Bangor Daily News on Malaga Island

The strange tale of Maine's "hidden public apology" for the infamous Malaga Island evictions in 1912 -- which I broke in the current issue of Down East -- is the topic of this morning's editorial in the Bangor Daily News.

The daily provides a thumbnail sketch of the events and the legislature's decidedly unpublicized apology, before concluding:

"Fortunately, the Legislature and Gov. John Baldacci have opportunities to rectify this. They, along with descendants, will be invited to an Aug. 1 ceremony on the island. That event, along with next year’s centennial of the Malaga deportations, would be perfect times to amplify the apology, making it much more meaningful."

One correction: the News writes that "by the early 1900s, many Malaga residents were mentally and physically disabled." As radio documentarian Rob Rosenthal and others have revealed, this was not, in fact, true. Eight people -- a fifth of the island's population -- were incarcerated at the Maine School for the Feebleminded, but for most of them on what essentially amounted to trumped up charges.

I've been trying to learn more details about the August 1 event and will pass on what I discover.

[Update, 7/28/2010: Rachel Talbot Ross of the NAACP tells me the Malaga commemoration event is on, but has been pushed back to August 28.]

[Update, 9/14/2010: The event happened, complete with governor.]

In Maine, a whispered apology for Malaga

The new issue of Down East is out, including my piece on the Maine legislature's incredibly low-profile formal apology for the state-sponsored Malaga Island evictions in 1912. How low profile? It happened back on April 7, and I'm "breaking" the news right now.

The piece is now online, so I'll let you read there about how the racially-mixed community was wiped from the map, the conspiracy of silence that followed, and the legislature's whispered apology this spring.

The piece also contains what I understand to be the first gubernatorial statement of regret for the incident, provided by Governor John Baldacci within hours of querying his office as to why the issue had been left to the legislature in the first place, since the 1912 evictions were orchestrated by one of his predecessors.

If you want to learn more about Malaga, you can hear Rob Rosenthal's radio documentary, Malaga Island: a Story Better Left Untold, while viewing images from his Salt colleague, Kate Philbrick. (The full text of the legislature's April resolution is available as a PDF at their website.)

[Update, 7/24/2010: There's an editorial in this morning's Bangor Daily News on this issue.]

[Update, 9/14/2010: Maine does the apology right the second time around.]

Maine: LePage on "Tea Party" staffer

It's Bastille Day and I spent a few minutes of it speaking with Maine gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage in connection with a forthcoming piece in Down East.

One aside for Maine politicos that won't make it into the magazine piece:

The radical new Maine G.O.P. platform and Mr. LePage share one thing in common: both have the support of a lot of Tea Party folks. What isn't clear is the extent to which the Republican nominee shares the spirit and policy priorities of the people who crafted the platform, which praises the Tea Party in its preamble.

The Democrats have tried to make the case that the two are very much in sync, putting out a press release that alleges, among other things, that "key members of [LePage's] staff were involved in crafting" the platform. Intriguing stuff.

I checked in with the Dems' campaign coordinator, Arden Manning, for more details. The release, he said, actually refers to just one LePage staffer, Cynthia Rosen.

Ms. Rosen was, indeed, one of the co-authors of the new platform, and is an officer of the group that sponsored it, the Knox County Republican Committee. She's also controversial in Republican circles, after an erratic e-mail ascribed to her surfaced on their earnest discussion site, As Maine Goes.

But is Rosen a LePage campaign staffer? The only evidence I could find: a $500 payment made to her for consulting services before the primary. [That's a PDF file]

Here's what LePage had to say when I spoke with him: "Cynthia Rosen is not on our staff. We did some work in the primary -- and she's a supporter -- but she's not on the staff now."

Regarding the platform itself? LePage: "Am I one hundred percent in favor of the platform? I’m not 100 percent in favor of anything. It's a working document, like the Constitution is a working document. The bible is a working document. There’s always something that can be enhanced or changed."

Preliminary results of this investigation: inconclusive.

[Update, 7/20/10: The Maine Democrats quoted from this LePage interview in their latest press release, posted at MPBN's Capital Connection, along with my comment.]

[Update, 7/21/10: In appearing to distance himself from Biblical literalism and Constitutional constructionists in his response to my question about the G.O.P. platform, LePage has elicited a torrent of comment -- both positive and negative -- over at As Maine Goes. (And, yes, he really did "say that.") Also, I've just added the phrase "when I spoke to him" to the third from the last paragraph, to make it even clearer that his comments were from my interview.]

Canada's troubled nuclear plant rehab

If the world is to increase its reliance on nuclear power, finding a way to refurbish the world's older reactors is extremely important. But, as the people of the Canadian province of New Brunswick have found, manufacturer refurbishments don't always go as planned.

As you can read in my piece that just posted at Global Post, delays at the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant have cost the people of New Brunswick hundreds of millions of dollars, helping prompt provincial leaders to try to sell the plant and the public utility that owns it to escape a sea of debt. Unfortunately, the nuclear rehab problems also contributed to the collapse of that deal -- and probably to the federal government's decision to sell some or all of its stake in Canadian nuclear reactor vendor Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the crown corporation responsible for the delays.

[Update, 7/8/2010: An indication of AECL's standing in New Brunswick: the province just announced it is exploring the building of a second reactor at Lepreau with one of AECL's foreign competitors.]

Maine story updates, June 30 edition

Some updates on Maine stories I've been following:

Good news (for once) from Portland's waterfront: Regular readers have gotten an earful about deception, incompetence, and political back-scratching in relation to cruise-ship related development decisions on Portland's Eastern Waterfront. In Parallel 44 - my bi-monthly column over at Working Waterfront -- I've finally got some positive news, as the city makes the first steps towards cleaning up their mess.

Maine. The (understaffed?) Magazine.: A month ago I wrote about eyebrow-raising developments over at the magazine previously known as Port City Life, including the sudden departure of the senior editor Peter Smith and art director Jennifer Muller. Now, with the July issue out, managing editor Chelsea Holden Baker has been reassigned as a contributing editor, which is magazine-speak for "valued contributor." (I have this title at Down East which, I ought to point out, is a competitor.) According to the editorial box, neither Baker nor Smith have been replaced, which makes one wonder who's putting the magazine together. [Update, 4/5/11: Ms. Baker contacted me today to clarify matters: "I resigned as managing editor of my own volition," she wrote, adding she would leave it at that. She's still a regular contributor to the magazine.]

Hiding the Money, Made Harder: The shadowy group that provided most of the funding for the campaign to repeal Maine's same sex marriage law -- the National Organization for Marriage -- has been refusing to disclose its donors as required by Maine's clean elections laws, and even tried to sue out state to avoid playing by the rules. They appear to be running short of options, however, with the Maine Ethics Commission denying yet another request to abandon their investigation and the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that same-sex marriage opponents have no constitutional right to hide their donors' lists. The attorney on the losing side of the Supreme Court case? NOM legal counsel and spokesman James Bopp, Jr.

Seattle takes interest in Press Herald story

Some in the Pacific Northwest still have at least a passing interest in what has become of the Portland Press Herald and its sister papers, one year after they were sold by the family that owns the Seattle Times Co.

The thoughtful Seattle-based digital news hub Crosscut has republished my piece on the state of the papers -- and the maverick philosophies of new owner Richard Connor -- from the current issue of Down East.

I'm pleased Crosscut has maintained an interest in the story. Some of the best reporting on the state of the previous owners' newspaper empire -- by former Washington Post staffer Bill Richards -- appeared on the site last year.

Maybe Maine needs one of these things.

[Update, 6/29/10: Connor offers a celebratory take on his first year of ownership; Al Diamon responds.]

In Canada, a fight over research dollars

Facing global competition, many countries have contemplated centralizing public funding for research in a handful of institutions, ensuring they have the resources to stand up to anyone. But what's that mean for the economies of regions and provinces that would be assigned a lower priority?

This is the subject of a heated debate in Canada, where the leaders of the five largest universities have called for greater "differentiation" between the missions of big research institutions (like their own), regional research universities, and what could become small undergraduate colleges. But what's that mean for, say, Atlantic Canada, a region that is home to exactly none of the so-called "G5"universities and where economic development strategies are tied to university R&D and innovation?

My piece from Canada on all this recently posted over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, which just launched a global edition.