News
Firing of Standish town manager remains a mystery
His lawyer says 'something stinks' about the vote to terminate Kris Tucker without cause.
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https://www.pressherald.com/2018/07/27/firing-of-standish-town-manager-still-a-mystery/
Standish councilor criticizes firing of town manager who’d served less than 8 months
Peter Starostecki believes other councilors and staff at Town Hall viewed Kris Tucker 'as a detriment to the status quo' and says the termination in a 6-1 vote was 'a total snow job.'
STANDISH — The lone councilor who voted against firing Town Manager Kris Tucker said Tuesday that the termination was “a total snow job.”
The council voted 6-1 during Monday night’s special meeting to terminate Tucker’s contract without cause, meaning he is entitled to severance and health care payments. Tucker had been on the job for less than eight months.
Councilor Peter Starostecki said by phone Tuesday morning that he believes other members of the council and staff at Town Hall view Tucker “as a detriment to the status quo.”
“I’m pretty upset about it,” said Starostecki, who called Tucker a “terrific town manager” and claimed that the termination was “a total snow job.”...
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https://www.pressherald.com/2018/07/24/standish-council-fires-town-manager/
Foshay, Young win Gray council seats; budget passes
GRAY — Current Council Vice Chairman Bruce Foshay and Sharon Young defeated former Council Chairman Lewis “Lew” Mancini Tuesday in a three-person race for two seats on the Gray Town Council...
Richard True and Sam Pfeifle were both elected to the SAD 15 School Board in uncontested races, receiving 1191 and 983 votes, respectively.
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http://news.keepmecurrent.com/foshay-young-win-gray-council-seats-budget-passes/
Seeing the Forest: A Q&A with John Rensenbrink Archives
As he prepares to turn ninety in August, Bowdoin professor emeritus John Rensenbrink just published his most important book.
Interview by Tom Putnam ’84
Your formal schooling almost ended at age fourteen in Pease, Minnesota.
That’s right. My mother did not want me to go to the public high school in town because it was not Christian. My father thought I should work on our hardscrabble farm. But then he passed away. So my older brother and I managed the farm, and my mother allowed me to take correspondence courses from the American School in Chicago. And later my amazing mother, with her limited formal education, wrote a personal appeal to Calvin College to accept me as a student.
You succeeded in college and then pursued your doctorate at the University of Chicago.
Yes, I studied under Leo Strauss, who thundered against the behaviorists who were attempting, in the 1950s, to turn political philosophy into a mechanistic science. He introduced me to all of the greats—Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Hobbes . . .
And you then introduced countless Bowdoin students to the same.
One lesson I appropriated from Leo Strauss was the importance of learning alongside my students. For me, the purpose of the classroom is to advance the knowledge of all who participate, including the professor.
You were considered a bit of firebrand.
I began my career at Bowdoin in the 1960s, when the campus was aflame over controversial issues such as Vietnam, civil rights, and coeducation. One year, I offered a seminar on Africa for freshmen. That was a breakthrough. “A seminar for freshmen?” and, secondly, “Non-Western studies? Are you kidding? It’s not acceptable.” But fortunately I was supported by President James “Stacey” Coles. And then with one of my students at the time, Barry Mills ’72, we started a student-taught course, which was truly inflammatory!
In 1984, in addition to teaching, you became one of the principal founders of the Green Party—nationally and in Maine.
That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to accomplish—to create a new political party. For me, the Green Party and its Ten Key Values offer the possibility of creating a new economy rooted in the land and a grassroots, ecologically tuned political culture. For years, achieving this vision became my passion.
In your new book you state: “In contemplating the fact that I will not live forever, I feel life’s call. It’s not only the trees that need help. But life itself is severely threatened. Not just in me or in those dear to me. But life itself may be extinguished in the human species as a whole, my species, the one I belong to.”
Woo, that’s a good statement. Did I write that? It brings tears to my eyes because it reminds me of the challenge we face. Wow.
During these politically divisive times, it is tempting to retreat to the fringes, to focus on ourselves and our families, to tend to our own gardens, and to stay aloof from politics and the public square. What’s your response to those who are inclined to follow that path?
Read my book! In it, I recount a story from Plato’s Politics. Plato is aware of the darkness of his times exemplified by the trial and execution of his teacher, Socrates, by dishonest political authorities. He puts words in Socrates’s mouth and has Socrates describe a man who sees the wickedness of humankind and chooses to protect himself under a shelter. The man lives his own life, pure from evil and unrighteousness, and departs in peace and good will, with bright hopes. Plato has a young observer, Adeimantus, state that such a man had done a great work. To which Socrates replies, “a great work, yes, but not the greatest, unless he finds a polis which is suitable to him—where he will have a larger growth and be savior to his country, as well as of himself.”
That passage has been an inspiration to me throughout my life for its refusal to abandon politics. It is in interacting with others, Plato reminds us, that we find “a larger growth.”
John Rensenbrink is one of seven children of Dutch-American farmers. His mother, Effie, was born in the Netherlands, and his father, John, was the son of immigrants. A highly admired professor of government and environmental studies, he taught at Bowdoin for over thirty years, beginning in 1961. He and his wife, Carla, a former teacher and university professor, live in Topsham, where they raised three daughters and spearheaded the Cathance River Education Alliance. The paperback edition of his newest book, Ecological Politics for Survival and Transformation, will be published this summer. He is a lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals.
This piece first appeared in the Spring/Summer 2018 edition of Bowdoin magazine.
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http://community.bowdoin.edu/news/2018/06/qa-with-john-rensenbrink/
Maine Legislature will return next week for special session
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Maine lawmakers are quietly voting on whether to return to work next week
Good morning from Augusta, where lawmakers are deciding if and when to return for a special session.
Legislative leaders are polling members right now about the possibility of the full Legislature returning on Tuesday to address a heap of unfinished business left over from this year’s regular session.
That includes a number of funding bills that received unanimous support from the budget committee on Monday. Many major issues are still mired in negotiations, such as a transportation bond that contractors and state transportation officials say is desperately needed, tax conformity legislation or a technical errors fix-it bill that would free up Maine Clean Election Act funding for the general election.
Coming back for a special session requires majority votes from four groups — House Democrats, House Republicans, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans — and the lone Green Independent in the Legislature, Rep. Ralph Chapman of Brooksville. House Republicans blocked the extension of the regular legislative session in April because they refused to allow a $3.8 million bill for Medicaid expansion start-up costs to be included in a package with the other spending bills. They have won that fight and the bill could be considered on its own — though a spokeswoman for House Speaker Sara Gideon said Democrats are confident the courts will force the issue..
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Maine lawmakers tiptoe toward pulling gridlocked spending bills out of limbo
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Lawmakers set the stage Monday for calling a special session later this month with unanimous agreement on a spending package that doesn’t include any funding for Medicaid expansion or changes to Maine’s minimum wage law...
A spokeswoman for Gideon said legislative leaders will likely poll members this week to gauge their interest in reconvening for a special session. That requires a majority vote of each of the caucuses in the Legislature, including the lone Green Independent Party member in the House...
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Under the dome: Inside the Maine State House
Green Independent Party and Unenrolled/Independent Members get Caucus Room, Part-time Staff
This month, the Legislative Council voted to provide caucus space and part-time staff to Green Independent Party member Rep. Ralph Chapman, and the six unenrolled/independent members of the Legislature. ... As members have left their respective parties, the vote margin in the House has shrunk to 74 Democrats and 70 Republicans. With seven legislators unaffiliated with the major parties, the Legislative Council agreed to provide space in the Cross Office Building for the unaffiliated members to caucus, and part-time staff to assist those members in their work. While the group of independents comes from a diverse political background, given the narrow margin between Democrats and Republicans, they could use their small but relatively significant numbers to develop impactful swing votes in the House during the Second Regular Session.
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https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/under-the-dome-inside-the-maine-state-89943/
Wide input sought for Portland school construction projects
PORTLAND — The School Board has expanded from four to six the number of community members who will be invited to serve on its new building committee. ...
The building committee will also include three board members and two city councilors. It will be co-chaired by a School Board member and a councilor, chosen by board Chairwoman Anna Trevorrow.
The committee’s purpose is to ensure there’s opportunity for broad public input and engagement in the elementary school construction process. It will be primarily responsible for making decisions on the $64.2 million school capital improvement bond approved by voters last November, including the order in which the buildings will be constructed.
The bond is will be used to renovate and upgrade Longfellow, Lyseth, Presumpscot and Reiche elementary schools. ...
In addition, this week the board also intended to take up Superintendent Xavier Botana’s recommendations for the creation of individual Building Level Advisory Committees, which would have input on “specific design elements” for each school. ...
Between the building committee and the individual advisory panels, Botana said the School Board hopes to create “a clear line of decision-making,” while also “preserving Portland’s unique commitment to collaborative building projects.”
The building committee would be a separate entity from the school board and would have ultimate authority over the spending on each school project, as well as hiring general contractors and other construction project personnel. ...
The work needed at Lyseth Elementary is expected to be the most costly under the $64.2 million bond, according to information provided by Oak Point Associates, the design firm hired by the school department to review the capital needs at all of the district’s schools.
Construction at Lyseth is expected to cost nearly $18 million and would include new classrooms, gymnasium and cafeteria, along with additional space for the school’s pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and gifted and talented programs.
At Longfellow, the work is estimated to cost close to $15.4 million and would include making the building fully ADA compliant, as well as a full asbestos abatement.
The needs at Presumpscot include new classrooms, a gym and cafeteria, along with a “more functional” student drop-off and bus loop. In addition, the school requires “adequate space” for music, art and library programs. The construction cost there is expected to be $13.6 million.
At Reiche, which is estimated to cost $17.2 million, construction would focus on enclosing classroom corridors while continuing to provide open space for collaborative learning and on creating “right size art, music and reading spaces.”
The school board hopes to make appointments to the new building committee no later than its first meeting in February. Once that happens, the committee’s first task would be to hire an architect to create building specific construction documents.
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http://www.theforecaster.net/wide-input-sought-for-portland-school-construction-projects/
Independent lawmakers gain clout in Augusta with staff, office space
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http://www.sunjournal.com/independent-lawmakers-gain-clout-in-augusta-with-staff-office-space/
Maine Houes makes room for more independent lawmakers
Maine House makes room for more independent lawmakers
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A small but growing number of independent state lawmakers who have weakened Democrats' hold on the House hope to promote compromise as independents seek to gain ground nationally in 2018.
The Maine House has its highest number of Independent and third-party members recorded in the last two decades, and several such lawmakers say they hope to maintain their individual independence while gaining a stronger voice in debates. ...
Rep. Henry Bear said Maine residents are issue-driven, not "strictly tied to Republicans or Democrats or unenrolled."
"Mainers for the most part are frugal, very conservative and also they're very independent," said Bear, a non-voting tribal member who represents the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and is running for Congress.
Two Republican representatives and three Democratic representatives left their parties this year in addition to Bear. They join two unenrolled House members who ran as independents. Two — Bear and Rep. Ralph Chapman — registered as Maine Green Independents and say they're among the highest-ranking Green lawmakers nationally.
The lawmakers' reasons for leaving the major parties vary from frustration over partisanship and the influence of lobbyists and corporate donations on Maine policy-making to discontent at Republican and Democratic lawmakers' steps to undo, change and delay several laws approved by voters at the polls in 2016.
Chapman said he's concerned that Democratic statehouse leaders value loyalty to political donors over the common good. ...
Legislative leaders recently approved a request to provide a room at the statehouse for the independent and third-party lawmakers and their staffs. Independent lawmakers said they plan to caucus daily. ...
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http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/More-independents-as-Maine-lawmakers-reconvene-in-12456056.php
We have all these independents. Now where are we going to put them?
...
The number of sitting lawmakers who don’t associate with a major political party is growing in the Maine House of Representatives, which now has six independents and a Green Independent. In the past few months, three Democrats and a Republican have left their parties.
Aside from the political implications, there’s a question of where to put them and their staff of one, according to Grant Pennoyer, executive director of the Legislative Council, who brought the issue to the board on Thursday. He suggested putting them in the Cross Building, which is attached to the State House and which he called “prime legislative space.”
Republicans and Democrats on the council, who have most of the office space surrounding the House and Senate chambers, agreed that the adjacent building is a suitable location for the independents and the Green.
All this is a grand opportunity for some Huey Lewis. Here’s the new Cross crew’s soundtrack. — Christopher Cousins
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Eyed for elimination, estate tax remains controversial on campaign trail
Eyed for elimination, estate tax remains controversial on campaign trail
Though the so-called “death tax” is on life support these days, some of the candidates vying for a U.S. House seat in Maine’s 2nd District aren’t ready to give up on it.
Fifteen years ago, the federal government taxed more than 600 estates left behind by wealthy Mainers.
During the past five years, the number of Maine estates subject to the so-called “death tax” averaged 42, the consequence of revisions that have pushed ever higher the wealth someone must possess before the government grabs a share.
Put another way, that means the estate tax will apply to only about one in every 2,900 Mainers who dies.
For U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a 2nd District Republican in his second term, that’s still too many. He said recently he remains committed to abolishing the death tax. But the candidates jostling for the chance to run against him next year generally have a sharply different take. ...
Green Party hopeful Henry Bear said the estate tax “does not reward hardworking Mainers. It rewards the lucky.”
Bear said the nation should restore the 70 percent estate tax it had decades ago with a $1 million exemption. At that level, he said, the government could tax “a very small number of very lucky people” and raise $500 billion extra each year. ...
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http://www.sunjournal.com/eyed-for-elimination-estate-tax-remains-controversial-on-campaign-trail/
Portland School Board again picks Trevorrow as chairwoman
Portland School Board again picks Trevorrow as chairwoman
PORTLAND — Anna Trevorrow was chosen Monday afternoon to lead the Portland School Board for a second year. ...
Looking back, she said, it’s “been a privilege to serve as the board chair for the last year,” adding “there are many successes” to celebrate.
Among those successes, Trevorrow said, are “equity resolutions condemning hate speech and asserting a safe haven for Muslim students, state recognition of our exemplary staff, the launch of the TeachPortland program and passage of the (new) transgender policy.”
“I am most proud, however, of having been a part of the launch of the Portland Promise,” she said, “our pledge to the community to … intensify our efforts to ensure that all our graduates are prepared and empowered to succeed in college and career.” ...
In preparing the fiscal year 2018-19 budget, she said, “We will need to make many important decisions to allocate our resources in ways that allow us to make progress toward our goals and enhance the overall student experience.”
“Heading into the next year, I pledge to lead our district’s effort in conjunction with the City Council and our state legislative delegation to ensure that we obtain and steward our resources to the best possible results,” Trevorrow said.
“It takes great schools to have a great city (and) we have been charged with fulfilling this community’s vision for those great schools,” she added. ...
She also noted, however, that “schools are more than brick and mortar” and said the School Board has “significant work ahead to support the implementation of proficiency-based learning, supporting teaching and learning and building our staff’s capacity to serve our diverse student population.” ...
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http://www.theforecaster.net/portland-school-board-again-picks-trevorrow-as-chairwoman/
Henry Bear: A challenging life, a challenge for Congress
Henry Bear: A challenging life, a challenge for Congress
LEWISTON — Growing up among French-speaking immigrants in the slums of Lewiston, Henry Bear starting working before his age reached double digits, peddling everything from apples to firewood to his impoverished neighbors.
When his family shattered amid the social and financial pressures, his mother spiraled into depression and his father into drunkenness.
It got so bad that Bear and his six sisters wound up in foster homes. He dropped out of school and joined the Coast Guard at 17, seeking a better life.
Now, at age 61, he’s on a new quest to secure a political office that nobody in those run-down apartments could have imagined for him or anyone living there: a spot in the U.S. Congress.
Bear, who serves in the Maine House as the the non-voting representative of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, declared recently that he would enter the 2nd District U.S. House race as a new member of the Green Party.
If Bear wins, he would be the first Native American member of Congress from New England and the first in more than a century to claim a House seat from the East Coast. ...
One summer day
One day at the age of 10, after a successful stint selling arts and crafts door to door, Bear returned home to find his mother sobbing and all of his siblings gone. ...
Boyhood
Bear was born at St. Mary’s Hospital in May 1956, smack in the middle of the post-war Baby Boom, almost exactly nine months after his parents got married.
His father belonged to the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, hailing from one of many Native American families in Maine who made a living peddling goods, picking apples, raking blueberries, digging potatoes and other temporary work. ...
His French Canadian mother, who probably had some Indian blood, kept busy raising children in their Roman Catholic household and earning some money sewing moccasins. ...
Coming undone
Bear’s family started to disintegrate well before the day the state Department of Health and Human Services came knocking on his mother’s door.
There wasn’t enough money in a household that depended on food stamps and secondhand clothes, but there was something more.
Bear said his mother’s family never quite accepted the Native American man who married their daughter. There was, he said, “a lot of racism” that he didn’t quite understand at the time. ...
Ultimately, Bear’s mother couldn’t do it any longer.
“She had a nervous breakdown,” and the state intervened, Bear said. ...
Moving on
It turned out that foster care wasn’t bad.
During the next seven years, Bear stayed with four foster families in Auburn, each treating him kindly. ...
He learned years later when DHHS let him review his case file that his father had tried repeatedly to gain custody of the children and that bureaucrats thought he’d done well making the case. But they still turned him down.
Bear said he’s sure the state had a deliberate policy of keeping Native American children away from tribal influence as much as possible. It wanted to see Indians assimilated into the wider culture instead of tied to their people and history, he said.
A career
Bear’s hope that the Coast Guard would offer a path to something better proved altogether true.
He quickly met and married Violet Dotson, an Army brat from Virginia who was part of the first group of women to go to boot camp. ...
He learned about communications and cryptology and moved up the ranks in the service, ending up as a recruiter in New Hampshire during a presidential primary season that made it possible for him to meet President Ronald Reagan and have dinner with Vice President George H.W. Bush.
A lifelong Republican, he found both of them charming and discovered they were “just like us” in real life, a revelation that in some ways opened the door to politics for Bear.
He moved to the Maliseet reservation where he discovered “an acceptance you can only appreciate if you’ve grown up in four foster homes.”
“I learned that there were a lot of people who looked like me up there, thousands of them, and a couple hundred of them were my cousins,” Bear said.
He soon wound up as president of the Central Maine Indian Council and not long after was elected as a tribal council member. ...
As an attorney who set up shop in the house his father built on the reservation years earlier, he represented mostly tribal members in various cases that earned him payment in everything from fiddleheads to fish.
“I got a lot of salmon, deer, bear, bread, and whatever hunters, cooks and fishermen might be able to give me,” Bear said. Cash, though, was rare.
To supplement his income, he also works as a commercial fisherman, a forester and more. He said he tries to hold at least five jobs simultaneously to ensure he’ll have a steady income. Since 2013, he’s held the State House seat as well.
Bear became a Democrat when he thought he might run for a different House seat in Aroostook County, but that fell through. Switching to the Green Party last month to run for Congress suits him as well, he said, because it stands for a “healthy and prosperous community, a progressive and transparent government, and a safer and more inclusive world community.”
Hope
After starting off with so few prospects, it may seem that Bear’s hope to reach Capitol Hill is out of reach.
But he has a dim memory of another, bigger kid in the old neighborhood just down the street from a landmark eatery, Simones’ Hot Dog Stand, a fellow who also came from poverty and family distress.
That guy is Paul LePage, who’s a year away from finishing his second term as Maine’s governor.
Henry Bear, a Green Party candidate for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, is challenging U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin for his seat. Bear was in Lewiston this week looking for a place to rent for his campaign office. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
Henry Bear, a Green Party candidate in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, right, is challenging U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin for his seat. Bear walked down Lisbon Street in Lewiston earlier this week looking for a place to rent for his campaign office. He was with his wife, Violet, center, and cousin Rick Boucher of Auburn, left. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
2017 Sun Journal head and shoulders photo of Henry Bear. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)
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http://www.sunjournal.com/a-challenging-life-a-challenge-for-congress/
Cheech and Chong raise profile of pot post
Cheech and Chong raise profile of pot post
A Maine Facebook video appears to show the calming effects of medical marijuana on a boy suffering a seizure.
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http://www.pressherald.com/2017/11/29/cheech-and-chong-raise-profile-of-pot-post/
Portland school board adopts policy to protect transgender students
Portland school board adopts policy to protect transgender students
After an emotional discussion about inclusion and equity for all students, the Portland School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to adopt a comprehensive new policy that affirms and protects transgender and gender-expansive students in Portland schools. ...
Among other things the policy allows students to use restrooms and changing rooms consistent with their gender identity, allows them to use the pronouns they prefer, calls for gender-neutral student dress codes and requires annual training around gender issues for teachers and staff.
The policy is consistent with Maine law that requires non-discrimination in schools. ...
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Portland policy provides protections, support for transgender students
Portland policy provides protections, support for transgender students
PORTLAND — The School Board Tuesday was expected to enact an expansive new transgender student rights policy. ...
The board was expected to give final approval to the new protections Nov. 28, after The Forecaster’s deadline.
At the first reading, board Chairwoman Anna Trevorrow said it was especially important to provide support for transgender students after learning that statistically they are more at risk for self-harm, homelessness, harassment and physical violence. ...
The policy defines gender identity as being “a person’s sincerely held core belief of their own gender, whether that individual identifies as male, female, both, neither or in some other way.”
And gender-expansive is defined as being “an umbrella term used to describe people who expand notions of gender expression and identity beyond what is perceived as the expected gender norms.” ...
While the School Department is required to use a student’s legal name on their official record, the policy adds that “the district shall use the student’s preferred name and pronouns consistent with their gender identity on all other documents including, but not limited to … classroom rosters, certificates, diplomas and yearbook.”
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http://www.theforecaster.net/portland-policy-provides-protections-support-for-transgender-students/
Portland school board adopts comprehensive transgender policy
Portland school board adopts comprehensive transgender policy
It joins about a half-dozen other Maine school districts that have approved such policies since a landmark state supreme court ruling in 2014.
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http://www.pressherald.com/2017/11/28/portland-school-board-adopts-comprehensive-transgender-policy/
