THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2011
VOL. 2 NO. 239
PORTLAND, ME
PORTLAND’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
699-5801
FREE
High-speed pursuit spurs police review BY DAVID CARKHUFF THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
As Maine State Police conduct routine reviews of a high-speed chase on Interstate 295 in Scarborough Sunday night, the chairman of Portland’s Public Safety Committee is encouraging state lawmakers to pass stronger penalities for fleeing from law enforcement. The Sunday night chase ended in a collision with a vehicle carrying children, and the arrest of a flee-
ing suspect. Portland Police reported their own incident involving a fleeing driver on Sunday night, but under the city’s policy, officers in this instance did not pursue the driver who had run a stop sign. The suspect in the city case also crashed his vehicle into a building before escaping on foot. Police say they are continuing to investigate the car’s ownership and who may have been driving. Councilor Ed Suslovic, chair of Portland’s Public
Safety Committee, said he’s satisfied with Portland Police Department’s protocol for dealing with fleeing motorists, but adds that state laws could be stronger. “I am aware that the police department has a pretty strict policy, I’ve done a lot of ride-alongs with police officers and I’ve talked about it informally,” he said. “The nature of the streets in Portland is that high-speed chases would be highly dangerous to all involved.”
Creative group fumes over lost $50,000 grant
see PURSUIT page 9
Poets protest as LePage is inaugurated BY DAVID CARKHUFF THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
BY MATT DODGE THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
Members of a city-sponsored arts advocacy group are voicing their disappointment after the Maine Arts Commission rejected a grant request despite helping craft the funding application. Creative Portland had applied for the $50,000 Creative Communities = Economic Development (CCED) and submitted its final application for the grant in September. The initial Creative Portland’s draft proposal was sent back to the drawing board after MAC officials indicated that chances at receiving money would be hampered if the request failed to include the East Bayside Neighborhood Organizations (EBNO) — which also applied independently, but was quickly rejected. The joint proposal between the two organizations combined Creative Portland’s initial focus on its LiveWork Portland website with promoting East Bayside’s use as an arts community within Portland. But despite feedback on the various incarnations of the new proposal from MAC executive director Donna McNeil, the joint Creative Portland EBNO project did not receive the funding. The $50,000 MAC grants were instead awarded to arts organizations in Biddeford and Eastport to boost those communities’ creative economies and will go toward revitalizing the town’s downtown arts districts and developing affordable living and working spaces for the region’s artists. At their regular meeting Wednesday, Creative Portland board members voiced their frustrations.
Betsy Sholl, Poet Laureate of Maine, reads to a crowd in Longfellow Square under the city’s statue to poet Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow Wednesday as part of a protest of the lack of a poetry reading at Gov. Paul LePage’s inauguration. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO)
As Republican governor-elect Paul LePage took the oath of office in Augusta yesterday, poets and other supporters of the arts gathered under the statue of Henry Wadsworth–Longfellow in Portland and protested the lack of a poetry reading at LePage’s inauguration. “This lack of acknowledgement is especially evident here today as our new governor takes office but doesn’t benLePage efit from the inaugural poem,” said Steve Luttrell, who, in 2009, was named Poet Laureate of Portland. “This is quite ironic as one of the most celebrated aspects of Maine’s heritage has been its poetic legacy, in the names of Henry Wadsworth–Longfellow of Portland, Ewin Arlington Robinson of Gardiner and Edna St. Vincent Millay of Camden, to name a few.” Cheered by about 50 people in Longfellow Square, Luttrell
see GRANT page 12
see POETS page 8
Open for business, Gov. LePage?
As Sudan divides, a prospect for peace
Learn to cross country ski or snowshoe on Winter Trails Day
See Bob Higgins on page 4
See Austin Bay’s column on page 4
See the story in Sports, page 6