Anchorless: WMTW-TV, Channel 8 in Portland, is looking for a new anchor for its 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, after the retirement on March 3 of news veteran Tory Ryden.

According to WMTW news director George Matz, Ryden, who was the sole host of both shows, called it quits “to spend more time with her family.”

Does anybody in the State House press corps know how to add? Because the figures in the budget stories that small-but-math-challenged group of journalists turned out on March 3 and 4 contained wide variations from the amounts released by the administration of Gov. John Baldacci – and from each other.

And none of the numbers – not even Baldacci’s – seemed to jibe with reality.

Coverage deficit: So many reporters, so little information.

The depleted State House press corps turned out in force on March 2 to cover a news conference by Democratic legislative leaders announcing a $99 million “jobs bond” they want to send out to voters later this year. All Maine’s morning daily papers had stories on the borrowing plan. And not one of them managed to answer an obvious question raised by some opponents.

Cancel the ambulance: More than a month ago, pseudonymous blogger Thomas Cushing Munjoy sent me an e-mail pointing out that the print edition of Consumer Reports magazine had cited Maine Medical Center in Portland as having the worst rate in the state of infections from large intravenous catheters.

Take it or leave it: On February 25, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1837 filed unfair labor practices charges against WGME-TV, Channel 13 in Portland.

The union, which represents about four dozen producers, technicians, directors and other off-air employees at the station, accuses the Sinclair Broadcast Group station of refusing to bargain in good faith.

Jump or get pushed: MaineToday Media – publisher of the Portland Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram, Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal – is facing another round of employee layoffs in March. The company announced the impending cuts on February 22 in a memo to staff from editor/publisher Richard Connor.

Cut and paste: On February 19, the Portland Press Herald ran a story by staff writer Kelley Bouchard on a federal grant the city of Portland received to improve Internet service and other technology upgrades at three schools.

Cash transfusion: The Lewiston Sun Journal did what good newspapers are supposed to do in its lengthy February 14 story by staff writer Lindsay Tice on big spending on salaries for staff and board members at Central Maine Medical Center. It dug up the facts, and put them in context.

Snow job: Is the Portland Press Herald desperate to fill space? Or are the paper’s editors so busy planning the next pointless overseas expedition, they don’t have time to cull the irrelevant material from whatever comes over the wires?

On February 10, the Press Herald ran a front-page story from the Associated Press on the impact winter storms are having on Washington, D.C., and vicinity.

Some Stuff I Like (really): Let’s start with the new Capitol Connection column from Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s A.J. Higgins.