Of Mice and Politicians

"Eeeek!"
I can't help but think that is a mild version of what Jackson Lab officials must be thinking at finding their biomedical research institution kicked around as a political football in Maine's gubernatorial campaign. (The photo is of one of the lab's research mice).
No one at the lab has said anything publicly about it, but there's simply no way they can be enthusiastic about the attention they've been getting lately in the campaign, thanks mainly to Republican candidate Les Otten. He was the first candidate to say that the lab's interest in expanding to Florida represents a failure by Maine's state government, but now others are chiming in.
Democrat Rosa Scarcelli (in this PPH op-ed) and Republican Paul LePage are echoing Otten's sentiments, saying that Maine needs to do more to try to get Jackson Lab to expand here instead. But Democrat John Richardson (who now has dropped out of the race for other reasons) and Republican Peter Mills have said that comparing Maine to Florida, in terms of the opportunities available to Jackson Lab in each state, is like comparing apples and oranges (according to this MPBN story).
Mills and Richardson have said Maine simply cannot match what Florida has to offer, in terms of state funding and potential research partners (the lab itself says the same thing in this press release). Republican candidate Matt Jacobson, in this blog post, also says that dangling $130 million to recruit 200 jobs would not be a good economic development strategy for Maine.
The issue of the lab's possible out-of-state expansion has become a hot one politically, and undoubtedly it is making lab officials uncomfortable. During a recent GOP debate in Bangor, Mills publicly rebuked Otten for characterizing the possible expansion as "a loss of 7,000 jobs" in Maine (that's the number of jobs projected to be created eventually in Florida by Jackson Lab and other possible partners). Mills called Otten's statement a "falsehood," and Otten replied by saying he was "appalled" by Mills' criticism (see the BDN story).
[As an aside: Mills' criticism of Otten's comments is not surprising. The Cornville Republican is friends with Jill Goldthwait, an independent who used to be Maine Senate president. Since leaving public office, Goldthwait has served as the lab's chief government relations officer - and she has endorsed Mills in the Republican primary.]
Jackson Lab certainly isn't used to seeing its name dragged into the mudpit of state politics. It long has received broad bipartisan support in Maine - from every governor in recent memory, from Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and from U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, a Democrat. Former Congressman Tom Allen, another Democrat, also took an interest in supporting the lab, even though it wasn’t in his district.
The lab's access to public funding, however, is another matter. If the lab's expansion becomes politicized, how much more money might it get from state bonds or federal allocations?
Scarcelli touches upon this very question in her op-ed piece (even though in the piece she says Maine's recent public investment in the lab has been "worthwhile"). Maine taxpayers, she writes, have given the lab more than $40 million over the past decade.
"But is it too much to expect that in return for this money, Maine should get first refusal on any new facility the company plans to create?" Scarcelli asks.
According to Jackson Lab’s web site, the lab’s operating revenue for the 2009 fiscal year includes more than $54 million in public support, which is nearly one-third of its operating budget. That public support includes both bonds approved directly by Maine voters and funding the lab has received from the federal National Institutes of Health.
What will happen with future public funding votes if Maine is viewed as getting the short end of the stick somehow in the Florida deal? How generous will Maine voters be with future bond issues if most of the lab's growth seems to be headed to Florida instead of Maine? How much can members of Maine’s congressional delegation advocate for continued federal funding for the lab if the lab is believed to be shipping jobs out of state? The perception being cast by the political debate could have adverse consequences on the lab's ability to raise money in Maine and with the help of Maine politicians in Washington.
In an April 26 press release, Jackson Lab CEO Rick Woychik seems to address this concern. Without making any reference to the gubernatorial campaign, he writes: "Job growth over the last decade has been accelerated by Maine's investments in our campus infrastructure, and we hope that our partnership with the state will continue."
Again, lab officials have not made any public reference to the gubernatorial campaign, so how they really feel about the lab becoming a campaign issue is anybody's guess. But whether the attention is fair or not, the lab certainly has ample reason to hope that the political scrutiny in Maine of its plans in Florida goes away as quickly as possible.

Impostor pastor?

Washington County residents were shocked this week to learn that a pastor and his wife who had been living in Jonesport for several months were arrested on kidnapping charges. The Washington County Sheriff's Office has said that Colin Haag, Jr., and Amanda Haag were hiding her two biological daughters, ages 7 and 12, from their biological father.
The tale, as told Wednesday by the Bangor Daily News, is fairly sordid. The couple has been accused of:

• Moving around the country to keep the girls away from their father, who lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• Bringing the pastor's father, Colin Haag, Sr., with them on their itinerant travels, having him use an alias, and keeping him captive in the basement wherever they lived.
• Stealing items from churches in western Washington County
• Telling parishioners that Colin Haag, Jr., is an ordained minister, though he is not.
  
• Never getting divorced from other spouses they lived with previously.
  

The alleged web of misrepresentations and deceit came unraveled, according to the paper, when Haag Sr. went to police last weekend and told them the couple had left the girls at the Eagle's Lodge Motel in Ellsworth. Police found the girls there alone, and then arrested Haag Jr. and his wife. The girls since have been reunited with their biological father, police said.
According to the sheriff, the Haags were preparing to pack up for another distant destination when they were arrested. There also have been suggestions that Haag Jr. may have misrepresented his military background, according to the BDN.
But some of those allegations already are in dispute. Francis Cassidy, who represents Amanda Haag, told the paper Thursday that his client was not hiding her daughters from their father, whose name (according to Associated Press) is Randall Hodges. Cassidy acknowledged, however, that even if she wasn't trying to conceal the girls' location, Amanda Haag might not have had permission to move her daughters around the country. He said his client appears to still be legally married to the girls' father, though she's also married to Haag Jr.
Cassidy said Haag Jr. is a minister, though he did not specifically say that the claim that Haag never was ordained is not true. He did say it is not true the Haags were preparing to hit the road again. They simply were getting ready to move into another rental in Jonesport, he said.

So, is it a case of actual law-breaking, of perhaps more-than-inappropriate but not-quite-illegal behavior, or just an unfortunate series of misunderstandings and misassumptions? Whatever the final, official version turns out to be, the allegations are eye-popping, especially for a rural and fairly conservative area where scandals of this magnitude are unheard of.

Incidentally, this is the second tragic tale in the area in the past week. On April 14, the body of one of two adult brothers was found floating off Bois Bubert Island in Milbridge, a few days after the two had gone out to the island for a weekend trip, according to an article in Fenceviewer. The body of the second brother, who also is believed to have drowned, has not been found.

The Final Can

The last can of sardines - a tin of Beech Cliff's Louisiana hot sauce flavor - rolled off the conveyor belt Thursday in Gouldsboro at the last remaining sardine cannery in the U.S. By the end of today, when employees finish boxing up the tins they packed, sealed and cooked on Thursday, there will be no more sardine canneries in the country.
The decline of the sardine business occurred long before today, but the symbolism of the Stinson Seafood cannery closing its doors is huge - and not just because of the already-bad state of the economy in eastern Maine, or the area's relative lack of non-natural resource based jobs. The social role sardine canneries used to play in Maine, by virtually employing entire towns, was tremendous. Canneries have been in Maine since the late 1800's, and thousands of them used to dot the shoreline on both the east and west coasts of the country. Canned sardines were a staple for most Americans in the first half of the 20th century, but now they've almost been discarded entirely by the consuming public.
What other kind of possible vanishing act, 100 years from now, would be comparable to the decline of sardines? The disappearance of pizza home delivery? Drive-through takeout windows? Hamburgers? In Maine, would the disappearance of lobster fishing compare? It's hard to fathom. These changes take place over decades, and by the time a dying industry takes its final breath it's usually largely forgotten.
This doesn't mean canned sardines are completely a thing of the past, but it seems highly doubtful they will ever be as remotely popular as they once were. There will continue to be imports, and perhaps someday some small-scale entrepreneur will restore production somewhere in the U.S. But I don't see any domestic producer cranking out 30 million cans a year, as the Stinson's plant did in 2009.
I did not eat sardines growing up, but I have bought several tins of Beech Cliff sardines since the cannery's closure was announced in February. In my opinion, they are an acquired taste. But I plan to keep trying to acquire it. It won't bring anything back, but it might help keep them from disappearing from American store shelves forever.

NOTES: In the above photo, Robert Hill of Gouldsboro poses beneath the Beech Cliff Sardines sign in the village of Prospect Harbor while Gerald Humphries of Gouldsboro (behind bush) takes his photograph on April 15, 2010. The Stinson Seafood cannery, where Beech Cliff sardines were being made, is on the other side of the hill. Both men worked at the plant and were taking the photos on their final day of work . . . As seagulls swarmed and cried while flying above the cannery, Humphries said "They're crying because they're not going to get any more food." . . . On the last day of canning, Bill Thayer, a Gouldsboro selectmen and local organic farmer, picked up a large tote worth of sardine parts from the plant to use as compost on his fields. The gulls helped themselves to a few morsels from the back of his pickup truck as he slowly drove away. . . On Thursday, the sign in front of the Prospect Harbor United Methodist Church said "God bless the Stinsons employees" . . . State officials say they have helped cannery owner Bumble Bee narrow down the list of potential plant buyers to one - an unnamed company that has signed what Gov. Baldacci's office calls a "non-binding letter of intent." If the sale goes through, the name of the firm is expected to be made public in mid-May, if it doesn't leak out before then. Whichever company it might be, it likely will process mostly lobster, but state officials have said it could employ more than 100 people. The sardine cannery operation employed 128 people at the end.

Bell View

A view of upper Penobscot Bay from Fort Point State Park in Stockton Springs on April 10, 2010.

Another Money Scandal

Well, make that three members of Northeast Harbor's wealthy summer community that is in trouble with the law over money. Some might suggest the economy may have hastened their woes, but I don't know that the economy can be blamed.

Dianna Brochendorff (at right), the latest to join the list, has a history of bouncing checks on and around Mount Desert Island, according to local police, though she hasn't faced any local charges. I've been told by one area business owner that they now have what they call "The Brochendorff Rule," which means that all the orders they receive are paid for in full before they ship out. This rule was implemented well before the economy went south. Now, she's accused of stealing nearly $200,000 worth of antiques and designer clothing from a former friend in Connecticut, where she's facing a charge of first degree larceny, according to this article in that state's Register Citizen newspaper. Local police say she has been living in a Main Street apartment in Northeast Harbor and is believed to have sold some of these items out of her consignment shop in Somesville on MDI. Nan Lincoln wrote in a Bar Harbor Times story that Brochendorff denies the allegations and is pressing on with her shop.

The predicament of Anthony Marshall (near left) does not seem economy-related as much as a question of whether he had a right to manage his mother's money the way he did. In a much publicized trial in NYC, he was found guilty of stealing millions from his late mother, former New York society doyenne Brooke Astor, but his lawyers are trying to have the conviction vacated. They are arguing that one juror caved in to pressure though she did not believe he was guilty, according to the New York Daily News. Astor summered in Northeast Harbor for decades, and Marshall is married to former local resident Charlene Marshall (far left). Tony Marshall is listed in the town's official assessor database as the owner of Astor's former local summer estate, Cove End.

Donald Anthony Walker Young's situation, like that of Bernie Madoff, probably is more economy related in that people stopped investing in his brokerage firm and began asking for money back as their investments began to tank. According to investigators, Young couldn't give back the money because he spent $25 million of it on himself and his family. News about the allegations became public a year ago (see the SEC's initial press release), and earlier this month he was indicted federal prosecutors, according to this article in the Philadelphia Business Journal. Much of Young's assets have been seized and sold by investigators, but the town of Mount Desert assessor's database still lists him as the owner of record for his former summer home on Tennis Club Road.

If Marshall and Young are having money problems (Young certainly is), the sale of their local homes surely would help them with their cash-flow issues. But who's going to buy a seasonal luxury home in this economy? Someone might - the Barretts were able to sell their oceanfron mansion in Bar Harbor in January (see this earlier post) - but I'm willing to bet that there are a lot more sellers than buyers right now, especially at that end of the market.