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.

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.

Did a Maine firm seed a Syrian bioweapon?

A Maine firm illegally shipped materials to Syria a decade ago which may have helped that country develop a biological weapon.

The New York Times reported Saturday that Maine Biological Laboratories in Winslow provided materials that could have been used as precursors for Syria's chemical weapons program.

But as I report in today's Portland Press Herald, the materials in question were not helpful either for creating a chemical weapon or for making a weapons for use against humans. Rather, the Maine company provided Syria with a virus that weapons researchers have studied for possible use against enemy agricultural sectors, killing poultry to diminish human food supplies. The company was fined more than $500,000 and eight executives plead guilty and went to prison.

Read on for details.

Sen. Collins absence allows Pentagon biofuels ban to advance

The US Defense Department is in the midst of a series of pilot projects to reduce the military's fossil fuel needs. Under the Operational Energy Strategy program, the Pentagon has been installing solar panels at remote bases in war zones and experimenting with the substitution of various biofuels in aircraft and the escort vessels of aircraft carrier groups.

The biofuels programs are under fire from Congressional Republicans on account of their additional upfront cost. The GOP-controlled House passed measures to effectively kill them earlier this year, but it is expected to have trouble in the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

Nonetheless, similar measures passed a key Senate committee by a single vote on May 24. Which brings us to today's story.

Earlier this week, Politico's Morning Defense flagged a perplexing development: according to roll call votes, the measures passed the Armed Services Committee because of the sudden and unexplained absence of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) who has said she supports the biofuels effort. What happened? Read what I was able to learn in today's Portland Press Herald or the (front page of the) Kennebec Journal.