Author: Ted Cohen

A Maine “journalist” who says he “goes places – and tells stories – that other media won’t” also does something other media don’t – gives away free pot. Now there’s journalism we can get behind! Or heck, get high on. That Crash Barry, he’s a Cracker Jack! Seems Barry, who prides himself on journalistic independence, decided one way to increase his numbers – or “hits,” so to speak – is giving away, well, hits. To wit, Crash announced on his Facebook page that he’s awarded his latest freebies to a guy named Noel Kirwan, who bills himself on Facebook as…

If the Portland Press Herald could credibly blame the vice president of the United States for banning adults from a Maine children’s museum then sugar-plum fairies would be real. Well, sugar-plum fairies are real, judging from a new line of attack on Republican J.D. Vance from your favorite losepaper. And, to quote Jerry Seinfeld, “not there’s anything wrong with sugar-plum fairies..” The paper’s newest culture columnist had to pick a foil to complain about the Children’s Museum of Maine’s policy denying entry to adults not accompanied by children. After all, if you’re going to pick a nonsensical fight with a…

The new-and-improved versions of what was always basic journalism are now on sale at your favorite local constabularies. The Bangor Daily Snooze just announced a new, crack team of journalists to … cover the news. Ayuh. Bangor’s crack at breaking news comes in the wake – no pun intended – of a similar creation at the Portland Press Herald. So rest easy – northern and southern Maine’s muckrakers have you covered. But with what, exactly, is the real question? Bangor published a piece saying that it’s forming a search-and-destroy team comprised of staffers Michael Shepherd and Callie Ferguson. “We’re so…

(Promo from The Blair Witch Project)

The Maine state GOP lawmaker who got officially silenced by Democrats for defending girls’ high-school sports is now fighting her own party’s attempts to clamp down on chickens, she said on Thursday. “A fellow Mainer just alerted me to LD 1655, a bill that would regulate how many chickens you can own, the space required in and out of a coop per chicken… right down to ‘a door with a latch,’” Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) told her Facebook followers. “Micromanaging much???” she asked. “Extra dumbfounding, it’s a Republican bill. Democrats know better than to get between a Mainer and their…

The Maine native who made a cottage industry out of poking fun at downeasters is about to have the last laugh – on us. Now 74, humorist legend Tim Sample is preparing to step from the stage for good, with his final performance set for June. Sample, who, yes, was actually born in Maine – Fort Fairfield – started telling jokes in the sixth grade. That was his first paying gig. Seriously. “The kids threw coins at me,” Sample told NewsCenter Maine’s Rob Caldwell, veteran host of the station’s news magazine, “207.” Sample explained that his knack for humor way…

A reclusive Swiss liberal billionaire whose cash helped buy Maine’s largest paper is now being targeted by several states over his alleged foreign financial influence on their elections. The secretive Hansjorg Wyss created “dark money” nonprofits, seemingly to skirt the U.S. prohibition on foreign nationals influencing the ballot box, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation. [RELATED: Mysterious Swiss Billionaire Spent $800 Million Bankrolling Left-Wing Causes, States Say No More] So far so good, maybe – unless you don’t mind a guy whose sister once wrote that he’s trying to “(re)interpret the American Constitution in the light of progressive politics”…

The attempt by an out-of-state dreamer to start a new version of Maine’s once-popular liberal weekly has apparently gone up in smoke. “This fundraiser is no longer accepting donations,” David Lide announced on his GoFundMe campaign page. Lide had tried to relaunch the former weekly newspaper by incorporating the venture not in Maine but in tax-friendly Delaware. He was, by all accounts, doing so to avoid the high-tax rates in the Pine Tree State. So he was planning to run his Maine newspaper out of Delaware. What could possibly go wrong? Though Lide had claimed he expected to raise $100,000…

The “non-profit” group running Maine’s largest newspaper is refusing to disclose the salary of the new CEO, amid executive-compensation issues that have nagged at the company. The National Trust for Local News announced it’s hired a new CEO to replace the former trust boss who quit in the wake of questions about her huge salary raises. But the new CEO, Tom Wiley, wouldn’t even discuss his salary with the paper that he is now overseeing. Can’t make it up, as we say in the trade. But not surprising given the controversial history of high salaries at the non-profit company. The…

A group of renegades from Maine’s upper reaches tired of liberal Gov. Janet Mills (D) are forming their own faction to split from the southern realms of the state and form their own with the name “North Maine.” But as serious as they seem to be, they’re up against a national history that is not comfortable with secession – even in Maine, the state being one of only three nationwide that declared its own independence in 1820. Separation from a state is as hard or harder than municipal secession, though the legislative process is similar. “The people of Aroostook County…

When anti-Trump Maine businesses called a news conference recently to lobby against the administration’s proposed and imposed tariffs, the fawning legacy media couldn’t set up their cameras and mics quickly enough. Predictably, the news coverage was one-sided, as so-called journalists failed to so much as even ask for an opposing view. The most obvious – and egregious – offender was the state’s largest newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, which made no effort whatsoever at seeking balance. The moral to the story is that going against Trump is good for Maine business, tariffs or no tariffs, including for the newspaper in…

A new “Maine” paper claiming the name of an oldie but a goodie has announced its creation – as a Delaware corporation. The who, what, why, when and where behind the revived Maine Times and its stated mission of “high-impact journalism” from Delaware is a definite head scratcher. The new corporation filed March 28 in tax-friendly Delaware, doing business as Maine Times. If the name rings a bell, the original Maine Times launched in Topsham on October 4, 1968, eventually becoming the state’s leading liberal “alternative” publication. The weekly paper, which through its rocky history closed several times amid scant…

When Joe Biden’s would-be successor’s campaign was tanking, the now-retiree came up with a plan he thought would help rescue it – a pickleball call to arms in northern New England. “No joke” Joe couldn’t scrape up enough wrinkled Democrat retirees from the pickleball courts in the two oldest-demographic states – Maine and New Hampshire – to get him reelected. But in working-class Kittery it doesn’t take many pickleballers to keep a third-shift hospital worker awake. She’s hired a lawyer to force a solution. The net effect of a potential lawsuit has prompted municipal officials to hire a noise engineer…

Nearly two years after the mast of an historic excursion vessel splintered and fell onto the deck, killing a woman aboard the schooner Grace Bailey off the Maine coast, the chastened Coast Guard claims to have no clue how it happened. The guard, distracted by bureaucratic feuding, is refusing to release any information about the 2023 boating tragedy that occurred off the coast of Rockland. The agency’s Biden appointees are on a work slowdown designed to embarrass Trump because he recently fired their DEI-obsessed commander. Caught up in the maelstrom is the family of Emily Mecklenburg, 40, a Rockport physician…

The liberal political preferences of a Portland Press Herald writer later credited with Angus King’s political fortunes have finally been acknowledged. But Democrat Dennis Bailey, according to veteran Maine political analyst Al Diamon, has now been relegated to writing a Portuguese travel guide. Bailey is just the latest legacy reporter to be exposed – a liberal masquerading as a so-called journalist-turned political consultant. Twice now in less than a week, two enlistees of Maine’s largest paper have come out of the closet, openly acknowledging what we’ve suspected all along – they were card-carrying Democrat liberals pretending to be fair-minded reporters.…

If Maine’s largest newspaper company had previously tried to mask its Democrat leanings, it has now dropped all semblance of balance. Steve Collins, who has been a statehouse reporter, announced he’s now wearing a new title – political columnist. “Since I’ll be writing a fair amount about state and local politics in this new role, I should tell you up front that I’ve been a Democrat since day one,” Collins proudly boasted. Collins covered Maine politics for years and just now confesses his political orientation? Like, stop the presses: Wow! How could the executive editor be so politically tone deaf?…

A female surgeon who proudly helped shatter the military glass ceiling did so while surreptitiously closeting gay women such as herself. But that concealed part of the Owls Head physician’s life is conveniently missing from a whitewashed new Smithsonian magazine takeout on the “progressive” medical doctor. The real tale of Barbara Stimson M.D., the “brave” woman who convinced military brass that women could turn a scalpel, too, is shrouded in the latest issue of Smithsonian. Stimson’s so-called public women’s crusade began after France fell to the Nazis in 1940 when she answered the call from Great Britain’s Royal Army appeal…

A state senator apparently forgot to stop, look and listen before trying to name a Maine railroad crossing for a Florida tourist with no local ties. Locals in the picturesque coastal village of Wiscasset can’t figure out what Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, was thinking. Or, more to the point, why she sprung it on them with no warning. At a recent hearing they questioned why Ross would name a crossing for someone from Florida with no connection to Maine. Sen. Talbot Ross claims that James Weldon Johnson, whom she described as a civil-rights advocate, deserves his memory to be honored…

Plot : Star of “The Blair Witch Project” retires from acting, moves to small town in Maine, gets elected to municipal governing board. Fact or fiction? Fact. A year later, Heather Donahue faces ouster from town office after allegedly vandalizing private property. True or false? True. Donahue, who since 2022 has lived in Freedom, Maine is embroiled in a legal battle over whether a local road is private or public. The retired horror-movie star, an avid hiker and snowshoer, said she moved to the area because trails were an important feature to her. But others on Beaver Ridge Road say…

The question now isn’t whether President Trump will ever invite the country’s top judge to his Mar-A-Lago hideout for a round of golf. Now it’s whether the chief U.S. Supreme Court justice will ever invite the president to his Maine vacation home for a round of lobster. Make that homes – plural. The Chief Justice, John Roberts, who owns not one but two summer vacation homes in St. George, Maine, lectured Trump on Tuesday after the President criticized a federal judge who tried to stop his deportation of Venezuelan immigrants. It’s the second time that the powerful, part-time Maine resident…

A midcoast Maine homeowner who was annoyed his neighbor’s trees were ruining his harbor view may have found a solution – pesticide. State officials suspect a Rockport man drilled holes in the trees outside Ruth Graham’s $2.8 million Mechanic Street house and injected them with poison. Stephen Antonson, who owns a house next door to Graham, had previously asked her to trim her trees. Barring that, he wanted to buy a sliver of her property so he could chop down the trees to improve his view of the harbor, authorities said. Graham was interested in neither trimming nor selling. Not…

The third rail of life in summertime Maine – competition for limited beach parking – is heating up in one of the state’s southernmost coastal towns. Wells town officials are actually considering reducing the numbers of beach permits taxpayers can get to park in the eight oceanfront municipal lots. The officials are even thinking about telling veterans that if they don’t have a veteran plate on their cars, no more reserved beach spaces for them. If you think these tourist-driven plans won’t send the restless natives in Maine’s third-oldest town to the streets, hold on to your flip-flops: The town…

The appearance of Maine’s top lobstering official at New England’s largest fishing convention has gone largely unnoticed for 49 years – until this year. When the Maine Fishermen’s Forum celebrates its jubilee 50th year as the northeast’s biggest fishing gathering this week in Rockport on Thursday, all eyes will be on Patrick Keliher. As the state’s outgoing commissioner of marine resources, Keliher “will provide an update on potential regulation changes in the industry,” the forum announced. But as he does so, Keliher will be making his final marquee public appearance at the convention just 13 days before he leaves office…

When your city has a “sustainability director” on the payroll, you can only guess what comes next. How about a ban on gas leaf blowers? In this case, it was South Portland, Maine, where a taxpayer backlash to the proposal finally killed it. In the face of widespread resident opposition, the council reversed its planned ban on blowers. But councilors said the public parks department will have to phase out its gas blowers. So Nanny lives. “Our leaders aren’t the least bit concerned about reducing spending, cutting taxes, or generating revenue, but instead, gas leaf blowers,” Bud Munson of South…

When was the last time in modern history that a college student felt any sense of guilt for snatching utensils from a dining hall? Like, maybe never. So now that the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor has decided to ban plastic in the student dining halls, it has a fresh problem to cope with—policing the theft of the new stainless steel takeout containers. As the original TV princess of darkness, Saturday Night Live’s Roseanne Roseannadanna famously proclaimed, “It just goes to show ya, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.” But not to worry, says the student environmentalist…

A Canadian family that was planning its annual foray to the Maine Moxie Festival is canceling, blaming President Trump. Conrad Gregoire of Kanata, Ontario, said his family of 12 is sick and tired of Trump calling Canada the 51st state. Loyal Maine defenders had a quick retort. “Just a spoiled lefty,” said Facebooker Mathew Field. “That’s not how most Canadians feel.” Jared Levesque of Jay called Gregoire’s whining “ridiculous.” The Gregoire family was hoping to go to the popular yearly Moxie festival in Lisbon, Maine, but it’s pulled the plug out of Trump pique. “Our prime minister went to Mar-a-Lago…

The privileged son of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow came to Maine to blame cable news, Facebook and X for ruining journalism. The question is whether Ronan Farrow, who spewed his charges during an appearance at Bowdoin College, spares any media outlet from his diatribe. Farrow, on a tour selling his latest anti-Trump writings, also complained that cable news – which actually gave his career a jumpstart years ago – is trying to divide America. He called cable news a “failed experiment.” “The bold descent into partisan opinion journalism dominating cable over recent decades has eroded a lot of the…

The popular old David Letterman gag “Will It Sink or Will It Float?” could use an abandoned Arrowsic boat as a case study. The derelict vessel in this case ain’t floating – it’s up to its gunwales in frigid, icy sea water. In fact, it’s not only sunken, but it’s angering neighbors who consider it an eyesore and environmental risk. “That boat has been there for a couple weeks,” longtime local Arrowsic riverfront taxpayer Bob Caton told The Maine Wire. “I can’t believe they can just leave it there.” “At some point it will float down the river and become…

A York woman has proven that even liberals sometimes have a sense of humor. Wendy Werner just became a finalist in the weekly New Yorker magazine’s cartoon-caption contest. What? The New Yorker has a sense of humor? Allegedly. At least when it comes to poking fun at the way hard-working working Americans carry themselves. “I’m leaving you for everyone else” is the caption that Werner submitted to go along with a sketch of a woman walking out the door of her house into the face of a human-sized cell phone as her husband stands at the door with a long…

If you thought it couldn’t get any more insane at the Portland Press Herald, consider this: the publisher canceled the e-editions due to an impending snowstorm. Quick question – since when did snowy roads prevent the internet from being in business? Quick answer – they didn’t. But that didn’t stop the publisher from putting out this message over the weekend to however few subscribers are still left: “Hello reader, Due to the expected winter storm this weekend, the Saturday edition and Maine Sunday Telegram will be combined and delivered on Saturday. “There will be no print or ePaper editions on…

University of Southern Maine wants to make sure that new students are comfortable in their space or else it might just lose enrollment. (After all how can you really achieve academic excellence if you are not comfortable in your space?) So school officials are trying to find a contractor to provide a “virtual viewing system” that will let freshmen see their dorm rooms to make sure they’re comfortable with them before they sign up. “A virtual room viewing platform enables students to see their space prior to arrival on campus,” the school’s bid request states. USM is just one of…

Hedge fund tycoon S. Donald Sussman – who once took an ownership stake in the ailing Portland Press Herald – wants government approval to put a seawall up along the shore of his $2.5 million Deer Isle estate. Sussman, 78, one of the two ex-husbands of Maine First District Democrat U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, has owned the pricey Hancock County property since 1994. He lent the state’s largest newspaper $3.5 million in 2012 to keep it from going in the tank and then became a majority owner. State records disclose that Sussman wants permission to build a 320-foot seawall -…

Two people are dead after a tractor-trailer crashed through a median and hit two vehicles on the Maine Turnpike in Ogunquit early on Thursday. Xiaoying Ma, 35, of New York City was driving a tractor-trailer north on Interstate 95, near mile marker 14, at about 6:05 a.m. when he lost control and crashed through the median guardrail onto the southbound side of the highway, where his truck struck two vehicles, according to Shannon Moss, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety. Ma first hit a Cadillac sedan driven by 64-year-old Linda Huelsman of Kennebunk and then a Mack…

Just when you thought all hope for real-time media watchdogging was lost comes a blog devoted to Portland Press Herald shenanigans. The newly unveiled Reddit social-media site features all things screwy at the Maine Trust for Local Snooze. https://www.reddit.com/r/PortlandPressHerald/s/9o2TsJNj1Q When The Maine Wire’s Edward Tomic exposed the trust’s cozy relationship with a drug-trafficking suspect, the Reddit watchdog realized it had found a delicious meaty bone. https://www.reddit.com/r/PortlandPressHerald/s/kK8QBy36d7 So have no fear Reddit’s Press Herald watchdog is near. Tired of the state’s largest newspaper hierarchy spewing pablum? Perish your skepticism. https://www.reddit.com/r/PortlandPressHerald/s/UlcEzrgDAl See you there. Have no fear, the blog dog is here!…

A shortage of regional emergency dispatchers has triggered a personnel crisis for coordination first responders in at least one county along Maine’s midcoast region. It’s gotten so bad that some deputy sheriffs are being forced off the road to instead sit behind the otherwise-vacant radio desk. The biggest community in Knox County, Rockland, has gotten so tired of the lack of county radio service it’s come up with a plan that sounds like the old days – its own, locally-run dispatch desk. The onset of the 21st century across the country triggered a newfangled regional approach to police, fire and…

If you think it’s hard running Maine’s biggest embattled newspaper chain, try doing it while you’re also flipping two eggs over easy with an order of toast. That’s the plight of Stefanie Manning, who took over just weeks ago as the top manager of the Portland Press Herald in the wake of the resignation of the paper’s CEO, and who also has a side hustle owning a breakfast diner Manning takes the reins even as the paper is suffering a flood of executive resignations, as well as staff and budget cuts. Not to worry. The mainstream media, aka The Boston…

Fifty years ago, the freshman town manager of Old Orchard Beach angered a state official over the way he was managing a government handout of job-creation money. When a reporter quizzed Jerome Plante about the controversy he wasn’t just mad. He was hurt. How dare you? “I thought you were on my side,” Plante said matter-of-factly. That was Jerome G. Plante, a true Maine original who lived a hardscrabble life as a kid but never lost the twinkle in his eyes as a grown man. Plante was bilingual. He was able to banter in French with not only the local…

Southern Maine residents tired of getting woken up by trash haulers clanking dumpsters may finally get some sleep soon, at least in one town. A new noise law on the Feb. 11 Kennebunk town-meeting ballot would forbid emptying trash bins during the night. The noise ordinance does have some exceptions, but there’s no sympathy for trash collectors. Church bells, for instance, would generally be exempt for religious services as long as they don’t sound for longer than a half hour. Maine noise ordinances run the gamut. Cumberland, Rangeley, Oakland, Old Orchard Beach, Augusta and Portland all have different ones, depending…

A well-connected New England media analyst says he’s “heard from serious people that substantial cuts may be coming” to the company running Maine’s biggest newspaper chain. Dan Kennedy, who teaches journalism at Northeastern University in Boston, is self-admittedly close to the power structure of the “non-profit” Maine Trust for Local News. Kennedy even acknowledged being invited to a trust fund-raising blitz that featured a book he and his partner were selling. So he’s pretty cozy with his sources, including Lisa DeSisto, the woman he calls his “professional friend” who late last year suddenly quit as the trust’s CEO. Kennedy, who…

A Maine man who wanted to be buried in the town cemetery but was told there was no more room figured there was only one option – buy the damn thing. But Lawrence Butler had no idea what kind of a backlash he would face in the town of Thomaston when he tried to – yes – buy Butler Cemetery to make room for himself when his day comes. Even though many of Butler’s relatives are buried there, the cemetery is actually owned by the town. So, when town officials told Butler it was closed to further burials, he decided…

A wealthy Maine philanthropist who quietly used his access and money to promote social good is being remembered by the region’s largest transportation museum. James S. Rockefeller Jr., 99, who founded the Owls Head Transportation Museum 50 years ago, died recently at his Camden home. As the museum celebrates a half-century in operation, it’s honoring Rockefeller, the famous-named New Yorker who’d adopted Maine as his home. Rockefeller donated his name, time and money to help put the antique-plane-and-car museum near his home on the map. “Jim’s involvement was very significant during the early years, from procuring the land to interactions…

The Portland International Jetport has been ordered to stop cutting trees near the runways until authorities can determine whether the project went too far. Neighbors sounded their vehement opposition to the tree-cutting before city councilors, arguing that the airport had no right to cut down so many trees, which happen to be home to local amphibians and birds. Kevin Muse who lives near the trees being cut said he was shocked at what he saw. Muse compared the tree clearing to waking up and suddenly realizing his house had been bulldozed. “There was zero notice,” he told city councilors. Critics…

The Maine Trust for Local News, already reeling from a string of executive resignations, is now losing the publisher of one of its largest papers. Jody Jalbert, publisher of the Lewiston Sun Journal and the Maine Trust for Local News Community News Division, said she is stepping down. A 36-year-veteran of the newspaper, including the last three years as publisher, Jalbert announced the news to her colleagues on Tuesday. Jalbert’s unexpected resignation comes on the heels of Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro vacating her position as CEO of the parent National Trust for Local News. The trust bought the Portland Press Herald,…

Lift tickets are already expensive, but they just got a lot more so for a man who thought he was getting them for free. Skiing at Sugarloaf just cost a Massachusetts public worker $6,000. Scott Callahan, a foreman for the Auburn, Massachusetts Water District, violated conflict-of-interest laws by accepting freebie ski trips to Maine from a company that sells water meters to the town, authorities said. The Massachusetts Ethics Commission ordered Callahan to pay $6,000 in civil penalties for going on ski junkets that the meter manufacturer and distributor paid for. In his own defense, Callahan said he believes the…

A contractor who’s suffered lengthy zoning delays on a $15 million Portland-area project is now wondering whether it’ll ever get off the ground. The Cape Elizabeth council will vote Feb. 10 whether to allow zoning amendments paving the way for Center Court, a 33-unit, senior-housing development. Bob Gaudreau of Hardypond Construction said he may never recoup the investment he’s made in the protracted project, even if it goes forward. “This will be my last development,” he said. “Just getting too old to take this type of risk anymore.” The zoning amendments up for a vote next week would allow greater…

A string of crises facing Kennebunk schools reached a new nadir with embezzlement charges against a newly appointed drama teacher. Holly Fougere was arrested Thursday – just four days after being hired. The school board had appointed Fougere to succeed Dennis St. Pierre, former Kennebunk High School theater director. But just four days after she got the job cops grabbed Fougere – in Conway, New Hampshire – allegedly for stealing money from a Conway high school arts department. The drama following Fougere’s hiring is just the latest challenge plaguing schools in pricey Kennebunk, an oceanfront town that ranks in the…

A Yarmouth teenager who was mowed down and killed by a drunk driver more than 30 years ago is about to have her memory honored anew with an updated public walkway bearing her name. Work is expected to begin soon to expand the Beth Condon Memorial Pathway in Yarmouth, state transportation officials said. Before doing so, they are seeking comment from area residents as to whether the project would create to possible encroachments onto historic properties. 15-year-old Yarmouth High School sophomore Elizabeth Condon was killed by drunk driver Martha Burke in 1993 as she walked along U.S. Route 1 with…

Delinquent Maine property taxpayers just got a gift from the newly elected Democrat state treasurer. But guess who has to pick up the slack… Joe Perry of Bangor, who last month was a successful dark-horse candidate for the state money manager’s job, decided his first big act would be lowering the interest rate charged on late property taxes a full point, to 7.5 percent, from the previous 8.5 percent. That effectively means a tax increase for property owners who pay their taxes when they’re due. Municipalities rely largely on the property tax to finance taxpayer services. So when one taxpayer…

The co-founder of the National Trust for Local News, the “nonprofit” owner of Maine’s largest newspaper chain, who quit on Wednesday, had been under fire for taking huge salary increases amid budget cuts. As The Maine Wire reported a month ago, Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro has been under fire for grabbing massive pay hikes even as she was cutting the budget for the newspapers she just bought. Shapiro conveniently ignored the issue of her controversial salary hike in her rehearsed resignation statement. “We have built something extraordinary together, she said. “I am deeply grateful to our team.” The trust bought the Portland…

A columnist who’s among several ousted by Maine’s largest daily paper fears that the next shoe to drop may be the staff writers. “I share the worry of many that layoffs of staff writers could be next,” said Avery Yale Kamila, the first ousted freelance columnist to break her silence. Make no mistake, Kamila says – the part-time writers who recently got the boot by the National Trust for Local News did not quit – they were fired. “It was not my choice to end my column,” she said. “Rather, it was the paper’s decision, which I was told was…

If the crash Wednesday night of a plane into the Potomac River is reminiscent to Mainers, it’s for good reason. A Cape Elizabeth woman was one of five survivors of the last plane to slam into the Potomac in 1982. Priscilla Tirado was on Air Florida Flight 90 with her husband and her baby when it crashed into the icy river Jan. 13, 1982. When Tirado lost her grip on a life ring, she was rescued by Lenny Skutnik, an employee of the Congressional Budget Office, who jumped into the river from a nearby bridge and grabbed her as she…