Florida investigators ding K12 Inc; alewives free at last; Connor under fire

After a long period of workflow-induced radio silence, a few updates of interest to Mainers and, perhaps Floridians, New Brunswickers, and some Pennsylvanians as well:

Investigators ding K12 Inc.: K12, the nation's largest online education provider, has been under investigation in Florida over accusations it used unqualified teachers in a taxpayer-financed virtual school there. As I report in today's Portland Press Herald, a draft report has been made public which finds against the company on two of three counts. Testimony to investigators also reflects on the sort of attention -- or lack thereof -- students of the school receive.

K12 has been seeking to operate a virtual charter school here in Maine, but has been rebuffed by authorizers, angering Gov. Paul LePage, who strongly supports their creation. It was at the center of the Sept. 2 Maine Sunday Telegram investigation that won this year's George Polk Award for Education Reporting.

St. Croix alewives free at last: Last summer I reported on the bizarre odyssey of the spring spawning runs of St. Croix River alewives, which had been banned from the sprawling international watershed by an act of the Maine legislature. After many twists and turns -- and reflecting the scientific and economic evidence that the fish help, not hurt the ecosystem there -- a bill ordering the state to open the fishways to the schooling fish has become law, after Gov. LePage chose not to veto it.

Former Press Herald chief Rich Connor accused of stealing $500K from company: The parent company of the paper I work for, the Portland Press Herald, has accused former CEO and editor in chief Rich Connor of essentially stealing over half a million dollars from the paper while it was in precarious financial condition.

Long before I ever expected to work for Maine Today Media, I covered the Press Herald's plight for Maine-based magazines. Connor -- who is being sued by his other former employers, the Times-Leader of Wilkes-Barre, for appropriating another quarter million -- did a lot of damage to journalism as well as the paper's balance sheets. Here's his "no scoops" vision as articulated to me for this 2010 feature in Down East and, for context, a bit about how he left the paper on the eve of its rescue (ultimately to S. Donald Sussman, not Harte and company, as it turned out.)

DePoy-Warren moving from state DEP to Department of Education: For inside baseball people, Samantha DePoy-Warren, the iconoclastic communications chief at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is redeploying to the Department of Education, where she will take the communications portfolio from David Connerty-Marin. Warren confirmed her last day at DEP is this Friday. Marin said he's switching to another position within the education department.

On Maine's flawed caucuses at Down East

I've been writing about the flaws in Maine's presidential caucus system for four years now, but I think Republicans will agree that the 2012 GOP caucus took the cake. I delve into the problems with the Feb. 11 poll -- and other, longstanding process shortcomings -- in the new issue of Down East.

Sadly, this piece is to be my last Talk of Maine column for the time being. On Monday, I officially joined the staff of Maine's largest newspapers, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. My business card says State and National Affairs Writer, and I'll have dual roles of writing in-depth enterprise news pieces as well as more magazine-like context, analysis, and essay articles, many of which will likely find their home in the Telegram's Insight section.

I'll continue to work on my book projects and to write on national and foreign events for other outlets, but for those who follow my Maine writing, look for the vast majority of it to be in the Press Herald and its sister papers, the Kennebec Journal (in the state capital, Augusta) and Morning Sentinel (in Waterville, city of my birth).

New England's (renewed) cod crisis

Most everyone by now knows something of the collapse of New England groundfish stocks following heavy overfishing by foreign factory-freezer trawlers (in the late 1960s and early 1970s) and domestic fishermen (through the early 1990s, when many fisheries were closed or severely curtailed.) It's a sad tale that's been told many times, including in my book on Maine, The Lobster Coast.

In recent years, however, there's been ground for optimism, with many Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine stocks having recovered or been deemed well on the road to being so. Many fishermen have been hanging on, trying to survive what has been hoped to be a lean period of finite duration, a tale I touched on in this piece a few years back. Even cod, federal fisheries scientists reported, was rebuilding at an acceptable rate.

But there's been a sudden reversal of fortune in recent months in regards to cod, with scientists reporting that previous assessments were faulty, and recommending deep cuts to fishermen's quotas. Concern was first limited to the Gulf of Maine cod stock -- the one most Maine codfishermen rely on -- but in recent days has been expanded to include Georges Bank cod as well.

Where did the scientists go wrong and what does it mean for one of Maine's most storied industries? That's the subject of my Talk of Maine piece in the new issue of Down East, available at news stands and, now, online.

One update since the piece was written: regulators settled on a 22 percent cut in quotas for this year, with far steeper cuts expected in 2013.

On the Maine Today Media rescue in Down East

My Down East piece on the rescue of Maine's largest newspaper group, Maine Today Media, has been on newsstands for a couple of weeks, but just posted online. Alas, after our monthly magazine went to press, the original rescuers pulled out and were replaced by Donald Sussman, the wealthy husband of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree (who's now considering a bid for Olympia Snowe's U.S. Senate seat.)

Still, three-quarters of the article is still relevant (really, it is), including the assessment of the damage Rich Connor left behind and the prospects and constraints the Portland Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel face going forward.

For additional background on the MTM story, there's this piece from the twilight of the Blethen era and an assessment of the first year of Mr. Connor's tenure.

[Update, 3/3/2012: The Portland Newspaper Guild has put out their inside story of how the Sussman rescue went down, with some additional details about the Connor and Kushner/Harte episodes.]

Maine Turnpike Authority defends board...poorly

In the October 2011 Down East, I reported on the effort to reform the Maine Turnpike Authority in the wake of a disgraceful expenses scandal and the exposure of other questionable practices at the quasi-public agency.

Although the article concludes that interim director Peter Mills is putting the agency back on track, the MTA's two long-serving board members -- Lucien Gosselin and longtime board chair Gerard Conley -- didn't take to the suggestion that they might have some degree of responsibility for the state of affairs. The result: their letter to the editor you'll find in the current issue of the magazine, one that's remarkable in its slipperiness. You'll find my withering response there too.

The letter suggests Mr. Mills has his work cut out for him. Even in the midst of a debacle of this scale, some of his bosses on the board remain defensive when one might expect contrition.

A side note for Turnpike watchers: among the board's newer members is none other than former Portland mayor Jim Cloutier, a partner at Mr. Conley's law firm, and a man best known to readers of Down East for his questionable role in the Maine State Pier scandal. Also, since the article and letter were produced, Mr. Gosselin has been replaced by Lewiston pol Robert D. Stone.

For more background on the Turnpike, see this earlier article.

Maine in the making of Yankeedom and the nation

Yankeedom -- the portions of the country colonized by New Englanders and blessed/cursed with their culture -- encompasses the New England states, upstate New York, Ohio's Western Reserve, most or all of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I, and portions of northern Illinois, eastern Iowa, and beyond. They also tried -- but only half succeeded -- to make the West Coast a "New England on the Pacific," literally sending missionaries to "save" the region for Yankees. It's a story of cultural transmission told in my recently released book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.

Within that migration, Mainers sometimes played a key role, particularly where the lumber industry loomed large: Michigan, Minnesota, and coastal Washington state. It's a tale I explore in this month's Down East magazine, and one you can now read online.

Maine: the Olsen affair explored

This summer, Maine Governor Paul LePage's marine resources commissioner, Norman Olsen, tendered a fiery resignation, accusing his boss of bullying and having declared the state’s largest city to be his enemy, and his colleagues of having been involved in gross mismanagement and, perhaps, smothering his investigations. The governor's staff wasn't agile enough to fire back effectively, but Republican pundit Matt Gagnon helped them out by requesting scheduling documents that appeared to undermine Olsen's case. There were allegations and counter-allegations, and then the press lost interest.

So what really happened?

My piece in the current issue of Down East asks that question, and taps on additional public records to try to piece together a more complete picture of what occurred.

A side note: While researching this piece, I requested a range of public documents pertinent to determining whose version of events was correct. In a matter of days, the governor's office released perhaps half of the documents, promising to issue the remainder as soon as natural resources advisor Carlisle McLean returned from vacation (and after my piece was off to the publisher.) Alas, nearly two months later they have failed to do as promised, despite regular prodding from your correspondent. One hopes this is not because the remaining documents will contradict their version of events -- presumably they do not -- but sadly it may take legal intervention to compel the governor's staff to turn them over. Stay tuned for further developments.

More encouraging in regards to the governor's intentions, the report Mr. Olsen ordered has in fact been released, apparently without interference.

For a little additional context, here's my prior interview with Mr. Olsen in Working Waterfront.

Maine: Saving the Turnpike

Earlier this year, scandal engulfed the Maine Turnpike Authority, whose books and records had finally been exposed to public scrutiny. As a result, the quasi-state agency's longtime head, Paul Violette, has resigned and is now the target of a criminal investigation by the Attorney General's office and a nearly half-million dollar law suit by the authority itself. Independent investigators from the state's Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA) also identified a troubling relationship between the Authority and their lifelong contract engineering firm, HNTB, and noted a surplus would likely never be produced for the state coffers under the definitions then in place.

So can the Turnpike Authority be turned around? That's the question I explore in the new issue of Down East, which you can now read online. The short answer: it looks very promising, though some critics allege the rot goes higher and deeper than Mr. Violette.

The Turnpike Authority doesn't like the piece, telling us that the board of directors should receive the credit for the reforms enacted under interim director Peter Mills, but none of the responsibility for what occurred under Violette. A convenient arrangement, to be sure, if you can convince third parties of its legitimacy.

Readers may wish to read the OPEGA report for themselves [pdf]. (The agency has a growing library of similar reports on other government-ish programs and agencies available here.) For an especially aggressive piece of spin, check out the Turnpike Authority's Jan. 21 press release entitled "OPEGA Report Reflects Positively on Maine Turnpike Authority." [pdf] Wowza!

LURC, Democracy and Developers in Maine's North Woods

This past session, legislators contemplated eliminating the state agency that regulates development in Maine's unorganized territories, a vast region of commercial forests and undeveloped lakes, streams, rivers, and ponds that encompasses roughly half the surface area of Maine. Proponents of this approach say land use and development policy should be devolved to the counties as a matter of local control. Critics argue that the Land Use Regulation Commission should be reformed, not eliminated, or the future of the largest contiguous forest this side of the Mississippi will be dim indeed.

I explored the issue for my latest piece in Down East, which has been in subscribers' hands for a week or so, but just posted online. As you'll see, the facts generally support those who wish to keep LURC around - as do the county commissioners in that most unorganized of counties, Piscataquis, the longtime head of the Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine, and the Republican legislator who helped create LURC some four decades ago.

Two documents mentioned in the article that may be of interest to Maine's political class: the memo from Haynes and Gardner from which the governor lifted his proposal to rezone 30% of the North Woods for development; and the minutes of the meeting between Sen. Raye, timberland owners, and the commissioners of the eight affected counties where the initiative to eliminate LURC was fleshed out. Enjoy.

Gov. Paul LePage and Republican legislative leaders will be appointing a special commission to look into the issue this summer and fall and report back to the legislature with their findings.

[Update, 7/31/2011: I've reposted the Haynes and Gardner memo with the missing page included.]

How does Jack DeCoster get away with it?

For those who've been following my coverage of the infamous egg magnate Jack DeCoster -- and proposed legislation to deny his workers the right to collective bargaining here in Maine -- my story for Down East has just posted over at their website.

As reported here yesterday, the bill in question has lost a key supporter, labor committee co-chair Sen. Chris Rector (R-Thomaston), who is upset that his committee was given less than candid testimony in regards to the DeCoster companies' safety record. The bill was scheduled for a full vote in the Maine House today, but at last report appeared to have been pulled from the line-up.

For those who like to study source materials themselves, there's the August 2010 Food and Drug Administration site inspection report for one of the DeCoster's Iowa farms implicated in the nationwide salmonella outbreak; the Congressional hearings on said outbreak; and Maine Public Broadcasting's report on worker's allegations at DeCoster's Maine farms from this past April 2011.

[Update, 5/25/2011: An additional update to the piece: Mercy for Animals' director of investigations, Daniel Hauff, says DeCoster spokesperson Chris Grimbilas is misinformed about events in Texas (which he put forward as evidence that his companies got the "short end of the stick.")

"No charges or arrests have ever occurred for any Mercy For Animals investigator, as we follow all laws, including recording laws, and use our real information when obtaining employment at factory farms and slaughter facilities," Hauff said.]

Jack DeCoster, Maine legislators, and faulty testimony

As I reported a few weeks ago in the Portland Phoenix, the infamous egg magnate Austin "Jack" DeCoster has some friends in the Maine state legislature, which has been considering a law to help out his companies. That initiative may get voted on as early as today.

I have a magazine piece about all this in the forthcoming issue of Down East, but readers won't see that until after the legislature votes on L.D. 1207, an act that will free Mr. DeCoster's companies from the worry that their workers might one day unionize. The Down East article sheds light on the question many have about Mr. DeCoster: how does he keep getting away with it? [Update: 5/24/2011: the Down East story is now online.] But there are a couple timely details to report straightaway.

First, when members of the legislature's Labor Committee met to consider the bill, they received a remarkable amount of erroneous testimony. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Dale Crafts (R-Lisbon), a labor attorney hired by the company to "investigate" its own record, and two company officials told the legislators that the company had had a clean record in Maine for ten to fifteen years, and suggested, stated, or implied that no significant problems had been turned up by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (or OSHA).

A few minutes on Google reveals this not to be the case. In reality, DeCoster's Maine operations have been fined by OSHA multiple times over the past decade for serious and repeat violations of workplace safety and other issues. These include $344,210 in June 2002 for a range of serious workplace safety infractions; $108,500 in August 2004 for "willful, repeat and/or serious violations"; and $150,000 in August 2008 for a "disregard for basic, commonsense safety procedures and employee protections [that] is as astonishing as it is unacceptable."

This, of course, leaves aside far more serious transgressions by Mr. DeCoster's companies in other states, including responsibility for a salmonella outbreak that sickened over 1900 people and triggered the recall of more than half a billion eggs. It also ignores fines for animal cruelty and law suits by neighbors over the past decade here in Maine.

I gather that it's not illegal to give false testimony before the legislature, which means legislators ought to spend a few minutes on the Internet checking out what they've been told.

[Update, 5/23/2011: As a result of this report, Sen. Rector says he is withdrawing his support for the bill.]

Nuclear waste, power, and New England, a Post-tsunami look

With Japan still combating the worst nuclear power disaster since Chernobyl, Americans have been reintroduced to the dangers inherent in the nuclear fuel cycle, in which events considered too improbable to take seriously can have horrific implications.

With that in mind, I've taken a look at Maine's nuclear risk exposure, both from the high-level waste stranded in Wiscasset and from operational nuclear plants just over our eastern and southern borders. The results are in the June 2011 issue of Down East, which arrives on newsstands this week, and is already available online.

For those wishing to do further reading thereafter, try starting with the documents section of the Maine Yankee website and the monthly safety reports from the State of Maine's nuclear safety officer.

As I previously reported in the Phoenix, there was recently an interruption in the flow of the latter documentation, which is required by Maine law. Since then, reports for last October, November, and December have posted, meaning the site is still roughly three months behind its usual reporting schedule. At a glance, the reports contained nothing unusual, except that both the October and November 2010 reports had references to condition incidents considered too sensitive to disclose to the public. Having read all prior monthly reports, I don't recall seeing such references in the past. Perhaps these incidents, whatever they were, have some bearing on the delay in the filing of the reports.

Maine Gov.LePage vs the Environment.

The current conversation around political campfires here in Maine focuses on whether Gov. Paul LePage's star has already set, less than four months after taking office. I've argued here that he's certainly taken a hit, while Portland Press Herald columnist and editorial writer Greg Kesich has gone so far as to declare "the LePage era is over."

Murals aside, one of the principal causes of Mr. LePage's loss of influence has been his ill-considered assault on Maine's environmental and product safety laws, which has featured a range of proposed regulatory rollbacks that appear to benefit only the out-of-state chemical, toy, and pharmaceutical companies whose lobbyists wrote much of the governor's reform agenda. In this month's Down East, I explore the origins of and political reaction to the governor's rollback plan, much of which has been stricken from the relevant bills by the Republican-controlled legislature.

Maine politicos will also find a partial answer on where the Maine Grocers Association really stood on the effort to put BPA back in babies' bottles and sippy cups, a LePage proposal that was defeated 145-3 in the House last week, and 35-0 in the Senate yesterday. In case you're curious, the holdouts were Larry Dunphy (R-Emden), Beth O'Connor (R-Berwick), and Heather Sirocki (R-Scarborough).

For the record, LePage has not changed its position on BPA. "The LePage Administration would not have crafted the rule as it was produced by the last administration and that the Governor still opposes the product prohibition," his spokesman, Dan Demeritt told me Mar. 28.

[Update, 9/16/2011: Yglesias picked up on my story today.]

Maine in the Civil War

In the new issue of Down East you'll find my feature on Maine and the Civil War, which began 150 years ago this spring.

As the piece describes, Mainers affected the war through their outsized contribution of men and material, but the war affected Maine even more profoundly, permanently disrupting its trade links, industries, political influence, and demographics.

There were even confederate raids on the Maine coast, including a shipjacking in Portland Harbor and an attempted bank heist in Calais. No wonder the federal government started upgrading all those granite forts!

Maine: Portland's working waterfront, R.I.P?

Elected officials in Portland, Maine voted in December to undo central planks of the city's working waterfront zoning regime, an epochal change that took place with surprisingly little media and, thus, public attention.

My Talk of Maine piece in the new issue of Down East magazine evaluates the risk to the lobstermen, groundfishermen, and marine-related businesses that presently occupy the wharves of the central waterfront.

For some additional background context on the intersection of policy and politics on the Portland waterfront, start here and continue here.

Maine Story Updates, Feb. 15 edition

A few updates on stories I've been covering:

On "LePage's Secret Puppeteers": A number of updates regarding the prominent role of lobbyists and their corporate clients in the creation of Maine Gov. Paul LePage's regulatory reform wish list:

Pierce Atwood lobbyist Patricia Aho (who represented the American Petroleum Institute and the chemical companies that make a banned fire retardant) has already started work as Deputy Commissioner of Environmental Protection, according to LePage's communications director, Dan Demeritt. She joins the governor's regulatory reform adviser, Preti Flaherty lobbying chief Ann Robinson, and his political adviser, Preti''s in-house expert on LURC, Carlisle J.T. McLean, in his cabinet.

Far from trying to play down their role in putting the chemical BPA back in baby's bottles, sippy cups, and other containers, The Toy Industry Association of America trumpets their involvement in this Feb. 10 press release. Ms. Robinson is their registered lobbyist here, and Ms. McLean represented them on the BPA issue last year.

LePage may be feeling the pressure, however. His draft of the relevant law, L.D. 1, contains no reference to repealing the BPA ban, the Kid-Safe Products Act, e-waste recycling, or the zoning regime of 30 percent of Maine's unorganized territories. The governor's staff say they haven't abandoned those points, but are simply postponing them.

Finally, even Richard "Scoops Don't Matter" Connor's Portland Press Herald has picked up on this story. Rebekkah Metzler's article makes no attempt to credit my Phoenix article or Susan Sharon's MPBN piece for the material she passes on. That said, I guess I did beg them to steal my stories here a year ago, so I suppose I should be happy.


On "Mud Wrestling": In case you missed it, the state Ethics Commission has recommended the largest fine of its kind in state history to be levied against the Republican State Leadership Committee. As my article in February''s Down East described, the RSLC has been condemned by both parties for funding a series of false campaign ads attacking local Democratic senate candidates. Some think the $41,000 fine -- for not reporting their spending in a timely fashion so the Democrats could take advantage of clean elections matching funds -- isn't big enough.

Who was behind Maine's ugly 2010 campaign ads?

Maine's 2010 election was one of the ugliest in the state in memory, with negative -- and sometimes entirely false -- advertisements bombarding voters from both parties. In a state that's long prided itself of political civility, some of these ads backfired badly, particularly when voters could tell who had paid for them.

My Talk of Maine piece in the new issue of Down East explores the phenomenon and the forces behind it. Interviews with angry politicos from across the political spectrum -- many of them angry at their own party for taking the low road -- including former Gov. Angus King, state Senate President Kevin Raye, Independent candidate Eliot Cutler, and Maine Democratic National Committeeman Sam Spencer.

Monthly magazines have notoriously long lead times, and since the magazine went to press, the Democratic challenger in the Hancock County senate race I describe in the lead has sued the Republican State Leadership Committee for libel. The Portland Press Herald ran an editorial on the subject that I find entirely off base: just because something can be described as "political speech" doesn't put it above the law (though I suspect in this case the plaintiff may find it hard to show "damages.") Also, "voters" can't "decide" who is right: the RSLC wasn't on the ballot, and their actions were condemned by both candidates. Will be interesting to see what the courts think.

Also, the final campaign disclosures pushed the RGA Maine PAC's war chest to over $1.8 million, and their ad buys in the gubernatorial race to over $1 million.

More on money in Maine elections coming up very, very shortly....

Is Maine a red state now?

My post-election analysis piece is in the new issue of Down East (the one with January 2011 on the cover) and just posted online as well.

The piece asks if Maine is a red state now and, if not exactly yes, what the election results mean for (and say about) Mainers. Input from leading figures in both major parties, academic pundits, and present and former elected officials including outgoing Gov. John Baldacci, U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, incoming Senate President Kevin Raye, outgoing minority whip Josh Tardy, and Tea Party activist Andrew Ian Dodge. Enjoy.

Coming up in the February 2011 issue is a piece on the conduct of the campaign itself.

Maine politicos may also wish to read recent updates here on Ocean Properties' political activities in Biddeford, the corporate cash behind governor-elect Paul LePage, a sample of Orwellian PACs, and the role of the aforementioned Mr. Dodge in the brewing Tea Party civil war.

And now, your moment of zen.

Tidal Power surges forward

Wind energy gets most of the attention on the renewable front these days, but a new generation of tidal energy technologies promise to generate environmentally-friendly flows of electricity in quantities that can be predicted decades ahead of time.

Not surprisingly, the Bay of Fundy region -- southern New Brunswick, the left side of Nova Scotia, and easternmost Maine -- is emerging as the leading test center for the industry worldwide; it has the world's largest tides, peaking at 50 feet at the head of Nova Scotia's Minas Basin (and still a healthy twenty feet on the Maine-New Brunswick border.) But what has surprised industry experts is that a Maine-based start-up has leapfrogged ahead of its older European competitors to become the forerunner in making the technology commercially viable.

I tell the story in this feature in the new issue of Down East, including the hopes its generating in Easternmost Maine, where F.D.R. intended to build the world's largest tidal project in the depths of the last Great Depression. (Unfortunately, the piece had to be cut for space at the last minute, so I'll likely be reporting some lost details in another venue.)

One programing note: hiatus complete, I'll be back in the magazine's Talk of Maine column next issue.

[Update, 11/15/10, 12:00: The government of Canada just announced it's investing $20 million in Nova Scotia's tidal energy test site.]

Mayflower: the real story

On account of new fatherhood, I took a short hiatus from writing the Talk of Maine column in Down East, but the new issue has my review of a new book on the Pilgrims: Nick Bunker's Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History.

As you'll read in the review, Mr. Bunker's account sheds new light on the Mayflower voyagers and the role early Maine played in their successes. As Bunker is from England -- not New England -- his book is liberated from the tropes of the Bay State's historical myth makers, giving us a refreshing and more accurate perspective on the Pilgrim experience.

(By contrast, here's what I've said of Nathanial Philbrick's popular Mayflower, a more readable account that failed to break with the Mass-o-centric paradigm handed down by Harvard's Victorian Era dons.)

I have a feature in the next issue of the magazine, but I'll be back at Talk of Maine in the January issue of the magazine, which hits the racks the second week of December.