Wednesday June 24

Three labor councils in Maine, Southern, Western and Central, have followed the lead of the Maine State AFL-CIO in calling on the national AFL-CIO September Convention to endorse HR 676 and educate and mobilize for its passage. The resolution passed by the 3 councils urges that the AFL-CIO Convention: "pursue the passage of HR 676, the 'United States National Health Care Act' to meet the needs of our members, our families, and all America, and not endorse or support any fallback program of mandated insurance which includes the wasteful, for-profit insurance industry. . . " Sample resolution and information on how to submit a resolution

The Natural Resources Council of Maine is 50 years old. . . Portland Press Herald: "If you stop and think about what the state of Maine could have looked like without the Natural Resources Council, it might have been a far different place," said Bill Townsend, who joined the organization as a young Skowhegan lawyer just after its founding in 1959. . . The council was formed as a collaboration of several other groups, including Maine Audubon, The Nature Conservancy, the Garden Club Federation and the Pine Tree Rifle and Pistol Society, according to Townsend. . . The organization now has 24 employees and eight lobbyists who are familiar faces, and voices, in legislative hearings and agency proceedings. The NRCM also has 12,000 members and supporters and receives more than $2 million a year in contributions to do its work.

The Portland Planning Board has approved rezoning to allow wind towers for research to be erected in most of Portland. They would be up for a maximum of two years. Already planned spots are Munjoy Hill and Peaks Island.

Portland Press Herald - Sales of single-family homes in Maine went down 9.5 percent in May 2009 as compared to the previous year, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. . . But, on the flip side, more homes sold in May 2009 than April 2009 - from 610 to 877. That's a 44 percent increase in sales over one month.