This week, the Libra Foundation in Portland announced a new grant program designed to stem the tide of young adults leaving the state.

At the University of Maine at Farmington, many students decide to stay in Maine after graduation.

Others decide to leave the country.

Statistics released by the university showed that 14 alumni lived in Japan as of last October. Four lived in Nepal. Three moved to Russia.

Two lived in Bahrain, a country on a group of islands in the Persian Gulf. At least one graduate each lived in Kenya, Macedonia, Morocco, Samoa and Senegal.

For some graduates, living in the United States is just too close to home.

– Lindsay Tice
Walking Manny to pitch to Ortiz

The above headline is also the header over “This Week in Petroleum,” an online publication of the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency.

“I’m actually a Red Sox fan,” confessed Laurie Falter, who penned the piece discussing diesel fuel prices vs. gasoline.

“Petroleum market analysts who are also baseball fans familiar with the notorious Red Sox lineup may see the decision made by car buyers choosing diesel fuel over gasoline as akin to the choice of intentionally walking Manny Ramirez (World Series MVP) to pitch to David Ortiz (American League Championship Series MVP),” she wrote.

Falter tells us that while she’s based in the Washington area, she grew up in Dracut, Mass., and maintains her citizenship in the Red Sox Nation.

“I thought it would be fun,” she said of pitching baseball terminology to her typical audience, petroleum product traders at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Falter, an industry economist, also writes that the disparity in diesel and gasoline prices is likely to narrow, then flip-flop this spring as demand for distillates like diesel and home heating oil abates.

By the time of the Red Sox opener in April, says the agency’s short-term outlook forecast, gasoline will likely retail at $2.02 per gallon while diesel will fall to $1.99.

Go Sox. They’ll have to help get people’s minds off higher fuel prices.

– Doug Fletcher
Sentiments lift

official’s spirits

You never know how much people care about you until something happens.

Jay Town Manager Ruth Marden of Wilton found that out after she was injured when her truck rolled onto its roof on Feb. 17 in New Sharon.

The first day after her accident, Marden received 34 phone calls, three flower arrangements, two plants, an assortment of chocolates and other goodies. The following day, more gifts arrived, including beans and hot dogs and roses.

People from all over the state – from town managers to a classmate she hadn’t talked to in years – called to talk to her.

Maine Municipal Association put out an e-mail letting people know she was OK after they read an update on Marden in the Sun Journal.

Marden was back at her desk Tuesday, still bruised and sore but happy to be there.

“It touched me that people would make the effort to find my number and call me at home,” Marden said. “It touched me.”

– Donna M. Perry