In a case of struggling media reporting on struggling media, Brian Williams closed last night's NBC Nightly News broadcast with a report from Portland, Maine, with people talking about the troubles the Portland Press Herald has been having.

The graphic for the segment was the Press Herald's logo over the words "FINAL EDITION?"

A Portland man will travel next month to Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats to drive an electric race car (fashioned in his basement!) at the World of Speesd 2008 event. C. Michael Lewis will drive his 10-foot-long, one-person vehicle around a closed-loop course for one hour, to see how far he can get on one kilowatt-hour of battery.

Rumor has it that...

On September 1, Arabica will close temporarily as it relocates down the street to 2 Free Street -- the storefront formerly occupied by the Oyster gift shop. Expect to see a few more professor-types wandering the streets.

Head Games Salon, which picked up Best Haircut, Best Mani/Pedi, Best Massage and Best Place to Get Pampered in this year's Portland Phoenix Best awards, will be moving to 116 Free Street (the Portland Conservatory of Music building), and joining forces with a new eco-conscious healing arts center, The Landing.

In Sunday's Washington Post, ex-Portland Press Herald DC correspondent Jonathan Kaplan laments the decreasing number of Washington correspondents reporting for regional and local newspapers around the country. It's as much a plea for his old job back as anything else - of course, the guy might properly claim to have been duped, as in December 2007 the PPH hired him away from The Hill, where he had worked for five years, and then barely six months later laid him off

There could be an extra price to pay for Mainers who drive drunk over Labor Day weekend. Yes, we know it's always a bad idea, and it comes with various fines and jail or prison time. But this year, the Maine State Police and the Maine Beverage Company (the private company contracted to operate the state's liquor monopoly) will have video crews in police cars to film arrests - footage that will then be used in TV ads to discourage drunk driving.

I love it when Mike Hein of the Christian Civic League sends out email blasts that are intended to incite indignation and disgust -- often, they alert me to something interesting and Maine-related that I might have otherwise missed. Take the email he sent out on Sunday, in which he reprints excerpts from Blue Pagans at the DNC, a blog penned primarily by Democratic Mainer Rita Moran, about pagan involvement at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

95.9 FM (WRED), Portland's hip-hop station, is going off the air. The station serves as something of "a main artery for a lot of hip-hop fans," according to local hip-hop artist Sontiago. Beginning on September 1, the station's hip-hop beats (sorry, I mean "rhythmic top 40") will be replaced by sports programming from Boston's popular WEEI, which will also broadcast on 95.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee just sent us a quick note saying they had a bunch of videos showing a "behind the scenes" look at the race for US Senate, which pits Democratic US Representative Tom Allen against Republican incumbent Susan Collins.

Here are the names of the five videos they told us about (they're linked, but trust us and finish reading before you click).

Well, sort of. While Maine Public Broadcasting has been good about paying attention to our ongoing revelations about the conditions - living and working - at the Maine State Prison, none of the state's daily papers has picked up what appears - to us - to be a major story. (Never mind, we like owning scoops for two-and-a-half years and counting.

At least it's in New Hampshire this time. Last month I explained why the FairPoint takeover is so terrible, and explored all the things that are going wrong, including the painful - and dangerous - failures of the E-911 emergency phone system. (See "We Told You So," July 4.

But early last week, FairPoint customers in wide swaths of New Hampshire had no dial tone at all for something like 11 hours.

A responder to a previous post questioned my criteria for making distinctions between good art and bad. Many gallons of ink have been consumed on this topic, much of it by people a whole lot smarter than me, but it’s worth considering anyway.

This is not a matter of taste. For instance, my own preference is for abstract art, but one of the best contemporary painters I know about is Lois Dodd, a landscape painter.

Just heard from McNallica, Portland's pride and joy when it comes to air guitar greatness. She recently returned from San Francisco, where she competed in the US Air Guitar Championships on August 8. The Phoenix congratulates her on her impressive fourth place showing! (Hot Lixx Houlahan, who won for the second year in a row, now goes to Finland for the international championship.)

I talked to McNallica (Erin McNally) via email after her harrowing return to the East Coast...

My post on public art drew some pointed responses. Annie Larmon had some comments that deserve attention, although one assertion was a little weird: “The first sentence of your article reads much like an argument for intelligent design.” I don’t know where she gets that, what she means or how to respond.

The root of my argument is that bad art in public spaces, or even good art that is not suited for the space, is not a benefit to anyone, and that most public art works are one or the other.

 Who needs China? Here's how the Phoenix does the Olympics.