Author: Ted Cohen

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…