The Portland Daily Sun, Thursday, December 31, 2010

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2010

VOL. 2 NO. 234

PORTLAND, ME

PORTLAND’S DAILY NEWSPAPER

699-5801

FREE

Five Guys franchise to open in Old Port

Free-heeling competition

BY BOB HIGGINS THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

Reigning U.S. cross country champion Simi Hamilton hopes to retain his crown during the races at Black Mountain of Maine in Rumford.

For a feature on the U.S. Cross Country Championships in Rumford, see page 12. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Ski Team)

Portland’s Old Port is getting a new burger joint, but not just any burger joint.

Legendary franchise “Five Guys Burgers And Fries” is planning to open its first Maine location at 425 Fore St., site of the former “Moon” nightclub, and is getting a social media reaction similar to when Trader Joe’s announced the opening of a Marginal Way location.

“It’s kind of the Trader Joe’s of burgers,” said one fan.

Molly Catalano, a Five Guys spokesperson in the company’s Virginia headquarters, confirmed the plans and location.

“We know that the franchise rights have been sold, and that a lease has been signed for the property at 425 Fore Street,” she said, adding see FIVE GUYS page 3

2010: a look back MAY (We continue our look at the big stories of 2010.

Portlanders celebrated at the first annual WestFest; when the smoke cleared from an accidental fire, demolition could resume at the old Jordan’s Meats plant; and World Cup mania seized the nation.)

May 1 She was unloading boxes of red crustaceans and worried about the weather, but Nicole Breaux was not actually a New Englander.

But some of her ancestors were, and she has twice gone to visit the old farms and towns from family stories. She even admits that the “little lobsters” she’s selling — actually steamed crawfish — wouldn’t suit Mainers very well. “But you gotta try them,” she asserts. Breaux is one of thousands of Cajuns living largely in the southern Louisiana bayou country who

trace their heritage back to New England. This time of year is festival season, but Breaux says most of her friends and family are focusing on the massive oil spill approaching their shore.

••••••••••••• CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James has joined one of the NBA’s most exclusive clubs.

Cleveland’s superstar was voted the league’s MVP for the second LeBron James straight year, a person familiar with the announcement told The Associated Press on Friday. see YEAR page 8

Brian Bush, a costume sculptor in New Orleans, wields crab claws during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The Gulf Coast’s environmental clean-up after the BP oil spill was one of the major stories of 2010.

(CURTIS ROBINSON PHOTO)

Libya and oil spell commercial warfare

A year that rocked our world in politics

Spose on the bill at Asylum for New Year’s Eve

See Debra J. Saunder’s column on page 4

See Curtis Robinson on page 5

See the Music Calendar on page 6

Page 2 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010

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Yarn that was named 2010’s top lie wasn’t original MILWAUKEE (AP) — The winning entry in a liars’ club contest may have been the best but it wasn’t original.

David Milz, 49, of Bristol, was named the top liar of 2010 with this line: “I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.” Milz, a school superintendent, said he came up with it while joking around with colleagues over the summer. However, an online search turns up numerous instances where the line is attributed to comedian Steven Wright.

“I don’t know who he is,” Milz told The Associated Press. “I came up with it independently. I’m sure it’s original to him but this was original to us.”

A message left with Wright’s agency Wednesday was not immediately returned.

The Burlington Liars Club, which began in 1929 as a lighthearted way to honor the creativity and humor of good exaggeration, said it received almost 500 entries this year.

“We don’t have the resources to check every entry to see if someone has said it before,” club vice president Ed Impens said. “We’re not going to worry about it. I think you’re making a big deal out of nothing, personally.”

Impens and two other judges sifted through the entries this week and each made a Top10 list. Milz’s entry was the only one that made all three lists, Impens said.

“It had all three of the things we think are important: It’s fairly short, humor is very important, and it’s timely,” he said. He reaffirmed that Milz will keep the 2010 title.

The runners-up include this line from Ellen Everts of New London: “My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.”

SAYWHAT...

A liar begins with making falsehood appear like truth, and ends with making truth itself appear like falsehood.”

William Shenstone

“

THEMARKET

3DAYFORECAST Today High: 39 Record: 56 (1884) Sunrise: 7:15 a.m.

Tonight Low: 24 Record: -21 (1917) Sunset: 4:13 p.m.

Tomorrow High: 42 Low: 33 Sunrise: 7:15 a.m.

Sunset: 4:14 p.m.

Saturday High: 42 Low: 34

DOW JONES 9.84 to 11,585.38 NASDAQ 4.05 to 2,666.93 S&P 1.27, to 1,259.78

LOTTERY#’S DAILY NUMBERS Wednesday Day 3-0-5 7-0-2-9

1,444

THETIDES Thursday High: 6:13 a.m., 6:54 p.m.

Low: —, 12:40 p.m.

Friday High: 7:14 a.m., 7:57 p.m.

Low: 12:52 a.m., 1:44 p.m.

U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– WORLD/NATION–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

NJ gov, NYC mayor feel heat after blizzard NEW YORK (AP) — With many streets still unplowed, New Yorkers are griping that their billionaire mayor is out of touch and has failed at the basic task of keeping the city running, while New Jersey’s governor is taking heat for vacationing at Disney World during the crisis.

The fallout against two politicians who style themselves as take-charge guys is building in the aftermath of the Christmas-weekend blizzard that clobbered the Northeast, with at least one New Jersey newspaperman noting Gov. Chris Christie’s absence in a column headlined: “Is Sunday’s storm Christie’s Katrina?”

Across New York, complaints have mounted about unplowed streets, stuck ambulances and outer-borough neighborhoods neglected by the Bloomberg administration.

“When he says New York, he means Manhattan,” said Hayden Hunt of Brooklyn, a borough of 2.6 million people where many streets were not cleared for days. “He’s the man in charge. ... It’s foolishness, come on.”

Bloomberg, a third-term Republicanturned-independent who is occasionally mentioned as a long-shot presidential candidate, spent the first day after the storm on the defensive, testily dismissing complaints and insisting the cleanup of the 2-foot snowfall was going fine. But he later adopted a more conciliatory tone.

On Wednesday, as stories began to surface about people who may have suffered serious medical problems while waiting for ambulances, the mayor was his most apologetic, without actually apologizing.

“We did not do as good a job as we wanted to do or as the city has a right to expect, and there’s no question — we are an administration that has been built on accountability,” he said. “When it works, it works and we take credit, and when it doesn’t work, we stand up there and say, ‘OK, we did it. We’ll try to find out what went wrong.’”

The city sanitation commissioner promised that every last street would be plowed

by Thursday morning.

Christie, meanwhile, has not been heard from publicly since he left New Jersey on vacation with his wife and four children.

His spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said that the governor — who has also been

mentioned as a potential Republican presidential candidate — has been briefed while in Florida, and that the emergency services have functioned well across the state.

“This was definitely a big snow, but we are a Northeastern state, and we get plenty of snow, including heavy hits like this, and we’ll get through this just as we always have,” Drewniak said.

Christie’s absence at the same time his lieutenant governor was also out of state left New Jersey’s Senate president to deal with the storm, which stranded thousands of travelers and left highways strewn with stuck and abandoned cars.

“They’re both entitled to a vacation, but not at the same time,” said Sen. Dick Codey, a Democrat who was acting governor for 15 months after Jim McGreevey resigned in 2004.

Meanwhile, New York’s transportation system was operating closer and closer to normal. Most subway service knocked out by snowdrifts on elevated tracks resumed.

The metropolitan area’s three major airports had their busiest day since the blizzard, and more stranded passengers managed to fly home.

But some lashed out. About 100 people surged the Qatar Airways ticket counter at Kennedy Airport after airline representatives tried to persuade them to take a bus to Washington, after days of waiting for flights to take them back to Southeast Asia.

The complaints against Bloomberg and Christie are all the more remarkable because of the reputations they have cultivated.

Bloomberg, who made his fortune from the financial news company that bears his name, has portrayed himself as adept at cutting through bureaucracy and politicsas-usual to get things done. Christie has become a hero in the GOP for his willingness to do battle with teachers and other powerful interests.

In the aftermath of the storm, many have noted the contrast with Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, who has been on the streets with a shovel, clearing sidewalks and freeing stuck ambulances.

“I have not been out with a snow shovel, but I have been answering e-mails,” Bloomberg said Wednesday, when the comparison was raised between him and Booker.

A woman walks past a New York City bus stuck in the snow in New York, Tuesday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Feds probe Christine O’Donnell’s campaign spending BALTIMORE (AP) — Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation of Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell to determine if the former Senate candidate broke the law by using campaign money to pay personal expenses, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to protect the identity of a client who has been questioned as part of the probe. The case, which has been assigned to two federal prosecutors and two FBI agents in Delaware, has not been

brought before a grand jury.

O’Donnell, who set a state record by raising more than $7.3 million in a tea partyfueled campaign this year, has long been dogged by questions about her personal and campaign finances.

At least two former campaign workers have alleged that O’Donnell routinely used political contributions to pay personal expenses including her rent in recent years as she ran for the Senate three consecutive times, starting in 2006. Her campaign issued a statement Wednesday denying that she

misspent campaign money and saying it has heard nothing from authorities.

“If anything does materialize from this rumor, we will continue to fully cooperate as we have made every attempt to ensure we are in compliance with all rules and regulations,” the statement said.

O’Donnell called the allegations politically motivated and suggested that the Obama administration — particularly Vice President Joe Biden, who represented Delaware in the Senate for decades — could be behind it.

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010— Page 3

Chain restaurants have checkered history downtown FIVE GUYS from page one

that one of the people involved is the owner of the franchise in Newport, Rhode Island.

Catalano also confirmed that the Prentice Franchise Group, headed by Eugene “Gene” Prentice, was planning on opening in early Spring of 2011. Prentice, in a telephone interview Wednesday, also confirmed those plans.

The closest two existing franchises are located in Geary, N.H., and Glouchester, Mass.

Five Guys has been widely criticized by health advocates for high fat and calorie content, but has also gained a widespread cult-like following. From its launch in 1986 until 2002, the founding family operated only a half-dozen restaurants in Northern Virgina.

But rapid growth followed franchising in 2002, and now Five Guys is available at more than 600 locations in 40 states and in Canada. The company’s website reported it opened 200 restaurants in 2010 alone.

Portland Mayor Nick Mavodones, himself a Five Guys patron, said he was surprised.

“They are a very successful franchise,” said the mayor. “I had one of the burgers just last week. Obviously, the market will drive the potential for success of the chain. Portland has several chains, and those that have survived have been very successful.”

National chain restaurants, or “formula businesses” as they are know, have not always lasted in the Old Port and downtown areas. A TGI Fridays came and went years ago and a McDonald’s at Monument Square has also moved on.

The formula eateries have even become the target of official zoning action. In November, 2006, the city rushed to pass a limit on formula businesses after widespread reports that a “Hooters” was opening on Congress Street.

The ban passed, but was repealed shortly thereafter.

City Spokesperson Nicole Clegg and Downtown District Head Jan Bitzer said they have not heard anything about the Five Guys plan, nor did they know if the license process had been started.

Clegg did note that her husband is a “huge fan” of the burger chain.

The closest two existing Five Guys franchises are located in Geary, N.H., and Glouchester, Mass. (COURTESY IMAGE)

Sugarloaf ski area: Lift was being shut when it failed CARRABASSETT VALLEY (AP) — Ski area maintenance workers dispatched to realign a lift cable were unable to fix the problem and had restarted the lift in an attempt to off-load riders when the cable derailed, sending skiers plummeting 25 to 30 feet, the resort said Wednesday.

High winds had shut down the lift at Sugarloaf in the hours before Tuesday’s accident, but it was cleared for operations and reopened just before 10 a.m. About 20 minutes later, the two maintenance workers saw the cable was out of place and were preparing to shut down the lift when the cable jumped its track. Five chairs fell, eight people were sent to

hospitals and dozens were stranded on the crippled lift for more than an hour.

High wind contributed to the accident, state investigators said Wednesday, but they’re not ruling out other factors. The 35-year-old lift, which recently passed an inspection, was due to be replaced, possibly next summer, and was known to be vulnerable to wind long before its cable derailed.

Resort spokesman Ethan Austin also said Wednesday that wind played a role, but he didn’t rule out mechanical difficulties or other causes. The lift was properly licensed and inspected for 2010, officials said.

Wind gusts of 40 mph were reported around Sugarloaf before the accident on the aging lift.

On Wednesday, the ski resort’s parking lots were full, and the slopes were crowded.

The damaged lift remained out of commission, with part of its cable and several chairs still on the snow where they fell, as state inspectors and Sugarloaf workers went about their investigation.

Skiers and snowboarders agreed that it had been windy on Tuesday, a day after a blizzard whipped most of the state before blowing out to sea. But many of them disagreed over whether the wind was above and beyond what’s normally seen on Sugarloaf.

Page 4 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010

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Libya and oil spell commercial warfare Twenty-two years ago last week, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Scotland. The terrorist attack killed 270 people, including 189 Americans and 11 Scots on the ground in the small village of Lockerbie.

After a comprehensive international investigation and a lengthy trial held in the Netherlands, three Scottish judges found former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi guilty of the 270 murders in 2001 and sentenced him to life in prison.

He served a mere eight years.

On Aug. 20, 2009, Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill authorized the “compassionate” release of alMegrahi on the grounds that prostate cancer left al-Megrahi with less than three months to live.

Some 16 months later, Megrahi is still alive and ––––– “reportedly living in a luxury Creators villa in Tripoli,” according to a Syndicate report released this month by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; and Frank Lautenberg, D.-N.J. The Menendez report and recent WikiLeaks stories spell bad news for Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and his ruling Scottish National Party.

Debra J. Saunders

see SAUNDERS page 5

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Portland’s FREE DAILY Newspaper Curtis Robinson Editor David Carkhuff, Matt Dodge Reporters THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN is published Tuesday through Saturday by Portland News Club, LLC. Mark Guerringue, Adam Hirshan, Curtis Robinson Founders Offices: 181 State Street, Portland ME 04101 (207) 699-5801 Website: www.portlanddailysun.me E-mail: news@portlanddailysun.me For advertising contact: (207) 699-5801 or ads@portlanddailysun.me Classifieds: (207) 699-5807 or classifieds@portlanddailysun.me CIRCULATION: 15,100 daily distributed Tuesday through Saturday FREE throughout Portland by Spofford News Company jspofford@maine.rr.com

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The death penalty on the wane In the midst of the fall election campaign, Steven Hayes went on trial in New Haven, Conn., in one of the most horrific murder cases in memory. The killers invaded a home, beat a man with a baseball bat, sexually assaulted and strangled his wife and tied up their two daughters before setting a fire that killed them.

It was the sort of crime that could only increase support for the death penalty. This effect had some relevance for the Connecticut governor’s race, because it pitted a supporter of capital punishment, Republican Thomas Foley, against Democrat Dannel Malloy, an opponent.

When they debated, Foley promised to veto any bill to abolish the death penalty, while Malloy said, “We know that the application of the death penalty has not always been equal and even.” A tough sell, right? But Malloy won.

That’s just one of the parade of indications that capital punishment is on the wane. The popular impulse to put people to death is just not what it used to be.

Executions have fallen by half since 1999. The number of new death sentences is about onethird what it was at the 1996 peak. Even in Texas, long the

Steve Chapman ––––– Creators Syndicate leading practitioner, death sentences are off by 80 percent. Several states that retain capital punishment have not administered a single lethal injection in the past five years.

The exoneration of 138 death row inmates has weakened public support for the ultimate sanction.

In a recent Gallup poll, 64 percent of Americans endorsed it, down from 80 percent in 1994, while opposition has nearly doubled.

A survey commissioned by the Death Penalty Information Center found that 61 percent prefer that murderers get some sort of life sentence instead. As a budget priority, the death penalty was ranked seventh out of seven issues.

Did someone mention budgets?

They are no friend of an option that requires expensive trials, costly appeals and pricey incarceration arrangements. Franklin Zimring, a law professor at the University of California at Berke-

ley, says capital punishment has become “an extreme luxury item.”

Even the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog, which this year offers a charm bracelet for $248,000, has nothing to compare.

Maryland has spent $186 million on capital cases over the past 30 years — which comes to $37 million per execution.

The typical Texas death case carries a price tag of $2.3 million.

A 2005 study pointed out that “New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter billion dollars on a capital punishment system that has executed no one.”

You might surmise that death sentences and executions have subsided because the homicide rate has dropped so much. But Zimring finds that the biggest decline has been among murders that aren’t eligible for capital punishment. Capital murders have declined far less. There are thousands each year for prosecutors who want to pursue them.

Even among lawmakers, this remedy is losing ground. The New Jersey legislature repealed it in 2007 and New Mexico followed suit last year. New York’s death penalty law was overturned in see CHAPMAN page 5

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010— Page 5

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2010 was a year that rocked our political world As decades go, you have to admit, the “double-oughts” were nothing to write home about, because why would those nice people who bought your home from the bank want to hear from you?

But with a collective sigh, as 2010 fades into memory, at least we can agree it was a year that rocked for politics.

Not in the sense that good music “rocks.” In the sense that somebody stoned your motorcade. Or (work with me here) in the sense of several large boulders tossed into a huge formerly tranquil lake. They make a good splash, but the real waves will come from their ripple effect into the coming year.

Take Augusta.

The “big splash” may have been Maine’s shift from blue-blue state to scarlet-letter-red state, but the tsunami waves will come when the Tea Party ideals start becoming law.

Granted, Gov.-elect Paul LePage has said many gentle words that can later be used to indicate he wanted to work with Democrats. But by many indications the man can count, so any compromise will be conditional.

Look, when one of the new governor’s first moves is to announce that his daughter will work as an assistant

Curtis Robinson ––––– Usually Reserved to his chief of staff, at a state salary of $41,000 per year, you get a decent idea of how this is going to play out. And when his communications director warns to “get a chair” because this is how it’s gonna go, I think he means it.

Look, why the heck would Paul LePage care what progressives think?

He won with a minority because he held his base and the less conservative candidates split what’s left. His voters are not going anywhere, and his re-election will hinge on splitting the vote again.

You know that thing liberals do, that reach-across-the-aisle thing, the attempts to build consensus, to see all the possible sides, to embrace and understand the other side’s argument? That’s now filed under “indecision.”

It’s what Dennis Miller is mocking when he says President Obama wants to open a huge “can of whoop-nuance”

on terrorists.

So Gov. LePage, when it counts, will doubtless treat his distinguished opposition more like the extinguished opposition.

Besides, why should Democrats complain about the nepotism? It’s very, very John F. Kennedy to place family in key positions – like naming your brother U.S. Attorney General.

That’s not been done since JFK, and you have to admit that Jimmy Carter missed a wonderful chance at national reform by not naming First Brother Billy as the top cop.

But the LePage page-turner will pale compared to the waves from our elected mayor race.

The early over-under on the election is for 15 candidates. Smart money is taking the over with a zeal usually reserved for Trader Joe’s openings.

And since the city’s voters no doubt have the same intuitive grasp of ranked choice voting as they have for the new Weight Watcher’s Point System, it’s going to be a mess. When a Green party leader says the group likes ranked choice voting because candidates can “work” together, you just know our historic first-elected mayor (in a long time, anyway) is

going to be chosen with the quiet dignity of a stockyard cattle auction.

Along with those issues, it has to be even money that Peaks Island holds a full-on secession election in 2011.

Remember that 2010 was the year that the Peaks Island Council, an elected advisory committee formed after the state punted on the issue, went from quasi-governmental to quasi-satirical.

The new council president was elected with five votes, others had three. That’s because the PIC election had no candidates and the vast majority of the write-in votes were tossed due to technical problems – like not having the person’s address.

But while the new council is certainly amusing, that can be deceptive.

A recent straw poll echoed the island’s split on independence from a real election: 58 percent favor separation.

The details will of course be decisive — sure, the island keeps the tax money but what about the city infrastructure and such? – but the unrest is likely too great to just simmer.

(Curtis Robinson is editor of The Portland Daily Sun. Contact him at curtis@portlanddailysun.me.)

If West caves on this issue, what will we stand up for? compared his justice minister to Mahatma Gandhi, stories about Libya’s “thuggish” threats, while he SAUNDERS from page 4 saying, “Sometimes someone has to break the cycle contends that they back up the righteousness of his For starters, the report found that “Scottish offiof retribution with an act of compassion.” Now Salactions. cials ignored their own prostate cancer experts, mond rejects the Menendez report and WikiLeaks Let us not forget President Obama’s feckless connone of whom would agree to a three-month tribution — informing Libya that alprognosis.” Apparently, al-Megrahi’s muchMegrahi should not be welcomed publicly. improved health is not the result of a minor Judging by al-Megrahi’s hero’s welcome miracle. There was talk of releasing alon a Tripoli tarmac, strongman MoamMegrahi a year before he was diagnosed with mar Ghadafi did not fear to ignore that cancer. request.

The Menendez report also found that the Susan Cohen’s daughter, Theodora, British Labour government played a role in died in the Pan Am bombing at age 20.

MacAskill’s decision. That’s not a surprise.

In a letter to the U.S. Senate, Cohen Labour also had pushed through a prison wondered about the United Kingdom transfer agreement that could have led to aland the United States: “Would we stand Megrahi’s release. up to Hitler? Would we stand up to the Worst of all, the 58-page report concluded, Soviet Union or China? I am not sure “The Libyan Government successfully freed at all. If we are willing to kiss the feet al-Megrahi by using commercial warfare.” of a tinpot tyrant like Ghadafi because Commercial warfare: Both Libya and Qatar all we care about is money, we’ll cave pressured the Brits and Scots to find “a way in to more powerful nations when the out” for al-Megrahi or lose lucrative contracts, moment’s right.” including a $900 million oil exploration deal Then, Salmond-like, we can hail our being negotiated between Libya and the oil capitulation as worthy of Gandhi. company BP. Last year, I visited the Scottish Parliament (E-mail Debra J. Saunders at dsaunand talked to Labor MSP Richard Baker, who ders@sfchronicle.com. To find out more was shocked that “Scotland’s greatest ever about Saunders, and read features by mass murderer” had been awarded “special other Creators Syndicate writers and Abdul Baset Al Megrahi and son of the Libyan leader, Seif Al Islam Gaddafi (right), gesture on his cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate treatment.”

At the time of al-Megrahi’s release, Salmond arrival at an airport. (AP PHOTO) Web page at www.creators.com.)

Has American public grown disillusioned with capital punishment?

CHAPMAN from page 4

court, but legislators have refused to pass a new one.

Illinois Gov. George Ryan declared an execution moratorium in 2000, and his two successors have maintained it. But the moratorium has been, in a sense, the worst of both worlds. While taxpayers continue to incur the costs of seeking death sentences, none is ever carried out.

The cost will disappear if the General Assembly abolishes capital punishment, which opponents

intend to propose as soon as it convenes in January.

“I really think we’re going to get it done,” Jim Covington, director of legislative affairs for the Illinois State Bar Association, told me.

That shouldn’t be impossible in a state where death row inmates are more likely to be exonerated than executed. Given Illinois’ horrendous budget problems, the point of keeping the death penalty on the books is mysterious to see. In the last seven years, taxpayers have spent more than $100 million on capital cases even though the death chamber has

been turned into a Starbucks.

If it is repealed, some people will cheer, some will be angry, and most will pay little attention. In the United States, the death penalty may never die, but its best days are past.

(Steve Chapman blogs daily at newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/steve_chapman. To find out more about Chapman, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.)

Page 6 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010

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MUSIC CALENDAR ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Friday, Dec. 31 ICING New Year’s Bash at SPACE 8 p.m. SPACE Gallery and The VIA Group ring in 2011 with our 2nd annual ICING New Year’s Bash. Dress to impress and live it up for a wild evening with good food, friends, dancing, and a cavalcade of performances and installations

by SPACE’s talented family of artists. Performances include a soulful set by the inimitable Lady Zen, live drumming by Dylan Blanchard and friends and West African inspired dancing by Blue Moon Tribe, led by Marita Kennedy-Castro. There’ll be some time-warping trouble provided by Tin Pan Alley alums Over A Cardboard Sea. Portland’s Dirty Dishes Burlesque Review plan to live up to their name and Kate Cox and Matt Rock have something up their sleeve for when the ball drops and we lift a glass to another year at SPACE! Dj King Alberto keeps the soul and funk grooves spinning all night. It’s the last dance party of the year - let’s make it count! $50, 21 plus.

Mallett Brothers / Marion Grace / Holy Boys Danger Club at Empire 8 p.m. New Year’s Eve with Mallett Brothers and Marion Grace and special guests Holy Boys Danger Club. Ticket price includes (We Don’t Need No stinking Champagne) Whiskey Toast at Midnight. $10 advance, $12 at the door. 21 plus.

Rustic Overtones / Gypsy Tailwind 8 p.m. Hometown heros Rustic Overtones join with Gypsy Tailwind for the Port City Music Hall New Year’s Eve Bash. $25 adv / $28 dos / $50 vip 21 plus.

Listo / Brown Bird / Wesley Hartley and the Traveling Trees

The 2011 New Year’s Party at Asylum will feature SPOSE, Cam Groves, Sidecar Radio, Restless Groove & Educated Advocates Doors. There will be drink and food specials and a champagne toast at midnight, music until 1:15 a.m. $30, 21 plus. (COURTESY PHOTO)

8 p.m. Dave Noyes & Kelly Nesbitt perform once again as Listo. Singing Brazilian tunes by the likes of Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Zelia Barbosa, Ze Ramalho, Nara Leao, Gilbert Gil, and more. Other performances by Brown Bird, a reunion of Dave, Morgan Eve, Jeremy and Jerusha! AND Wesley Allen Hartley and the Traveling Trees. Hogfarm Studios, Biddeford.

Zach Zaitlin at The Oak & The Axe 8 p.m. Zack Zatlin rings in the New Year on the cheap with a free show at The Oak & THe Axe in Biddeford.

SPOSE / Cam Groves / Sidecar Radio / Restless Groove at Asylum 8:30 p.m. The 2011 Party with SPOSE, Cam Groves, Sidecar Radio, Restless Groove & Educated Advocates Doors.

There will be drink & food specials & a champagne toast at midnight, music until 1:15am. $30, 21 plus.

Saturday, Jan. 1 Zach Zaitlin / Jacob Augustine 7:30 p.m. Drawing on the limitless possibilities of the piano and a unique compositional perspective, Zach Zaitlin lures listeners into a rich, dark-hued soundworld replete with hypnotic ambient textures, heartfelt vocal melodies, and crashing dissonances over driving beats. Jacob Augustine travles to Biddeford sans his House of Fire band mates for an intimate performance at the cozy venue. Oak and the Ax, Biddeford, all ages.

Ellis Paul at One Longfellow 8 p.m. Ellis Paul is one of the leading voices in American songwriting. He was a principle leader in the wave of singer/ songwriters that emerged from the Boston folk scene, creating a movement that revitalized the national acoustic circuit with an urban, literate, folk pop style that helped renew inter-

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Harbor Fish Market

We will be Open until 7 on New Year’s Eve We are open on New’s Year’s Day 72 Commercial Street - Maine Wharf

HOLIDAY HOURS: Open Friday am pm Dec. 31

Open Mon thru Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 9am-6pm Check our website for prices, specials & promotions www.threesonslobsterandfish.com Check us out on

If It’s Live, We Can Cook It! Come on down & look for the dancing lobster!

Thursday, Jan 6 The Fishtank Ensemble 8 p.m. The LA Weekly calls them “cross pollinated gypsy music….one of the most thrilling young acts on the planet.” Formed in 2005 and playing everywhere from the hippest LA clubs to festivals, cultural centers, museums, parades, and even on the street, the band includes two explosive violins, the world’s best slap bass player, musical saw, flamenco and gypsy jazz guitar, trombone, opera, jazz and gypsy vocals, accordion and one little banjolele.

One Longfellow Square, $12.

Friday, Jan. 7

Soft Shell Lobster Chix.........$6.49/lb Soft Shell Lobster Halves. . .$7.89/lb Soft Shell Lobster Quarters...$6.99/lb Soft Shell Lobster Selects. .$8.99/lb Hard Shells starting @ $6.49/lb WE ALSO CARRY: Live Maine Steamers & Mussels, Wholesale Live Rock Crabs & Crabmeat, Live Maine Oysters, Lobsters to Haddock Fillet, Lobster Tails, Fresh-Picked the Public!

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(between Ri-Ra’s and Dry Dock)

est in the genre in the 1990’s. His charismatic, personally authentic performance style has influenced a generation of artists away from the artifice of pop, and closer towards the realness of folk. Though he remains among the most popfriendly of today’s singer-songwriters — his songs regularly appear in hit movie and TV soundtracks — he has bridged the gulf between the modern folk sound and the populist traditions of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger more successfully than perhaps any of his songwriting peers. $18.

Happy New Year from all of us at

8:30 - 3

Closed New Year’s Day & Sunday, Jan 2 Re-open Monday, Jan 3 at 8:30am

Le Vent Du Nord at One Longfellow 8 p.m. Le Vent du Nord has crowds dancing to the sound of fiddle and hurdy-gurdy, using an original repertoire. Their music is both fresh and bound to tradition. One of the group’s strength’s is their stage presence: energetic, dynamic, generous and in touch with the audience. Le Vent du Nord consists of four singers/multi-instrumentalists: Nicolas Boulerice, Simon Beaudry, Olivier Demers and Réjean Brunet, who joined the group in 2007. They sing originals and songs taken from the traditional repertoire, in their native French, to the delight of their audience, for whom it is more often than not a foreign language. Le Vent du Nord’s energy amazes their audiences, and whether they perform at a festival or a concert, people keep asking for more. $25.

The Points North / MANNERS / Wes Hartley 8 p.m. The Points North combine traditional Celtic and New England folk—haunting harmonies, octave mandolin, Irish flute, tin whistle, minimal drums and occasional guitar. Manners, could be; the musical moniker of Greg Beson and his exploration of the responsibility of perception and reflection upon a world which can be confusing, uplifting and overwhelming.

Exploration, evaluation & an awareness of time are reflected musically in Manners. One guitar and vocals can range from soft and woolen to dark, bright & canvernous all at once.

Full “band” instrumentation may appear at any performance with different combinations, creating limitless possibilities.

All ages, $7 Oak and the Axe, Biddeford.

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010— Page 7

Page 8 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010

2010: a look back YEAR from page one

May 4 A Portland taxi cab driver suffered stab wounds to the face and eye during a robbery early Saturday morning. Portland Police Lt. Gary Rogers said the 51-year-old victim was stabbed during a scuffle with three passengers who were trying to rob him on Dow Street at about 2:24 a.m. Saturday. Police said the victim was also punched and kicked in the head and face during the assault.

••••••••••••• Portland’s warmest March-April period in nearly 70 years gave farmers a head start, both on rural farms and in city community gardens. “Our garlic is up, the apple trees have blossomed and are starting to pass now, it’s just been amazing, it’s the beginning of May and we’re doing things we would be doing at the end of May,” said Sarah Marshall, a grower with the Cultivating Community program at both Turkey Hill Farm in Cape Elizabeth and Boyd Street urban farm in Portland.

May 5 A concrete bridge in Deering Oaks that was built in 1911 for $3,355 could receive a renovation this summer costing $216,000, based on estimates before the city’s Historic Preservation Board. The Portland Historic Preservation Board plans a site visit and workshop at the bridge, which spans the Deering Oaks Pond ravine.

May 6 The East End has its MunjFest, the Old Port district has its mammoth Old Port Festival and now the West End is creating Portland’s newest community focused festival, complete with wagon rides, entertainment and the all-important tick education outreach.

The first annual WestFest is slated for Saturday, May 22 at the Reiche School in Portland’s West End.

Firefighters perch on a ladder to spray water on a three-alarm fire at the old Jordan’s Meats plant on the corner of Franklin Arterial and Fore Street. This view, from atop an apartment building on Munjoy Hill, shows the plumes of smoke that drifted across Casco Bay as the fire raged. LEFT: A firefighter blasts water directly into the old meat plant building, part of a prolonged attack that left Fore and Middle streets deluged. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTOS) ••••••••••••• PORTLAND (AP) — Regulatory hearings kicked off Wednesday in Maine on FairPoint Communications’ reorganization plan as the company winds its way through the complex bankruptcy process.

May 7 Authorities say they don’t know what caused a fire at the former Jordan’s meat plant Thursday afternoon, a blaze that captured the attention of thousands of Portlanders, led to East End power outages and affected firefighters from six local communities but didn’t cause any injuries in the vacant building. see next page Brian Shedd (left), project manager for Opechee Construction Corp. of Belmont, N.H., and Opechee vice president Tim Daigneault talk before a press conference on Fore Street at the site of a massive fire. Opechee is the contractor on the demolition of the old Jordan’s Meats plant. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO)

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010— Page 9

2010: a look back from preceding page

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Portland Fire Chief Fred LaMontagne said firefighters from Portland and South Portland had the blaze “stabilized” by around 4:30 p.m. but that as of around 5:40 p.m. the fire was still not fully under control.

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Now that the smoke has settled, demolition of the old Jordan’s Meats plant on Fore Street should resume as early as Sunday, officials said Friday in the wake of a Thursday fire that raged through the vacant industrial building, pouring smoke across Casco Bay. Two to three additional weeks of demolition will be required due to the fire, said Portland Fire Chief Frederick Scott Bourgoin (front) and Tyler Burrows check weather damage to the Deering Oaks Pond LaMontagne during a press con- bridge prior to a site visit by the Portland HIstoric Preservation Board. Bourgoin, restoration ference at the site. “It consumed foreman, was comparing colors for mortar patching material. The duo is from Knowles Industrial an entire city block,” LaMontagne Corp. of Gorham. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO) said of the fire, which was deemed accidental, although investigators said the damage was so extensive that they will never be sure of the cause.

May 11 The city’s council was unanimous last night in approving a 16-unit Avesta affordable housing development at the former Adams Community School site, but resident support fell a bit short of that mark.

Parking and process were among the complaints, especially since a years-long process was hurried at the end to meet federal stimulus funding deadlines.

May 12 Some city residents will gather today at the Eastland Park Hotel to try their hand at civic cardiology.

Calling the Congress Square Park, Portland Fire Chief Fred which is just outside the hotel’s LaMontagne side entrance, the “heart” of the city’s Arts District, the city and the Congress Square Redesign Study Group are hosting a 5 p.m. public forum about the area.

May 13

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For the first time in recent years, a “street team” of social workers is preparing to engage with the city’s apparent homeless in hopes of providing assistance while addressing merchant complaints that the homeless are driving away business.

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DAILY CROSSWORD TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

by Lynn Johnston

by Paul Gilligan

By Holiday Mathis things are about to open up for you.

Observe your choices. Get creative.

Brainstorm to figure out whether you have more choices than you’re currently seeing.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21).

You’ll enjoy learning how things work.

Once you understand the mechanics of a situation, you’ll come up with ways to improve the look and feel of them.

You’re a designer at heart.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19).

You have mastered the art of delegating. You can tell who would be best suited for a job, and you know just how to ask them to do it. However, today, if you can do it yourself, don’t ask another person to do it for you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You’ll take care of yourself in all the ways that matter to you. And someone else will fill in with care that you wouldn’t have thought of -- special extras to make you feel loved.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Everyone will be chipping in. The one who gives a dollar might be the biggest giver of all -- if it’s his only dollar. Contributions are relative. Only you know the size of your gift because only you know how much you have to give.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Dec. 30). You set an exciting goal for your personal life, and your entire scene is energized by this aim. Loved ones open up new resources just for you in January. You will be the authority figure in February, and you must be careful to use your power well. You will be featured in a performance in March. There’s a windfall in May. Cancer and Leo people adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 4, 1, 21, 16 and 50.

Pooch Café For Better or Worse LIO

ARIES (March 21-April 19). Making a favorable impression on the family and friends of those you love will be of extreme importance. Put forth the effort. It will come back around sooner than you think.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Instead of asking what would make you “pretty happy,” go for the big thrills. This day will be memorable no matter what you do, so you may as well do it up big.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Name dropping and boasting may impress some, but not you. You are unpretentious, and so you know to pay attention to the less flashy individuals around you. Look for quiet intelligence.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). Doing twice what you did yesterday is possible because there will be no impedance. It doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. You should consider this to be a very big deal.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You wisely realize that at the end of the day, your only concern will be whether you have loved enough. With this in mind, you’ll show your love and give generously of yourself.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You think you’ve placed your hopes too high when in fact you may be undercutting yourself and wishing for far too little. Be bolder with your dreams, and then believe in them wholeheartedly.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). There’s something odd about today’s circumstances, and the strangest part of all is that no one seems to notice it but you.

In private moments, you chuckle to yourself. Tomorrow you’ll have someone else to laugh with.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You feel restricted in a certain situation, but

by Aaron Johnson

HOROSCOPE

by Chad Carpenter

Solution and tips at www.sudoku.com

TUNDRA WT Duck

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 thru 9.

by Mark Tatulli

Page 10 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010

ACROSS 1 Acquire 4 School dance 8 Brief flash of light 13 Rider’s charge 14 Ireland, to the Irish 15 “__ and Juliet” 16 Claim against property 17 Not closed 18 Certain berth 19 Included 22 “Ode on a Grecian __” 23 Of the stars 24 __ food cake 26 King of the gods in Greek mythology 29 Tantalizes 32 Grin 36 Strong wind 38 Brand of paper towels 39 Sharpen 40 Change slightly 41 __ if; although

42 43 44 45

65 66 67 68 69 70

Tiny amount Coloring agents Consumers Pressure cooker brand Quit Provide with new weapons Cheered Third book of the Bible: abbr.

Harmless Perfect Plod, as through water Raise __; make a ruckus Multicolored horse Foreign dollar Rainbows Male cattle Observed Traitor

1

DOWN Makes progress

47 49 51 56 58 61 63 64

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 20 21 25 27 28 30 31 32

Upright; vertical Caruso, e.g.

Humans Regis Philbin and Kelly __ Miners’ finds High-IQ society Hold a __; remain resentful Cut off Rash At no time, in poetry Experiencing mixed emotions __ market; swap meet Labyrinth Exit’s opposite Roof edges Hideous Fills completely At any time Without Galleon or ocean liner

33 34 35 37 40 44 46 48 50

Secure a boat Horn in Rent long-term In case Decorate Perched atop Clothing alterer Salem’s state Ancient Hebrew prophet

52 53 54 55 56 57

Academy Award Jeweled crown Kick out Lairs Cold sore sites Go over a manuscript 59 Chimney pipe 60 __ and aft 62 Feasted

Yesterday’s Answer

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010— Page 11

––––––– ALMANAC ––––––– Today is Thursday, Dec. 30, the 364th day of 2010. There is one day left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On Dec. 30, 1860, 10 days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, the state militia seized the United States Arsenal in Charleston, completing a takeover of all federal property in the city except Fort Sumter.

On this date: In 1813, the British burned Buffalo, N.Y., during the War of 1812.

In 1853, the United States and Mexico signed a treaty under which the U.S. agreed to buy some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico for $10 million in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase.

In 1903, about 600 people died when fire broke out at the recently opened Iroquois Theater in Chicago.

In 1922, Vladimir I. Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

In 1936, the United Auto Workers union staged its first “sit-down” strike, at the Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint, Mich.

In 1948, the Cole Porter musical “Kiss Me, Kate” opened on Broadway.

In 1972, the United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

In 1994, a gunman walked into a pair of suburban Boston abortion clinics and opened fire, killing two employees.

In 2006, Iraqis awoke to news that Saddam Hussein had been hanged; victims of his three decades of autocratic rule took to the streets to celebrate.

One year ago: Seven CIA employees and a Jordanian intelligence officer were killed by a suicide bomber at a U.S. base in Khost, Afghanistan.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Joseph Bologna is 76. Actor Russ Tamblyn is 76. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Sandy Koufax is 75.

Actor Jack Riley is 75. Folk singer Noel Paul Stookey is 73. TV director James Burrows is 70. Actor Fred Ward is 68. Singer-musician Michael Nesmith is 68. Singer Davy Jones is 65. Actress Concetta Tomei (toh-MAY’) is 65. Singer Patti Smith is 64. Rock singermusician Jeff Lynne is 63. TV host Meredith Vieira is 57. Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph is 55.

Actress Patricia Kalember is 54. Country singer Suzy Bogguss is 54. “Today” show co-host Matt Lauer is 53. Actress-comedian Tracey Ullman is 51. Rock musician Rob Hotchkiss is 50. Actor George Newbern is 47. Singer Jay Kay (Jamiroquai) is 41. Rock musician Byron McMackin (Pennywise) is 41. Actress Meredith Monroe is 41. Actor Daniel Sunjata is 39. Actress Maureen Flannigan is 38. Actor Jason Behr is 37. Golfer Tiger Woods is 35. TV personality-boxer Laila Ali is 33. Singer-actress Tyrese Gibson is 32. Actress Eliza Dushku is 30. Rock musician Tim Lopez (Plain White T’s) is 30.

Actress Kristin Kreuk is 28.

THURSDAY PRIME TIME 8:00

Dial 5 6

9:00

9:30

10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30

CTN 5 Community Bulletin Board WCSH

7

WPFO

8

WMTW

10

MPBN

11

WENH

12

8:30

DECEMBER 30, 2010

WPXT

Community 30 Rock (In The Office Outsourced Outsourced The Office (In Stereo) Stereo) Å “Sex Ed” Å Å “The Lover” Å Å Bones Cam thinks Bones Brennan and News 13 on FOX (N) Michelle is keeping a Booth’s first case tosecret. Å gether. Å Happy New Year, Char- Grey’s Anatomy Cristina Private Practice “Short lie Brown Peanuts plan a experiences PTSD. (In Cuts” Pete and Cooper holiday. Å Stereo) Å argue over marijuana.

Maine Maine Ex- Doc Martin “Going With These Hands: The Watch perience Bodmin” Martin’s first Story of an American patient. Å Furniture Factory Roadside Windows to Nature “Cloud’s Legacy: Frontline “Flying Cheap” Stories Å the Wild Å The Wild Stallion ReAirline industry has turns” Å (DVS) changed.

The Vampire Diaries Nikita “Phoenix” Elimi- Entourage TMZ (N) (In Katherine reveals new nating a U.S. senator’s “The Bat Stereo) Å secrets. Å mistress. Å Mitzvah” The Big $..! My Dad CSI: Crime Scene The Mentalist The team Bang Says “Code Investigation A mother prepares to meet the new Theory Ed” becomes a suspect. boss. Å Without a Trace Å Without a Trace Å Curb Earl

News

Tonight Show With Jay Leno Frasier (In According Stereo) Å to Jim Å News 8 Nightline WMTW at (N) Å 11PM (N) Charlie Rose (N) (In Stereo) Å

Just One Night Å

T.A.M.I. Show

Extra (N) (In Stereo) Å WGME News 13 at 11:00 Late Night

Late Show With David Letterman Star Trek

Punk’d (In Stereo) Å

13

WGME

17

WPME

24

DISC Explosion Gone

25

FAM Funniest Home Videos America’s Funniest Home Videos Salad tossing. The 700 Club Å

26

USA Burn Notice Å

27

NESN NHL Hockey: Bruins at Thrashers

Bruins

Daily

Instigators Daily

28

CSNE Tailgate

Tailgate

Sports

SportsNet UFC 125 Preview

30

ESPN College Football

31

ESPN2 College Basketball

Quick

Criminal Minds Å

American Chopper Burn Notice Å Patriots

Criminal Minds Å

DISN Movie: ››‡ “Hannah Montana: The Movie”

35

TOON Regular

MAD

NICK My Wife

My Wife

MSNBC Countdown

Explosion Gone Burn Notice Å Daily

SportsCenter Å

Women’s College Basketball

ION

34

37

Oddities

Burn Notice Å

College Football

33

36

Auction

Criminal Minds Å

Criminal Minds Å

Wizards

Good Luck Good Luck

Wizards

King of Hill King of Hill Amer. Dad Amer. Dad Fam. Guy Chris

Chris

Lopez

Lopez

Rachel Maddow Show Lockup: Corcoran

Fam. Guy

The Nanny The Nanny Lockup: Raw

38

CNN Parker Spitzer (N)

Larry King Live Å

Anderson Cooper 360 (N) Å

40

CNBC Biography on CNBC

Biography on CNBC

Biography on CNBC

Mad Money

Greta Van Susteren

The O’Reilly Factor

41

FNC

The O’Reilly Factor (N) Hannity (N)

43

TNT

NBA Basketball: Knicks at Magic

44

LIFE Pawn

Wreck

NBA Basketball San Antonio Spurs at Dallas Mavericks.

Pawn

Movie: ›››‡ “Antwone Fisher” (2002) Derek Luke. Å

Wreck

Wreck

46

TLC

47

AMC Back-Futr

48

HGTV First Place First Place Selling

49

TRAV Carnivore

50

A&E The First 48 Å

52

BRAVO Real Housewives

Wreck

Wreck

Wreck

Movie: ››› “Back to the Future Part II” (1989, Comedy) Selling

House

How I Met Wreck

Wreck

“Back-Future III”

Hunters

House

Hunters

Carnivore Carnivore Carnivore Carnivore Man, Food Breakfast Paradise The First 48 Å

Peace

Real Housewives

Real Housewives

Peace

Peace

Peace

Real Housewives

55

HALL Movie: “Farewell Mr. Kringle” (2010) Å

56

SYFY Movie: “Catwoman”

Movie: ›› “The Cave” (2005) Cole Hauser.

57

ANIM The Haunted Å

The Haunted Å

The Haunted Å

The Haunted Å

58

HIST Ancient Aliens Å

Ancient Aliens (N)

Brad Meltzer’s Dec.

Stan Lee’s

60

BET

61 62 67 68 76

Movie: ›› “The Ultimate Gift” (2006) Å

Movie: ›› “Harlem Nights” (1989) Eddie Murphy. Å

“Children of the Corn”

Soul Train: Hippest Trip in America

COM Futurama

Futurama

Futurama

Futurama

South Park South Park Futurama

Two Men

Two Men

Two Men

Two Men

Movie: ›››‡ “Zodiac” (2007) Mark Ruffalo

Sanford

Raymond

Raymond

Everybody-Raymond

FX

TVLND Sanford TBS

Movie: ›‡ “Billy Madison” (1995, Comedy)

SPIKE Gangland “Kill ’Em All”

Fam. Guy

Futurama Roseanne

Conan

TNA Wrestling (N) (In Stereo) Å

TNA ReACTION (N)

Law Order: CI

Law Order: CI

78

OXY Law Order: CI

146

TCM Movie: ››‡ “The Strip” (1951)

Law Order: CI

“Requiem for a Heavyweight”

DAILY CROSSWORD

BY WAYNE ROBERT WILLIAMS

Fam. Guy

Raymond

1 7 10 14 15 16 17 20 21 22 24 26 29 33 34 35 36 38 40 44 46

ACROSS Portuguese port J. Davis’s nation Ninnyhammer Mythical Greek hero One of those girls Continental money Pas Mongolian horde Stated Wedge used for leveling Tony-winner Hagen Aired anew Past Revise once again Wordless agreement Large-mouth pitcher Team’s top pitcher Heavy weight Goals Possesses Hauer of “Blade

51 54 55 56 57 59 62 67 68 69 70 71 72

1 2 3 4 5 6

“Breakfast-Tiff’s”

Runner” Paste Capital of Vietnam Bigger pic Ancient temple Get coffee on a doughnut Caesar’s subjects Pastel Turn on a pivot You betcha!

Emotional tension Join together by heating Sault __ Marie, MI Some blue wildflowers DOWN One with two left feet According to Former Dubbed anew Diplomat’s asset Workplace injury grp.

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 18 19 22 23 25 27 28 30 31 32 37 39 40

Take to task D.C. big shot Segments of circles Surround with hostile forces Attract a bigger crowd Tram cargo Hit on the head Percussion instrument Work for Russ. or Lith., once Gardener’s tool Large quantity Long span of time Also not Aunt in Barcelona Restless Garbage can emanations Facilitate Eccentric individual Combustion

residue 41 Eng. instruction letters 42 Attentive 43 Reconnoitered 45 Daily genesis 47 Hide processors 48 Grinds together 49 System or friendly lead-in 50 Notes of scales

52 53 58 60 61 62 63 64 65 66

Warmhearted Voting alliance Florida isles Alda sitcom Leg. eagle Compass dir.

Corrida cheer Permit to Mil. entertainers 2nd sight

Yesterday’s Answer

Page 12 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– SPORTS –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Cross country championships return to Maine

BY MARTY BASCH SPECIAL TO THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

The new year means the start of several top level free-heeling competitions across Maine beginning with the U.S. Cross Country Championships in Rumford.

Returning to Black Mountain of Maine (last hosted there in 2004), the championships feature top World Cup level U.S. Ski Team members competing in two sprint and two distance races from Jan. 2-8, 2011.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to host this event and about the impact it will have on the local economy,” said race organizing chairman Roger

Arsenault.

Though manmade snow had been stockpiled for the races, a fortuitious 12 to 14 inches fell across the trails from Sunday night’s and Monday’s storm.

The races are hosted by the storied Chisholm Ski Club and features athletes like returning U.S. champion Simi Hamilton, Liz Stephen, Morgan Arritola and Noah Hoffman.

Though cross country aficianados might miss seeing other U.S. stars who are opting to stay skiing the World Cup races.

“Kikkan Randall (two podiums this year), Andy Newell and Kris Freeman (two top 10s this year)

are all extremely competitive for podium positions at the World Cup level,” said U.S. Ski Team spokesman Tom Kelly in an e-mail. “It makes more sense for them to compete in that arena right now. Naturally, we would love to have every skier at the U.S. Championships.”

Black Mountain of Maine has made several changes since last hosting the Championships including widening the trails and expanding the stadium to accommodate the growth of the sport. The snow making system has also been expanded over the years to cover up to 5-kilometers of the trail network. see CHAMPIONSHIPS page 15

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN CLASSIFIEDS Animals

Autos

For Rent

For Rent

For Rent-Commercial

Looking To Rent

HAVE you noticed meat prices rising? Buy bulk and save!

We’re selling half or whole pigs raised on quality grain and pasture until 1/2/11. (207)445-2141 or see Emma’s Family FarmQuality Meats and talk about an order Friday from 11am-4pm at 28 Monument Square.

BUYING all unwanted metals. $800 for large loads. Cars, trucks, heavy equipment. Free removal. (207)776-3051.

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MONTH to month- Conservative retired Teacher seeks first floor rental. Freeport to Scarborough.

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MARK’S Towing- Free junk car removal. No keys, no tires, no problems. Late models.

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PORTLAND- Maine MedicalStudio, 1/ 2 bedroom. Heated, off street parking, newly renovated. $475-$850.

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PORTLAND- Woodford’s area. 1 bedroom heated. Newly installed oak floor, just painted. $675/mo. (207)773-1814.

ANNIE’S MAILBOX Dear Annie: I am a 17-year-old girl, and my parents are in the middle of a divorce. That is not the problem. I am really happy they are divorcing.

The problem is, my mother has been telling everyone that Dad had an affair and that The Other Woman is the cause of the divorce. This makes things really awkward for me, especially around my friends whose parents know my mom.

Annie, I don’t care if my Dad had an affair, and the truth is, I don’t blame him. I have sat on the stairs and listened to my parents fight for years. I have heard my dad beg Mom to love him back, to talk to him, to do things with him and be affectionate. I love my mother, but she is the real reason they are getting divorced.

Dad is now living with his “friend,” and I secretly hope they stay together. I like her. He is happy and so much more relaxed now. I love being around him and his girlfriend, but of course, I can’t tell anyone this.

Mom has poisoned everyone in the family, making them believe Dad is a horrible person who left her for another woman. How do I get her to stop saying things that will make people blame my father and feel sorry for Mom? -- Me Dear Me: Neither of your parents should be bad-mouthing the other. It is grossly unfair to you. Tell your mother to please stop saying terrible things about Dad because you love him and her comments make him an object of derision in your community, which reflects poorly on the entire family. Then speak to your school counselor and ask for help.

Dear Annie: My son and his beautiful wife, “Marie,” just had their second child. The entire pregnancy was turbulent, and Marie needed a C-section. My granddaughter was born healthy and wonderful, but I have been in complete shock since.

While Marie was being moved into her hospital room, there was already a line of well-wishers forming outside the door, all of them carrying stuffed animals, little outfits, baby blankets and on and on. It was almost like a competition, with everyone trying to out-do the other with gifts. I thought at any moment someone would walk in with a pony. Many were dropping gift bags onto Marie’s stomach, no less, and they were so unbelievably loud. Although Marie was appreciative and tried to show enthusiasm for the gifts, she was exhausted and in pain. She wanted to hold and feed her new daughter.

Even the nursing staff was having difficulty doing their job.

This was the rudest, most inconsiderate thing I have ever witnessed. Is this some new trend for friends and relatives to show up with gifts immediately after the birth? -- Please End My Confusion Dear Confusion: People can be enormously insensitive when visiting a new mother. Usually, a family member or one of the hospital staff will toss visitors out of the room when there are too many or the chaos is too great. We are surprised no one did this for Marie and can only assume she was enjoying it more than you thought.

Dear Annie: This is in response to “Confused,” whose wife has their mortgage in her name only, even though he helps pay for it. If his wife will not consider adding him to the mortgage, please, please have her add him as a beneficiary to the mortgage loan.

My late husband had our mortgage in his name only with no beneficiary listed. Three years later, I am still paying the mortgage and building his credit instead of my own.

When married couples do not have jointly owned property, the death of one can create a huge burden for the surviving spouse. -- Still Attempting To Find a Solution

Annie’s Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please e-mail your questions to: anniesmailbox@comcast.net, or write to: Annie’s Mailbox, c/o Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Ste. 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045.

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THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010— Page 13

2010: a look back REVIEW from page 9

May 15 He remembers waking up in the back of the van, feeling it fishtailing on the wintry Canadian highway, then waking up on his back in the wet grass beside the road.

John Venom had a punctured lung that had collapsed and, it turned out, 10 broken ribs.

It turns out he was lucky.

Venom and his bandmates in the local Reggae group East Wave Radio had hit a bit of bad road. All three of them, along with their tour manager and a Canadian musician they were touring with, survived the crash but it was touch-and-go for a while.

Several injuries were likely life-threatening, probably the most dire were to lead singer David Gague, who suffered head trauma.

“He got the worst of it,” acknowledged Venom in an interview Friday.

How do you know the head injury is serious? One sign has to be that your doctors put you INTO a “medically induced” coma to prepare you for upcoming procedures.

The band went into a Saskatchewan area hospital where they were virtually cut off from communications for a while.

Meanwhile, back in Portland, word of the accident spread via cell phones and Facebook accounts. Updates were gathered from websites and broadcast through social networks.

But Nate Drinkwater, a longtime friend of the band members who was among those hearing the news, was already preparing what has become a landmark benefit concert. By the time the band was even out of the hospital, the benefit was gathering steam.

“I barely recall hearing about it (at the hospital),” Johnny Venom remembers. “We didn’t have Internet or much contact with the outside The announced reopening of Portland’s historic State Theatre topped the headlines in May 2010. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO) world for a while.”

The benefit support from local bands quickly ran into problems three young men in Monument Square near the Our Lady of Victories statue. with that whole space-time continuum problem: Too many bands, not enough time.

Apparently threatening comments were made and the woman was “hiding” behind So the Sunday afternoon benefit expanded right through Sunday night into Monday Benson when Googins hit him once in the head. Benson fell to the ground and was reportafternoon ... a two-day benefit “concert” that’s really become a sort of mini-festival, with edly unconscious. The three men, who police say had been drinking together at “several” two dozen bands slated for The Big Easy, starting at noon Sunday, going until they stop Old Port establishments, then ran away and bystanders called 911. Benson was transand then resuming when the venue opens around 5 p.m. on Monday. (Curtis Robinson ported to Maine Medical Center where he later died. column, May 15) ••••••••••••• May 26 CLEVELAND (AP) — The Cleveland Cavaliers are keeping coach Mike Brown — for now. Team owner Dan Gilbert refuted a report Friday that Brown had been fired.

PORTLAND (AP) — Maine’s largest newspaper has moved out of the building in downtown Portland it has called home for 87 years and into a nearby modern office building.

May 18 The move marks the end of an era for the familiar yellow-brick Portland Press Herald building at 390 Congress St., which the paper has occupied since 1923 across With less then a month to go before the 2010 World Cup, Portland’s bar and restaufrom Portland City Hall. rants are gearing up for the soccer siege incited by the world’s largest and most widelyviewed sporting event. Sports pubs, bars and even at least one seafood shop are planning May 27 to screen the competition, to be held June 11 through July 11 in South Africa, a time difference of plus-six hours that means games will start either at 7:30 a.m. 10 a.m. or 2:30 The city’s first policy response to the weekend death of a 24-year-old Westbrook p.m. Eastern Standards Time, and for the most part, will be broadcast live to American man, who died after a late-night confrontation in Monument Square, is expected to be audiences. announced today during a police press conference in the Square. Police Chief James Craig, according to a department press notice, will unveil new partnerships with downMay 19 town businesses, including local bar owners and “other partners” to combat “excessive and underage drinking.” The move comes after 20-year-old William Googins of Gray was The local chapter of a New York-based labor group that has protested against a higharrested in connection with the Sunday death of 24-year-old Eric Benson. Police have said profile Portland restaurateur – including a protest that made national news when marchGoogins and two other men who were with him when he confronted Benson, but who have ers were sprayed with animal urine – has folded. The Restaurant Opportunities not been charged with any crime, had all been drinking “at several Old Port locations” Center of Maine (ROC-ME) had targeted several eateries owned by Harding Lee Smith, before the incident. most notably The Front Room on Munjoy Hill. The group alleged various labor violations ••••••••••••• but Smith countered that ROC was “a national organization” with agendas beyond local Concert promoter Alex Crothers remembers going to shows at the State Theatre workers. People familiar with the situation, including several former ROC employees, say when he was in high school. The Congress Street theater was a favorite venue for a live the group closed its doors in recent weeks after failing to secure grant money necessary to show and its closure in early 2006 left a void in the local music scene, long after Crothers continue operations in Maine. Some also credited the closure to a divide between the orgahad vacated the Port City for greener pastures. Crothers went on to cultivate a successful nization’s local and national branches over the Front Room campaign and other efforts. concert promotion business in South Burlington, Vt. As the co-owner of Higher Ground ••••••••••••• Presents — an independent concert promotion company and separate music venue that BOSTON (AP) — It’s still too painful for Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli to produces more than 420 events a year in the region — Crothers was involved in attracting look back at his team’s epic collapse in the Stanley Cup playoffs. top-tier acts such as John Mayer, Norah Jones, Jack Johnson, Godsmack, Kings of Leon, He’d prefer to think about the NHL’s June draft, when Boston has the No. 2 overall pick My Morning Jacket, Black Eyed Peas, KT Tunstall, Black Crowes and Mos Def. and a chance to select a scorer who can take the franchise into the future.

But Crothers never forget the State.

“That’s a feel-good story,” Chiarelli told reporters on Tuesday, “so maybe you guys can “Portland has always held a special place in my heart,” he said. “When it fell on tougher write that.” Less than a week after the biggest collapse in NHL playoff history, the times and shut down, someone brought it to my attention.”

Bruins emptied out their lockers and headed into the franchise’s 38th straight summer The State Theatre’s distinctive facade may receive a touch-up now that two high-profile without a Stanley Cup. promoters have announced plans to relaunch shows this fall in the 1920s-era building.

The Bowery Presents, an independent promotion company based in New York City, and Alex Crothers of Higher Ground Presents, an independent promoter in Vermont and a May 21 fixture in the New England music scene, announced Wednesday that they have signed a deal with Stone Coast Properties to reopen the State Theatre. The new venue capacity is WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan criticized a camexpected to be 1,450. paign finance ruling in a case she argued for the Obama administration and considers abortion rights to be settled law, according to a GOP senator who met with her Thursday.

May 28 May 25 Police have arrested a 20-year-old Gray man in connection with the Sunday incident that left 24-year-old Eric Benson dead. Accompanied by family members, William Googins turned himself in at 4 p.m. yesterday, police announced. He is being held on aggravated assault charges but those may change pending review by the District Attorney’s office.

As described by police, Benson died after a night in the Old Port went tragically wrong. He was reportedly walking with a female friend when they were confronted by

If you go to the Old Port this weekend, look for twice as many police and bar employees keeping their cell phones handy.

In the wake of the death of a 24-year-old Westbrook man at Monument Square on Sunday, police announced a doubling of weekend police presence in the Old Port starting this weekend, as well as the launch of a text message network among bars and police to provide instant tips of possible troublemakers. see next page

Page 14 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010

2010: a look back from preceding page

JUNE June 1 JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli naval commandos stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid and hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, killing nine passengers in a botched raid that provoked international outrage and a diplomatic crisis. Dozens of activists and six Israeli soldiers were wounded in the bloody predawn confrontation in international waters. The violent takeover dealt yet another blow to Israel’s international image, already tarnished by war crimes accusations in Gaza and its 3-year-old blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.

••••••••••••• BOSTON (AP) — The Celtics were supposed to be too old, too hurt, too inconsistent.

Boston coach Doc Rivers knew better. The team that muddled through its last 54 regular-season games with a 27-27 record is headed to the NBA finals after winning Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals over the Orlando Magic 96-84 last Friday night.

June 2 In the wake of a fatal raid by Israeli forces Monday, and as international conflict continued over Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, Portland-based groups are adding their voices to the debate. An estimated 50 activists gathered in Monument Square Tuesday to challenge United States support of Israel and protest the Israeli raid on an aid flotilla traveling to Gaza Monday.

economic development; and whether to approve a $10.25 million bond to improve water quality, support drinking water programs and the construction of wastewater treatment facilities and to help farmers in the development of “environmentally sound water sources.”

June 10 Someday, the Abyssinian Meeting House at the foot of Munjoy Hill will go from being a restoration project to a museum about Portland’s role in the Underground Railroad and the abolitionist movement. But King Middle School students aren’t waiting for that transformation to study this era in Portland’s history. On Wednesday, a group of KMS seventh-graders made a special stop at the meeting house while walking the Freedom Trail, the walkway comprised of 16 marked sites that recognizes people and places associated with the Underground Railroad and anti-slavery movement.

••••••••••••• While too recent to be touched on in a State of the Gulf of Maine report released yesterday, the consequences of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill could be felt as far north as the Bay of Fundy, according to one member of The Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment. “Of course we are concerned very much with the Gulf of Mexico spill, especially if the oil goes around the tip of Florida and up the Gulf Stream,” said Peter Wells, professor of environmental studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax who spent 34 years with Environment Canada (the country’s EPA equivalent) as a coastal scientist involved with marine pollution issues.

June 11

Five months after the home-invasion murder of Darien Richardson, police are renewing appeals for the public’s help in finding her killer. Portland Set up the pins. Come this weekend, Roscoe Police Chief James Craig P and Boss Hogg will have a new place to chase called a Thursday press the Strikes of Hazzard, and the Dude can abide conference to make the in brand new digs. Bayside Bowl, Portland’s plea, stressing that it’s newest bowling alley at 58 Alder St., will still an active case but absorb the random and creative camaraderie with few leads. “We’re of the outsized Bowl Portland bowling league still actively investigatwhile becoming a melting pot for a variety of the ing it,” Craig said, joined city’s sub-cultures, its founders hope. The facilby Richardson’s parents Darien Richardson ity begins with a 12-lane, 10-pin bowling alley Justin Alfond (left) and Charlie Mitchell, co-owners of Bayside Bowl at 58 Alder St., await a pro- and sister. but also features a stage and 4,850 square feet ••••••••••••• jected weekend opening of the new business.

(DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO) of restaurant space that can serve 50 people, A late-night, 99-mile-per-hour joyride according to plans filed with city planners. across Veterans Memorial Bridge early Thursday morning ended with two 17-year-old males from South Portland facing a host June 4 of charges — and one of them hospitalized after he reportedly tried to flee from the stillrolling car and had his leg pinned in the car door by a utility pole. Police said the duo took If you are among the hundreds participating in tonight’s First Friday Art Walk, everya Portland resident’s vehicle, left at a garage in South Portland, but encountered a police thing may seem the same as always. But behind the scenes, two of the driving forces officer on the bridge, and tried to ditch the vehicle following a brief pursuit. behind the Walk and other creative economy activities have officially merged.

The Portland Arts & Cultural Alliance (PACA) officially became a subsidiary June 12 of the Creative Portland Corporation (CPC) when PACA adopted a new set of bylaws at its May 18 meeting. “What it means in the near future is overlap of a couple of board Prepare for a day of live music and deep-fried snacks as the 37th annual Old Port members, which will lead to increased coordination of activities,” said PACA President Festival returns to Portland, with a day full of free entertainment, crafts and food.

Alice Kornhauser. The two organizations, both with nonprofit 501(c)3 status, have a simiThe festival runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday and will begin with a parade led by lar goal, but different approaches.

Shoestring Theater, a Portland-based puppet theater, followed by a full day of free con-

June 3

June 5 Maine’s primary election is Tuesday. More cruise ships would visit Portland Harbor and boost the regional economy if voters on Tuesday approve a $47.8 million bond package, say city officials and others supporting the proposal. Question 3, a $47.8 million bond package for transportation projects, includes $6.5 million for a megaberth, or deep-water pier at Ocean Gateway. It is one of four bond proposals totaling more than $108 million.

The decision comes as cruise ship visits are increasing. A record-setting 70 ships carrying 75,370 passengers are expected to call to port this season in Portland from May to October, the city announced.

••••••••••••• A year after a federal agency issued flood maps that called for a halt to construction on the Portland waterfront, city officials Friday welcomed news that a set of revised flood maps will allow new construction, from hotels to office buildings to renovations to piers.

On Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency released an “A” zone classification for most of the waterfront, which permits new structures on piers. A year ago, FEMA issued flood maps that reclassified the city’s piers as being located in a high risk “V” zone, which prohibited any new construction and any significant rehabilitation on existing piers. “It would have placed a very severe economic hardship on the properties,” said Charlie Poole, president of Proprietors of Union Wharf.

June 8 Voters were poised in a primary election to determine whether to keep or reject a new tax reform law; whether to approve a $26.5 million bond for an off-shore wind energy demonstration site and related manufacturing; whether to approve a $47.8 million bond to improve highways, railroads and marine facilities, including a $6.5 million appropriation for a deep-water pier in Portland; whether to approve a $23.75 million bond for

certs across six stages, and streets full of artisans and vendors.

June 16 Finally. For the first time since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded April 20, Maine’s emergency response agencies are being asked to provide equipment and personnel to help with the resulting massive oil spill. While private-sector contractors and volunteers have been working in the Gulf, Maine’s governmental response has been limited to sending 14,000 feet of containment boom to the Gulf region at the request of BP, which operated the rig and has been spearheading the response.

June 17 Like many a 24-year-old before it, Portland’s Pride Week is facing up to some issues: Leaving a home of many years, meeting new friends, getting a LIFE. So after two dozen years: The 2010 Pier Dance will move to the Port City Music Hall; new friends include Portland’s police chief serving as parade grand marshal and Carson Kressley, star of Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” ••••••••••••• Saying a proposed six-month moratorium “isn’t necessary,” Portland City Councilor Dave Marshall will introduce a plan this morning that would allow registered marijuana dispensaries in downtown business zones. The order comes in response to a six-month moratorium being proposed by the city attorney, and would change zoning laws to allow the dispensaries. “The moratorium isn’t necessary, as an overwhelming number of voters supported the referendum that led to this,” said Marshall, mentioning that “75 percent of people in Portland said having these dispensaries was the right way to go.” see 2010 page 16

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010— Page 15

January is Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month Presque Isle is slated to host pursuit, mixed relay and sprint competitions. The Fort Kent schedule calls for mass start, sprint and pursuit.

••••••••• January is Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month and Maine is among 34 states participating in this celebration of winter.

From Jan. 3 to 9, 2011, several Maine areas will have free learn to ski and snowboard packages.

“Mainers have close access to outdoor winter sports but many have not taken the first step to try skiing or snowboarding. Highlighting January as a Learn to Ski Month has motivated people to think about getting outside,” said Greg Sweetser, Ski Maine Association executive director. “The Free Learn to Ski and Snowboard Week is hosted by eight

CHAMPIONSHIPS from page 12

The Championships will also act as the official trials for the Junior and U-23 Cross Country World Ski Championship teams, as well as the Junior Scandinavian Championships trip where athletes 17 and younger are eligible to compete.

The Chisholm Ski Club, originating in the 1920s, has been host to many national competitions including U.S. Championships, NCAA and USCSA Championships, 1950 Nordic World Ski Championships as well as the 1952 Olympic Trials. The 2011 U.S. Cross Country Championships marks the fourth time that the Chisholm Ski Club will host the event. The Club has also committed to holding the event in 2012.

The schedule is men’s and women’s sprint 1K classic on Sunday. Tuesday is women’s 10k classic and men’s 15K classic. Thursday is the women’s 20K mass start freestyle and men’s 30K. Saturday, Jan. 8 is men’s and women’s sprint 1K freestyle.

“There is no cost for spectators,” said Arsenault.

“Not only can people watch in the stadium but they can also see the athletes on some short side trails.”

Arsenault expects some 100 volunteers to work the race that will have more than 400 athletes, coaches and support staff.

“We are very proud and what we have been able to accomplish here,” he said.

Come February, the World Cup returns to Maine.

This time it’s for biathlon races in Fort Kent and Presque Isle.

Biathlon is a sport that combines cross-country skiing and target shooting with rifles.

Presque Isle’s Nordic Heritage Center hosts its first World Cup Feb. 4-6, 2011 while a week later it will be held Feb. 10-13, 2011 in Fort Kent.

In this Oct. 25, 2005 file photo released by Sugarloaf USA, a snowboarder makes his way down Sugarloaf Mountain alongside a ski lift in Carrabassett. (AP Photo/Sugarloaf USA, File)

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Maine ski areas. Interested participants can register for available packages through the Ski Maine website.”

That website is www.skimaine.org.

The participating ski areas are: Bigrock, Camden Snow Bowl, Lost Valley, Mt. Abram, Saddleback, Shawnee Peak, Sugarloaf, and Sunday River.

Mainers ski for $29 Jan. 2 at Saddleback.

A newly implemented program will enable the New England Nordic Ski Association (www.nensa. net) to provide up to $7,000 for use in helping New England athletes offset expenses for the J1 Scando trip, U23 / Junior World Championships and the USST OPA cup trip in February.

New England athletes making these teams will earn a stipend of $500 for the World Junior and World U23 Championships, and $250 for the J1 Scandinavian Cup Trip run by the US Ski Team.

One thousand dollars of the funding budget will be directed to the National Cross Country Ski Education Foundation to help further fund New England athletes in international competition.

••••••••• Skiing is a risky business whether going downhill or riding a chairlift up. Tuesday’s Spillway East collapse at Sugarloaf was a nightmare scenario that could have been much worse. May those who were injured have a speedy recovery and kudos to the ski patrol safely evacuating those remaining cold and high. Having been through a lift evacuation at another area in 2009, I can say it’s a scary experience made easier by trained and committed patrollers, and I’m still skiing and riding today.

(Marty Basch can be reached at www.onetankaway.com.)

Page 16 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Thursday, December 30, 2010

2010: a look back

advertised as an escort on Craigslist and was apparently in New York at the time the ad was disseminated.

2010 from page 14

June 18

June 26

More than a year after a property owner on Washington Avenue sought city permission to convert a defunct TV repair shop into a 45-person mosque for Afghani Muslims, an end is in sight. City planners will review the request Tuesday following “significant changes” to the city’s zoning rules that officials hope will avert a lawsuit.

June 22

Racial profiling isn’t just an issue 2,800 miles away in Arizona, where that state’s new immigration law fueled a firestorm of controversy. It’s also an issue in Maine, and at the Portland Public Library, the Maine Civil Liberties Union will present “Racial Profiling: Face the Truth Hearing,” an event organizers say is prompted in part by the potential for federal legislation banning racial profiling.

The city’s marijuana dispensary debate echoed through City Hall last night, achieving a unanimous vote of confidence as councilors voted 9-0 against a six-month moratorium being advocated by the city’s attorney. Next stop: The planning commission. Green Independent Councilor Dave Marshall led opposition to the moratorium, which had been suggested by the city attorney who cited vague state laws as a potential problem.

Instead, Marshall introduced a plan to clarify city zoning to expressly include the dispensaries.

••••••••••••• A developer who specializes in residential units will tackle his first commercial project, and it’s a high-profile one. Peter Bass, with Random Orbit Inc. of Portland (randomorbitinc. com), said he plans to tear down the old Binga’s Wingas restaurant building on Bramhall Square, leveling it to the foundation, and build an office.

Dan Skolnik, the chairman of the city’s public safety committee, acknowledged that gun rights advocates scored a big win Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends to city and state ordinances as well as federal laws.

••••••••••••• Walking through Portland this Saturday, you might just unwittingly wander into the sonic midst of an invisible-band music festival. Don’t panic, just count five stories up on the State Theater Building, look for the set of speakers jammed into a window, and get familiar with some local acts as their music echoes off the canyon of Congress Street. The Building of Song Arts & Music Festival will bring some of Portland’s best bands to the city’s busiest intersection.

June 29

June 24

Megan Waterman

June 30

The Internet, a tool sometimes On the Q97.9 stage of the Old Port Festival, Shon- Nineteen people have been arrested in a Portland drug used by predators to lure people telle — a 23-year-old Bajan singer-songwriter — per- sweep that involved more than 50 law enforcement personnel into unsafe situations, has also forms to an enthusiastic crowd. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO) from a host of agencies. On Monday, officials executed a search turned into a major asset in the warrant at 1597 Forest Ave., a residential unit, and agents search for a Scarborough woman who went missing on June recovered approximately 10 grams of suspected crack cocaine with a street value of $1,000, 5-6 in Hauppauge, N.Y. Megan Waterman, a 22-year-old the Portland Police Department reported. The investigation, named Operation “Summer Scarborough woman, remains the focus of an intense missing Slam,” was “a cooperative multijurisdictional effort involving federal, state, municipal and persons investigation by Scarborough Police Department and county law enforcement agencies,” police reported Tuesday. the Suffolk County Police Department in New York. Officials (Tomorrow: The Sun looks back at stories such as the city’s debate over medical marisay the family has released information that Waterman had juana dispensaries and the State Theatre’s initial slate of fall concerts.)

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6.99 6oz.

6.99 6oz.

6.99 6oz.

6.99 6oz.

WINE SPECIALS HOLIDAY DEALS! Franzia box 5 liter starting at ..............11.99++ Yellow Tail & Lindeman’s ...........1.5 ml 8.99++ Shutter Home ..................1.5 ml 2 for 12.00++ Kendell Jackson or Bogie Petite Sirah .....................................................only 10.49++ Fox Horn ..............1.5 L 5.69++ or 2 for 10.00++ Barefoot .................1.5 L 9.99++ 750 ml 5.99++ Salmon Creek .............................750 ml 3.79++ Woodbridge .........1.5 L 11.49++ 750 ml 6.99++ Our Daily Red Wine (Organic) . 750 ml 6.49++ Cook’s ..........................................750 ml 5.99++

BEER HOT HOT DEALS! Labatt Blue Inport ......................12 pk. 5.99++ Bud Lite Golden Wheat .............12 pk. 5.99++ Honey Moon Summer Ale ........12 pk. 6.99++ Michelob Porter 6 pk. 3.99++ 24 pk. 11.99++ Rolling Rock Lite Bottle ............12 pk. 15.99++

BEER SPECIALS HOLIDAY DEALS! B U D W E ISE R /C O O R S 6pk. 3.99++ 12 pk. 7.99++ 18 pk. 12.99++ 30 pk. 19.89++

***18 PACK DEALS ~ BEST IN TOWN!*** Miller Hi Life Lite Bottle .............18 pk. 9.99++ Rolling Rock Bottle .....................18 pk. 9.99++ Pabst Blue Ribbon ......................18 pk. 9.99++ Natural Ice / Lite can .................18 pk. 9.99++ Bush Ice / Lite can ......................18 pk. 9.99++

TWISTED TEA HOT DEALS!

SODA .99 DEAL Coca Cola Products ..........................2 L .99++ A&W and 7up ....................................2 L .99++ Pepsi Products ..................................1 L .99++ Pepsi Coke mix and match 12 pks cans................................3 for 10.00++

MICRO BEER Dogfish Head .................................8.99++ 6 pk.

Samual Adams .......7.29++ 6 pk. 13.99++ 12 pk.

Shipyard Family . . . . .7.29++ 6 pk. 13.99++ 12 pk.

Geary’s Family . . . . . . .7.29++ 6 pk. 12.99++ 12 pk.

Corona .....................6.99++ 6 pk. 12.49++ 12 pk.

Heineken .................6.99++ 6 pk 12.99++ 12 pk.

Grittys Family .........7.29++ 6 pk. 13.99++ 12 pk.

Twisted Tea 6 pk. ..........................................................6.49++ 12 pk. ......................................................11.99++ 5 L ...................................................Keg 13.99++ 10 L .................................................Keg 23.99++

ENERGY DRINKS Red Bull ....................12 oz. 2.99++ 2 for 5.00++ .................................16 oz. 3.99++ 2 for 6.00++ .................................19 oz. 4.69++ 2 for 8.00++ Monster Energy .................1.69++ 2 for 3.00++ Moxie Energy .............................................99++

Hood Milk always at state minimum • Redemption Center – 6 Cents Everyday