's what I learned, in today's Maine Sunday Telegram. There's also a sidebar.

McKernan was governor of Maine from 1987 to 1995 and is married to Sen. Olympia Snowe.

On Obama talking up his Scots-Irish heritage at the DNC

In his speech at the Democratic National Convention this week, President Obama spoke about his Scots-Irish roots and the values of that culture, which includes many on his mother's side. Why talk about the Scots-Irish in a major address in the midst of a critical election year? The Washington Post's Frances Stead Sellers is on it.

I spoke with Sellers yesterday about the Scots-Irish legacy, influence, and importance to our elections, and you can read the article that resulted here. (Thanks to the Post for including the American Nations map.)

I've written on this theme in, of course, American Nations and American Character, but also for Washington Monthly, where I discussed Obama's "Greater Appalachia Problem" ahead of the last election.

Gulenists, accused of orchestrating coup in Turkey, have been very active in Maine

Fehtullah Gulen, an influential imam who has lived in exile in the Poconos of Pennsylvania for decades, stands accused by Turkey's increasingly autocratic president, Recep Erdogan, of masterminding the recent military coup attempt in Turkey. Gulenists -- followers of Gulen and his Hizmet movement -- are being ejected from their jobs or rounded up by the tens of thousands, from journalists and teachers to military officers and police leaders as Erdogan seeks to snuff out what he calls a "tumor" on his nation.

Bizarrely, Gulenists have also been extremely active here in Maine. In this week's Maine Sunday Telegram, I have a commentary essay reviewing the vigorous cultural and diplomatic outreach programs Gulen's followers have been engaged in for the past four years in Maine, where they've attempted to open two charter schools and developed a bipartisan group of friends and allies in the legislature, governor's office, and among civic leaders.

The essay is a sequel to and update on this Press Herald story I wrote back in 2013, which revealed the Gulenist connections at the first proposed charter school.

Incidentally, I'm a fan of Turkish culture and the impressive cultural legacy of the Ottoman Empire, whose former territories I lived in for most of the 1990s. My most recent story from Turkey was this 1998 travel piece for the Christian Science Monitor from Cappadocia.

How Philadelphia transformed an abandoned naval base

How did Philadelphia successfully transform a 1200-acre former naval base into a mixed-use district that some are calling a second Center City? That's the topic of my latest installment of Politico's "What Works" series on successful urban innovations. Twenty-one years after it closed, the former Philadelphia Navy Yard complex -- which once included the largest naval shipyard on the planet, a naval seaplane factory, a naval air station, and, in 1944, a top secret Manhattan Project lab -- is now a hive of commercial, industrial, recreational, and academic activity, and the next phase intends to bring residential as well.

Attending the Democratic National Convention this coming week? The convention site is not a mile away from the Navy Yard gates.

This is my fifth full-length "What Works" piece this year. The others were on how Des Moines went from dull to cool; how Manchester, New Hampshire turned its vast 19th century millyard to spinning high-tech gold; on how Denver built its game-changing light rail system, only to discover its most powerful effects were not what they'd expected; and on how Cincinnati transformed "America's most dangerous neighborhood." In addition, last week -- on the occasion of the Republican National Convention -- I had this shorter story on how Cleveland revamped its long-neglected Public Square.

How Cleveland renewed its outdoor civic spaces ahead of the RNC

My latest installment for Politico's "What Works" series on successful urban innovations is a mini-story from Cleveland, Ohio, where a public-private partnership has aimed to renew and reconnect the city's outdoor public spaces, especially Public Square, the one-time New England-style public common at the heart of the city

Cleveland, where the Republican National Convention is about to open, has an incredible legacy in this regard, having been the location of the greatest manifestation of "City Beautiful" era planning outside of Washington, DC. The current investments key off the 1903 Group Plan, developed by a team led by Daniel Burnham (of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair "White City" fame) and modeled on Paris's Place de la Concorde.

Thanks to KCRW, the NPR affiliate in Santa Monica, California, for their interest in the piece. My
interview with their show "dna: Design and Architecture" airs Tuesday. [Update, 7/21/16: here's the interview.]

In addition to this article, I've written four full-length "What Works" pieces this year: on how Des Moines went from dull to cool; how Manchester, New Hampshire turned its vast 19th century millyard to spinning high-tech gold; on how Denver built its game-changing light rail system, only to discover its most powerful effects were not what they'd expected; and on how Cincinnati transformed "America's most dangerous neighborhood."

Maine: who provides the cash for legislator's personal PACs?

Ever wonder who the biggest contributors are to the personal "leadership" PACs of Maine's legislator? Read about it all in this week's Maine Sunday Telegram, where we've crunched the numbers on the 15 biggest donors and who their favorite legislators are. There's also some insight into how legislators raise money from the lobbyists, drug companies, business associations and casinos that make up the lion's share of the supply for these entities, and then some of the things they spend it on.

I last wrote about Maine leadership PACs way back during the last presidential election year, focusing on those controlled by clean elections candidates.

While reporting this story, I became introduced to the Sunlight Foundation's clever crowdsourcing site for political PAC and campaign event invites. It's a nifty tool for journalists trying to make sense of candidate's fundraising filings.

Speaking on American Character, Kennebunkport, July 10

This Sunday, July 10, I'll be speaking about my new book, American Character, at the Kennebunk River Club here in Maine.

The event, which kicks off at 4 pm, is free to KRC members, $20 for others with tickets available at the Graves Library, which is co-hosting the event. It's at the KRC's casino on Ocean Avenue in Kennebunkport. Books will be available for sale and signing after the talk.

Do come if you can. My full event schedule, as always, can be found here.

Free Lance-Star, Kennebec Journal reviews of American Character

I'm sharing two recent reviews of my new book, American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good, one from the Virginia Tidewater, the other from Yankee Maine.

The Free Lance-Star, the daily in Fredericksburg, Virginia, had this review of the book recently. "A GPS through our country's political past and into our confounding present," says reviewer Dan Dervin.

The Lance-Star has had a long-standing interest in my previous book, American Nations, publishing my OpEd back in the 2012 presidential cycle and an analysis -- originally written for Washington Monthly's Ten Miles Square blog -- of the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election.

Separately, Bill Bushnell, the books columnist at Maine's Kennebec Journal (Augusta) and Morning Sentinel (Waterville) dailies reviews the book in his latest column. "In American Character," he writes, "Woodard astutely examines the political, economic and social history of the U.S. over four centuries, explaining how the balance between individual freedoms and the common good has shifted dramatically, often with wide swings from one to the other."

Thanks to both papers for their interest in the book.

For those in Maine, I'll be speaking on American Character in Kennebunkport on July 10.