October 6

Maine Public Broadcasting - The state and Maine's largest private insurer Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield are locked in a legal battle over how much profit Anthem should be able to make. Earlier this year, Maine's insurance superintendent Mila Kofman denied Anthem's request to raise rates for its individual insurance products, calling it "excessive," and instead approved an increase that leaves Anthem without a profit margin for providing those 12,000 policies. Now Anthem has filed suit to get the decision overturned. Janet Mills is the Maine Attorney General who is representing the superintendent of insurance. Mills' office counters that Anthem averaged a 3.2 percent profit margin in its individual line of products for the nine years that the company has been in Maine. And that going a year without a profit from those products will not drain the company.

Kennebec Journal - The NAACP is registering voters at prisons in Maine, one of just two states that allow all inmates to vote while behind bars, in what is apparently the nation's first such statewide drive. The relatively few votes at stake -- only a few hundred -- mean the drive's potential to affect outcomes this fall on such issues as gay marriage, marijuana laws and tax limits is low. . . The NAACP is wrapping up its effort in Maine prisons this week. After next June's primary election, the organization plans to lead another drive at all 15 county jails, as well as state prisons.

Forecaster- The federal funds that keep the Amtrak Downeaster rolling will continue to flow for another month, thanks to a last-minute resolution by Congress on Sept. 30. But just how long the subsidy will continue is still uncertain. The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program funds the majority of the Downeaster's $8 million operating expense. The CMAQ funding, specifically an exemption that allows Maine to use it for the Downeaster, was included in the six-year transportation bill that was scheduled to expire Sept. 30, the same day Congress passed a stop-gap measure that would keep transportation funding at 2009 levels until Oct. 31.


Casco Bay Boaters - The chemistry of our oceans is changing, according to scientists who monitor the world's coastal waters. Seawater is becoming more acidic thanks to too much carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. The shift isn't noticeable to humans and seawater remains essentially basic in terms of its pH level, but the change is robbing seawater of its carbonate ions - molecules made up of one carbon atom and three oxygen atoms that are critical building blocks for calcification and shell development. At risk is anything that builds a shell, including mussels, clams, oysters and even lobsters. Also at risk are the fishermen and small, independently owned companies that are the lifeblood of Maine's coastal economy.

Also in Casco Bay Boaters are some choice items from the LL Bean's 1930 catalog. Mentioned are the free souvenirs Bean used to offer, such as the tin cup above.

Press Herald - Maine's ambitious plan to weatherize all existing homes over the next 20 years has a big hole: With limited money, it's cost-effective only to make upgrades that will cut average energy use by 25 percent to 30 percent. What would it take to slice consumption by half, or even three-quarters?. . . Some of the answers could come from an abandoned 1875 house that stands a boot's throw from L.L. Bean. It could become Maine's first example of what contractors call a "deep energy retrofit." Proponents have a $10,000 federal research grant to finance initial engineering for the Mallett Deep Energy Retrofit. Now they're trying to find money to do the work. . . One goal of the Freeport project would be to help standardize methods that seriously tighten the building envelope. . . . Another goal is to develop techniques to help lower the cost of a deep energy retrofit, estimated at $30,000 for the project house. That doesn't make financial sense at today's energy prices. That conclusion has been reached elsewhere in the country. A recent project in Tennessee that included solar hot water and electricity – and cut heat use by 65 percent – had a simple payback of 22 years. But the equation could change, especially in Maine, which is highly dependent on fuel oil for heat.

Brunswick Times Record - School Administrative District 75 officials are happy to have learned they don't have to change the name of the district to Regional School Unit 75 after all. More important, they won't have to spend thousands of dollars from an already strained budget on bus lettering and signage to reflect the name change. Believing the district was required to change its name to RSU 75 under the state's school consolidation law, the SAD 75 board of directors at meetings on Sept. 10 and Sept. 24 expressed displeasure at the estimated $5,000 price tag attached to the task of changing lettering on its school buses and vehicles, not counting the cost of changing building signs and letterhead.. . . Board chairwoman Joanne Reinhart said . . . the district is not obligated to change its name due to language in the consolidation law. . . Reinhart said she believes the names SAD 75 and RSU 75 will be somewhat interchangeable. She expects there may be some documents where it must be worded RSU 75.

Matt Prindiville, Natural Resources Council - Several gardening companies sell inexpensive plastic spigots that screw on to a 2-L soda bottle (of any brand). Fill the bottle with water, screw on the spigot, invert, and bury the spigot in the ground next to a large plant to provide it with a steady supply of water as needed.

Photo of Portland with a rainbow

Recovered history: The great Maine fraud

FUROR IN FREEDOM

Things got a little tense at the Dirigo Grange Hall in Freedom as citizens discussed the planned wind turbine development. Reports the Village Soup: Freedom residents wondering how their taxes could have gone up this year despite a new $10 million wind development . . . The three, 400-foot windmills on Beaver Ridge started pumping energy into the grid last November. During the planning stages of the project, wind developer Competitive Energy Services estimated the turbines would be valued at $10 million. According to company literature, the boost in the town's overall valuation would contribute to a 27-percent reduction in residents' tax bills. For the past five years, [Selectman Carol] Richardson said, town selectmen made a clerical error that contributed to an artificially low tax rate, a problem that was corrected this year. . . .

The discussion became heated when resident Carrie Bennett questioned whether the assessment of the wind development was consistent with that of other properties. Bennett said the turbines' contractor, Jay Cashman, claimed the development cost $12 million. If that were the case, she said, the town had assessed the turbines at several million dollars less than construction costs. . .

Selectman Ronald Price tried to put an end to discussion of the turbines, but the Bennetts weren't finished with the subject. The exchange quickly escalated until Price shouted down the dissent and a half-dozen residents stormed out of the room. . . When Richardson tried to reply to Bennett, Price shouted her down. "God damn it, I want to answer him!" he barked, smashing his fist down on the desk.

Richardson appeared to be trying to end the meeting when there was a verbal exchange between Steve Bennett and Price, who had moved out from behind the selectmen's table to a position in the aisle, leaning against a desk, across the room from Bennett.

Price strode toward Bennett and several residents jumped out of their chairs to head off what looked like an overture to a fistfight. The men were kept separated and eventually returned to their places on diagonally opposite sides of the room.

More of Ethan Andrews' article including pix

A FEW REASONS TO DITCH THE SCHOOL CONSOLIDATION LAW

From the NE Coalition to Save Schools

The law has not worked.

Despite a goal of reducing Maine's 290 districts to 80 by July 1 of this year, 218 remain. The state says it cannot quantify any savings so far as a result of consolidation, but has spent more than $4 million to try and enforce it. At the same time, property taxpayers in merged districts are seeing their tax rates go up - in one instance by 25 percent.

The law is not fair.

There are 66 districts, representing 55 percent of the state's enrollment, that were exempt from consolidating because of size, location or other special dispensations granted by the Department of Education.

Yet citizens in the more than 100 districts that were ordered to consolidate but voted against it are being threatened with $5 million in penalties simply for exercising their democratic rights.

The law is too rigid.

There is no way for a town to get out of a regional district after it joins one. And the law does not recognize voluntary cooperation among districts as a legal alternative to this failed mandate - cooperation that could actually save money and improve education.

WHAT'S HAPPENING

On November 6, Mainers have the opportunity to demonstrate commitment to peace and justice, to an end to war, to recreating a healthy nation. On that date a Rally will be held on Monument Square , Portland at 5 PM and will feature David swanson, co-founder of After Downing Street. The Rally is being co-sponsored by Veterans for Peace Chapter 001, Code Pink, Peace Action Maine and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

"Protecting the Nature of Maine: Fifty Years of the Natural Resources Council of Maine" is a new documentary currently being shown around the state. Times and places