Our staff has put a lot of effort into planning news coverage of this weekend’s summit between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The summit, and Sunday’s demonstration in Kennebunkport, are major news events and we have several reporters and photographers scheduled to cover it throughout the weekend.

I was struck by a comment posted at the bottom of the online version of Saturday’s story about the death of Kevin Foley, the Portland man found shot to death in Westbrook’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

From a news perspective, this is an exciting week.

For the first time since President George H.W. Bush was in the Oval Office, Kennebunkport will become the scene of an international summit between superpowers. Bush’s son, President George W. Bush, will go head-to-head with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Walker’s Point Sunday and Monday.

Tax reform is dead for now in the Legislature, and it appears a lot of you cared about what happened.

Bit of a smorgasbord of news topics today, so please bear with me.

Like most newspapers, we’re moving toward becoming a 24-hour newsroom by using our Web site, pressherald.com, to get breaking news to readers as it happens.

An example of this trend happened yesterday.

Last week it was the state budget and school consolidation. This week the big story for our paper is tax reform.

After six months of study and debate, the Maine Legislature finally adopted a school consolidation plan as part of the $6.3 billion two-year state budget passed late last night.

This is a big story for us.

Just a quick follow up to yesterday’s blog...

Yesterday I mentioned three stories we were working as potential A1 centerpieces. But in the end the story that occupied that position – Tux Turkel’s article about L.L. Bean’s plan to develop a 700-acre outdoor adventure center – was one that we weren’t even aware of when we held our morning news meeting.

It just illustrates another reality of publishing a daily newspaper. As editors we can plan all we want at a morning meeting, but we also need to be prepared to throw the plan out at a moment’s notice.

A topic of much discussion and debate lately in our newsroom, letters page and online comments is the way our Page A1 design has changed in recent months. Some readers dislike us using front page real estate with big stories, pictures and graphics about the new Spider-man movie, or the brouhaha over Curt Schilling’s bloody sock. Others like the approach and believe they make the paper more appealing.

Here’s a look at some of the stories we’re working on for this weekend’s newspapers:
1. A new report confirms what every college student already knows: The cost of college textbooks is skyrocketing. Should Congress do anything about it? Bart Jansen, in our Washington bureau, is working on that one.
2. Want to buy an island? You can, off Saco, for $550,000. Seth Harkness will tell you all about it.
3. Staff Writers Kevin Wack and Josie Huang will publish a big package of stories and pictures about veterans health care in Maine in Sunday’s paper.