Congressman Mike Michaud and Husson University will host a job fair next month to connect Maine’s manufacturers with veterans in search of employment.

“As I travel the state, manufacturers often tell me that they often struggle to find workers with the skills they need. Meanwhile, our veterans are having a difficult time finding work when they come home,” said Michaud. “I hope that this job fair will benefit both our returning veterans and our manufacturers in need of qualified employees.”

The Manufacturers and Veterans Job Fair will be held at the Husson University Campus Center at 1 College Circle in Bangor from 8:30am to 12:30pm on Thursday, June 14th. Manufacturers interested in participating should register through the online registration form here or by calling (202) 225-6306.

LD 849 ratchets down state revenues, lowering income tax rates without a plan to pay for it. While a tax cut on its face sounds good, Maine families, towns, and schools will have to pick up the tab.

Our towns and schools will lose billions of dollars to pay for critical investments — like road and bridge repair, or teachers for our children.

Isn’t that why voters have rejected three similar TABOR measures by ever-wider margins in recent years?
This new “tax-shift” would shaft middle class property taxpayers and make times even tougher for working families and struggling small businesses.

If you are one of the very wealthiest in the state, making millions a year, you’re going to save a lot of money. Tens of thousands of dollars a year, in fact.

But if you’re in the middle class or below like the rest of us, you’re only going to save only a couple of bucks. And, because of the law, EVERYONE will end up paying hundreds more in local taxes to make up the difference – so what will really happen is that most of us will lose money.

The more we lean on property and sales taxes, the more we hurt low- and middle-income Mainers. Already, Maine’s overall taxes are unfair. A single parent working full time at minimum wage to raise two kids pays a tax rate almost twice as high as someone making a million dollars. Is that fair? Does it create jobs, reward work, or help young families to stay in Maine? Of course not.

Equally troubling, this tax-shift TABOR is fiscally irresponsible and jeopardizes our state’s credit rating.

Here’s how.

The proposal uses 20 percent of one-time surpluses, that would typically be put in the state’s “rainy day” fund, to make only the first payment on long-term tax cuts for the wealthy.

This is like winning $100 on a lottery scratch ticket, and instead of putting it in your savings account, spending it on the first payment for a brand-new car – with no plan or income to make the future payments. It’s no way to run a household budget, a business budget, or a state budget.

In fact, reducing contributions to existing rainy day funds will put Maine’s credit rating at risk. LD 849 is a poison pill for major credit rating agencies because it weakens the state’s capacity to maintain long-term investments and to withstand future economic downturns.

Just as your credit score allows you to take out a mortgage or get a loan for your business, the state’s credit rating is critical for making public investments in our roads, bridges, or research and development – all investments that help create jobs.

Putting our finances in jeopardy to score political points in an election year is a dangerous game. Especially since the GOP-controlled Legislature has already passed other unfunded tax cuts that will put a gaping $400 million hole in the state’s next budget. With this gaping hole already raising eyebrows at the credit agencies, the last thing we need is a new raid on our savings account.

Like the Bush tax cuts in 2001, LD 849 proposes future tax breaks benefiting only a few, takes credit for them without paying, and then leaves it to others to make the tough choices to pay for them later.

You can still stop this reckless TABOR-like bill from moving forward. The Appropriations Committee still needs to give it final approval when lawmakers return in ten days. Call your lawmakers. Urge them to enact balanced, fiscally responsible tax policies that help the many – not just the few – and to oppose LD 849.

“President Obama’s health care law is making community health centers in Maine stronger,” said Secretary Sebelius. “For many Americans, community health centers are the major source of care that ranges from prevention to treatment of chronic diseases. This investment will expand our ability to provide high-quality care to millions of people while supporting good paying jobs in communities across the country.”

The Portland Community Health Center is getting a $500,000 grant to help them expand and renovate the facility on Park Avenue.

“This investment makes health care more accessible for people in our community who can’t afford it, without putting that burden on local property taxes,” said Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. “And the work that this money will fund also helps support local jobs, not just in the health center itself but construction jobs to do the necessary renovations.”

Nationwide employment at health centers is up 15 percent because of these investments, supporting thousands of good-paying health care jobs for nurse, medical technicians and others.

The funding will allow the Health Center to renovate the clinic, providing more space to see additional patients and make medical care more efficient.

“This is great news and it’s going to allow us to do the expansion necessary to see one-third more patients. Without this funding, these renovations wouldn’t be possible,” said Leslie Brancato, CEO of the Health Clinic.

The Portland Community Health Center currently serves 3,000 patients, although the renovations funded by this grant will allow them to see an additional 1,000 patients. Payment is made on a sliding scale based on a patient’s ability to pay.

Funding totaling more than $728 million across the United States will support renovation and construction projects, boosting health centers’ ability to care for additional patients and creating jobs. The awards are part of a series of capital investments that are made available to community health centers through the Affordable Care Act, which provides $9.5 billion to expand services over five years and $1.5 billion to support major construction and renovation projects at community health centers.

According to a new report released today, the health care law has already supported the construction and renovation of 190 health center sites and the creation of 67 new health center sites across the country, and will support the construction and renovation of more than 485 health center sites and the creation of 245 new health center sites over the next two years.

Overall, since the beginning of 2009, employment at community health centers nationwide has increased by 15 percent. And, primarily due to the Affordable Care Act and the Recovery Act, community health centers are serving nearly 3 million additional patients today and will serve an additional 1.3 million additional new patients in the next two years.

Health centers improve the health of the nation’s communities by ensuring access to primary health care services. Currently, more than 8,500 service delivery sites around the country deliver care to nearly 19.5 million patients regardless of their ability to pay.

\

“As I have said before, there is a simple reason for supporting this bill, no one should have to pay property taxes on a home that does not exist or is uninhabitable,” said Graham after the votes in the House and Senate. “The passage of this bill is proof that common sense bipartisanship can still prevail.”

The bill amends current law related to property tax abatements by simply replacing the term “infirmity” with the term “hardship.” This would allow towns to abate the property taxes of people whose homes have been destroyed by fire or natural disaster, without raising potential legal problems.

In the final vote in the House only Rep. Kathy Chase, R-Wells, Rep. James Gillway, R-Searsport, Rep. Peter Johnson, R-Greenville, and Rep. Paul Waterhouse, R-Bridgeton voted in opposition to the tax cut measure.

Sen. Doug Thomas, R-Somerset, testified in support of the bill, explaining that his family experienced a fire when he was a child. He remembered when his parents complained about receiving their property tax bill on a house that no longer existed.

“Let’s err on the side of the taxpayer and not the tax collector, please,” testified Thomas.

The bill must be signed by the governor before becoming law and will go into effect 90 days after it is signed.

On November 23, the “Super Committee” in Congress will decide on the future of America’s middle class – and whether it will stand with the 99% or the 1%. So a group of everyday from Occupy Wall Street embarked on a 230 mile walk from New York City to Washington D.C.

“With development of new natural and functional nanomaterials, UMaine will be recognized as an innovator in novel cellulose nanofibril processing,” said FBRI Director and UMaine Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Hemant Pendse, one of the researchers involved with the project. “UMaine will have the ability to process cellulose nanofibrils in ways that open up new markets and applications for cellulose nanocomposites.”

The pilot plant, which is being funded by a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Forest Service, will be the only one of its kind in the nation, and will serve as a source of the material for those who want to explore the uses of cellulose nanofibrils (CNF). Currently, researchers and industrial companies who want to buy the material purchase it from sources in Japan and Germany.

UMaine is involved in the project with a consortium of six other universities and the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL). Last April, UMaine and FPL began a research collaboration on the conversion of wood components into novel nanomaterials, the incorporation of an array of nanomaterials into forest products to increase their functionality, durability, and end use performance, and the development of new generations of high-performance wood-based materials. UMaine will be the sole supplier of CNF to researchers from other universities in the consortium, which include the Georgia Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, Oregon State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University and University of Tennessee.

Sean Ireland, of pulp and paper industry group TAPPI and Verso Paper in Bucksport, is also involved in the consortium.

Applications for the CNF material include automobile components, paint and coating additives, and water filters. Development and commercialization have been hampered by the lack of availability of CNF material in sufficient quantities to conduct meaningful technology demonstrations. This project will address this need by scaling up the mechanical laboratory preparation method to a pilot-scale operation.

The grant will fund the purchase of an ultrafine grinder, a piece of equipment which breaks down cellulose-based pulp into a water-based slurry, and a pilot-scale spray dryer, which uses gases to dry the material. The ultrafine grinder will be able to produce about 1,000 pounds of material a day in slurry form. The drying process will produce approximately 1-2 pounds of dry material per day.

Both pieces of equipment are expected to be in place next spring in Jenness Hall, the home of UMaine’s Process Development Center and FBRI. UMaine already has an operational bench-scale ultrafine grinder.

Cellulose nanofibril material is valued because of its strength – a strand of it is as strong as a synthetic fiber such as Kevlar. It takes on different properties depending on how it is dried. When a sample of the CNF slurry is dried with heat, the material becomes hard and strong, and can be cut into different shapes and sizes. When freeze-dried, the material is super-absorbent and insulating.

The cellulose nanofibrils are about 1,000 times smaller than paper fibers. The material can be made from any source that contains cellulose, such as wood, grasses, and corn or wheat straw.

“If you can make products from nanofibrillated cellulose that normally use plastic, you can reduce the use of petroleum,” said Doug Bousfield, UMaine professor of chemical and biological engineering and director of the Paper Surface Science Program who is also collaborating on the project and has already incorporated cellulose nanofibrils in paper coatings. “It makes sense for Maine, and that’s what’s exciting about it. There is a long list of ideas but it takes resources to try them out. What this project does is put the equipment in place to generate a lot of raw material with which people can experiment.”

UMaine already produces some cellulose nanofibrils via both mechanical means and chemical means, the latter of which produces cellulose nanocrystals.

Doug Gardner, a UMaine professor of wood science and technology and the head of the Nanocomposites Research Group who is also a collaborator, said although the mechanisms are not yet in place for researchers and companies to order the material, there has already been unofficial interest from private industry. The material would not be free for those who want to order it, but UMaine would offer it at a reasonable price.

Other UMaine researchers involved include FBRI Associate Director Mike Bilodeau, who is the principal investigator on the project, and UMaine Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering David Neivandt, who is also the director of product development for UMaine’s Pulp and Paper Process Development Center.

“This next phase of the Ocean Gateway project will have significant economic impact on Portland and the entire State,” said Governor Baldacci. “This deep-water pier will enhance tourism, and increase commerce and the economic vitality of the region.”

The Governor said that tourism coming to the area from cruise ships has risen dramatically in a short time. The addition of the Ocean Gateway Pier II to Portland’s working waterfront will double the capacity at any one time for the largest of cruise and other ships to be berthed.

“The impact of Pier II will benefit the entire State, creating jobs and strengthening our ability to reach markets in the United States and around the world,” said the Governor. “The Ocean Gateway will play a key role in economic growth here for years to come.”

The project is part of the state’s Three-Port-Strategy. Portland, Eastport and Searsport are all being modified to accommodate more cargo being shipped to and from America. Railway infrastructure that connects with these ports will take trucks off the roads, and eventually carry passengers.

“This project is indeed a top priority as we look to diversify and maintain Maine’s overall transportation system,” said David Cole, Commissioner of Maine’s Department of Transportation. “We continue to enhance our public transportation options with both rail and bus service. We have improved our interstate and other major roadways, and now we stand here today celebrating the vision that was developed for expanded access to commercial vessels and cruise ships. This investment broadens our access and signals that our waterways are open for business. It is an investment that will surely pay dividends for many years to come.”

Governor Baldacci credited the work of the many local and State partners who have supported the project, and said that support from Maine voters was the critical factor in seeing the project move to the construction phase.

“The funding for this important deep-water project came from a bond question on the June ballot,” said the Governor. “That question gave voters from across the State the opportunity to weigh in on this and other critical infrastructure projects. Their approval for investment in the Ocean Gateway Pier II project shows that even in difficult economic times, Maine people support development with long-term value.”

The event was marked as the distinguished guests drove symbolic piles on the waterfront. The facility will provide fifty construction jobs and Reed & Reed has hired five Maine-based subcontractor companies.

Jackson Parker, President & CEO of Reed & Reed said, “I want to thank the City of Portland and the State of Maine for allowing us to help transform Portland’s waterfront from east to west with the construction of the Ocean Gateway Cruise Ship Terminal two years ago, this new deep water berth, and down at the other end of the waterfront, the new Veteran’s Memorial Bridge. As with all of our projects, we expect to deliver results on-time and on-budget.”

Construction is expected to be complete by July 15, 2011.