Maine: Will legislators stop destruction of campaign finance disclosures?

It was Augusta to the rescue, or so it seemed.

Maine state legislators had a chance to fix a troubling shortcoming in Maine's clean elections policies earlier this month. As I report in my column in the forthcoming issue of Working Waterfront, key lawmakers refused to do so, apparently because they didn't understand what's at stake.

As regular readers are painfully aware, in January I discovered that Portland, Bangor, and other large Maine towns and cities have been destroying the campaign finance disclosures of candidates for local office, sometimes as soon as two years after an election. This makes it impossible to trace the relationship between money (e.g. property developers) and politicians (e.g. the officials who judge development proposals) over time.

As you'll read, legislators serving on the state and local government committee will have a final chance to fix the problem sometime next month. [UPDATE: 5/7/2009]

Meanwhile, I've posted copies of the surviving campaign finance disclosures for Portland on my own website, since Maine's largest city is unable to do so themselves. (I have also put out a blanket request for copies of disclosures for election cycles prior to 2006.)

Global pandemic: what cities should (have) do(ne)

This morning, a officials in Texas confirmed the first death from the "swine flu" outside of Mexico, where the H1N1 virus strain has killed 159. France is seeking a ban on all flights between the European Union and Mexico to contain what health officials fear could become a global pandemic.

What's the worst that could happen? In 2006, I investigated what a "bad case" scenario might look like for Trust, the magazine of the Pew Charitable Trusts, which has been supporting efforts to help local governments prepare for such a situation. As the article shows, in a serious H1N1 event, every city or rural county will pretty much be on its own. They'd best have thought through what to do ahead of time -- things like securing the hospitals from desperate, overflow crowds and making sure police and firemen have the right respirators to be able to help others -- if they're to respond adequately.

What would successful planning look like? The article describes how Manchester, New Hampshire -- site of a serious anthrax outbreak fifty years ago -- has planned for the worst.

Maine: Port City Life magazine sold

In the January issue of Port City Life, I wrote about the Maine newspaper industry, including the plight of Maine's largest newspaper chain, the Blethen Maine Newspapers, whose parent company had been negotiating to sell for months. Nearly four months later, the Seattle Times Company still hasn't closed the deal to sell its Maine newspapers, including what was once the state's newspaper of record, the Portland Press-Herald.

Ironically, it's Port City Life that's just been sold.

On Friday, the Portland-based monthly announced it had just been acquired by the publishers of Maine Home+Design magazine, Kevin Thomas and Susan Kelley, who intend "to reposition the magazine" with a "major relaunch" this September. Port City Life publisher and editor Laurie Hyndman will stay on as managing editor.

If, like me, you've been hoping somebody would step into the growing vacuum at the center of Maine's media landscape -- a place for substantive discussion of what's really happening in this state -- you're probably going to be disappointed by the new Port City Life.

In a press release announcing the takeover, Thomas writes that in future the magazine will aim to "capture the beauty and excitement of living here" by highlighting Maine's "vital urbane culture [which] transcends some of the typical stereotypes of this state."

"The magazine," the press release states, "will focus on the people, places, and ideas that remind Mainers why they choose to live here. "

Good luck: that's already a very crowded marketplace.

Lobster Coast Talk: Camden, Maine, April 28

For all of you in Midcoast Maine, I'm giving a talk on the Past, Present, and Future of Coastal Maine at the Camden Public Library on April 28 at 6:30pm. The event is co-hosted by the Penobscot Marine Museum.

The talk is largely based on my book, The Lobster Coast: Rebels, Rusticators, and the Struggle for a Forgotten Frontier (Viking: 2004), a New England bestseller that some have been so kind as to call the "owner's manual to the Maine coast." Actually, that was my dad, but he's right. (And I also like his idea of passing it out to incoming visitors at the York tool booths on Interstate 95.)

Antarctica: my story on the Explorer sinking investigation

For those following polar cruise ship tourism, my piece on the investigation into the sinking of the cruise ship MS Explorer is now up at The Christian Science Monitor. There's audio as well.

The Canadian-owned ship sank in Antarctica's Bransfield Strait in November, 2007. As I reported at the time, the initial explanations didn't add up.

Ocean Policy: Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing system withers

The Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System, a network of ocean-monitoring buoys, saves lives and money while increasing our understanding of marine ecology, commercial fish species, and has been recognized as a model for similar systems around the world. Such systems have the endorsement of both the Pew Commission on the Oceans and President Bush's US. Commission on Ocean Policy. Best of all, it costs only a couple million dollars a year, about the same as a single Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

But, as you can read in my "Talk of Maine" piece in the May 2009 issue of Down East Magazine, the system is collapsing for lack of federal support. Five of eleven buoys have already been pulled from the water - possibly permanently, as Congress dithers on funding the national system and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration diverts limited resources to create new systems in other parts of the country.

Unfortunately the piece isn't available online (at this writing the April issue is still on the website), but New Englanders will find it at their local magazine stand. (For background, I reported on the ocean observing systems' troubles two years ago in the Christian Science Monitor.)

Best Portland Author 2009

An update from the Department of Vulgar Self Promotion: the readers of the Portland Phoenix, my home city's alternative weekly newspaper, have named me Best Portland Author in the paper's Best of '09 competition.

Other winners in this year's competition include: Portland's Buy Local campaign (Best Non-Profit, Best Local Cause), Pat's Meat Market (Best Butcher), Strange Maine (BestBlog), Portland Food Map (Best Food Blog), Yosaku (Best Sushi), and Longfellow Books (Best Bookstore).

My heartfelt thanks to fans of The Republic of Pirates, The Lobster Coast, and Ocean's End for their support. Also be sure to check out my worthy co-nominees -- Ron Currie, Phillip Hoose, Lewis Robinson, and Jan Watson -- who've helped make our little city a literary hub.