FREEPORT

Education commissioner continues ‘listening tour’

Maine’s education commissioner is continuing his “listening tour” with stops at schools in Freeport and Gorham.

Stephen Bowen will meet today with students and teachers at Freeport Middle School, where he will focus on the school’s laptop program, particularly how it is used in math. He will hold a public forum at 6 p.m. today at Gorham Middle School.

The stops are part of Bowen’s plan to visit Maine’s nine superintendent districts in his first 100 days on the job to hear ideas on what can be done to improve the state’s education system.

AUGUSTA

Summers now tweeting news about department

Maine Secretary of State Charles Summers Jr. is tweeting.

Summers has created a Twitter account, MaineSecOfState, in order to more closely interact with Mainers. The social networking website allows users to share information in 140 characters or less.

Summers said he’s using the Twitter account as a vehicle to quickly alert followers of news about his department, which includes the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Bureau of Corporations, Elections, and Commissions, and the state Archives.

News conference focuses on bills to trim Legislature

A mix of Republican and Democratic lawmakers is supporting three bills that propose different plans to reduce the size of the 186-member Maine Legislature.

The three bills appear as the House gets ready to debate another bill calling for a unicameral Legislature of only 151 members. All of the bills propose constitutional amendments, which need two-thirds legislative approval and voter authorization. A news conference is scheduled for today by the bills’ sponsors.

One bill would get rid of 62 House and Senate seats. The reduction would take effect in 2015. The second would lop 68 seats from the two bodies, but also extend the length of legislative sessions. The third bill applies only to the House and would remove 20 representatives’ seats.