1. Roni Dean-Burren posted a video on Facebook Thursday criticizing the McGraw-Hill Education for depicting slavery as immigration and calling slaves “workers” in a textbook. The company responded Friday:
“This week, we became aware of a concern regarding a caption reference to slavery on a map in one of our world geography programs. This program addresses slavery in the world in several lessons and meets the learning objectives of the course. However, we conducted a close review of the content and agree that our language in that caption did not adequately convey that Africans were both forced into migration and to labor against their will as slaves.
We believe we can do better. To communicate these facts more clearly, we will update this caption to describe the arrival of African slaves in the U.S. as a forced migration and emphasize that their work was done as slave labor. These changes will be reflected in the digital version of the program immediately and will be included in the program’s next print run.
2. The Coast Guard is pulling out the stops in searching for a freighter with 33 crew members that’s gone missing near the center of Hurrican Joaquin. 4 members on board were Mainers. Officials say the ship went out of radio contact near the eye of the storm. Debris has been found from the ship. Thoughts and prayers going out to the friends and families of the missing Mainers.
3. Bethel Animal hospital is happy to say that Blue the dog is recovering after he was found wearing a muzzle taped and tied shut. The hospital said the dog was picked up by animal control in Newry Friday morning. Despite his mistreatment, he is a very happy and lovable pup!
4. Congrats to Bar Harbor native Evan Graves who won Sunday’s Maine Marathon! On Sunday, he led for the final 14 miles of the 26.2-mile out-and-back course and cruised home with a cushion of more than 6 minutes to win in 2 hours, 34 minutes, 59 seconds. Congrats to Leah Frost, the women’s winner for the 3rd year in a row!
5. Today is World Teachers Day! This day aims to raise awareness of the importance of the role played by teachers all over the world. They put up with us from the time we’re screaming toddlers thru our stubborn adolescence. Thank you to all the hard-working teachers out there!
