8 Miles Apart: A Look Inside School Consolidation for the Katahdin Region

Submitted by Around Town Web... on Tuesday, April 30th, 8:06 pm

EAST MILLINOCKET, Maine (NEWS CENTER) --- Consolidation between schools here and ones in the Millinocket school district has been a topic of discussion for years. Now with Schenck High School needing slightly more than $2 million in repairs, the issue is once again in the public eye.

This week school leaders in town will once again decide whether to ask voters to back a bond. East Millinocket school superintendent Quenten Clark says roughly $2.1 million is necessary to fix the roof at the high school as well as fix the gymnasium floor at Schenck and make the building more accessible for children with disabilities.

"I wouldn't say that this particular stuff that they're asking voters to vote on is a wish list," Clark said in an interview with NEWS CENTER in early March, "keeping a roof intact if you're going to keep a school here is pretty fundamental to the thing so I don't believe that the current proposal is a wish list at all."

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First Wind tries again for Bowers Mountain

Submitted by Around Town Web... on Tuesday, April 30th, 7:26 pm

LEE, Maine (NEWS CENTER)-- First Wind is hoping for a second chance at developing a wind farm near Lee. The company has resubmitted an application to place sixteen turbines on top of Bowers Mountain. First Wind retracted the original proposal in 2011 after facing tough opposition.

Vice President of Development for First Wind Matt Kearns said, "What we really focused on with this application is making a smaller, better project that's responsive to some of the issues that were raised by the folks."

Tuesday the Maine Department of Environmental Protection began a two-day public hearing on the project. Members and supporters of First Wind will submit the new proposal and those opposing the wind farm will have the opportunity to ask questions and express concerns.

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Movies: "The Company You Keep"

Submitted by Peter Weyl, Movie Blogger

Monday, April 29th, 2013, 9:18am

As our nation tries to understand a new episode of domestic terrorism, here’s a movie that looks back at another time of terror attacks, by the Weather Underground during the Vietnam War era of the 1970s.

Although it begins with TV clips of the upheaval that accompanied that unpopular war, “The Company You Keep” is set in the present. It begins when one of the participants (Susan Sarandon) in a Weather Underground bank heist that left a guard dead decides to turn herself in thirty years after the fact.

Thanks to the work of Ben Shepard (Shia LaBoeuf), an energetic but narcissistic young reporter for an Albany, NY newspaper, Sarandon’s character is quickly linked to some other Albany lo

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A First Foray into Fermented Foods

Submitted by The Page Turner, Community Blogger

Saturday, April 27th, 2013, 3:39pm

What do sauerkraut, pickled eggs, and yogurt have in common? A lot more than you might think!

I learn the coolest stuff from the "New Book Shelf" at the library. I pick up books that pique my fancy, but that I would likely never go on the hunt for.

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DNA Profiling. Not the Criminal Kind

Submitted by Diane Atwood, Freelance Writer and Blogger

Saturday, April 27th, 2013, 10:18am

You know how law enforcement agencies often use a database of DNA profiles to identify crime suspects? Well, scientists are also building a DNA database of all the different species of plants and animals around the world. If you’re interested, you might be able to help them out this summer — and get to spend some time in beautiful Bar Harbor, Maine. Read more.

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A Morning with Google: The Scoop

Submitted by mmullen, Community Web Producer

Saturday, April 27th, 2013, 5:06am

It’s not often that you get to see a real Google big wig in the flesh – much less, here in Portland, Maine. Earlier this month we had the pleasure of meeting and gaining a few pearls of wisdom (and hints of what’s to come) from Steve Arthur, Google’s Head of Industry: Retail at the Ad Club of Maine’s Google This! event.

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Debate heating up over whether forest rangers should carry guns

Submitted by Around Town Web... on Friday, April 26th, 7:03 pm

BROWNVILLE, Maine (NEWS CENTER) --- Police officers and game wardens carry guns in Maine. Now the question is should forest rangers be allowed to as well.

A bill being considered in Augusta would lift long-standing restrictions on rangers having firearms while on duty. Some officials with the Maine Forest Service say they would feel safer if they were armed while patrolling the woods.

Gary Cook is one ranger whose been working in Maine for decades. He says he's responded to some situations in the woods that were hair raising. In one case he says a suspect pulled a gun on him and a state trooper.

"There's only two groups of people in Maine that can't possess a firearm by law...and that's felons and forest rangers. To me that's unacceptable," he said.

If passed into law LD 297 would allow rangers to carry guns. It would also mandate that they go through training on how to use them.

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