Loeb Award Finalist, Virtual schools update

This morning UCLA's Anderson School of Management announced the finalists for the 2013 Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, the most prestigious in said field.  I'm greatly honored to have been among them.

The nomination is for my Maine Sunday Telegram investigation on online education interests have shaped the development of digital learning and virtual schools policies here in Maine. It's in the Small and Medium Newspapers category with worthy competitors from the Raleigh News & Observer, Tampa Tribune, and Charlotte Observer. This is the story that won a George Polk Award earlier this year.

The winners will be chosen at an awards ceremony in New York June 25th.

By coincidence, in today's Portland Press Herald, I have an update on the issues raised in the Sept. 2 investigation. In short, the effort to adopt the policies advocated by Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education has stalled, though the state education commissioner says they remain part of the ongoing policy discussion.

Speaking in defense of the humanities, Augusta, Me, May 17

For those in Central and Southern Maine, I'll be giving the lunch address at the University of Maine's Maine Humanities Summit this Friday, May 17 in Augusta.

My talk is titled “Liberal Arts in the Real World: An Author-Historian-Journalist’s Argument for the Importance of the Humanities," which sums it up pretty well. Other participants include museum directors, library heads, college and university professors, and the chair of the American Folk Festival. There's a PDF with the full agenda here.

I gather the event is free and open to the public, but you do need to register in advance. For more  information go online or contact UMaine Humanities Initiative Director Justin Wolff, 207.581.3259

Show based on Republic of Pirates airing this winter

NBC has announced that "Crossbones" --the drama based on my work of non-fiction, The Republic of Pirates -- is airing this winter.

The network released its 2013/2014 schedule overnight, with "Crossbones" being released as a mid-season replacement. Since NBC has rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the show will probably air after the games close Feb. 24. The network has released remarks suggesting it plans to promote the mid-season debuts during the Olympics. “The overriding strategy this year was to develop enough strong comedies and dramas to take advantage of the promotional heft of the Winter Olympics and devise two schedules for the upcoming season: one for fall and a slightly different one for midseason," NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said in a prepared statement.

"Crossbones" stars John Malkovich as Blackbeard. It's written by Neil Cross, of BBC "Luther" fame.

Gov. LePage and the Lewiston fires

Maine Gov. Paul LePage's visit to his hometown of Lewiston this week has been receiving critical attention. Nine tenement building burned in three apparently unrelated fires in just eight days, putting some 200 residents out of their homes, two 12-year-olds in jail, and the rest of the city on edge. The governor's estranged brother and his wife are reportedly among those made homeless.

But in his visit Tuesday morning, Gov.. LePage made it clear he had no intention of finding extra resources to help those displaced by the fires, even claiming ignorance about the existence of his six-digit discretionary fund he could use to do so. Asked how it felt to be in his hometown, the governor said only: “It brings back a lot of bad memories." This struck some as callous.Why would the governor -- who was himself homeless at age 11 in the very same area -- not wish to pull out the stops to help?

But his stance isn't surprising. The governor has a complicated relationship with his hometown, his siblings, and the poor, as I revealed last year in the first part of my biography of LePage. Those trying to understand the governor's position this week may find it informative.

LePage administration opposes industry-sponsored paint recycling plan

Just a short post today, for those in Maine who missed Friday's story on a paint recycling bill before the legislature.

The household paint industry wants to set up a program to recycle Mainer's unused or unwanted paint, which currently gets burned in incinerators (in the case of latex), disposed of at considerable expense to towns (in the case of oil-based paints), or illegally dumped in ditches, forests, and fields (both). Their plan -- already enacted in Oregon, California, Connecticut, and Rhode Island -- has the backing of Maine's environmental community, municipalities, and paint retailers. It's sponsored by the ranking Republican on the relevant committee and has strong Democractic backing.

Sounds like a slam dunk, right?

But as the story reports, Gov. Paul LePage's administration -- which has consistently opposed product stewardship efforts in the past -- is opposing it.

Noticed the print edition cut some material for space, including quotes from Curtis Picard, who heads the Maine Retailers' Association, which also opposes the bill.

Confusion remains following Governor's decision on Maine's "laptops in schools" contract

On Saturday afternoon, Gov. Paul LePage announced his long-delayed decision on which of five technology packages would be awarded the new contract for Maine's "laptops in schools" program, the oldest 1:1 school computer program in the nation.

LePage picked a proposal built around Windows-based HP laptops over a lower-priced iPad tablet package that had received much higher scores from proposal reviewers. But the governor said schools which preferred to stick with the Apple technologies they've used to date -- adopting either the iPad or another proposal based on MacBooks -- could do so.

But at what price? As my story in today's Portland Press Herald relates, nobody is yet certain of the answer.

Speaking on American Nations, Rockport, Maine, May 3

Speaking on American Nations: For residents in the Penobscot Bay region of Maine, I'll be giving a talk on the issues raised in American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America at the Samoset in Rockport on May 3.

It's for the spring luncheon of the Coastal Senior College of  University College Rockland, which is open to the public. Tickets are $25 for non-members and reservations have to be made by April 29. Details at their website.

My next scheduled, public talk on American Nations in Maine is June 26th at the Maine Audubon Society in Falmouth.

Delays for Maine laptop program: Also, in an unrelated development, I report in today's Portland Press Herald on how Maine's delay in naming the winner of the renewed "laptops in schools" contract is causing anxiety and consternation for the state's school districts. 

I last wrote on the laptop program last month, when the program's director was found to have not been storing his electronic correspondence on state servers..... for a decade.