New allegations against a Maine "medical supply" company led by man facing fraud indictments

It's Election Day 2020. Stay safe and, if you pray, do so for the survival of the American Experiment.

In my Maine reporting, I've been focused on the other crisis facing the world, the now-resurgent pandemic, and over the past few days I've been writing follow-ups on a story I broke in March about a Portland, Maine LLC headed by a man with a five-county criminal fraud indictment against him that had suddenly jumped into the medical supply business, trading in the shortage items desperately needed by hospitals and first responders.

Noble Partners, doing business as Noble Medical Supply, was the subject of my Portland Press Herald stories Friday and today, as allegations surfaced against the company and its founder Sean C. Grady. (Its customer-facing face is Diane Russell, former Democratic state legislator for Portland, who spoke at the 2016 DNC.) 

In Friday's story, news of a federal law suit against Noble and Grady in Florida; accusations of unreturned deposits for undelivered orders in Florida and California; a disgruntled sales representative and damaged masks in Texas; and, on the Internet, the company's website having been taken down by its provider and replaced with a demand for more than $15,000 in unpaid debts and a summary of Grady's legal problems in Maine and New Hampshire.

In today's story, the owner of a local Portland distillery lays out a story of a hand sanitizer production deal gone almost immediately bad, leaving his company out more than $150,000.

Separately, I also had this update on an uptick in Covid-19 hospitalizations in Maine and the unusual geography of that uptick. And to round out pandemic-related news coverage, in case you missed it, there is also this in-depth profile of Maine "superspreader wedding" pastor Todd Bell from Sunday's paper.

I last wrote about Noble Partners at the end of March, when they delivered a van load of masks and other supplies to some customers in Massachusetts as promised.

More on politics and the election anon.

Speaking on UNION virtually with Gibson's Bookstore of Concord, NH June 24

On account of the pandemic, book tours have gone virtual, and my next stop for Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood is tomorrow, June 24, via Gibson's, the legendary Concord, New Hampshire bookstore founded in 1898.

You can register for the Zoom-driven event here, and can also order books directly from the store's website. I'll be signing bookplates for them to add to those who want them.

I'll talk a little about the book and how I came to write it, open up to questions from all of you.

For some prepub reviews of Union, check out this post (Library Journal, American Scholar) and this one (Kirkus, Booklist.) The Christian Science Monitor also named it to their Top Ten Books for June list.

My next event is June 28 with Politics and Prose (and NPR's Tom Gjelten) from Washington.

Launching UNION virtually June 16 with Longfellow Books and MWPA

Despite the pandemic, my new book, Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood, goes on sale this coming Tuesday, June 16 and the good folks at Longfellow Books up here in Portland, Maine and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance are hosting a virtual talk and signing at 7pm that evening.

You can register for the Zoom-driven event here, and can also order books in advance (or in real time) from Longfellow, now the city's oldest indie bookstore.

I'll talk a little about the book and how I came to write it, open up to questions from all of you, and (afterward) sign and/or personalize copies from anyone who purchases them. (The store will them ship them to you.)

For some prepub reviews of Union, check out this post (Library Journal, American Scholar) and this one (Kirkus, Booklist.)

I'll also be doing virtual events with Gibson's Bookstore of Concord, New Hampshire on June 24 (at 6pm, details here) and with Washington D.C.'s Politics and Prose on June 28, where author and NPR veteran reporter Tom Gjelten will be interviewing me about Union (register here.)

A few additional programming notes to kick off next week:

Mainers: I'll also be your guest Monday, June 15 on Maine Public radio's "Maine Calling," from 1 to 2pm Eastern.

Iowans: Catch me on Iowa Public Radio's "River to River" on June 16 from 9 to 9:30 Central.

Louisiana peeps: I'm on Baton Rouge NPR affiliate WKRF's "Talk Louisiana" at 9:45 Central on June 16

Wisconsiners: I'll be your guest on Wisconsin Public Radio's "Central Time" from 4 to 4:30 pm that same day, June 16.

Speaking (a lot) about most everything at Star Island's Natural History Week, June 20-27

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be the annual speaker on Star Island, Isles of Shoals, for this year's Natural History Week, held June 20 to 27. [Update, 5/4/2020: Star Island's entire summer season has been cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic.]

Natural History Week - "Living in a Changing World" -- is held each year on the bucolic island, located off the coast of southern New Hampshire, but in a small archipelago that straddles the border with Maine. Attendees spend the whole week on the island, enjoying its beauty and nature by day, and attending daily talks by your truly and others. 

During the week I'll be speaking on:

* the crisis in the world's oceans (topic of my first book, Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas) and the warming of the Gulf of Maine (subject of a Portland Press Herald series I wrote that was a finalist for a 2016 Pulitzer Prize.)

* the cultural and environmental history of coastal Maine (subject of my second book, The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier) and a forthcoming Press Herald series tied to Maine's Bicentennial this year.

* the true story, reassembled from archival sources, of the great Caribbean pirate gang led by Blackbeard, Sam Bellamy, and others -- pirates who plied the waters of the Gulf of Maine as well as the Spanish Main. (A story told in The Republic of Pirates.)

* the reasons why the United Staes is polarized and paralyzed, which have their origins in the differences between the distinct colonial projects on the eastern and southwestern rims of what is now the United States, subject of American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.

* and perhaps American Character: The Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good and the new book, Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood, to be released June 16th, as well.

Registration information at their website, and further information at Star Island Corp's mother ship. I look forward to meeting those of you who decide to attend.

Talking about Maine's Ranked Choice Voting odyssey on NHPR, May 17

For those of you in the Granite State, I'll be your guest in the morning on New Hampshire Public Radio's "The Exchange," talking about Maine's Ranked Choice Voting odyssey.

The program, which runs from 9-10 Eastern, also features Saint Anselm College's Erik Cleven and Connecticut Mirror Capitol bureau chief Mark Pazniokas.

I reported on the crazy twists and turns of Maine's RCV drive for Politico back at the end of March, and on how it the voting reform effort became a partisan flashpoint in the Maine Sunday Telegram early last month.

I'll post the audio of the conversation when it becomes available. [Update, 14:30 ET: the audio is now available at the same link.]

I was last a guest on "The Exchange" back in 2016 about American Character, the epic struggle over how to define freedom in America and how it might be resolved.

Can a fallen New Hampshire mill town become the Silicon Valley of human organ manufacturing?

Over at POLITICO, I have the story of how inventor Dean Kamen is leading a $300 million push to resolve bottlenecks in the mass production of genetically-customized human tissues and organs and, he hopes, turn Manchester, New Hampshire into the "Silicon Valley of regenerative medicine."

It's a remarkable vision, and one backed by an $80 million Pentagon grant that's ramping up research-and-development of the processes, manufacturing technology, 3D-printers, and process controls that would allow humans to print and grow their own replacement organs rather than wait on a transplant list. And Kamen has industry giants like Rockwell Automation on board, not to mention the entire political class of his tiny adopted state.

It's also taking place within the Millyard, a once-all-but-abandoned 19th century brick industrial complex that was, back in its heyday, the largest textile manufacturing facility on the planet, and a physical expression of the post-Puritan dream of what a republican industrial utopia might look like, a topic I delved into in detail for this POLITICO piece a couple of years back.

When I met with him, Kamen highlighted the remarkable similarities between what Manchester is trying to do and what I wrote about Winston-Salem, North Carolina having accomplished. I'd have to agree, the parallels are pretty remarkable, right down to the focus on growing of human organs.

Maine member sues Trump's voter fraud commission for access to proceedings

Today Maine's member of President Trump's voter fraud commission sued the body in federal court after its staff for weeks ignored his request for documents and information about its deliberations.

Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, one of four Democrats on the 11-member body, filed the suit at the federal district court for the District of Columbia, alleging violations of the Federal Advisory Commissions Act, which requires commissioners receive communications equally.

Dunlap, initially open minded about the commission, has slowly become one its most vehement internal critic, denouncing its Vice Chair's erroneous accusations about fraud in New Hampshire and the lack of information flow.

For today's story I also interviewed outside experts and another Democratic member of the commission, New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who says he is seeking to see the best in the body.

[Update, 11/18/17: Dunlap has now asked the court for an injunction against the commission.]

For additional coverage of this ongoing story, start here, but don't miss this story and this one.

Maine member of Trump voter fraud commission is pretty unhappy

President Trump's controversial voter fraud commission met in New Hampshire yesterday, but not before its vice-chair and de facto leader claimed, based on an erroneous understanding of state law, that the 2016 US Senate election there had been "stolen." And while the meeting was underway, an email surfaced revealing that one of the commissioners had expressed outrage that Democrats or "mainstream Republicans" would be appointed to the body.

It was all a bit too much for Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, a member of the commission who has been frustrating many fellow Democrats with his "wait and see" stance on its trajectory. As I report in tomorrow's Portland Press Herald, Dunlap called the allegations of a "stolen" election in New Hampshire "absurd" and says he now realizes that the majority view on the commission is that "fraud" is making it easy for people they don't like to vote.

I've been covering the commission regularly, including a story just a few days ago on how it has been using private email accounts to conduct official business, a possible violation of federal public records laws.

[Update, 11/18/17: Dunlap has now sued the commission and asked for an injunction. For more updated coverage, start here.]

Trump voter fraud panel using private emails for official business

President Trump's controversial voter fraud panel is meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire next week, but this week it was accused of violating federal public records law by using private email accounts for official business.

The allegation -- the result of an ongoing transparency lawsuit against the Commission -- is detailed in my story in today's Portland Press Herald, where I interview Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, one of four Democrats on the commission.

I've been covering the commission for the Press Herald all year, most recently this story, wherein we learned that Commission Vice Chair Kris Kobach -- who is now also a paid columnist for Steve Bannon's white nationalist news site Brietbart -- has been taking actions on behalf of the body without consulting with his fellow commissioners, who appear not to have any real powers at all.

[Update, 11/18/17: Dunlap has now sued the commission and asked for an injunction. For more updated coverage, start here.]

Exploring the lasting legacy of early Maine and New Hampshire

Readers of The Lobster Coast and American Nations are aware of the lasting effects of Colonial Era events on the future trajectories and characteristics of North America's disparate regional cultures and subcultures. Maine, especially, is shaped by events in the 17th and early 18th centuries, when a distinctive Anglican/Royalist/West Country-influenced society was made a colony of Puritan/Anti-Royalist/East Anglia-domnated Massachusetts. Its a colonial legacy that continues to effect our development, attitudes, values, and economic performance, even though few Mainers today either know the history.

A new exhibit at a museum on the border of Maine and New Hampshire shines a light on this poorly understood period in the two colonies' history, then bound together by shared experience and resistance to Massachusetts overrule. "Forgotten Frontier" is showing at the Old Berwick Historical Society's Counting House Museum in South Berwick, Maine, and I visited and wrote about it in this week's Maine Sunday Telegram. Have a look and consider a visit.

Two members of Trump's voter fraud panel want to investigate Russian hacking

In tomorrow's Portland Press Herald, I have a story on a development President Trump probably didn't expect. Two members of his nascent commission on voter fraud -- assembled to investigate his evidence-free claims that 3 million people voted illegally last November, denying him a popular vote victory -- have said they want the panel to also look at Russian hacking of state electoral systems.

The two are both Democrats and secretaries of state from northern New England: Matt Dunlap of Maine and Bill Gardner of New Hampshire.

But the commission doesn't appear to be anywhere near being active. Dunlap told me he hasn't heard anything from the chairman (and Vice President) Mike Pence and his team since he agreed to join the body and doesn't even know who all the members are.

Details within.

[Update, 7/20/17: the commission won't be doing any such investigating, and Dunlap is fine with it.]

Feds end contentious northern Gulf of Maine scallop season

In yesterday's Portland Press Herald, I wrote about the contentious federal fishery for scallops in the northern Gulf of Maine, a special management area off the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, and part of Eastern Massachusetts.

Federal authorities closed the fishery at 12:01 am yesterday when small boat fishermen hit their 17,000 pound quota for the year. That part is normal. What's surprising: larger vessels had taken more than a million pounds in the same area and the small boat guys were desperately trying to hit the quota to stop large boats from taking more scallops.

Yes, there are different rules at work for two different types of scallop fishermen in the same waters, creating a confusing tension-filled situation that's sparked the close interest of one of Maine's US Senators and US Representatives. Read on in the story to learn more.

My most recent article on fisheries was about the havoc many fear will strike the fishery management world as a result of President Trump's "two-for-one" regulatory order, which experts say is completely unworkable in the fisheries context.

For more on the Gulf of Maine, consider reading my series on climate change in the Gulf, or my cultural history of coastal Maine, The Lobster Coast. For more on fisheries generally, there's my first book on the crisis in the worlds oceans, Ocean's End.

That is all.

Trump's NOAA cuts imperil Wells Reserve and 29 other estuary reserves

In yesterday's Portland Press Herald, I had a follow-up on Tuesday's report on President Trump's proposal to dramatically cut funding to NOAA, including killing the 50-year old Sea Grant program entirely.

The new story reveals that the NOAA cuts also imperil Maine's popular Wells Reserve at Laudhom Farm, the Great Bay reserve across the border in southern New Hampshire, and 27 other National Estuarine Research Reserves, which would see their federal funding completely eliminated.

In related stories, I've previously reported on how Trump's "2-for-1" regulatory reform order is expected to paralyze big picture fisheries management, and how an early plan to eliminate NASA satellite monitoring of Earth would upend Maine-based research into the changing climate.

Talking American Character on NHPR's The Exchange

Thanks to New Hampshire Public Radio for having me on their hour-long interview program, "The Exchange" yesterday morning. I talked with guest host Dean Spiliotes, political scientist at Southern New Hampshire University, about my new book, American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good. The audio is available here.

I've been a guest on "The Exchange" several times over the years, including talking about American Nations on New Hampshire primary day in 2012 and Lobster Coast, way back in 2004.

Talking American Character on Wisconsin Public Radio, WCSH-6, Voclao

On the eve of the release of American Character, I was pleased to do live interviews about the book with Wisconsin Public Radio and Maine's own Rob Caldwell on WCSH-6/WLBZ-2's "207" program.

This morning I spent a full hour with Joy Cardin on her Wisconsin Public Radio show, which runs on their Ideas stations, complete with call-in questions from listeners. You can hear that show online here.

This evening I joined Rob Caldwell and his colleague on Maine's leading television interview

program, "207" which airs on NBC affiliates WCSH-6 in Portland and WLBZ-2 in Bangor. [Update, 3/22/16: Full video here.]

Yesterday, I started my day with Vocalo Radio's Morning Amp host Jill Hopkins. The program, a production of WBEW at Chicago Public Radio, airs across Chicago-land and northwest Indiana.

Thanks to all three programs and their audiences for an excellent kick-off and for acting as my initial practice in talking about the ideas in the book.

Tomorrow, March 15, American Character goes on sale and I'll be the guest on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network's "Maine Calling" radio program from noon to one Eastern. (Call in with your questions. ) [Update: 1/16/16: Here's the audio for that.] That evening I'll be in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for my first live event at the River Run Bookstore.

For full book tour information, including events in Portland (Maine), Beverly, Boston, Newburyport and Falmouth (Massachusetts), Greenwich (Connecticut) and Washington, D.C., click here.

Speaking about American Character, Portsmouth, NH, Mar. 15

My fifth book, American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good, goes on sale March 15th and I'll be in a store that evening, presenting the book for the first time.

The world premier, as it were, is at River Run Bookstore, the flagship independent in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at 6:30 pm. Lots of details are here at their website. If you live in southernmost Maine or seacoast New Hampshire -- or if you live over in Manchester and really enjoyed my recent Politico piece on the transformation of the Amoskeag Millyard -- do come on by. (They moved to 142 Fleet Street a few years back.)

The book tour continues in Newburyport, Falmouth, Boston and Beverly, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; Greenwich, Connecticut, and Washington, DC.

Talking with WNHN's Arnie Arnesen about Manchester's Millyard renaissance

I had an enjoyable conversation about my Politico Magazine piece on Manchester with Arnie Arnesen, former Democratic gubernatorial and congressional nominee from New Hampshire, who hosts "The Attitude," a politics interview show on Concord's WNHN that's syndicated nationwide via the Pacifica Radio Network.

That interview -- about how New Hampshire's largest city turned a massive, largely vacant 19th century brick industrial complex into a 21st century knowledge industry hive -- can be heard today at noon in the Concord area, at various Pacifica affiliates from Vermont to Hawaii this week, or via podcast download right now.

We also chatted a bit about Des Moines, the subject of my previous "What Works" series installment for Politico Magazine, where I'm a contributing editor.

"The Attitude" can be heard this week on stations including KPFT (Houston), KNSJ (San Diego), KAKU (Maui) and KHOI (Ames, Iowa). Check your local Pacifica affiliate for listings.

How Manchester, New Hampshire, got its old mills spinning 21st century gold

My latest installment for Politico Magazine's "What Works" series is out and explores how a northern New England city turned a massive, nearly vacant 19th century mill complex into a 21st century knowledge industry powerhouse.

Manchester, New Hampshire -- a planned Utopian industrial city -- was home to the world's largest textile factory, a nearly 7 million foot red brick complex that by the mid-1960s was largely abandoned. But by accepting the fact that the old manufacturing industries weren't coming back -- and the arrival of a "world famous inventor colorful enough to have invited comparisons to Thomas Edison, Willy Wonka and Dr. No" -- the once moribund city has cultivated a high tech cluster in its old millyard.

Hunter S. Thompson had some choice words for the Union-Leader to kick off the piece, but that didn't stop that paper from giving the story some nice coverage this weekend.

This is my second piece as a Politico contributing editor. My first: this widely circulated story on how Des Moines went from dull to cool.

[Update, 1/25/16: talked with WNHN's Arnie Arnesen about the story on her syndicated Pacifica Radio show.]

The Atlantic's American Nations-powered take on New Hampshire's people

Happy New Hampshire primary day, everybody!

Alas, I've been far too overwhelmed to do this sort of thing myself, but The Atlantic's Connor Friedersdorf has taken up the question of who lives in the Granite State these days. I'm pleased to say he starts with American Nations' take on New England culture.

I'd of course have gone on to discuss the Scots-Irish enclave that took root in southern New Hampshire (see Derry, Londonderry and -- as Manchester was originally called -- Derryfield) and how it helps account for the state's electorate having more libertarian tendencies than its New England counterparts. (Some of the early Londonderry settlers moved to Midcoast Maine, shaping that state's trajectory, as readers of Lobster Coast well know.)

Also, for those who enjoyed my recent Politico piece on Des Moines' transformation: look out for the sequel later this month on, yes, Manchester, New Hampshire.

Talking pirates and Blackbeard with New Hampshire Public Radio

The double-header finale of NBC's "Crossbones" airs on Saturday, and in anticipation I was the guest on New Hampshire Public Radio's "Word of Mouth" this afternoon.

My third book, The Republic of Pirates, was the inspiration for the NBC series, which stars John Malkovich as Blackbeard, but our discussion was more broad, asking the question: why has Blackbeard's pirate cohort had such a hold on the popular culture and imagination? Just in the past year, after all, there's been "Black Sails" and Ubisoft's Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag, and news of another Pirates of the Caribbean film en route.

Find the answers by listening to the clip at NHPR's website.

Also, for those of you in easternmost Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick, I'll be your CBC radio guest on Tuesday morning, 8:15 Atlantic, talking about my 29-part newspaper series, Unsettled, which just wrapped up at the Portland Press Herald.