The story: With U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island and Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, both Democrats, calling it quits in Washington, their seats now are up for grabs, giving Republicans renewed hope for reclaiming majorities. If those or other Democratic seats fall to Republicans — as did the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s recently — Republicans may reclaim majorities in both the House and Senate.

The hook: How would that affect the Obama Administration, the nation and Maine? How would it affect the sphere of influence of Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins? University of Maine political science professor Amy Fried is available to discuss implications and consequence of shifting majorities in Washington.

Contact information: Professor Fried can be reached at (207) 581-3583. Please contact George Manlove at 581-3756 for assistance arranging interviews.

The story: Toyota, beset with damaging credibility issues in the wake of recalls in the last few weeks of 8.5 million cars and trucks for multiple operational flaws, has launched an unprecedented public relations and advertising campaign in an attempt to restore the world’s confidence in its vehicles. How will these events affect the former A student in the industry? How will Maine auto dealers and consumers be affected?

The hook: Paul Myer, a Maine Business School marketing professor with an extensive professional background in private industry branding and marketing at international levels, is available to discuss a variety of angles on Toyota’s dilemma, including how the company is handling its public relations and customer service challenges, and what the company needs to do to restore public confidence, as competitors circle.

UMaine history professor Howard Segal, an expert on the American automotive industry, is available to offer perspective on one of the world’s biggest car and truck recalls in history, including Toyota’s road to recovery.

Cooperative Extension business and economics specialist and professor of business Jim McConnon is available to discuss how Toyota’s crisis may affect market share for auto dealers in Maine and nationally, what that could mean for local economies.

McConnon, an expert on small business, says he doesn’t foresee a huge macroeconomic effect if Toyota corrects the vehicle deficiencies quickly. A continuation of problems and the resulting publicity could benefit beleaguered American automakers and their factory workers, he says.

Contact information: Professor Myer can be reached at 581-1992. Professor Segal can be reached at 581-1920. McConnon can be reached at 581-3165. For assistance reaching Myer, Segal or McConnon, please contact George Manlove at 581-3756.

The story: American novelist and short story writer J.D. Salinger, whose death was announced today, shocked the nation in 1951 with The Catcher in the Rye, a thinly veiled autobiography of a rebellious young man and his disapproval of society’s hypocrisy, which became for decades “a universal rite of passage for adolescents, the manifesto of disenchanted youth,” according to the Time magazine.

The hook: UMaine English Department faculty member Sanford Phippen, who has taught high school and college students about Salinger and The Catcher in the Rye, among other Salinger works, is available to discuss the writer’s literary and cultural impact on generations in America and beyond.

“The book was extremely popular. It was like shocking to teach Catcher in the Rye,” Phippen recalls. “It had bad language but it was revolutionary. When everyone became more like Holden Caulfield, he seemed to become less controversial and more like everybody else.”

The book remains a source of controversy in some high schools.

Contact information: Phippen can be reached today, Jan. 28, at 581-3832 after 4 p.m., and Friday. George Manlove can be contacted at 581-3756 for assistance reaching Phippen.

The story: Advertising and marketing during major events like the Olympics or Superbowl tend to become creative events of their own as corporations compete for the eyes and ears of some of the biggest audiences worldwide. Having moved well beyond television, advertising and brand reinforcement are prolific on the Internet.

The hook: Paul Myer, a Maine Business School marketing professor with an extensive professional background in private industry branding and marketing internationally, including World Cup events, is available to discuss this year’s Olympic winter games advertising strategies and objectives.

“Industry issues are the incredible number of hours and ads NBC is expected to air, the cost and potential lower audience delivery,” Myer says. He expects to see sophisticated ambush advertising along with an increased Internet presence become a competitive and effective advertising strategies.

“Thus, the media that advertisers choose may be as much the question as the message,” he suggests. Companies will continue to look to cut costs and get the biggest bang for the buck, Myer says.

Myer’s background includes serving in executive and in marketing communications for several worldwide corporations, including Lucent Technologies and Nortel. He teaches courses at UMaine in marketing, sales, management and international business.

Contact information: Professor Myer can be reached at 581-1992. For assistance reaching Myer, please contact George Manlove at 581-3756.

Heavy casualties are being reported after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake toppled numerous buildings. The University of Maine’s seismometer, installed last year, recorded the quake, and Research Assistant Professor Alice Kelley is available to discuss the details.

The story: Aid is being rushed to Haiti from all over the country after the strongest quake in more than 200 years hit the country on Tuesday.

People remain trapped in the debris that toppled buildings and the death toll is expected to be in the thousands, according to media reports.

The U.S. and the American Red Cross are among those organizing relief efforts as aftershocks continue to shake the country.

The hook: In 2008, two UMaine students in the Department of Earth Sciences successfully installed a seismometer on campus with some assistance from experts at Boston College – home of the Weston Observatory – and UMaine Earth Sciences Instructor Alice Kelley. They were successful and the seismometer now is connected to the World-Wide Standardized Seismic Network.

UMaine’s device is located in the basement of Somerset Hall, a dormitory in the Hilltop area of campus.

The earthquake in Haiti occurred at 21:53 UTC, and waves began recording on UMaine’s seismometer at about 21:58 UTC. Images of the recording are available for those who are interested.

Real time records are available online here, and seismic events are easily identified.

Kelley is available to discuss how the equipment works and what was recorded during the Haiti quake.

Contact Information:
Alice Kelley, (207) 581-3019. For assistance in reaching Kelley, please contact Aimee Dolloff at (207) 581-3777 or aimee.dolloff@umit.maine.edu.

The story: The ambition of the Danish government is that the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen will result in an ambitious global agreement among all countries. According to the conference website, 2009 represents more or less the last chance to achieve an agreement if it is to be approved and ratified in time for it to come into force after the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, 37 industrialized countries plus the EU as a whole committed themselves to reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases by five per cent on average in relation to 1990.

Developments in the world since the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in 1997 show that a new agreement is needed. China has replaced the USA as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and the price of oil has soared. This is a reminder of the fact that fossil fuels do not merely pollute; they are also a source of energy whose reserves are constantly being reduced.

The hook:

University of Maine researchers at the Climate Change Institute have a wide variety of interests and specialize in the following areas:

• Paul Mayewski, director UMaine Climate Change Institute, has documented changes in atmospheric chemistry produced naturally and by humans; discovered recent Antarctic and Himalayan ice loss; and discovered behavior of abrupt climate change events in the atmosphere. He has led more than 50 expeditions to remote regions such as Antarctica, the Arctic and the Himalayas.

• Gordon Hamilton, associate research professor, is interested in ice sheet mass balance and the role ice sheets play in modulating global sea levels. His research involves field work in Greenland and Antarctica.

• Ivan Fernandez, professor of soil science, researches changes in chemical and physical climate and how they affect forest ecosystems.

• George Jacobson, professor emeritus of quaternary biology and former director of UMaine’s Climate Change Institute, focuses on long-term climate change and forest response to climate change. Maine’s state climatologist, he also is the founder of the newly launched Maine Climate News website, a centralized, neutral source of climate information specific to Maine.

• Kirk Maasch, professor of earth sciences and quaternary and climate studies, is interested in understanding climate change on timescales ranging from several years to millions of years to understand climate change through time.

Contact Information:

Mayewski, (207) 581-3019; Hamilton, (207) 581-3446; Fernandez, (207) 581-2932; Jacobson, (207) 581-2991; Maasch, (207) 581-2197. For assistance in reaching any of UMaine’s Climate Change Institute researchers, please contact Aimee Dolloff at (207) 581-3777 or aimee.dolloff@umit.maine.edu.

With the U.S. Small Business Administration expected to announce the expansion of its ARC loan program, to provide interest-free loans to struggling small businesses, Jim McConnon, UMaine Extension specialist and professor of economics and an expert on small business, is available to explain how the SBA has been among the first responders to the ailing economy — at a time when critics of the government stimulus plan say the benefits are not widespread.

The hook:

Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the SBA has made borrowing money easier, less costly and more accessible for struggling businesses without adequate collateral to qualify for traditional business loans, McConnon says. This access to new capital can keep struggling businesses afloat as they ride out the recession and it allows other businesses to expand and upgrade, both developments that can maintain jobs and create new ones.

McConnon says the success of the more than 42,000 small businesses with employees in Maine and the 114,000 sole proprietors is critical to Maine; they are the backbone of the state’s economy.

In addition to making low-interest loans available for qualified businesses, other government regulatory changes are being implemented by the Internal Revenue Service, to help business recover equipment-investment dollars faster, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, to help finance and develop essential community facilities for public use~in rural areas.

Such facilities include childcare centers, hospitals, medical clinics, assisted living facilities, fire and rescue stations, police stations, community centers, public buildings and transportation, all listed under the USDA Community Facilities program. Funds are available to public bodies, non-profit organizations, and recognized Indian tribes.

Contact information:

McConnon can be reached by telephone at (207) 581-3165 or by email at jimm@umext.maine.edu. Please call George Manlove at 581-3756 for assistance in reaching McConnon.

The last few months has been filled with stories of swine flu outbreaks at places like summer camps, and as students prepare to start the school year, many parents and teachers are wondering what to do about vaccinating their children and themselves against swine flu.

The hook:

University of Maine Professor Carol Kim of the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology conducts disease studies with zebrafish, and hopes to better understand the numerous immune factors that augment, extend, and prolong the immune response to infection.

Kim is available to discuss any of the following topics:

• How do vaccines work?
• How do viruses spread from animals to humans?
• Why do we need to get flu shots and/or vaccines?
• How and why do vaccine formulas keep changing?

More information about her research is available at www.umaine.edu/bmmb/faculty/index.php/profile/carol_kim

Contact information:

Professor Carol Kim can be reached at (207) 581-2803. For assistance in reaching Kim, please call Aimee Dolloff at (207) 581-3777.