Center founders John Christie and Naomi Schalit are giving a series of talks across the state about the role of investigative journalism in our democracy. The next talk, entitled “”Is journalism failing its role in democracy?” is at the Camden Public Library on May 21st at 7 PM. For more details on the talk, check out the listing on the library’s website. And if you’d like Christie and Schalit to address your group, just give us a call at 207-620-4519, or send an email to pinetreewatchdog@gmail.com. Continue Reading →
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Legislators vote to restart climate change planning
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AUGUSTA – A state legislative committee voted today to put Maine back on track to develop a finished plan for adapting to its changing climate. “I think the committee understood how much we all stand to lose if we don’t plan for the future,” said Pete Didisheim, advocacy director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine, one of the nonprofit groups involved in the creation of the initial report by the state Department of Environmental Protection in 2010. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Environment, Stories, climate change, Maine legislature
NY State senator: tax support to weapons maker “truly outrageous”
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A New York state senator has called the state’s $5.5 million in grants and subsidies to a weapons manufacturer “truly outrageous” in light of the Newtown, Conn. shooting massacre and wants the practice stopped. N.Y. State Sen. Liz Krueger’s letter to Empire State Development — click image for full letter
Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, cited a recent report by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting and The New York World that nine states, including New York, have given tax breaks, subsidies and grants to the makers of semi-automatic rifles that have been used in multiple mass shootings, including the one on Newton that killed 20 children and six adults last month. New York’s tax support went to Remington Arms, based in Ilion, since 2007. In her letter to the head of the Empire State Development Corp, the state agency that administers the tax subsidies, Sen. Krueger, the ranking minority member on the N.Y. Senate’s Finance Committee, said:
“Among the products produced by Remington at the New York plant that received these benefits is the Bushmaster model used in the murders in Newtown. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Stories, assault weapons, guns, mass shootings, Money, Newtown, Public Safety, Stories
Ethics training materials for incoming legislators
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The National Conference of State Legislatures is one of our favorite organizations because — even though it’s set up to be a resource for legislators — it’s also a great repository of information for reporters who cover state government. When we want to see how Maine compares, say, to other states in laws on raw milk sales, the NCSL has a section on just that. And, of course, on many other things. Last week, when newly elected lawmakers came to the statehouse in Augusta for orientation and swearing-in, one of the events organized for them was a seminar on ethics, taught by Natalie Wood, an NCSL ethics specialist. We thought you’d be interested in the ethics materials Wood distributed to the lawmakers. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Reporter's Notebook
Analysis – Ignore the pundits and polls; go vote
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As we finally approach Election Day, many people are so tired of the campaigns that they ask plaintively, “Are we there yet?”
Throughout a long campaign, we have been treated to daily analyses about who’s ahead to the point where it becomes an almost meaningless blur. We get three kinds of comments: pundits, polls and predictions. Pundits are people who we are supposed to believe possess some kind of special insight about politics. On any given day, they seem sure of their outlooks about the campaigns. One of their favorite words is “momentum,” though they seem to have different meanings in mind. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Elections
Smith Letter to State Auditor
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Smith Letter to State Auditor (PDF)
Smith Letter to State Auditor (Text)
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Workforce Board Emails
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<br /> <a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/355032/board-emails.pdf”>Board Emails (PDF)</a> </p> <p><a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/355032/board-emails.txt”>Board Emails (Text)</a><br /> Continue Reading →
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Dept. of Labor letter to Hoffman
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Utility regulators used broad authority in approving wind deal
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The Maine Public Utilities Commission recently issued a decision in a hotly contested case allowing Emera, the Nova Scotia company that owns Bangor Hydro and Maine Public Service, to create a new company with First Wind, a major wind power developer. The three-member regulatory body decided that the economic development benefits of the project had so much potential that they could approve it while imposing enough conditions to protect utility customers. In its decision, the PUC went against the recommendations of its own experienced staff and all of the parties to the case, other than the applicants. Those parties, including the Maine Public Advocate, represented utility customers and the Northern Maine Independent System Administrator, the neutral body responsible for maintaining electric reliability in northern Maine. According to a report by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, a principal focus of the PUC decision was the potential the new entity would have for creating jobs in Maine, perhaps more than any other development now on the horizon. Though Maine’s unemployment rate is well below the national level, job creation remains near the top of voters’ concerns. That the PUC should give economic considerations great weight while finding that its conditions were sufficient to provide consumer protection reflects a broad view of its mandate. Continue Reading →
Filed under: Energy, Bangor hydro, First wind, Maine Public Utilities Commission, PUC, wind power
Meeting land-based wind goals not likely, say two state studies
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Maine will not be able to accomplish the state-mandated goals of building 2000 megawatts of wind power on land by 2015. That’s one conclusion of two studies issued this week by the governor’s energy office and an independent group of researchers. The studies also urged reconsideration of the landmark 2008 law that allowed wind turbines to be built in ecologically and scenically important areas of the state. “No one imagines that we’ll be meeting the goal at 2015,” said Stephen Ward, co-author of “Maine Wind Assessment 2012.”
“In order to meet the 2015 goal, at least 552 new turbines will have to be permitted and become operational by 2012, and – depending on the size of the turbines – potentially as many as 1,103 turbines will be needed,” Ward’s report states. The state is “making progress, though, in meeting the off-shore wind goals for 2020 and 2030,” says Ward’s report, although none are currently constructed. Continue Reading →