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Maine News

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Maine News for Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Portland Press Herald
State awards $30 million in grants to advance technology development
The money is part of a $50 million bond issue approved by voters in November.

Riverview’s chief resigning to lead Acadia Hospital
David Proffitt, who has been at the psychiatric center for four years, will be moving to Bangor.

State to survey schools for fuel assistance
Some district officials say they've budgeted enough, while others say the cost could bring spending cuts.

To get by, more Mainers turning to food stamps
The state sees an increase of 7.2 percent this month, compared with last year.

Washed-out road closed for a month
Freeport officials expect the repairs needed on Desert Road to cost at least $400,000.

Route 1 repaving a summer sore spot
The Brunswick project – its timing has been questioned – is expected to last into October.

Central Maine cities make the grade
A survey names the Augusta-Waterville region the nation's 17th-best 'micropolitan' area.

Editorials
Law should require reporting child porn
When hard drives contain hard-core images, calling the cops shouldn’t be optional.

Consumers served by Oakhurst’s stance
People buying milk have a right to know the truth about what chemicals went into it.

Bangor Daily News
Baldacci to propose income tax cut

AUGUSTA, Maine - Gov. John Baldacci said Monday he would propose lowering Maine's personal income taxes in the January session of the Maine Legislature, but how much depends on the state budget now being developed.

Groups going to court, pressing further protection of lynx

BANGOR, Maine - Two organizations filed suit in federal court Monday to force Maine officials to take additional steps to prevent trappers from inadvertently capturing Canada lynx.

Excess rainwater may maroon potatoes in fields

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine - Some potato growers in Aroostook County will not be able to harvest some of their crops because of the higher-than-normal amount of rainfall so far this year, according to the executive director of the Maine Potato Board.

Neighbors, networks key to winter warmth

FORT KENT, Maine - For some of northern Maine's most vulnerable residents, the reality of the coming winter may come down to life or death with many counting on neighbors helping neighbors.

Editorials
In search of the real GOP

Polls show that most Americans view the Bush presidency as a dismal failure. Whether the president can redeem himself in the eyes of the public in his post-White House years remains to be seen. Of far more interest to Republicans seeking elected office is the way their party is now perceived by the public. They worry, correctly, that the GOP has been tainted by the Bush years.

Betty Lou Mitchell: Unions' free choice act forfeits fairness for workers
America's union leaders are attempting to expand their enrollment and increase dues at all costs. They are pushing a bill before Congress, misleadingly called the Employee Free Choice Act, that would do away with democratic unionization procedures and instead force workers to vote publicly by petition. The obvious result of this change, should the act be passed, is that union organizers will be able to hound workers on the floor, at lunch, even at home, until they sign the petition.

Erik Steele: Saying sayonara to jerks with medical degrees
In the good old days, women were women, men were men, and it was OK for a physician to be a total jerk in the hospital as long as he or she was very talented. More than one physician got away with appalling behavior because he was Cezanne with a scalpel or Stieglitz with a stethoscope. Well, as Hippocrates would have said, "You can kiss that crap goodbye."

August 12 Letters to the Editor

Kennebec Journal
Region listed as top 'micropolitan' area
In your face, Hilton Head Island-Beaufort, S.C.

AUGUSTA: Boards differ on sign plan
AUGUSTA -- City councilors and the leader of the Planning Board clashed Monday over whether the city should change its zoning ordinance so Le Club Calumet can have a new, larger sign.

Proffitt resigns at Riverview
AUGUSTA -- The superintendent of the Riverview Psychiatric Center, the state mental-health hospital in Augusta, is resigning to become president of Acadia Hospital, a private facility in Bangor.

Augusta schools to refill top posts
AUGUSTA -- Nominations for a new principal at Hodgkins Middle School, a new assistant principal at Farrington Elementary and a new curriculum coordinator go Wednesday to the Board of Education.

For Jones, the past is present
AUGUSTA -- The expert nominated to assess the effect of state budget cuts on services to some 12,000 mentally ill people is a familiar name.

More Mainers using food stamps to get by
Keven Gillette shopped the supermarket aisles Monday with a calculator in hand. He had budgeted $60 for this trip to Paul's Food Center on Portland's Congress Street, more than a third of his monthly food stamp benefit of $160.

HALLOWELL: City sets up recycling, dispatch pacts
HALLOWELL -- Council members approved two contracts that will affect the city's emergency services and recycling program.

Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel trim workforce again
About 20 full- and part-time employees at the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel will be laid off this month or will have left their positions voluntarily, through severance packages or resignations.

On Maine Politics
Frary: “Enviro-kooks” would block refinery

Editorial

Charity alone won't solve hunger crisis
The generous people who run Maine's food pantries and soup kitchens say they're seeing far too many new faces these days.

DAVID B. OFFER : Poll targets 'anger points' so campaign can tailor message
My opinions on an extensive list of issues including the war in Iraq, taxes in Maine, abortion, immigration and oil energy policy are now part of a massive data base being collected by a national polling firm widely used by the Republican Party.

Letters

Only national insurance can fix broken system
More than 11 million of America's 47 million uninsured have chronic physical illnesses like heart disease, diabetes and asthma and are not getting the life-saving medical care they need.

Sun Journal
Site down today...

MPBN
Conservationists Sue State For Failing to Protect Canada Lynx
Two wildlife conservation groups are following through with earlier threats to sue Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife for failing to adequately protect Canada Lynx, a species that's listed as threatened under the endangered species act. The groups fear that this fall trappers will again accidentally catch Canada Lynx in traps set for fox, coyote and other animals. To prevent that from happening, the Wildlife Alliance of Maine and Animal Welfare Institute brought suit today in Bangor against the state for violations of the Endangered Species Act.

Inmates May Rehabilitate Abused Horses
As Mainers watch the state's economy tighten and attempt to prepare for uncertain fuel costs that are expected to arrive with the winter heating season, cutting back on expenses has become a matter of survival. And for many families, that means giving up their animal friends to a new home or the humane society. When that animal is a horse, a whole new set of problems emerge. But as A.J. Higgins reports. state officials and animal welfare agencies are working together to try to find a solution.

Grants Aimed at Spurring Investment In Maine
State officials released thirty million dollars worth of research and development grants or awards today to 14 applicants, many of whom will be required to raise matching funds from private sources. The state is providing funding for the grants and awards from a fifty million dollar bond approved by Maine voters last year. Gov. John Baldacci says the grants will finance capital assets to help individual companies and research organizations develop new technologies that will spur investment in Maine and create new job opportunities.

PolitickerMe
Frary proposes Maine oil refinery, fears obstruction by ‘enviro-kooks’

National:
DNC: Hillary Clinton is not the VP pick

Opinion:
John Edwards and the death of mainstream media

Pindell Report: Collins seat increasingly safe

Obama’s campaign staffs Maine, eyes victory in both districts