LOOKBACK: Celebrating Mainebiz's 20th anniversary - the early 2000s

PHOTO/NightThree via WIkimedia Commons The Rustic Overtones playing at the 2007 Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland.

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By Lori Valigra

Moving forward in our LOOKBACK series run-up to Mainebiz’s 20th anniversary edition on Sept. 8, we look to the major stories in the early 2000s, a turbulent time during which the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks occur and Operation Iraqi Freedom starts. During that time period, Maine took to the Internet, former Gov. Angus King announces plans to give a laptop computer to every seventh grader and Portland-based band Rustic Overtones runs into the differences between local and big-label music industry plays. Following are some of the top headlines.

2000:

-- Gov. Angus King says he would like to give every Maine 7th grader, or some 17,000 students, a laptop computer. He also signs a bill that made Maine the first state to threaten price controls on the pharmaceutical industry.

- Electric utility deregulation creates more questions than answers for Maine businesses.

- Anchorage by the Sea in Ogunquit is the largest hotel in Maine with 244 rooms, followed by Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland.

- In the words of one Portland lawyer, offering legal services and information over the Internet is “either the beginning of the future or a lot of wasted time.”

- Sixty two percent of Maine women work, but make 68 cents for every dollar a man makes. Maine ranks 41 among the 50 states in closing the gender gap in pay, according to “Fair Pay: Achieving Pay Equality for Maine’s Working Families.”

2001:

- Maine’s Adaptive Equipment Loan Program is the country’s first and largest such effort, and is generally touted as the gold standard when it comes to improving access for the disabled. So why are so few Maine businesses taking advantage of it?

- Portland-based band Rustic Overtones is supposed to put Maine on the rock ‘n’ roll map, but in an oft-repeated story, they get caught in a major label play in the big-money world of the music business. The rock/jazz/funk band was active from 1993-2002 and again from 2007 to present, according to Wikipedia and a Portland Press Herald article. The group was reportedly the first to perform live on XM Satellite Radio.

- Critics of Maine’s welfare-to-work efforts blame an abundance of low-paying jobs for keeping many working Mainers in poverty.

- The 150,000-square-foot former J.J. Nissen Bakery building on Washington Avenue in Portland finally goes up for commercial rental.

- A growing conversion boom fuels Portland’s hot condo market -- and further reduces available rental stock.

- Bigger stores, bigger parking lots, bigger impacts on communities. As Wal-Mart proceeds with an aggressive expansion in Maine, the debate over the retail giant heats up.

- Peoples Heritage Bank, National Bank in Portland tops the list of the largest Maine banks by assets, followed by Bangor Savings Bank.

- The Portland Newspaper Guild at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram reaches a tentative contract agreement in November with Blethen Maine Newspapers, which has owned the state’s largest daily paper since November 1998, putting to rest one of the longest labor disputes in recent Maine history.

2002:

- Duane D. “Buzz” Fitzgerald, president of Bath Iron Works from 1991-1996, dies at age 62. Among the many accolades was his position on the board of the Libra Foundation, the philanthropic trust. He helped bring financial support to the communities of northern Maine, where he grew up. Also in 2002, the $1 billion Navy destroyer McCampbell was completed at Bath Iron Works and commissioned that fall.

- Maine’s lawn and garden businesses amount to a $380 million industry, and it’s growing like kudzu.

- After a post-9/11 cool-down, the market for big-dollar residential properties is getting hotter.

- Peoples Beach to Beacon is five years old, but already one of the country’s premier road races, and with a budget of $250,000 and what organizers estimate is a nearly equal amount of in-kind donations.

- Eight years ago, one of Gov. Angus King’s inaugural refrains was “Maine is on the move.” As he prepares to leave the Blaine House, it’s hard to tell in what direction the state is moving. Unemployment is low, but the creation of well-paying jobs is tough. The tech crash may not have hit us as hard as it did other states, but business attraction lags. The budget horror prepares to eclipse the growth of the tourism industry.

- Chefs and consumers are the targets in the growing debate over the merits of farmed salmon.

- On Sept. 14 guest workers from Honduras and Guatemala drown when their van falls off a bridge into the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

2003:

- Dairy farmers squeezed: it costs them $1.45 to produce a gallon of milk. They’re paid $1.09 for it.

- Portland's new Wild Oats natural food market signals the changing nature of the city’s retail environment. For years, Portland seemed too small to attract national chains, but a reversal is in the making as chain restaurants like Chilli’s and Olive Garden cluster near the Maine Mall.

- While the state touts a relatively low unemployment rate, Mainers in a wide range of industries wrestle with the worst job market in two decades.

- The lowest mortgage rates in 40 years make things crazy in the mortgage business. Rates change from 6.75% to 6.5% to 5.75% in a short time, and people refinance every few months.

2004:

- Angel investors grow as a new source of capital for Maine’s small businesses.

- The Maine Development Foundation’s “Measures of Growth” report, which is an annual check-up on several factors indicating Maine’s economic and community health, mark the state’s rising cost of doing business measurement with a red flag.

- Camden residents debate options for new business development after credit card giant MBNA pulls out of town.

- Maine’s debate over liquefied natural gas reflects regional and global changes in the energy market.

- Gov. John Baldacci starts the Realize Maine initiative with the hope of plugging Maine’s brain drain and reversing the outflow of Maine’s young adults.

- The once-abandoned Sunday River Golf Club nears completion.

- University of Maine System Chancellor Joseph Westphal’s reorganization plan is approved by trustees.

- John Kerry wins the Maine caucus.

- Gov. Baldacci signs legislation increasing the minimum wage by 25 cents in each of two phases. The current wage is $6.25 per hour..

Elsewhere in the United States and the world, on Jan. 14, 2000, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits a record high of 11,722.98 The nation’s jobless rate was at 4%, the lowest in three decades. on March 10 the NASDAQ hit a record high of 5,048.62. In March 2000 Boeing Co. engineers end their 40-day strike, one of the biggest white-collar walkouts in U.S. history. Crude oil prices drop below $30 per barrel. By Dec. 31, 2000, the Dow and NASDAQ have their first losing years since 1990.

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon. U.S. stock trading stops for four days. U.S. recession begins, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The beginning of 2002 starts with Taiwan becoming a World Trade Organization member, OPEC cutting oil production 6.5% and the Euro becoming legal tender in 12 European countries. United Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the end of the year.

In March 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom starts following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 and the overthrow of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Baghdad falls in April. At the end of the year, Saddam Hussein is captured. President George Bush ends steel tariffs. U.S. confirms first case of mad cow disease.

In February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg founds Facebook, forever changing the face of social media. In December, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake strikes Sumatra, Indonesia. The largest quake in 40 years, it triggers a tsunami that kills tens of thousands of people in more than 11 countries.