I'm still shaking my head in dismay and disbelief after Monday's panel convened, allegedly, to discuss the future of Maine's newspapers. (Here's the video.) I've spent many years in the alternative and community press, and am well used to seeing frequent examples of the outright cluelessness and lack of vision at mainstream daily newspapers.

The first public in-house criticism of the Portland Press Herald's donation of $46,000 worth of advertising to a political campaign (the elected mayor one) has been published in the Columbia Journalism Review. The text isn't online as of this posting, but you can check here to see if it is now.

It includes criticism from both Greg Kesich, an editorial page writer, and Tom Bell, a political reporter who also heads the employees' union.

Sussman, who is engaged to be married to Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, is rumored to still be upset at Portland Press Herald coverage last year of Pingree's use of his private jet for transportation, despite the House Ethics Committee's declaration that it was not a violation of House rules.

According to a note posted this afternoon on the Press Herald's Web site, there will no longer be online comments for any stories.

This does not appear to be the case for owner/editor/publisher Richard Connor's other newspaper holding, the Wilkes-Barre (Pennsylvania) Times-Leader, which as of 5:30 this afternoon still allowed comments on every story I checked.

An unfolding national mystery/hoax struck Maine earlier this month, when a woman named Ellie Light wrote letters that were published in three newspapers in Maine and seacoast New Hampshire, claiming to be from towns in each of the papers' coverage areas.

As the Cleveland Plain Dealer has been reporting now for a few days, Ellie Light isn't from anywhere near here (and a person purporting to be her e-mailed me today saying she lives in southern California).

In last week's Phoenix, I wrote about New Left Media, and the No On 1 documentary they produced during election season. That doc was pretty straightforward (and moving), but Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll are at their best (and funniest, and most terrifying) when they highlight the views of ill-informed right-wingers

Let’s just call it a final act of Mercury’s retrograde. They're good-natured about it, and are "going to post an update" to their story today, according to News Director Robb Atkinson, but last night's WGME News 13 broadcast had a very straight-faced Kiley Bennett (whom we really like, and who has been a celebrity presenter at our Portland Music Awards shows) announcing that three DJs at WCYY had been suspended for transgressions over the weekend.

UPDATED WITH LINK TO THE UNION'S SUMMARY OF THE CONTRACT.

After months and months of trying to put together a deal (and after years of preparation on the part of the Blethens), it appears that Richard Connor, the union-busting Bangor native who runs the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader newspaper in Pennsylvania, may be close to actually getting ink on paper to buy the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, the Central Maine Morning Sentinel, the Kennebec Journal, and associated Web sites and - most importantly - about $30 million in real estate

Our friends over at Mainebiz are reporting that the Conway Daily Sun will open a Portland Daily Sun sometime this month. It's expected to be free, and won't have an office, if I'm understanding the quote correctly - "our office will be the coffeehouse." (Saves cash, for sure, but how do you drop things off for people to look at or write about?)

Yes, it's true - the very show in which WCSH 6 denied the existence of global warming and allowed a man to claim that Earth's gravity has cycles that affect the climate also included an interview by Rob Caldwell with Senator John McCain.

Caldwell's interview (watch it below) is getting attention all over the blogosphere, mainly because McCain was such a horrendous liar and was unable to compently deliver non-answers to Caldwell's relatively simple questions.

I swear I'm stone cold sober, but I still am worried that I'm outright hallucinating. Flipping channels tonight, I hit on WCSH 6 just as the 207 show was opening up. And Cindy Williams (filling in tonight for Kathleen Shannon) compared complaints about global warming to Chicken Little's claims that "the sky is falling."