When it comes to tar sands, the Portland City Council is more concerned than opposed.
The council voted 7-2 Monday night to support a resolution that expresses concerns about tar sands transmission through Maine but declined to state opposition due to the volume of conflicting information that was heard during more than two hours of public testimony.
The resolution states that the council is concerned about the transmission of tar sands in order to protect Portland's natural resources; calls on the Maine Legislature and federal government to better analyze the impact of tar sands being transmitted through Maine; and supports the creation of federal guidelines for tracking the chemical composition of the fuel being transmitted through Maine. The council based its concern on the potential negative impact that could be posed to Sebago Lake, Casco Bay and other waterways should there be a spill.
The original language in the resolution sought to document the council's opposition to tar sands transmission through Maine but members of the council felt they lacked definite information to make that commitment.
"For me, it's important we have the best available data. We have conflicting data," said Councilor Nick Mavodones.
Mavodones said after doing some research and listening to public testimony, he's sure that he's concerned but not necessarily opposed. He said he'd feel better about coming out in opposition to tar sands if there was an objective analysis on tar sands.
Councilor Ed Suslovic said he felt it was premature to come out in opposition since agencies that are charged with studying tar sands have yet to make their final reports.
"I am opposed to tar sands," said Mayor Michael Brennan.
The resolution before the council is simple, Brennan said, and a number of other towns have already come out in opposition to tar sands. He said he doesn't see how the council can say they don't understand the science, biology and data involved to the point that they won't express opposition.
"I don't lack that clarity," he said.
Councilor Cheryl Leeman said she has absolutely no clarity on the issue of tar sands even after doing research on the Internet and reading the backup material provided to the council.
"I can't get my arms around the facts, what is true and what isn't true," Leeman said, and that she's not comfortable with just making an educated guess.
The resolution references the potential for the Portland to Montreal Pipeline being used for the transmission of tar sands oil, yet the company that owns the fuel conduit has stated that there is no project in the queue to reverse the flow.

During the Bug Light Kite Festival on Saturday in South Portland, a crowd tried their luck with string and plastic from the park near Bug Light lighthouse, while a squadron of massive tethered kites soared against a blue sky, during ideal weather conditions for the event.
Considered one of the best spots for kite flying in northern New England, Bug LIght Park teemed with people during the festival. The American Kite-flyers Association offered a "How to fly kites" lesson, and a variety of kites were offered for sale in the museum gift shop. Sponsor Gifford's Ice Cream donated ice cream. Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution promoted the festival on Facebook, noting that the fourth annual festival featured "some of the most creative kites in New England."
A fundraiser barbecue helped support the free admission in the South Portland Historical Society's museum. Allagash International provided their parking lot; members of the South Portland/Cape Elizabeth Rotary Club offered rare tours inside the lighthouse.

Monday in a 20-15 vote, the Maine Senate passed a measure to repay Maine’s hospital debt and accept federal funds to expand healthcare coverage for nearly 70,000 Mainers, but Democrats and Republicans held sharply different views about the legislation.
The bill, LD 1546, “An Act To Strengthen Maine’s Hospitals, Increase Access to Health Care and Provide for a New Spirits Contract,” faces additional votes in the House and Senate.
“The time for delaying and denying healthcare to thousands of Maine people has passed. The time for action is now,” said Democratic Senator Margaret Craven of Lewiston, in a press release. “Too many Mainers are one illness or accident away from financial ruin. It doesn’t have to be that way.”
But the Maine Senate Republican Office in a press release depicted the bill as an ill-fated effort to tie hospital repayment to a broader issue of health coverage.
Paying the $484 million hospital debt has long been a Republican priority, the GOP press release stated, but the fate of the bill is now in doubt after Democratic leadership decided to combine the legislation with an unrelated bill that would expand welfare benefits to 70,000 Maine residents, Republicans stated.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage has indicated he will veto the bill if it passes in its present form.
On May 16, as Democrats unveiled their legislation, LePage said, “There is no connection between paying an overdue bill left on my desk when I took office and increasing welfare.”
During the plan’s unveiling, Senate President Justin Alfond of Portland said, “Democrats have always been focused on repaying the state’s debt to the hospitals — even during the worst recession of our lifetime. Today, we commit to a swift upfront and immediate payment in full to put to rest our debt obligation.”
Republicans called Monday’s vote a disturbing sign of things to come.
“I am deeply disturbed by what happened in the Senate today, and I believe it sets a very negative tone for the remainder of the legislative session,” said Senate Republican Leader Michael Thibodeau in the GOP press release. “Medicaid expansion has been portrayed by our Democratic colleagues as ‘free money’ from the federal government. But the 100 percent reimbursement rate would only last for a few years. It’s estimated that by the year 2018, Medicaid expansion would cost Maine an additional $100 million per year. Rushing Medicaid expansion through the Legislature right now makes no sense. What’s worse, the bill, in its present form, stands little chance of being signed into law. If it isn’t, the hospitals don’t get paid, jobs will go unfilled and construction projects will remain on hold.”
Democrats said nearly 70,000 Maine people can receive healthcare coverage if Maine accepts the federal government’s offer: The federal government has agreed to pay 100 percent of the cost for covering all newly eligible people for the first three years and then gradually lowering its payment to no less than 90 percent of the cost by 2020.
“Passing this bill is fiscally responsible, medically responsible, and morally responsible,” said Sen. John Cleveland of Auburn. “The legislature can make that decision. We have it in our power to pay our debt to the hospitals and provide healthcare to the poorest in our communities.”
Maine is projected to save $690 million in the next 10 years if it accepts the federal dollars, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Foundation and the conservative Heritage Foundation, according to the press release from Democratic leadership. Maine is also one of 10 states that will see Medicaid expenditures go down over the next 10 years.
Assistant Senate Republican Leader Roger Katz said, “I am disappointed in today’s Senate vote. We are missing a golden opportunity to pay our $484 million debt to the hospitals and do it now so that money can be immediately infused into Maine’s economy. On the other hand, the issue of Medicaid expansion should not be rushed through. I have an open mind on expansion, but until we know for sure what percentage of the bill for new enrollees the federal government will pay, how can we possibly make an intelligent decision?”
Katz added that LePage “is attempting to negotiate with the federal government for a better deal for Maine. Let’s give him some time to save us some money before we jump into this.”

To quote Art Linkletter, kids say the darndest things. Sally Bowden-Schaible and Bob Schaible, who gave a talk this past Sunday, credit Sally's daughter, Jaime Costigan, with awakening them to their newfound perspective on the potential for peace in the Middle East.
The talk, "Social Action as Spiritual Practice," was presented at the Center for Grieving Children and focused on the role of interfaith ministry as a means to that peaceful end.
"It was during her undergrad work at Suffolk, and she was reading things about the conflict there," Sally said. "We started to question some of the things she was telling us."
"I had followed this issue and saw a lot of wrong on both sides. I felt at first like Jaime was tending too much to blame Israel. Once we did the research, we realized there's another whole story here we had never been exposed to," Bob said.
"Once the door is open to anything, and you have a different perspective, you just can't close the door again," Sally said.
A visit to Jerusalem to see Jaime, who was there working for the Abraham Fund, helped reinforce her message and catapulted the couple into their new way of thinking.
"The first time we went to visit our daughter, who was finishing her masters from Brandeis, it was at end of her school work so she was able to show us around," Sally said.
"If you go to Israel and get the tour, you get the standard Israeli view. We were able to visit places and talk to people you usually don't," Bob said.
The first-hand experience buoyed their current efforts, and fit into their past work in seemingly different fields.
Sally is a board member of ChIME, the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine, which is a two-year interfaith seminary in Portland and was sponsor of the talk. She is also founder of the Insight Community of Southern Maine, which is devoted to the study and practice of core Buddhist teachings. Bob is a professor emeritus in arts and humanities at the University of Southern Maine. Retired in 2011, he is chair of Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights.
"I was close to retirement at the time," Bob said. "I was a preacher's kid, and realized that this was the issue I would be working on in retirement."
The couple made two more trips to the Middle East, in the winter of 2009-2010, and in May of 2012.
"The broader narrative that is sort of feely circulated around here is that Israelis want peace and Palestinians don't," Bob said. "Those conventional 'truths,' we have learned are simply not so. People react strongly when we tell them this; they call them outrageous lies, but I want to call them outrageous truths. They get upset to have their way of thinking challenged."
Bob admitted that he gets passionate, even angry, about injustice, and Sally helps temper his approach with a Buddhist philosophy.
They began their talk with a "Sangha," a word that refers to a community that comes together to practice and study. They used a meditation of compassion with the notion that one person's suffering is the same as someone else's.
Sally spoke about how Buddhism has affected her approach to social activism.
"This is about human rights, not taking sides," Sally said. "It's about being a witness to what's happening."
"Israelis have a right to live in a non-garrisoned state," Bob said. "This is a conflict between people who want a just peace and people who want to just dominate."
"Or people who just don't know," Sally said as a way of softening his point. "Even among Jews living in Israel — we've met well-meaning Jews who think that Palestinians have all the rights they do."
They hoped to address a diverse group of people, including ChIME students, members of the public and church communities interested in social justice, as well as people interested in increasing their awareness of this topic in the Buddhist community.
"Buddhism is an engaged, spiritual ethic practice, about looking inside but outside as well, and the cultivating of compassion," Sally said. "It's about me, but it's also about all of us together."
"'Justice will take us millions of intricate moves,'" Bob said, quoting a line from the poet William Stafford. "I see this effort as one of those 'intricate moves.'"

UPCOMING
At 7 p.m. on Friday, May 24, five New England Episcopal activists, members of the 800-strong women's organization The Outreach Committee of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, will make a talk/slide presentation of their two-week visit in Israel/Palestine earlier this year. Their trip was sponsored by Sabeel, the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in East Jerusalem. Topics to be covered include home demolitions, refugee camps, the separation wall, the spirit of the Palestinian people, Kairos Palestine, Rabbis for Human Rights and interfaith nonviolent direct action.
The event will take place at the Wishcamper Center, 42-44 Bedford St., room 133, University of Southern Maine, Portland campus. The presentation is sponsored by a coalition of peace and justice and religious organizations. Q/A session will follow the talk. Palestinian olive oil will be on sale. FMI: 239-8060; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.