Jay Field
Jay Field is a reporter for MPBN Radio based in the network’s Bangor bureau. In his reporting for the network’s flagship program, Maine Things Considered, Field enjoys exploring how real people’s lives are impacted by the unique policy challenges, economic, education, natural resource and otherwise, that come with daily life in a rural state.
Prior to joining MPBN, Field was based in Evanston, Illinois, where he filed freelance stories for NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, Marketplace and The World, and worked as a staff reporter for WBEZ-FM in Chicago. At WBEZ, Field helped launch an education desk, spent four years reporting, in-depth, on the nation’s third largest school system and covered general assignment news. Field began his public radio career as an intern and contributing reporter at KQED Public Radio in San Francisco, where he filed stories for KQED News and The California Report.
Field has received many honors and awards for his work. In 2012, his series on Maine’s prescription drug monitoring program was honored in the Public Affairs category by the Maine Association of Broadcasters. In 2007, Field won a national Sigma Delta Chi award for Radio Investigative Reporting for a series on overcrowding and disciplinary problems at a high school on Chicago’s South Side. That same year, Field was also part of a team of WBEZ journalists who contributed to the series Chicago Matters: Valuing Education, which won the Casey Medal for Meritous Journalism, which honors distinguished coverage of disadvantaged children, youth and families. In 2006, Field was honored with the national Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists in the Radio Feature Reporting category for a two-month series on school truancy in Rockford, Illinois. In 2005, the National Headliner Awards honored Field for his ongoing coverage of school finance challenges in a poor suburb on south of Chicago, near the Indiana border. Field has been a finalist for the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. His work has also been honored by the Chicago Headline Club, the Illinois Associated Press, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters.
Field graduated from Colby College, earning a B.A. in English.
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Fans of Maine's state drink, a quirky soda called Moxie, are absorbing the news that it could be headed for the big time. This week, the Coca-Cola corporation announced it bought the rights to Moxie.
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In Maine, where every newborn gets an automatic $500 grant towards a college education, one family had taken full advantage of the state's generous college savings initiatives.
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Use of synthetic drugs, like bath salts, by young people continues to decline across the nation, according to a study by the University of Michigan.
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Burger King announced it is buying the Canadian doughnut-and-coffee chain for about $11 billion. Some Canadians aren't thrilled that their Timmy's is being taken over by the American burger company. -
A craft brewer in Maine is partnering with a most unusual item — seaweed. If the beer takes off, the state's emerging seaweed aquaculture industry may benefit. -
Facing a tight re-election battle, Gov. Paul LePage is moving ahead with a plan to require photos on EBT cards, even though the state's Legislature blocked his sweeping proposals earlier this year. -
Lobsters are Maine's signature industry, but it's Canada who seems to be doing the better job of marketing its crustaceans. And as Maine lobstermen face record-low prices, the state is hoping to take a few lessons from the success of its northern neighbor. -
The state is trying to keep tabs on its bear population. Undergraduates at Unity College are in the woods tranquilizing bears and collaring them so the state can better understand the animals.
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Energy companies are using a drilling technique known as fracking to extract natural gas underground. Many people raise questions about the environmental impact, but there is no doubt fracking has produced lots of natural gas and driven down the price. That has led energy-hungry manufacturers to build plants in fracking hot spots like Texas and Pennsylvania. But even in old factories — far from the drilling or even the pipelines — cheap natural gas is providing a competitive edge.
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Fishery managers in New England have approved big cuts in the commercial catch limit for cod. The regulators say the cuts are needed to save the cod fishery from collapse — but fishermen say they will destroy their industry and many other businesses along with it.
