Current Events

David Bacon, an advocate on issues related to globalization, is giving a talk at USM's Portland campus today on Maine's place in the immigration debate.

His talk, titled “Xenophobia: Maine’s and the United States; Greatest Contemporary Race Issue,” is happening from 9:30-11am at the Glickman Library, 7th Floor Event room.

“The same factors that are causing massive lay-offs here in Maine have created economic refugees from Mexico and Central America to migrate in order to earn a living for their families,” according to event organizer Daphne Loring of the Maine Fair Trade Campaign.

A photo-journalist by trade, he recently au....

Mainers headed to the ballot box on November 3, 2009 to vote on a variety of proposals bound to affect our economy and culture. Here are the results, with most precincts reporting:

Question 1 - Same-Sex Marriage: "Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?" Yes

Question 2 - Motor Vehicle Excise Tax: "Do you want to cut the rate of the municipal excise tax by an average of 55% on motor vehicles less than six years old and exempt hybrid and other alternative-energy and highly fuel-efficient motor vehicles from sales tax and three y....

The recent public debate spawned by the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has proven to be a fascinating litmus test for the current state of race relations in what, after Barack Obama's improbable election, has been celebrated as a "post-racial country." This fallacy of post-racialism has been encouraged by Obama himself who insisted that he would be a post-racial president who would represent all Americans. That Obama's own loyalties were even questioned was an indication that this country still has anxieties toward powerful people of color, a point further evidenced by the furor sorrounding Sonia Sotomayor's infamous "wise Latin....

Today marks Maine astronaut Chris Cassidy's final spacewalk, the fifth of the shuttle Endeavour's current mission at the international space station, according to WMTW.

Cassidy and Thomas Marshburn will rearrange some power cable hookups, fold down a piece of popped-up insulation on a small robot arm install TV cameras on the porch of the new Japanese lab on the international space station.

NASA will be watching for possible carbon dioxide buildup in the astronauts' space suits during the walk.

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The world's oldest man, Henry Allingham, died last Saturday at the age of 113. He devoted his last years in London to reminding his country about the patriotism of 9 million soldiers killed in World War I. The Associated Press commemorated Allingham on Sunday.

Allingham was the last surviving original member of the Royal Air Force, which was formed in 1918. He made it a personal crusade to talk about a conflict that wiped out much of a generation. Though nearly blind, he would take the outstretched hands of visitors in both of his, gaze into the ey....

A fundraising group that seeks to overturn same-sex marriage legislation passed in May has raised $365,000 in preparation for a November statewide vote.

As reported in a previous Exception article, almost immediately after Maine's Governor John Baldacci signed the same-sex marriage bill into law in May, gay marriage foes filed a citizen's petition to put the issue to a public ref....

Jane Weinberger, a beloved writer and publisher of children’s stories and wife of the late Defense secretary Caspar Weinberger, has passed away at 91.

Mrs. Weinberger struggled health-wise after suffering a massive stroke last week, her son Caspar Jr told reporters. She died Sunday night at a nursing care center in Bar Harbor. The care center was very close to the family’s home in Somesville, known by most as the Windswept House.

“My mother was a wonderful woman who helped her family hold together and prosper often under the most trying condi....

Despair hit Maine this weekend as clam flats were closed due to red tide.

But clam lovers have no need to worry. The Yarmouth Clam Festival is still scheduled for the end of this week and there will certainly be enough clams. Festival organizers say clams were already flash frozen and stored for the festival. Without planning ahead, the organizers say it is almost impossible to feed the festival’s hundred thousand visitors. More than 6,000 pounds of clams will likely be consumed!

The

Today's top headlines from sources across Maine.

Gay marriage opponents say they have enough signatures to force November vote. [MPBN]

Red tide forces widespread closures in Maine. [WBZ]

Anthem change frustrates Maine pharmacists. [BDN]

FEMA trailers for sale at Auburn Mall. [

This year the Yarmouth Clam Festival, July 17-19, is going green. In pursuit of an environmentally friendly event, the organizers say the vegetable oil used to fry clams will be recycled and converted into alternative fuel for diesel engines.

The Forecaster reports there will also be additional recycling and trash bins provided, event vendors will donate their used oil to a South Berwick engineering consulting firm, and Sysco will provide recycled napkins, one-at-a-time napkin dispensers, and fiber trays for the food vendors. Yarmouth’s recycling ma....