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When the good do bad See David Brooks, page 4

VOL. 4 NO. 34

PORTLAND, ME

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McCormick steps down as MaineHousing director Embattled agency leader hopes ‘to bring an end to the current rancor’; critics say her departure moves state ‘in right direction’ — Page 3 McCormick

A pointless Scout’s honor; Maine youth a ‘hero’ — Page 8 effort to lose weight?

See Natalie Ladd, page 7

Councilor: Fire dept. needs an outside hire See page 8

John Kearney of Cumberland, a 10-year-old Webelos Scout with Cub Scout Pack 13, has been honored for his heroism for tending to his injured mother on a hiking trip. He was honored at a luncheon yesterday in Portland celebrating 20,000 young people and 7,500 adult volunteers that participate in programs of the Boy Scouts of America in Maine. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO)

Page 2 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Quirky museums: A Texas tradition McLEAN, Texas (NY Times) — In McLean, a town of about 800 east of Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle, Devil’s Rope Museum, a sprawling tribute to the history of barbed wire and fencing tools, is a bona fide tourist attraction: Anita Seaney, the curator, said it had 6,000 visitors last year.

Texans may prize their barbed wire, but they also love their classic-rock eighttrack tapes from the 1970s (the Eight Track Museum in Dallas), their bugs (the Cockroach Hall of Fame Museum in Plano), their cars (the Central Texas Museum of Automotive History in Smithville), their sports (the Texas Basketball Museum in Carmine) and their toilet seats (Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum in San Antonio). The state has numerous established, wellfinanced museums that are members of the American Association of Museums in Washington — the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas — but there are dozens of others that exist as museums because someone put up a sign saying so.

One thing becomes clear when cataloging the state’s lesser-known museums: Few things fascinate and captivate Texans as much as Texas itself.

There are museums dedicated to Texas regional history (the Central Texas Oil Patch Museum in Luling), Texas weather (the John C. Freeman Weather Museum in Houston), Texas beverages (the Dr Pepper Museum in Waco) and Texas pop culture (Southfork Ranch Gift Store and Museum in Parker, where the “Dallas” television series was filmed).

Cowgirls get their due at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. A number of museums honor Texas lawmen, but at least one pays homage to its convicts, and their keepers: the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville. And there is one Houston museum that shows no Texas bias, because its subject — death in general, and funerals in particular — is too broad: the National Museum of Funeral History, where visitors can admire late1800s hearses and a replica of Lincoln’s solid walnut coffin.

The American Association of Museums officially has 147 Texas museums in its database — California has the most of any state, with 1,070 — but its list includes none of the smaller and more obscure ones, such as the collection of toilet seats in the garage behind Mr. Smith’s San Antonio home that he calls his Toilet Seat Art Museum. Each of the 1,005 seats is adorned with artwork painted or crafted

by Mr. Smith, who is 90.

SAYWHAT...

“

People in Texas have big hearts.”

—Katie Couric

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U.S. to place tariffs on solar panels from China (NY Times) — The United States Commerce Department said Tuesday it would impose tariffs on solar panels imported from China after concluding that the Chinese government provided illegal export subsidies to manufacturers there.

The tariffs were smaller than some American industry executives had hoped for — 2.9 percent to 4.73 percent — which could blunt their effect on the market. But additional tariffs could be imposed in May, when the Commerce Department is scheduled to decide whether China is “dumping” solar panels into the United States at prices below their actual cost. A finding of

dumping would result in additional tariffs that could be far larger than the anti-subsidy tariffs. But whatever the size of the penalties, Tuesday’s ruling is likely to further heighten trade tensions with China, while holding implications for renewable energy policy in this country.

Although the ruling is the result of a quasi-judicial review process by civil servants in the Commerce Department, the imposition of tariffs by an arm of the Obama administration seems certain to enter the partisan fray.

The president’s backers might point to it as evidence that he continues to play tough

with Beijing. But opponents, including the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who are already criticizing Mr. Obama for what they say is the low level of attention to China trade issues, might call the small penalties insufficient.

Whatever political spin proponents or critics might want to put on the tariff decision, there is no question that solar panels from China now control about half the American market, while panel makers based in the United States hold less than one-third. American imports of Chinese solar panels have soared to $2.65 billion last year from $21.3 million in 2005.

American general sees no sudden Afghan drawdown WASHINGTON (NY Times) — The top allied commander in Afghanistan told Congress on Tuesday that he would not be recommending further American troop reductions until late this year, after the departure of the current “surge” forces and the end of the summer fighting season.

That timetable would defer one of the thorniest military decisions facing President Obama — the pace at which the United States removes its forces from Afghanistan by the

end of 2014 — until after the November elections.

Gen. John R. Allen, a Marine four-star general who commands the American-led allied forces in Afghanistan, said that he remained optimistic about eventual success but that it was too early to begin shifting forces from battles in the south to the country’s turbulent eastern provinces.

He also acknowledged the deep sensitivities, especially given the current diplomatic

crisis with Afghanistan, involved in handing over complete security control to Afghan forces, including over the commando night raids that American commanders say are critical to the war effort. These are the subject of intense negotiation, he testified.

General Allen said that only after reviewing the results of the next six months of fighting — at the end of which there will be 68,000 American troops remaining there — would he

turn his attention to the pace of further reductions in the force.

But he repeatedly said that by the end of next year, Afghan forces would have taken over primary responsibility for operations across the country, allowing NATO’s combat role to be finished by the end of 2014, as currently scheduled.

He spoke during a lengthy hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, where the questions and comments

Grand Jury in Florida will Gunman may have filmed examine death of teenager attack at French school MIAMI (NY Times) — A grand jury will hear evidence next month in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black Florida teenager by a neighborhood watch volunteer, the state attorney’s office for Brevard and Seminole Counties announced on Tuesday.

The shooting last month of the teenager, Trayvon Martin, which has set off a national outcry, is also being investigated by the Justice Department. On Tuesday, the state attorney for Brevard and Seminole, Norman R. Wolfinger, released a statement saying that a Seminole grand jury would examine the episode beginning on April 10. He asked for the public’s patience while law enforcement officials continue to investigate.

“I share in the desire of the family

and the community to accurately collect and evaluate all the facts surrounding the tragic death of Trayvon Martin,” Wolfinger’s statement said. “I respectfully request that the public remain patient as this process continues forward.”

Trayvon, 17, was shot as he was walking to the home of his father’s girlfriend from a convenience store in Sanford, just north of Orlando, on Feb. 26.

George Zimmerman, 28, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Trayvon, has told the police that he shot the teenager in self-defense.

On Monday night, the Justice Department said its Civil Rights Division, in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, would investigate Trayvon’s death.

TOULOUSE, France (NY Times) — A day after an attack outside a Jewish school here killed a rabbi and three young children, the French authorities offered fresh details on Tuesday of an assault that has stunned the nation and terrorized the city, saying the lone gunman seemed to be filming his actions as he coolly shot his victims to death.

Claude Guéant, the interior minister, told a French radio station that surveillance footage from the school’s security cameras showed what appeared to be a video camera strapped to the gunman’s chest — adding a lurid detail to the most deadly attack against Jews in France in 30 years.

With the nation’s terrorism alert at its highest level — “scarlet” — the French authorities pursued a broad and high-profile search on Tuesday for the assailant, but Guéant said little was known about him.

The attack has been linked to two earlier shootings of French paratroopers, with the police saying that the same gun, a .45-caliber automatic pistol, was used in all three assaults.

The authorities have also said that the methods were the same — a man on a powerful motorbike, also the same in each instance, who killed and then fled. President Nicolas Sarkozy has called the shooting a “national tragedy” and ordered a minute’s silence at schools across France at 11 a.m.

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012— Page 3

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McCormick resigns as MaineHousing director She cited ‘a systematic attack’ against agency; Courtney: Change means state can ‘turn on that economic engine’

BY DAVID CARKHUFF THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

Facing legislation that would have allowed her board to remove her, Dale McCormick resigned yesterday from her position as director of the Maine State Housing Authority, effective March 31.

"MaineHousing has a number of new board members with different policy perspectives," McCormick and MaineHousing wrote in a joint statement. "The Board and the Director have concluded that it is in the best interests of the housing McCormick authority and the people of Maine that they reach an agreement on an early end to the director’s term."

"I have been privileged to serve as MaineHousing director for seven years," McCormick, the state's first female state treasurer, wrote in a letter to Gov. Paul LePage.

"In order to bring an end to the current rancor, the board and I have concluded that it is in the best interests of the housing authority and the people of Maine to reach an agreement on an early end to my term," McCormick wrote to the governor, who accepted her resignation.

LePage wrote that he appreciated McCormick's service to Maine, acknowledging they were "not always on the same side of an issue."

"You and the board have concluded that rather

than allow the current disagreements to continue through your term, it is in the best interests of the housing authority to come to an agreement on an early end to your term," LePage wrote. "This gesture shows your commitment to moving Maine forward."

The Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative group, released a report last month critical of the authority, pointing to a vendor list which included resort destinations and "hundreds of organizations and businesses that seem to stray far from MSHA’s mission to provide affordable housing to impoverished Mainers." The center said the revelations from the housing authority were reminiscent of the center's probe a year ago of the Maine Turnpike Authority.

"I'm pleased that the director has Courtney decided to move on, I think we can get the authority back to doing what it's supposed to be doing, being an economic engine in Maine," said Senate Majority Leader Jon Courtney, R-Springvale.

Courtney is the sponsor of LD 1778 (SP 615), "An Act Relating to the Governance of the Maine State Housing Authority," which seeks to make the Dutson MaineHousing director "accountable to the board," Courtney said in an interview yesterday.

The legislation, according to its summary, "provides that the director does not have a term of office and that the director serves at the pleasure of the commissioners of the Maine State Housing Authority."

"We're moving in the direction where we can turn on that economic engine," Courtney said.

“The resignation of Ms. McCormick is the first step toward a long-needed review of MSHA’s operations, and we look forward to working with the new leadership to help restore faith in the agency," said Lance Dutson, CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, in a statement yesterday. "The Board of Commissioners should be commended for their efforts to redirect the agency back toward its mission — to provide affordable housing for those most in need."

Officials with the Maine State Housing Authority, a funding conduit for low-income housing, including several affordable housing projects in Portland, said the agency is heavily audited and has received praise from oversight agencies, including the U.S. Department of Treasury.

In a statement, McCormick wrote that "for the better part of a year, MaineHousing has been subjected to a systematic attack that's ground the important work of the agency nearly to a halt."

Critics said the agency balked at releasing financial information.

“Over the course of the last year, we have run into an array of difficulties surrounding the release of this basic financial information," Dutson said. "After months of delay, it became quite clear that leadership at the Maine State Housing Authority did not share our perspective on the critical need for transparency in government, and the responsibility of public employees to keep taxpayers informed about the use of their money."

According to a separation agreement for McCormick, provided by MaineHousing, the agency agreed to pay McCormick one year's salary as severance, or $101,520, according to salaries listed on the agency website (http://www.mainehousing.org). Her term originally was to expire Feb. 3, 2014.

Ricci in jail after apparent probation violation

BY CASEY CONLEY THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

A Portland man with a history of indecent conduct was taken to Cumberland County Jail yesterday after allegedly masturbating in front of a family of four that was walking Ricci on the Fore River Trail Monday afternoon.

Steven Ricci, 48, was arrested Tuesday morning and is being held on a probation violation, but police say additional charges are possible.

“If you have something like that happen, you go check with Steve Ricci,” said Lt. Gary Rogers, a Portland police department spokesman. “He was arrested on similar charges last year in the same area.”

Indeed, Ricci was convicted of indecent conduct last December for exposing himself to a woman walking on the Fore River Trail last August, Rogers said. In 2006, Ricci pleaded guilty to indecent

conduct and violating conditions of release after he attempted to lure a teenage girl into his vehicle.

Ricci was released from jail on Feb. 28 after serving several months for the December indecent conduct conviction. He was picked up less than a week later for violating terms of release when he was spotted walking along Brighton Avenue after dark — something he is not allowed to do under terms of his probation.

Prior to his release from, police dispersed leaflets in Ricci’s Brighton Avenue neighborhood announcing his pending release and warning residents to be careful. Fliers were also given to administrators at nearby schools.

At the time, police said they spread the fliers because they believed Ricci was “likely to reoffend.” Ricci has been diagnosed as mentally ill in the past, police said.

In this latest incident, Ricci is

accused of exposing himself and masturbating in front of a family that was walking on the trail near Jewell Falls Monday evening at about 5 p.m.

Jewell Falls is a waterfall located on a section of the Fore River Trail near Rowe Avenue, which is near Ricci’s home at 915 Brighton Ave., Rogers said.

Ricci was interviewed by Portland police about the incident and was subsequently arrested after a consultation between the department, the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office and probation officers, police said.

Police have relatively few tools to prevent Ricci from re-offending, other than arresting him when he’s accused of violating his release or for other crimes, Rogers said.

“If he violates his probation, he gets arrested. Unfortunately, that’s what we have to work with,” Rogers said.

Ricci’s past convictions have not required him to register as a sex offender, according to Rogers.

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Page 4 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

–––––––––––––––– COLUMN ––––––––––––––––

When the good do bad It’s always interesting to read the quotations of people who knew a mass murderer before he killed.

They usually express complete bafflement that a person who seemed so kind and normal could do something so horrific.

Friends of Robert Bales, who is accused of massacring 16 Afghan civilians, have expressed similar thoughts.

Friends and teachers describe him as caring, gregarious and self-confident before he — in the vague metaphor of common usage — apparently “snapped.”

As one childhood friend told The Brooks Times: “That’s not our Bobby.

––––– Something horrible, horrible had to happen to him.”

The New York Any of us would be shocked if Times someone we knew and admired killed children. But these days it’s especially hard to think through these situations because of the worldview that prevails in our culture.

According to this view, most people are naturally good, because nature is good. The monstrosities of the world are caused by the few people (like Hitler or Idi Amin) who are fundamentally warped and evil.

This worldview gives us an easy conscience,

David

see BROOKS page 5

Make the punishment fit the cyber-crime

BY EMILY BAZELTON

We want your opinions All letters columns and editorial cartoons are the opinion of the writer or artists and do not reflect the opinions of the staff, editors or publisher of The Portland Daily Sun. We welcome your ideas and opinions on all topics and consider every signed letter for publication. Limit letters to 300 words and include your address and phone number.

Longer letters will only be published as space allows and may be edited. Anonymous letters, letters without full names and generic letters will not be published. Please send your letters to: THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, news@portlanddailysun.me. You may FAX your letters to 899-4963, Attention: Editor.

Portland’s FREE DAILY Newspaper David Carkhuff, Editor Casey Conley, City Editor Matthew Arco, Reporter Founding Editor Curtis Robinson 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 Jeff Spofford, jspofford@maine.rr.com

THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

Last week, a New Jersey jury convicted Dharun Ravi of invasion of privacy, and for good reason. Mr. Ravi activated the webcam in his room at Rutgers so he could watch his roommate, Tyler Clementi, meet up with a male date. Worse, he broadcast his plans to do it again over Twitter, inviting his friends to watch.

That kind of spying should be out of bounds on a college campus.

What’s out of whack about Mr. Ravi’s case is the harsh punishment he now faces: as much as 10 years in prison, for a 20-year-old who’d never been in legal trouble before.

Mr. Ravi could go away for years because, on top of spying, he was convicted of a hate crime: bias intimidation, a conviction probably influenced by Mr. Clementi’s subsequent suicide. According to New Jersey’s civil rights law, you are subject to a much higher penalty if the jury finds that you committed one of a broad range of underlying offenses for the purpose of targeting someone because of his race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.

The idea of shielding vulnerable groups is well intentioned. But with the nation on high alert over bullying — especially when it intersects with computer technology and the Internet — these civil rights statutes are being stretched to go after teenagers who acted meanly, but not violently. This isn’t what civil rights laws should be for.

New Jersey passed one of the country’s first hate crimes statutes in 1981, outlawing the burning of crosses or placing of swastikas to terrorize and threaten violence. In 1990, the legislature added extra prison time for racial, ethnic or religious prejudice.

“From now on hate crimes will be serious crimes,” Governor Jim Florio said upon signing the bill, citing “a phone call in the middle of the night or vandalism that leaves hateful symbols in its wake or racial slurs.”

In New Jersey, cases with bias intimidation charges

have typically included an underlying offense of significant violence. People have been found guilty under the civil rights law for throwing punches while yelling a racial epithet, for beating a man with a metal rod while cursing him for being from India, and for threatening to shoot a driver, employing a racial slur and then tailgating him for miles. These are cases in which prejudice twists into ugly and serious harm.

Teenagers have also previously been charged with bias intimidation. One boy was convicted for being the ringleader of a bunch of children who ganged up on a girl, calling her a lesbian. Another teenager got in trouble for shoving a boy, using a racial slur and threatening to hang him from a tree. But as juveniles, the kids in these cases were spared harsh punishment. The boy who did the shoving was ordered to spend 10 days in juvenile detention and read the book “Black Like Me.” Mr. Ravi was 18 years old when he spied on Mr. Clementi, legally an adult, but he did things that reek of immature homophobia. He told a friend he wanted to “keep the gays away,” and when he set up his webcam a second time, his tweets and texts showed that he was giddily trading on Mr. Clementi’s homosexuality to get attention.

Was Mr. Clementi intimidated by Mr. Ravi’s spying?

The record is mixed, but inflected by Mr. Clementi’s suicide a day after the second spying incident. Though it’s not clear how much Mr. Ravi’s actions influenced his roommate’s decision to take his own life, the proximity in time is chilling.

Given how broadly the civil rights laws are written, it’s not surprising that prosecutors turned to them to ramp up the charges against Mr. Ravi, especially because this normally increases the pressure on a defendant to plead guilty. The state then made Mr. Ravi a fair offer: community service in exchange for admitting to invading Mr. Clementi’s privacy. It was Mr. Ravi’s mistake not to take it. see CRIME page 5

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012— Page 5

There are many kinds of Catholics If Catholicism is measured by obeisance to the pope, his cardinals and the letter of Vatican law, then Rick Santorum is the best Catholic to ever get this far in presidential politics.

He doesn’t just oppose abortion as a private matter of personal conscience. He has made that position a defining crusade.

He hasn’t just been fruitful and multiplied. He has promulgated the church’s formal prohibition against artificial birth control, yanking this issue, too, into the public square.

On homosexuality, premarital sex, pornography and more, he doesn’t just take his cues from church dictums. He trumpets that alignment as a testament to the steadfastness of his devotion, the integrity of his faith.

And for this he has been rewarded with a truly noteworthy level of Catholic support.

Noteworthy because it’s so underwhelming.

Exit polling suggests that he lost the Catholic vote to Mitt Romney, a Mormon, by 7 percentage points in Michigan and by 13 in Ohio. These weren’t isolated cases. In primary after primary, more Catholics have gravitated to Romney than to Santorum (or, for that matter, to Newt Gingrich, a Catholic-come-lately who collaborated with his third wife to make a worshipful documentary about Pope John Paul II).

This is a hurdle that Santorum must overcome to win the primary in Illinois, whose population is about 30 percent Catholic. And it’s yet more proof of most American Catholics’ estrangement from an out-oftouch, self-consumed church hierarchy and its musty orthodoxies.

For months now the adjective Catholic has been affixed to the country’s strange contraception debate,

which began when many Catholic leaders took offense at a federal mandate that Catholic institutions provide insurance coverage for arti––––– ficial birth control.

But most American Catholics The New York don’t share their appointed leaders’ Times qualms with the pill, condoms and such. These leaders have found traction largely among people — Catholic and otherwise — concerned about government overreach. And the whole discussion has opened the door to plaints about morality from evangelicals, who warm to Santorum more than Catholics do.

American Catholics have been merrily ignoring the church’s official position on contraception for many years, often with the blessing of lower-level clerics. When my mother dutifully mentioned her I.U.D. during confession back in the 1970s, the parish priest told her that she really needn’t apologize or bring it up again. Which was a good thing, since she had no intention of doing away with it. Four kids were joy and aggravation enough.

Despite church condemnation of abortion and samesex marriage, American Catholics’ views on both don’t diverge that much from those of Americans in general. These Catholics look to the church not for exacting rules, but for a locus for their spirituality, with rituals and an iconography that feel familiar and thus comfortable. In matters religious, as in “The Wizard of Oz,” there’s no place like home, and Catholicism is as much ethnicity as dogma: something in the blood, and something in the bones.

The Catholic hierarchy, meanwhile, keeps giving American Catholics fresh reasons for rebellion. As The Times’s Laurie Goodstein reported last week, lawyers for the church in Missouri have begun a campaign of intimidation against a support group for victims of

Frank Bruni

sexually abusive priests: they’re trying to compel the group to release decades of internal documents.

This may be cunning legal strategy, but it’s lousy public relations and worse pastoral care. Which isn’t any surprise.

I’ve been monitoring and occasionally writing about the church’s child sex-abuse crisis since 1992, and most of church leaders’ apologies and instances of constructive outreach have come about reluctantly, belatedly or with a palpable sense from many bishops and cardinals that they were the aggrieved, victimized ones.

As they complained about excessive media attention, they frequently lost sight of its heinous root: a great many priests molested a great many children, who were especially vulnerable to them — and especially damaged by them — because they called themselves men of God. And for a great many years, church leaders actively concealed these crimes, which continued.

For the church ever to grouse that critics make too much of this, let alone to retaliate against victims and accusers, is galling. But it helps explain the breach between the hierarchy — invested in its own survival, resistant to serious discussions about the celibate culture’s role in child sexual abuse — and everyday Catholics. They’re left to wonder where they fit into their church and how it fits into the modern world.

They don’t really constitute a voting bloc, because their political allegiances reflect income and education as much as creed. That’s a big part of their resistance to Santorum.

But it’s also true that his particular Catholicism isn’t theirs. It’s the hierarchy’s. And his poor performance among Catholics should cause cardinals, bishops and the candidate himself to rethink the way they approach their religion.

Like all of us, Robert Bales is likely a mixture of virtue and depravity BROOKS from page 4

because we don’t have to contemplate the evil in ourselves. But when somebody who seems mostly good does something completely awful, we’re rendered mute or confused.

But of course it happens all the time. That’s because even people who contain reservoirs of compassion and neighborliness also possess a latent potential to commit murder.

David Buss of the University of Texas asked his students if they had ever thought seriously about killing someone, and if so, to write out their homicidal fantasies in an essay. He was astonished to find that 91 percent of the men and 84 percent of the women had detailed, vivid homicidal fantasies.

He was even more astonished to learn how many steps some of his students had taken toward carrying them out.

One woman invited an abusive ex-boyfriend to dinner with thoughts of stabbing him in the chest.

A young man in a fit of road rage pulled a baseball bat out of his trunk and would have pummeled his opponent if he hadn’t run away. Another young man planned the progression of his murder — crushing a former friend’s fingers, puncturing his lungs, then killing him.

These thoughts do not arise from playing violent video games, Buss argues. They occur because we are descended from creatures who killed to thrive and survive. We’re natural-born killers and the real question is not what makes people kill but what prevents them from doing so.

People who murder often live in situations that weaken sympathy and restraint. People who commit massacres, for example, often live with what the researchers call “forward panic.” After having endured a long period of fear, they find their enemies in a moment of vulnerability. Their fear turns to rage, and, as Steven Pinker writes in “The Better Angels of Our Nature,” they “explode in a savage frenzy.”

Serial killers are often charming, but have a high opinion of themselves that is not shared by the wider world. They are often extremely conscious of class and status and they develop venomous feelings toward people who do not pay them sufficient respect.

In centuries past most people would have been less shocked by the homicidal eruptions of formerly good men. That’s because people in those centuries grew up with a worldview that put sinfulness at the center of the human personality.

John Calvin believed that babies come out

depraved (he was sort of right; the most violent stage of life is age 2). G. K. Chesterton wrote that the doctrine of original sin is the only part of Christian theology that can be proved.

This worldview held that people are a problem to themselves. The inner world is a battlefield between light and dark, and life is a struggle against the destructive forces inside. The worst thing you can do is, in a fit of pride, to imagine your insecurity comes from outside and to try to resolve it yourself.

If you try to “fix” the other people who you think are responsible for your inner turmoil, you’ll end up trying to kill them, or maybe whole races of them.

This earlier worldview was both darker and brighter than the one prevailing today. It held, as C. S. Lewis put it, that there is no such thing as an ordinary person. Each person you sit next to on the bus is capable of extraordinary horrors and extraordinary heroism.

According to this older worldview, Robert Bales, like all of us, is a mixture of virtue and depravity.

His job is to struggle daily to strengthen the good and resist the evil, policing small transgressions to prevent larger ones. If he didn’t do that, and if he was swept up in a whirlwind, then even a formerly good man is capable of monstrous acts that shock the soul and sear the brain.

Should cruel behavior online necessarily lead to long jail sentences?

CRIME from page 4

And yet, if Mr. Ravi spends years in prison, his case will set an alarming precedent of disproportional punishment. The spying he did was criminal, but it was also, as his lawyer put it, “stupid kid” behavior.

Mr. Ravi isn’t the only person caught in this legal snare. After bullying was blamed for the suicide two years ago of Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old in South Hadley, Mass., prosecutors criminally charged six teenagers. That time, the district attorney used the state’s civil rights laws to directly blame five of them

for Phoebe’s death. Like Mr. Ravi, they faced a sentence of up to 10 years. Never mind that the Massachusetts law had previously been used against violent racist thugs. Because it was broadly written, like New Jersey’s, prosecutors could seize upon the law because it “sent a message” about bullying, as one of them later said.

The Massachusetts cases ended with a whimper: After the district attorney who brought the civil rights charges left office, her successor dropped the charges against one teenager and wisely resolved the cases

against the other five, who admitted some wrongdoing, with probation and community service.

Mr. Ravi, of course, will not be so lucky. States like New Jersey and Massachusetts should narrow their civil rights laws so that he’s not the first of many stupid but nonviolent young people who pay a tooheavy price for our fears about how kids use technology to be cruel.

Emily Bazelon, a senior editor at Slate, is writing a book about bullying called “Sticks and Stones.”

Page 6 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– NEWS BRIEFS ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Also showing will be “Kick Like a Girl,” a celebrated youth documentary about The Mighty Cheetahs, an undefeated third grade girls’ soccer team competing in the boys’ soccer division.

“Santosh Sivan’s Tahaan,” an Indian film about a DAILY SUN STAFF REPORTS young boy and his beloved donkey struggling to find purpose and place amidst the backdrop of war, will The fashion marketing program at Portland Arts take viewers on a breath-taking journey through and Technology High School, or PATHS will present the mountains of Kashmir.

“Collection 2012,” a fashion show featuring original “Eleanor’s Secret” is a story about a magic library student garments, on Thursday, March 29 at 6:30 where all the characters from classic children’s p.m. in the Portland Public Library’s Rines Auditobooks come alive to assist a young boy with reading rium. an ancient spell. “Secret of Kells” is an Irish-FrenchTickets will cost $5 adults/$3 students and will be Belgian film set in the seventh century that gives a sold at the door. fictional account of the creation of the Book of Kells.

A portion of ticket proceeds will benefit ScarborThe festival also will feature three collections of ough-based Partners for World Health, a nonprofit short films from the New York City International group that sends health care volunteers and unused Children’s Festival, including films from Turkey, Iremedical equipment to third world countries. The land, Hungary, Slovakia, Spain, Latvia, Denmark, fashion marketing program received a $450 grant Canada, Australia, England, the United States and from Painting for a Purpose to help promote the Australia. nonprofit group.

Local films will include a premiere of short films PATHS students created tote bags, pillows and produced by Portland children ages four to 11. Eleanimals out of blue wrap that will be sold as a fundmentary schoolchildren in Portland submitted films raiser for Partners for World Health. Students also as part of the festival’s Young Filmmakers Contest. have made blue wrap dresses that will be featured The winning films will be shown at the Red Carpet in the show.

Premiere at the Nickelodeon Cinemas on ThursErin Ovalle, WMTW morning anchor, will be the day, March 29 at 7 p.m. and at the Portland Public commentator for the fashion show. In addition to Library on Saturday, March 31 at 12:45 p.m. the blue wrap creations, the show will feature garThe theme for the film competition is “Out and ments made from silk that the students painted by About Portland — In and Around My Neighborhand, remade prom gowns and other original stuhood.” Children have developed films related to their dent fashions. unique experiences within the city. Films include Refreshments will be served. There will be 30 documentaries, live action, animation, stop-motion items for sale at a silent auction, including gift cerand computer-generated graphics. tificates to spas and hotels.

The festival will offer a series of educational workThe PATHS fashion marketing program has shops and opportunities for children and families to had a year-long collaboration with Portland-based interact with filmmakers, producers, actors, writdesigner Angela Adams and her public relations and ers, technicians and others. Guest workshop leaders visual merchandising director, Nanette Taner. Both include “tween” author and filmmaker Hilary WeisAdams and Taner worked with students on fashions man Graham, whose experience includes work on for a blue wrap tableau in the show, the school disPBS’s “Zoom.” Her new book is titled “Reunited.” trict reported.

Local artist and community activist Dovid Muyderman will lead a discussion about his work-inprogress, “The Lighthouse,” a film exploring his experiences as a homeless teenager in Portland. He also will offer a workshop where children and their families can rock out on film as they create their own music videos.

East End Community School is sponsoring the Robert Fiske, a Portland-based filmmaker specialfirst Portland Children’s Film Festival on Thursday, izing in creative camera, lighting and other media March 29 through Sunday, April 1 at several locaservices, will lead a workshop on bringing puppets tions throughout the city. The festival will feature to life. local, national and international children’s films and Alex Coppola, a freelance writer and filmmaker, workshops, the school district reported. is offering a stop-motion workshop. Kristin Womble Programming for this year’s festival will include and Joseph Sibley from the Maine State Music The“Azur and Asmar,” a critically acclaimed film by atre will run a costume and make-up workshop.

French animation legend Michel Ocelot about two Becki Smith, executive producer at WCSH 6, will princes on their journey from childhood to manhood. work with kids in writing movie stories. Ron Botting, affiliate artist at Portland Stage Company, will conduct an acting workshop, and Shana Jaques from the Children’s Museum of Maine will run a program including a shortfilm, discussion and craft activity from the We Are Maine series.

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Center, Zero Station, East End Community School, the University of Southern Maine’s Masterton Hall at 71 Bedford St., the Portland Public Library and the Portland Museum of Art. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.portlandchildrensfilmfestival.com.

The festival was conceived and organized by East End Community School parents and staff members.

Proceeds will be used to plan next year’s festival and to support arts and enrichment activities at East End Community School, the school district reported.

Portland Public High Schools name MPA award winners Isaac Jaegerman, Portland High School; Aaron “Ari” Hymoff, Deering High School, and Austin Kessler, Casco Bay High School won the 2012 Maine Principals’ Association awards in the Portland Public Schools.

The award is given in recognition of a high school senior’s academic achievement and citizenship, the school district reported. The three Portland award winners and their principals are invited to an honors luncheon on April 7 in Bangor.

“Isaac Jaegerman is an intelligent, insightful and creative young man who has been a leader in our school,” said Portland High Principal Deborah Migneault. “Isaac saw a school-based need and worked to resurrect the Portland High peer tutoring program. He also was instrumental in starting the Debate Club. His contributions to Portland High School truly have made a difference.”

“Ari is an outstanding student who typifies our emphasis on respect, reasonableness and responsibility,” said Deering Principal Ira Waltz. “I really appreciate his many contributions to the Deering community, including a year of service as the student representative to the Portland School Board. I often joke with him that one day, I either will vote for him or work for him.”

“Austin Kessler is a stellar guide — poised, conscientious and wise,” said CBHS Principal Derek Pierce. “This past fall, we took our entire senior class on a three-night kayaking expedition to various islands on Casco Bay. Austin was the first student we have ever had who did not just participate, he was paid to be a guide. For four years, Austin has been an adept and steady guide at CBHS, modeling excellence in the classroom and in the world, and aiding others in their quest for the same.”

At the honors luncheon, award winners will receive a plaque. In addition, the MPA awards five, $1,000 scholarships in the names of Horace O. McGowan and Richard W. Tyler, former Maine principals and executive directors of the association.

The Principal’s Award is presented in more than 100 Maine public and private high schools by member principals of the MPA, the professional association that represents Maine’s school administrators.

All-City Orchestra Night postponed Due to a family emergency, the Portland Public Schools’ All-City Orchestra Night that had been scheduled for Tuesday, March 27 at Portland High School has been postponed until later in the spring, the Portland school district reported. The date will be announced as soon as possible.

For updates, visit http://www2.portlandschools. org.

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––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

CORRECTION –––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The first name of a suspect in commercial burglaries was misspelled in Tuesday’s Portland Daily Sun (“City resident charged with two unsolved commercial burglar-

ies,” March 20). Christopher Alan, 42, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for burglary on March 17.

The mistake was due to an editing error.

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012— Page 7

P a u lP in kh a m A u to R ep a ir B a ck B a y A u to

NO LONGER AT

Now located at 193 Presumpscot St., Portland –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– RESTAURANT COLUMN –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Watching weight not a pointless effort ability of showing up to be These days, Weight Watchers weighed as last week I practipoints are the hottest commodity cally stripped down to my skivaround and they're especially hard vies to cheat the scale of a heavy to come by when you work in a resL.L. Bean sweater. taurant.

––––– In order to fully understand According to my friend Gina, What It’s how hard this really is, let me they're hard to come by no matter put it in perspective. One smallwho you are or where you work.

Like ish Cosmopolitan is six points, Gina's been on Weight Watchone light beer from Miller is ers since I've known her, has been points, one Whopper with through several program changes, Maybe it’s my stubborn pride. three cheese is twenty one points. and hits weight plateaus that Maybe it’s an image thing, but Yes, all the tools to succeed are plague her. She laments, "I've lost and gained the same damn eight Weight Watchers still feels sort in place, but as with anything worth having, it boils down and a half pounds over the course to making good, disciplined of twelve weeks. I count my points, of old and dowdy to me in a not keep track of my Zumba and save very retro-hip way. Maybe I don’t choices, which in the Weight all my extra weekly points for want to admit that I have much Watchers' world includes a cornucopia of free (aka no points) Friday night, when I like to tip back in common with the women who items including all the fresh a few beers."

Gina also comes from a huge Ital- talk about Aunt Mary’s fruit cake fruits and veggies I choose to ian family all living within a block recipes, and offer up their point- consume. So Carrie was right, I can use 21 of my 49 extra weekly of each other who seemingly host a birthday party weekly. She loves saving tips in exchange for Car- points to inhale a Whopper with Cold Stone Ice Cream and is an rie’s “Bravo” stickers. Maybe I’m cheese, but like the other better, choices in life, where's attractive, big boned, curvaceously sad to admit I have to give up the harder the breaking point of perceived endowed woman. In other words, element of creative freedom at pleasure/value? it ain't easy being Gina. Or me for Like Burger King, many of that matter. some of my favorite restaurants, the chain restaurants (where if Very few people know that I've recently jumped on the Weight now questioning every ingredient truth be known, New Guy often that touches my buds.

Watchers Points Plus Program prefers to eat) have submitted the nutritional values of their band wagon. I only told New Guy menu items. A points value can last week and Bad Dog doesn't care, be found on etools, which is part of the whole online except there's no bacon fat for her homemade treats. experience. Impressively, Applebee's even has speThe program is easy to learn and in theory, is simple cial Weight Watchers selections on their menus, and to follow with a little planning. It also has a lot of while I'm no hurry to try them out, sound enticing. cool online bells and whistles. Hands down, the best Where I work, everything has massive amounts of one is a bar code scanner where I can run around cheesy delicious goodness, fried components, and litShaw's scanning different products for the magical points number. erally heaps of pasta in creamy sauces. The kitchen has been equally amused with and supportive of my The program itself? Here's how it works: Based efforts, and we were all a little surprised to see the upon my starting weight, I get 26 points a day plus difference between one cup of whole wheat penne 49 points a week to play with as I see fit. I can earn and our usual portion size. There's a reason we fill additional points by exercising and according to Carrie, my maddeningly perky (but vastly knowllandfills nightly with Styrofoam take-out containers full of leftovers. edgeable) meeting leader, "there's nothing I can't And my friend Gina? She may binge like a junkie eat or drink." Based upon its nutritional breakdown, for a while, but I suspect she'll be back. She'll tweak every food and beverage has a point value and it's up her portions, cut back a brew or two on Friday and to to each Watcher to make good use of them. They will hit Zumba an extra night. The scale can be frusback up their plan with scientific research, provide trating when the goal is to lose one to two excruciathealthy guidelines for daily point distribution and ing pounds per week, but I know for sure she gets offer a lot of supportive resources. the point.

So why does the whole concept of Weight Watchers The Low Down: So committed am I to this prostill bug me? Jennifer Hudson is hot these days and gram that I am skipping my favorite industry wine the ex-Mrs. Eddie Van Halen always was. show of the season being held next week at the Maybe it's my stubborn pride. Maybe it's an image Holiday Inn by the Bay. Will power or not, at four thing, but Weight Watchers still feels sort of old and points each for half a glass of a big, fat, chewy, Calidowdy to me in a not very retro-hip way. Maybe I fornia Cabernet, I'll be better off taking Bad Dog for don't want to admit that I have much in common a sulky jaunt around the boulevard. Additionally, I with the women who talk about Aunt Mary's fruit plan on spending all forty nine of my weekly points cake recipes, and offer up their point-saving tips in eating in Boston, and then dancing them off at the exchange for Carrie's "Bravo" stickers. Maybe I'm Springsteen concert on Monday. sad to admit I have to give up the element of creative freedom at some of my favorite restaurants, now questioning every ingredient that touches my (Natalie Ladd is a columnist for the Portland Daily buds. Maybe I'm better suited to being an onlineSun. She has over 30 continuous years of corporate only member, but I'm sucked in by the different and fine-dining experience in all front-of-the-house glossy motivational brochures and amazing marketmanagement, hourly and under-the-table positions. ing tools that appear weekly.

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Page 8 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Cumberland Cub Scout wins award for heroism for helping mother survive hiking accident

BY DAVID CARKHUFF THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

A Cub Scout from Cumberland, who helped his injured mother survive following a fall from a hiking trail, received a Meritorious Action medal from Gov. Paul LePage yesterday.

Honored at the Pine Tree Council's inaugural Maine Governor’s Luncheon for Scouting was John Kearney, a 10-year-old Webelos Scout with Pack 13, chartered to the Cumberland-North Yarmouth Lions Club.

On Aug. 24, 2011, John, his mother, April, and his father, Michael, were hiking on the Basin Trail in Evans Notch on the Maine-New Hampshire border.

April tripped near the top and plunged 30 feet, striking her head on a rock.

"There was no question that the injury was serious and life threatening as she began seizing and bleeding profusely from the gash in her head," recalled Lee Goldberg, sports anchor and reporter for WCSH 6 News and emcee for the event.

Her seizure lasted a minute and a half, and the gash in her head stretched from her forehead 5 inches to her ear, he said, speaking to a packed room at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Downtown Portland.

With no cell phone service, Michael wrapped his wife's head in a T-shirt and directed his son, John, to use First Aid training that he had learned in Cub Scouts. He directed his son to apply direct pressure and keep talking to her.

"Michael told his son, 'Just keep talking to her, keep her calm, and don't let her fall asleep,'" Goldberg recalled.

After a 2.5-mile run to the Cold River Campground, Michael brought emergency responders back to the scene.

"When Michael got back, he found his young son in the same position, keeping pressure to stop the bleeding and talking to his semi-conscious mother," Goldberg said.

She was flown to Memorial Hospital in North Conway, N.H. "A Maine conservation officer on the scene commented that John deserves a lot of credit for saving her life, being left alone with his severely injured mother and doing what he learned as part of his Cub Scout training. Doctors indicated that John's actions allowed the blood to clot, and his reassurance kept her calm and awake," Goldberg said.

Michael Kearney said his son's performance "was pretty phenomenal."

"April was basically in very tough shape, it was a pretty horrific injury, and realizing the campground was about 2.5 miles away, the only option left was for John to keep her elevated, pressure on, keep on putting more wraps around her head," he told the crowd during the ceremony.

"As a den leader for 15 Webelos, we always talk about bravery, what's courage, what's a hero. You get very good descriptions of superheroes. I always wondered if it was sinking in," Michael Kearney said.

"That day on that mountain, I realized that the Cub Scout message was being heard loud and clear. To me, John is a hero."

John Kearney received his medal from the governor, saying, "Thank you," and was given a standing ovation.

John Kearney of Cumberland, a 10-year-old Webelos Scout with Cub Scout Pack 13, shows the Meritorious Action medal he won for heroism after he tended to his injured mother on a hiking trip.

His father, Michael Kearney, said, “That was supposed to be a straightforward two-and-a-half-hour hike, there and back,” referring to their ill-fated hike at Evans Notch on the Maine and New Hampshire border. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO)

Suslovic says outside hire should lead fire department

BY CASEY CONLEY THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

Portland City Councilor Ed Suslovic says the city should look outside the fire department for its next fire chief.

Suslovic, who chairs the city council’s Public Safety subcommittee, said yesterday that he supports internal hires when a department or city organization is functioning well.

But, he said there are also times the city needs fresh ideas, adding that the pending retirement

Suslovic

of Portland Fire Chief Fred LaMontagne on April 1 is an opportunity to bring in new leadership.

“With the fire department chief vacancy … I’d say it’s probably time” for an outside hire, Suslovic said.

“That department has been pretty much internal appointments for as long back as I can

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recall, and it might really benefit from having an outsider come in with new ways of doing things and looking at ways to shake things up,” he continued.

LaMontagne has been chief for nearly 10 years, and has been with the department for the past 27 years. Deputy Chief Steven Smith, who has more than 35 years of experience with the department, will serve as acting chief once LaMontagne departs.

LaMontagne hsa been credited with merging emergency medical services in with the fire department and leading regionalization efforts for dispatch and 911 services. He helped coordinate the city’s emergency response during natural disasters and emergencies, including the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” epidemic.

Fairly or unfairly, he has also been dogged by two high-profile accidents involving the city’s fire boat that the department said could have been prevented.

In the most recent incident, in October 2011, 12 civilians, including firefighters’ families, were on board when the vessel hit an underwater object, costing the city $38,000. At the time, it was not against department policy to take out friends and family on the $3.2 million vessel.

The city has already launched a nationwide search and has begun taking applications for the vacant fire chief position. The application period closes April 6, and the city hopes to have a new chief named by mid-June.

Suslovic’s comments came Monday during an interview about Vern Malloch’s recent promotion to Assistant Chief of the Portland police department.

And while he praised Chief Mike Sauschuck’s decision to promote internally for assistant chief, Suslovic said internal hires weren’t the best fit for “every (vacancy) facing the city.”

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012— Page 9

Addressed for success

Students from Russell Elementary School in Gray watch a Goals for Success presentation, sponsored by Gorham Savings Bank, on Tuesday, March 20. Presenters were (from left) Pirates Director of Communications and Broadcasting Jeff Mannix, Sun Tan City Pirates Ice Girls Captain Brooke Hardy, and Pirates players Evan Bloodoff and Colin Long. The Goals for Success program is designed to teach kids about setting goals for their future and living a healthy lifestyle that will help them achieve their goals, according to the Portland Pirates hockey organization. (COURTESY PHOTO)

Maine’s First Lady saluted

by Red Cross volunteers AUGUSTA — First Lady Ann LePage welcomed Red Cross Volunteers from all over Maine to the Blaine House yesterday. The First Lady and Gov. Paul LePage were recognized and honored for their longtime support of volunteerism and the American Red Cross in Maine, according to a press release. The First Lady read a proclamation designating March as Red Cross Month.

“I appreciate the work that the Red Cross does for people by providing shelter, food, emotional support and other services after disasters,” she said. “It is important that we as communities pull together to help those in need, and I thank the volunteers of the Red Cross for their work in Maine. I am pleased to celebrate this organization’s achievements, and honored to receive this award.”

— Staff Report

DAILY CROSSWORD TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

by Lynn Johnston

By Holiday Mathis SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You’ll come across intriguing news from credible sources and will share it to captivate the interest of your friends, colleagues and loved ones. You’ll like the level of attention you command.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21).

The people in charge can be demanding, stubborn and controlling. Step back and think. You’ll cleverly find a way around the obstacles and difficulties that authority figures present.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19).

You have the freedom to believe what you want to believe. It’s a freedom that people have fought and died for, and you’re not about to take it for granted now. You’ll feel grateful for this and for your many other privileges.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You benefit from the input of a partner. Meet with someone you trust to help keep you on track with a project. Lay it out on the table, and determine together whether you’re trying to take on too much or too little.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). Timing is everything. With the moon in your sign, you’re in sync with the cosmic clock. The perfect moment to act is when you’re thinking about when the perfect moment to act might be. Translation: now.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (March 21).

You’re so clever. Your intelligent action will net you a new position before April is over. You’ll negotiate an important deal in May. Your personal life thrives on shared fun through June and July.

Travel will connect you with the inspiration you need to begin a major project in September. Aquarius and Sagittarius people adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 30, 2, 55, 29 and 18.

by Paul Gilligan

ARIES (March 21-April 19). It’s all about you now. The sun and Mercury in your sign are rooting for you to express yourself and actualize your potential.

Family and friends echo the cosmic support.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). A seductive character enters your world.

There is something terribly engaging about this person, and even though you’re not sure you want to get involved, you’ll be magnetically drawn in.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You offered advice that wasn’t taken. No one wants to hear “I told you so,” especially when it happens to be true.

Instead, you’ll offer compassion and a second chance, proving once more that you’re a stellar human being.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). Your memory is strong and undiscerning.

You’ll recall important facts and less useful ones alike. With all the data swimming in your brain, focus requires more effort for you, but at the same time, you’ll be more creative.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You take your uniqueness for granted. You probably don’t even realize that you give people the opportunity to participate in situations they normally wouldn’t be able to access.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You want what you want, and you’re starting to think you might get it, too. Knowing the “why” will bring you closer to your goal -- and by the way, that is far more important than knowing the “how.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). You’ll get the communication started, fully aware of the difference between a conversation and a monologue. Others, not so much. So you may have to be the one to keep the ball bouncing back and forth.

by Jan Eliot

HOROSCOPE

by Chad Carpenter

Solution and tips at www.sudoku.com

TUNDRA Stone Soup Pooch Café For Better or Worse LIO

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, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

1 5 10 14 15 16 17 18 20 21 22 23 25 26 28 31 32 34 36 37

ACROSS All the __; constantly Actor John __ Skilled cook Lendl of tennis Ice skating shoe feature Israeli dance Bookish fellow Supposition; theory “__ and you shall receive...”

Acting part Build Each Plato’s “T” Conductors’ sticks Rocky __; Stallone role Let up Can’t keep a secret Large tub Loose garment Common folks of old Rome

38 39 40 41 42 44 45 46 47 50 51 54 57 58 59 60 61 62 63

1 2 3

Parisian mother Zero Line of travel Plumed bird Pea or bean __ have a clue; is in the dark Stylish March or April Kitchen apparel Rise and fall of ocean waters Fitting Coming into one’s own Not working Orient Spoof Foot digits Easter egg tints Cornered Hit, as a fly DOWN Ms. Turner “As I was going to St. __...”

Of interest to

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 19 21 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 32 33

buyers Tight __; football position Detests In a cunning way Sticky strip Wedding words “The __”; World Wide Web Angel Rubber tube Actor Szmanda Speedy Makes well France’s Coty Cast a ballot Keep __ on; watch carefully Horse’s home Like rapidly bubbling liquid __ in the woods; innocent one Steal the spotlight from Late Spelling Unhappy Allow

35 Camp shelter 37 “__ and Circumstance” 38 Encounter 40 Destroys 41 Sharpen 43 Phantoms 44 Evaded 46 Chop finely

47 48 49 50 52 53 55 56 57

In the sack Drama Went skyward Grow weary Dire request Examination Many a time Spoil “__ a date!”

Yesterday’s Answer

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012— Page 11

––––––– ALMANAC ––––––– Today is Wednesday, March 21, the 81st day of 2011. There are 285 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History: On March 21, 1963, the Alcatraz federal prison island in San Francisco Bay was emptied of its last inmates at the order of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

On this date: In 1556, Thomas Cranmer, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, was burned at the stake for heresy.

In 1685, composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.

In 1804, the French civil code, or the “Code Napoleon” as it was later called, was adopted.

In 1806, Mexican statesman Benito Juarez was born in the state of Oaxaca (wuh-HAH’-kuh).

In 1871, journalist Henry M. Stanley began his famous expedition in Africa to locate the missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone.

In 1907, U.S. Marines arrived in Honduras to protect American lives and interests in the wake of political violence.

In 1940, a new government was formed in France by Paul Reynaud (ray-NOH’), who became prime minister, succeeding Edouard Daladier (dah-lah-DYAY’).

In 1960, about 70 people were killed in Sharpeville, South Africa, when police fired on black protesters.

In 1962, the first Taco Bell restaurant was opened by Glen Bell in Downey, Calif.

In 1965, more than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. began their march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. In 1972, the Supreme Court, in Dunn v. Blumstein, ruled that states may not require at least a year’s residency for voting eligibility.

In 1985, police in Langa, South Africa, opened fire on blacks marching to mark the 25th anniversary of Sharpeville; the reported death toll varied between 29 and 43.

One year ago: Syrians chanting “No more fear!” held a defiant march after a deadly government crackdown failed to quash three days of mass protests in the southern city of Deraa.

Grammy-winning bluesman Pinetop Perkins died in Austin, Texas, at 97. Mayhew “Bo” Foster, a World War II U.S. Army pilot who transported Nazi official Hermann Goering for interrogation in an unarmed, unescorted plane, died in Missoula, Mont. at age 99.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Al Freeman Jr. is 81. Violinist-conductor Joseph Silverstein is 80.

Actress Kathleen Widdoes is 73. Actress MarieChristine Barrault is 68. Singer-musician Rose Stone (Sly and the Family Stone) is 67. Actor Timothy Dalton is 66. Singer Eddie Money is 63. Rock singer-musician Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) is 62. Rock musician Conrad Lozano (Los Lobos) is 61. Rhythm-and-blues singer Russell Thompkins Jr. (The Stylistics) is 61. Comedy writer-performer Brad Hall is 54. Actress Sabrina LeBeauf is 54. Actor Gary Oldman is 54. Actor Matthew Broderick is 50. Comedian-talk show host Rosie O’Donnell is 50. Rock musician Jonas “Joker” Berggren (Ace of Base) is 45. Rock MC Maxim (Prodigy) is 45. Rock musician Andrew Copeland (Sister Hazel) is 44. Hip-hop DJ Premier (Gang Starr) is 43. Actress Laura Allen is 38. Rapper-TV personality Kevin Federline is 34.

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Yesterday’s Answer

THE

Page 12 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

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DEADLINES: noon, one business day prior to the day of publication. PAYMENT: All private party ads must be pre-paid. We accept checks, Visa and Mastercard credit cards and, of course, cash. There is a $10 minimum order for credit cards. CORRESPONDENCE: To place your ad call our offices 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 699-5807; or send a check or money order with ad copy to The Conway Daily Sun, P.O. Box 1940, North Conway, NH 03860. OTHER RATES: For information about classified display ads please call 699-5807.

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ANNIE’S MAILBOX Dear Annie: My friend “Jodi” is 27 and very sheltered. Her parents still pay her rent and bills. I’m worried because Jodi has been acting out of character. She cheated on her husband with a 59-year-old man. He’s now her new boyfriend and “soul mate.” He’s creepy. He talks down to her and gropes her in public. She gives him her paycheck and the use of her parents’ credit cards.

Jodi has a daughter from her marriage, and the little girl lives with her father. I work for Child Protective Services and know this “dream boyfriend” is a sex offender. When we go out as friends, she brings him along, and he says crude, disgusting things to us about our clothes and our bodies. He even tried to take money out of my purse. Jodi thinks this is funny and says I should lighten up.

I told her about his history and that she should be cautious with him around her daughter. She became angry and said she never wanted to speak to me again. I’m OK with that.

She’s not the person I once knew.

My job obligates me to report that this man is spending time with a young child, and I have informed his parole officer. But I also think I should advise the little girl’s father, who has primary custody, and Jodi’s parents, who have secondary custody.

My boss says I’ve done my duty by alerting the parole board, and that speaking to the family is a personal choice.

My husband says I don’t need to crusade to protect every child. Finding out that the creep stays overnight when her daughter is in the house made my skin crawl. Should I tell the family? -- Not a Crusader Dear Crusader. Yes. We doubt Jodi’s parents will do anything since they already enable their daughter to be irresponsible. But the little girl’s father will want to do everything he can to protect his child. You can’t prevent Jodi from being an

idiot about this man, but please don’t turn your back on her daughter.

Dear Annie: My brief romance with “Marie” ended many years ago when I left California to attend law school in Michigan. She married someone else and had a family, and so did I. We each divorced years later and, by chance, met up and rekindled our romance. Marie is a wonderful, dynamic woman, and every moment is filled with laughter and love. Our children have accepted us, and Marie encourages me to remain civil with my ex in order to co-parent effectively.

Here’s my dilemma: When visiting my home, she saw a framed collage of pictures in my entrance hallway, some of which include my ex-wife and me. She calls it a “shrine.” I see it as pictures on the wall. My youngest son, now 14, likes this picture. Marie gave me an ultimatum, adding, “If he likes it so much, put it in his room.” I feel she is being unreasonable.

I truly love Marie, but now I wonder whether I am trading one controlling partner for a new one. We have nearly broken up over this. -- Perplexed Dear Perplexed: It’s quite presumptuous for a girlfriend to dictate what pictures you can have in your hallway, especially when your son still lives with you and removing the collage would bother him. Unless you have a large portrait of your ex hanging in the living room, it’s not Marie’s business. Tread cautiously.

Dear Annie: This is for “Fed Up,” whose brother-in-law helps himself to their food and wine. My mother also does this at everyone’s home because she thinks it’s cute. I was fed up, so I removed the tag from a jar of dog treats, and one day Mom walked into my house and ate one without asking. Rest assured, she no longer takes food from my kitchen without permission. -- Texas

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, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.

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Page 14 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– EVENTS CALENDAR–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Wednesday, March 21 ‘The Face of the Ghetto: Pictures by Jewish Photographers from the Lodz Ghetto 1940-1944’ 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “The Maine Jewish Museum will be displaying The Face of the Ghetto from March 19 through May 1. The exhibition is currently on display at The United Nations. The Maine Jewish Museum will be the first museum in the U.S. to host this exhibition as it begins a two-year tour throughout the country. This exhibition presents recently discovered photographs of community life in the Lodz Ghetto, taken by its Jewish inhabitants. The exhibition is curated by the Topography of Terror Foundation, Berlin (Germany) in cooperation with the State Archive in Lodz (Poland).” Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and other times by appointment. Maine Jewish Museum, 267 Congress St. www.treeoflifemuseum.org

Free Income Tax Preparation 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Free Income Tax Preparation at the Portland Public Library. The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program is offering free federal and state of Maine income tax preparation and free electronic filing in Portland at the Main Branch of the Public Library at 5 Monument Square.

With electronic filing and direct deposit, refunds can be received in as little as eight days. Although walk-ins are accepted, appointments are preferred. To make an appointment, call 776-6316.

The Maine Jewish Film Festival noon. The Maine Jewish Film Festival returns to Portland’s Nickelodeon Cinemas March 17-22, for its 15th year.

“The Festival curates a selection of films that explore the Jewish experience through independent documentaries, feature films and shorts. The 2012 Festival line-up includes American and foreign films as well as a local short film.”

Today at noon is a Free Luncheon. Luncheon limited to first 60 seniors 65 years and older who reserve a seat.

Call 831.7495 to secure a reservation. Film screening free to all people age 65 and older. Today at 4 p.m. is a Director’s Reception,Salt Institute for Documentary Studies/561 Congress St., Portland. Don’t miss this opportunity to meet the director, Yoav Potash, of Crime After Crime. This event, co-hosted with Salt, is free and open to the public.

Light refreshments will be served. Make sure to purchase a ticket for the 8 p.m. screening of the film. Other festival highlights include: “David” (2011, feature, U.S.) through an act of good faith, Daud, a young Muslim boy inadvertently befriends a group of Jewish boys who mistake him as a fellow classmate at their Orthodox school, in the neighboring Jewish community; “Dolphin Boy” (2011, documentary, Israel) about the devastating havoc that human violence can wreak upon the human soul, and about the healing powers of nature and of love; “In Heaven, Underground” (2011, documentary, Germany) an enchanting journey through the Weissensee Jewish Cemetery, one of Europe’s oldest Jewish cemeteries. It is s surprisingly sweet, funny and sober film; “Burial of Names” (2011, documentary, U.S./ Auburn, Maine) members of a small Jewish community gather to bury Jewish artifacts. “Since the festival began in 1998, it has presented over 300 domestic and foreign films, brought more than 70 guest artists from the U.S. and around the world to Maine and sold over 30,000 tickets to Jewish and non-Jewish attendees in venues throughout greater Portland and the state. Portland is the smallest city in the nation to boast an independent, professional Jewish film festival.” Tickets on sale through mjff.org.

Brown Bag Lecture Series with Robichaux, Peavey noon to 1 p.m. Brown Bag Lecture Series at the Portland Public Library.”Join Celebrated Maine painter Marguerite Robichaux and her friend, award-winning Maine writer Elizabeth Peavey, at the Brown Bag Lecture Series on Wednesday, March 21 when they talk about their new book Glorious Slow Going: Maine Stories of Art, Adventure and Friendship. The book takes readers on adventures through the woods and towns in their home state of Maine. Glorious Slow Going consists of nine stories of their various adventures written in Peavey’s humorous voice and is illustrated with Robichaux’s oil paintings and watercolors. The lecture will be held from noon to 1 p.m. in the Rines Auditorium with a book signing afterward.

Attracting Birds to Your Backyard 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. ‘Join Maine Audubon Staff Naturalist Mike Windsor and Bill Cullina, executive director of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to learn how to attract birds to your backyard.” $15/$20. www.maineaudubon.org

Transgender panel discussion at USM 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. The “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,” or LGBT Collection of University of Southern Maine’s Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine will present a panel discussion, “Maine’s T Revolution: How being transgender in Maine has changed, is changing, and still

Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Horwitz, author of the historical narratives “Midnight Rising” and “Confederates in the Attic,” will give an illustrated talk during the Maine Festival of the Book. This year’s festival will be held in Portland from March 29 to April 1. For details, visit www.mainereads.org. (COURTESY PHOTO) needs to change.” The discussion will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the seventh floor of the Glickman Family Library, Portland. This event is free and open to the public and includes an ASL interpreter. The panel includes Lisa Bunker as facilitator, Margaret Cook, Jamie-Lynn Kane, Alex Roan and P.J. Mears. The panel will be followed by open discussion. Light refreshments will be served. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Sexualities and Gender Diversity and the Women and Gender Studies Program. For more information, contact Susie R. Bock at 7804269 or bocks@usm.maine.edu.

‘Uncle Bob’ by Mad Horse Theatre Company 7:30 p.m. Mad Horse Theatre Company’s Dark Night Series returns with Austin Pendleton’s “Uncle Bob.” “The reclusive Bob is an angry old man who has never done anything meaningful in his life. He is a failed actor and writer, he has driven away his loving wife, and he is dying of AIDS. A surprise visit by his nephew, Josh, who carries his own baggage, is more than Bob can handle. Josh, an unemployed college drop out, arrives on Bob’s doorstep uninvited and declares that he is there to take care of him. A loving family reunion this is not. The visit filled with name-calling and open scorn as the two men reconnect and discover, much to their chagrin, that they are kindred spirits. ‘Uncle Bob’ boldly explores those perplexing questions about life and death that existential philosophers ponder endlessly.”

“Uncle Bob” marks the directorial debut of Mad Horse Theatre Company member Nate Speckman. It stars guest artists Jacob Cote and Paul Haley. The production opened Monday, March 19, and will run on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings through March 28. All performances will be at Lucid Stage, 29 Baxter Boulevard, in Portland.

Show time is 7:30 p.m. All performances are Pay What You Can, with a suggested donation of $10.

Food and Wine Extravaganza 6 p.m. Mercy’s seventh annual Gourmet Gala for Gary’s House Food and Wine Extravaganza will be held on Wednesday, March 21 at the Holiday Inn by the Bay and will feature 16 restaurants and chefs from greater Portland’s restaurants and caterers. Hosted by comedian Joe Ricchio with guest judge Sam Hayward, James Beard Award winner and Chef at Fore Street, this food and wine extravaganza includes both a silent and a live auction, as well as live music by Paper Street Jazz Band. And all new this year — beer tasting! This event is open to the general public, details follow: Doors open at 6 p.m., judging is 6-7:30 p.m.

Holiday Inn by the Bay, Portland. Cost: $40 per person Highlights: Ricchio as the guest MC and auctioneer, Hayward. Auction items include airline tickets, restaurant gift certificates, jewelry, art and much more.

Thursday, March 22 Gym Dandies 31st community performance “Don’t miss over 200 unicyclists, jugglers, and perform-

ers. Thrill to the excitement of unihockey (hockey on unicycles), off-road unicycling (jumping off ramps and boxes), and much more!” Scarborough High School Gymnasium Scarborough High School. March 22-March 23. 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.). Adults: $5 Senior Citizens:$4 School Age Children:$1 Pre-School Age: Free Children must be accompanied by an adult. www.gymdandies.org

‘Little Me’ at St. Lawrence 7 p.m. “Little Me,” the musical comedy by Neil Simon (book), Cy Coleman (music), and Carolyn Leigh (lyrics) will be presented by Good Theater March 7 to April 1 at the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress St. on Munjoy Hill in Portland. “Little Me” is directed by Brian P. Allen with musical direction by Victoria Stubbs, leading the threepiece band, and choreography by Tyler Sperry. Performances for Little Me are as follows: Wednesdays 7 p.m. ($20), Thursdays 7 p.m. ($20), Fridays 7:30 p.m. ($25), Saturday 7:30 p.m. ($30), Sundays 2 p.m. ($30) with a special added matinee on Saturday March 24, 3 p.m. ($25). Call 885-5883 for reservations and information. www.goodtheater.com

Trey McIntyre Project 7:30 p.m. “McIntyre is one of the most sought-after choreographers today, creating works for Stuttgart Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and others as well as his own company. In its Maine premiere, his company of 11 exquisite dancers bring works guided by Trey McIntyre’s unparalleled ear for musical structures, ‘Blue Until June’ featuring the music of Etta James and ‘The Sweeter End’ with an original score by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Merrill Auditorium, Portland.

‘The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds’ at Lucid Stage 8 p.m. Mad Horse Theatre Company presents the American classic with the tongue twisting title, “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds,” by Paul Zindel. The play opens March 15, and runs Thursday to Sunday through April 1, at Lucid Stage in Portland. “Zindel’s masterpiece, which won an Obie Award, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Drama, tells the story of single mother Beatrice Hunsdorfer, and her teenage daughters, Ruth and Matilda. Abandoned by her husband and saddled with two children, Beatrice hates the world.

She thinks she just needs the right opportunity, and everything will get better. Older sister Ruth knows the reputation her mother has around town, but she seems sadly fated to repeat her mother’s mistakes in her own life. Shy Matilda, or Tillie, is the joke of her school and her family, until a teacher opens her eyes to the wonders of science. When Tilllie’s project on the effect of gamma rays on man-in-the-moon marigold seeds is chosen for the school science fair, the dysfunctional family dynamic comes to a head.” www. lucidstage.com see next page

THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012— Page 15

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Friday, March 23 ‘Religion and the State’ at USM 9 a.m. International experts on religions and how they intertwine with law and government will gather in Portland for a daylong conference hosted by Maine Law and the University of Southern Maine. “Religion and the State: American, French and European Perspectives,” kicks off at 9 a.m. at the Wishcamper Center, with a welcome from Dean Peter Pitegoff and an introduction by Prof. Malick Ghachem of Maine Law. The keynote address, scheduled for 9:15 a.m., will be delivered by Prof. Joseph Weiler of New York University School of Law. Weiler is one of the world’s leading experts on the law of the European Union. Participants in the conference include professors from the U.S., France and Italy. Panel discussions, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. to noon, and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., will be moderated by USM Prof. of History and Political Science, Francesca Vassallo, and Maine Law Prof. Martin Rogoff. The conference will be held at 133 Wishcamper Center, 34 Bedford St., Portland. For more information, email Francesca.vassallo@main.edu, or call 780-4294.

Carolyn Gelland-Frost reading a lecture noon to 1 p.m. Carolyn Gelland-Frost will give a lecture and reading of her late husband, Kenneth Frost’s, book of Poetry, Night Flight at the Portland Public Library’s Friday Local Author Series. The event will be held in Meeting Room No. 5 on the Lower Level of the Main Library from noon-1 p.m. At the outset of this collection Ken Frost guides us through an empty room and into the night sky on a flight that takes the reader on a journey beyond and beneath the darkness.

Vigil for peace at State Street Church noon to midnight. “State Street Church, United Church of Christ, 159 State Street in Portland, is having a vigil for all who wish to meditate or pray for peace in this world, that ways be found to address critical issues without the violence of military force or occupation. The church will open its chapel from noon until midnight on Friday, March 23. Any who are concerned about the actual and threatened violence in our world, are welcome to come in for any length of time to this interfaith vigil which takes place without spoken word. Individuals may contemplate, meditate, pray, as they wish. All who desire peaceful ways to address problems and crises, please come. Information: 774-6396.”

Cornerstones of Science 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. “Cornerstones of Science and Maine Library partners announce a new program to introduce astronomy and the wonders of the night sky through handson telescope viewing. Cornerstones of Science will provide quality, easy-to-use telescopes to partner libraries that can be checked out and taken home by library users. Portland Public Library is one of three libraries in Maine to pilot The Library STAR program, or Sharing Telescopes and Astronomy Resources. By early summer, up to 18 public libraries will be equipped with telescopes for night sky viewing. To celebrate the arrival of this new telescope, Portland Public Library is offering an introductory presentation and handson training by Ron Thompson, an amateur astronomer and Yarmouth resident at the Portland Public Library, March 23 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Rines Auditorium on the Lower Level of the Main Library. The Library Telescope program is considered a gateway to learning more astronomy and to lead people to seek out more information at their local library, planetarium or observatory or college. The telescope program also engages families and communities across many generations and interests. The program also will serve to stimulate interest in science, engineering and math by encouraging self-directed discovery and research.

Another integral goal is to introduce families and individuals to the night sky — one of Maine’s natural — and due to light pollution — increasingly vulnerable resources. For more information about The Library STAR program visit www. cornerstonesofscience.org.”

‘Crazy Horse’ screened at PMA 6:30 p.m. Movies at the Museum, Portland Museum of Art. Friday, March 23, 6:30 p.m.; Saturday, March 24, 2 p.m.; Sunday, March 25, 2 p.m. “Film contains nudity.

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman explores one of the most mythic and colorful places dedicated to women, Crazy Horse — a legendary Parisian cabaret club, founded in 1951 by Alain Bernardin. In French with English subtitles.”

‘Violence Against Women and The Darfur Genocide’ 7 p.m. Fur Cultural Revival (part of The Darfur Community Center of Maine) will present the short documentary film, “Violence Against Women and The Darfur Genocide” at The Meg Perry Center, 644 Congress St., Portland. “This event is free and the public is encouraged to attend. This film con-

Portland Ballet Company is a company of professional dancers performing throughout the year in Portland and New Hampshire. The troupe will perform “Giselle” in Westbrook on Saturday, March 24. (COURTESY PHOTO) tains graphic images of violence. The film will be followed by an update on the ongoing genocide in Sudan by El-Fadel Arbab, Darfur Genocide survivor and former child slave, as well as a question and answer period. Fur Cultural Revival holds rallies and events in support of the marginalized peoples of Sudan on the 23rd of each month to commemorate the anniversary of The U.S. Congress’ declaration of Darfur as a Genocide. Southern Maine boasts the largest organized Sudanese refugee population in the U.S.” For further information, please see www.furculturalrevival.org or contact El-Fadel Arbab at 221-5197.

‘Cinderella’ by Windham Center Stage 7 p.m. Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical fairy tale “Cinderella,” is presented by Windham Center Stage Theater.

“First seen as a television spectacular in 1957, and remade for television in 1965 and 1997, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s ‘Cinderella’ spins its own version of the traditional story, woven through with such beloved songs as ‘In My Own Little Corner,’ ‘Ten Minutes Ago’ and ‘Impossible.’ With the script and score lovingly adapted for elementary and middle school performers, this classic seems as fresh as today. After all, even if we know the story by heart, we still hold our breath until we are sure that the slipper fits.

Windham Center Stage is a community theater serving the Sebago Lakes Region of Southern Maine. The theater produces the only children’s show in the area in which every child receives a part. ‘Cinderella’ is directed by Mary Wassick, music directed by Diane Hancock, and features more than 75 local children in two fantastic casts.” Through March 25. Shows will be performed Friday evenings at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. All seats must be reserved. Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for students and seniors, and $5 for children under 5.

Call 893-2098.

Saturday, March 24 Adoptable Dogs in Wells 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Animal Welfare Society Mobile Adoption Team will visit Pet Quarters, Route 1 (45 Wells Plaza), Wells with adoptable dogs. For more information, call Animal Welfare Society (www.animalwelfaresociety.org) at 985-3244 or Pet Quarters at 641-0620.

ney.” www.rememberingdarien.org

‘Giselle’ in Westbrook 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Portland Ballet presents this full length classic romantic masterpiece at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center at Westbrook Middle School, 471 Stroudwater St., Westbrook. Ticket prices: $35 for adults/$15 for children 18 and under. www.portlandballet.org

Museum of Modern Art Library bibliographer 6 p.m. The Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art will present a lecture in Osher Hall by David Senior, bibliographer at the Museum of Modern Art Library in New York. “Senior manages the development of the library’s collection with a particular focus on artists’ publications and other experimental publications in the fields of modern and contemporary art and design and has lectured widely on the history of artists’ publications and modes of archiving avant garde art activities of the 20th century. His writing has recently appeared in C Magazine, Frieze and the Bulletins of the Serving Library. For the past four years, he has published an artist’s book series through Printed Matter, which includes publications by Dexter Sinister, David Horvitz, Emily Roysdon and Aaron Flint Jamison, and he also curates the annual program of events for the New York Art Book Fair at PS1. Since 2008, this program has involved over 100 performances, talks, screenings and concerts.” www.meca.edu

Renae De Liz at Casablanca Comics 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. The public can meet Womanthology founder and creator Renae De Liz at Casablanca Comics in Portland. “Womanthology is a large-scale anthology comic showcasing the works of women in comics. It is created entirely by over 140 women of all experience levels, including top industry professionals created for charity. The purpose of the book is to showcase the works of female creators of every age and experience levels.” De Liz will be joined by other creators of the book for a signing and discussion. The event is free and open to the public. Casablanca Comics is located at 151 Middle St. in Portland’s Old Port. 780-1676 or www.casablancacomics.com.

Sunday, March 25

Darien Leigh Richardson walk

Maine Maple Sunday at New Gloucester farm

12:30 p.m. Darien Leigh Richardson — A Walk To Remember on Baxter Blvd (Back Bay) Portland Maine, Rain or Shine. Meeting at the Parking Lot on Preble St Ext. across from Hannafords. On Feb. 28, 2010, Richardson, 25, of South Portland, died unexpectedly due to complications from a gunshot wound. This event draws attention to the unsolved homicide in Portland. “The vision of Remembering Darien is to help innocent victims of violent crimes to heal and rebuild their lives in the aftermath of incomprehensible violence. This organization is committed to advocating for victims and their families, as well as providing emotional support and resources required to help those affected by violent crimes find justice and peace in their healing jour-

11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Maple Syrup Sunday at Norumbega Farm in New Gloucester, 402 Woodman Road. “This is only the second year that the Fralichs’ son Noah has been tapping trees and producing syrup. Last season focused on building a classic maple sugar shack, assembling a stove for boiling, and finding the trees for tapping. This season Noah is back at it and more ready than ever to get the maple syrup flowing. On Maine Maple Sunday, the farm will be open for tours of the classic sugar shack (built by hand in the winter of 2011) and sampling of fresh syrup over waffles; with ice cream; or with baked apples. Bottles of maple syrup will also be available for sale.” For information contact Michael or Noah Fralich at 653-6151.

Page 16 — THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The dog days of March Molly, a Vizsla, a Hungarian breed, receives a pat of appreciation from owner Vanessa Baird at Harbor View Memorial Park Monday while playing fetch.

It’s been a week to spend outdoors.

Monday in Portland saw a record high of 70 degrees, shattering the old daily record of 56 degrees set for the date in 2010, the National Weather Service reported.

(DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTOS)

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Brennan signs on to gay marriage effort, joins national coalition DAILY SUN STAFF REPORTS Portland Mayor Michael Brennan has joined Mayors for the Freedom to Marry, a national coalition of more than 160 mayors who support allowing same-sex couples to get married.

“The strength and health of the City of Portland is enhanced when all families are protected and supported,” Brennan said in a statement released yesterday by City Hall.

“Cities like Portland that celebrate and cultivate diversity are the places where creativity and ideas thrive. … Allowing same-sex couples the right to marry enhances our economic competitiveness, improves the lives of families Brennan who call Portland home and is simply the right thing to do,” he continued.

Brennan joins Westbrook Mayor Colleen Hilton and Hallowell Mayor Charlotte Warren as the only other Maine mayors who have signed a statement in support of gay marriage.

“Mayors for the Freedom to Marry is a broadbased and nonpartisan group of mayors who believe that all people should be able to share in the love and commitment of marriage,” states the group’s website.

The group is led by Mayor Mike Bloomberg from New York City; Mayor Tom Menino of Boston; Mayor Annise Parker of Houston; Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego; and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles.

The City of Portland has a longstanding history

of advocating for civil rights. Almost 20 years ago, city voters passed the Equal Opportunity and NonDiscrimination Ordinance, which ensured that all employees, gay, lesbian or straight working in the city could not be discriminated against in the workplace, the city said in a news release.

This fall, Mainers will once again decide at the polls whether to legalize gay marriage. In 2009, voters repealed a law legalizing gay marriage by a 53-47 margin. More than 70 percent of Portland residents voted to keep the gay marriage law in 2009.

“As Mayor of Portland, I will work to bring marriage equality to all Maine families and I invite my colleagues in city and town halls across the state to join me in taking this important step toward building a community where all loving couples who want to make the life-long commitment can share in the joy and respect of marriage,” Brennan said.

Council vote paves way for Husson College to expand in Portland City councilors on Monday approved a zoning change that would allow Husson University to operate a satellite campus on Outer Congress across from the Portland Jetport The proposed site at 1945 Congress St. is currently home to the Elks Lodge and is zoned for residential uses. The zone change makes it possible for colleges, universities and trade schools to operate in the R-2 residential zone.

The council vote was unanimous.

Mayor Michael Brennan on Monday called the prospect of a new college in Portland “significant.”

“We could have a brand new college coming to Portland and several hundred students,” Brennan said before Monday’s council meeting. “That’s good for the city, and a significant advancement for us in terms of access to higher education.

Husson, which is based in Bangor, has long operated a campus at the Maine Mall in South Portland.

With the zone change approved, the university can

move ahead with plans to operate at the Elks Lodge sometime in the future, according to published reports. The college cannot move into the space until the Elks Lodge finds a new home, Associated Press reported.

The Portland Press Herald reported that the current Husson campus in South Portland has 350 students, but that the new campus in Portland could have up to 450 students. The South Portland branch would likely close if a campus opens in Portland, the paper reported.

Historic preservation board to review Schwarz Block project Portland's Historic Preservation Board will hold a public hearing today at 4:30 p.m.on a storefront redesign for the 600-604 block of Congress Street, also known as the Schwarz Block.

The meeting is in Room 209 on the second floor of City Hall.

Architects Jeremy Moser and Jim Sterling, representing block owner Geoffrey Rice, are asking the board for final review and approval of a comprehensive redesign and reconstruction of the storefronts, according to backup material for the board.

A first workshop on the project was held in October 2010 and a second workshop last July. The architects returned to the board on Feb. 15, signaling that "the owner was prepared to move forward with the project," according to a March 15 memo to the board.

Also on the board's agenda is a workshop for preliminary review of proposed outside and site changes to 727 Congress St., by Tom Moulton, principal of Congress Place West LLC. Moulton wants to upgrade apartment units in an Italianate mansion built in 1870, located at the northeast corner of Congress and Mellen streets, and convert them to condos, a memo to the board states.

The building is known as the Woodbury Davis Mansion and was built by a postmaster of the same name after the Civil War.