Down East Notes

Press Herald - Two Icelandic journalists are in Maine recruiting support for an ambitious Web-based magazine that aims to foster a common identity for people who live on the coasts of both sides of the North Atlantic – a 2 million-square-mile area populated by fewer than 9 million people. Maine is identified as the only portion of the United States in this area, which includes the provinces of Atlantic Canada, Baffin Island, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Scotland, the coast of Norway and the western coast of Denmark. The impetus for the launch of the publication is climate change. The melting polar ice cap is clearing the way for natural resource extraction and new polar shipping routes that connect Asia with the East Coast and Europe, said Vilborg Einarsdottir, editor in chief of the magazine, called Jewels of the North Atlantic.

Press Herald -   The Maine Senate sustained Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a bill to extend a pilot project that allowed towns to study ways to control the effects of green crabs on clams. The Republican governor vetoed the bill last week. He said the state should use data gathered in the pilot program rather than “extend this pilot ad infinitum.”... Maine Democrats say the veto and failure to override it are short-sighted because of the damage green crabs can do to the lucrative softshell clam industry.

A proposal to require people to show photo identification in order to vote has been defeated because the House and Senate couldn't agree on the bill.