The website for CPB’s American Graduate initiative relaunched today (March 19) with a new research center, video from pubstations around the country, and connections to more than 600 local partners. The research center includes indices for all 50 states and information on how dropout data is being used to inform and drive action. There are also full-length pubmedia programs and specials focused on the crisis, along with local content such as student stories and teacher town hall meetings and highlights from upcoming broadcast premieres.

Current’s March 12 story on the ratings and carriage drop for Independent Lens, and larger issues associated with programming diverse content, is getting wider attention. The New York Times followed up in an article posted Sunday (March 18). It noted that as of that afternoon, 65 indie producers, including Bill Moyers, Stanley Nelson (screenwriter, director of Freedom Riders) and Alex Gibney (producer, director and a writer of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), had signed Kartemquin Films’ online letter to PBS protesting the scheduling change. (By Monday, that had grown to more than 100.) Also, the International Documentary Association is encouraging producers to sign Kartemquin’s letter.

Want to go to INPUT, the International Public Television Screening Conference, May 7-12 in Sydney? CPB is providing a limited number of travel grants via South Carolina ETV, the U.S. secretariat for the conference. It’s the worldwide forum for professionals involved in television in the public interest. More than 1,000 participants from some 50 countries will meet to discuss the challenges of producing public television, and get a chance to see 80 hours of content from around the world including five programs from the United States. Deadline to request a grant to help with airfare, registration and lodging is April 2; application details here.

Current’s Feb. 27 story on This American Life’s recent breakthroughs with enterprise reporting describes the inspiration behind “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” the story on Apple factories in China that was later retracted. Glass tells Current that after seeing Daisey’s monologue last October, he was already “editing the radio version in my head” as he left the theater. “I thought [Daisey] was doing something remarkable,” said Glass, “which is taking a fact that we all already know — that these devices we love are made in China in conditions that are probably not so wonderful, and he makes us feel something about it.”

Several public-media reporters are winners of the annual Scripps Howard Awards, recognizing excellence across multiple platforms. Journalists from California Watch and the Center for Investigative Reporting won the Roy W. Howard Award for public service reporting, and $10,000, for “On Shaky Ground,” a 19-month investigation exposing flaws in seismic safety compliance and oversight at public schools; Paul Kiel and Olga Pierce of ProPublica won the William Brewster Styles Award for business and economics reporting, along with $10,000, for exposing the failure of industry and government responses to the foreclosure crisis; and Dan Grech and Kenny Malone of WLRN and The Miami Herald won the Jack R.

The cancellation of the GOP presidential debate set for Monday at Oregon Public Broadcasting may have disappointed a lot of people, but the writers at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart saw it as an opportunity for a wacky segment playing up Portland’s offbeat reputation. Earlier this week, OPB President Steve Bass heard from the show, which originally wanted to cover the debate. But after the event was canceled on Thursday, they still wanted to come — to use the studio set for a segment. What they were planning “actually sounded pretty funny,” Bass said. The concept: Portland was so disappointed that the event wasn’t happening that a Make-a-Wish Foundation-style organization comes in to grant the city’s wish for a debate.

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that the sale of WMFE-TV in Orlando, in the works for more than a year, has been canceled. “Due to the protracted approval process at the FCC and changes within the broadcast market, WMFE has voluntarily opted out of its current proposed deal to sell WMFE-TV to Community Educators of Orlando, Inc.,” WMFE President Jose Fajardo said in an email to the paper. “WMFE is currently pursuing new options that will prove to be more beneficial to WMFE and to the Central Florida community.” The pending sale, to a local group representing religious broadcaster Daystar, created a scramble for a new primary in the Orlando market last spring (Current, April 18, 2011).

Kartemquin Films, a nonprofit Chicago production company that’s home to such films as The Interrupters and Hoop Dreams, is asking independent filmmakers and pubmedia fans to sign an open letter to PBS protesting the network’s decision to move indie showcases Independent Lens and P.O.V. from their longtime Tuesday night spot to Thursdays, often used by stations for local programming (Current, March 12, 2012). The letter says that independent films “serve a critical function in the public broadcasting ecology. They serve the democratic mission of public broadcasting.” “Public television is not just a popularity contest, or a ratings game,” it says.

This American Life retracted “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory,” its Jan. 6 broadcast that adapted theater monologist Mike Daisey’s stage play about working conditions in Apple manufacturing plants in China. “Daisey lied to me and to This American Life producer Brian Reed during the fact checking we did on the story, before it was broadcast,” said TAL host and creator Ira Glass, in a statement. “That doesn’t excuse the fact that we never should’ve put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake.” When adapting Daisey’s play, “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” for broadcast on TAL, producers attempted to confirm key elements of the story, but Daisey refused to provide contact information for the interpreter who helped him research the piece.

The PBS miniseries Women, War and Peace is one of seven programs receiving Television Academy Honors. The awards were established by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences to recognize “Television with a Conscience,” the programming that inspires, informs, motivates and has the power to change lives. In the announcement, the Academy said that the five-part Women, War and Peace “challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are a man’s domain. Women embroiled in the midst of today’s conflicts bring viewers inside their lives, forever changing the way we look at war.” The programs were produced by Thirteen and Fork Films in association with WNET and ITVS.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/matc-board-shakeup-could-jeopardize-license-for-public-tv-0m4jfnr-142894555.htmlThe entire membership of the MATC Board would turn over almost immediately under the proposal, a move that would jeopardize MATC’s license for its public television station http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/matc-board-shakeup-could-jeopardize-license-for-public-tv-0m4jeoi-142871005.html

WNET/Thirteen’s two-day Celebration of Teaching & Learning kicks off today (March 16) in New York City. Some 10,000 educators are expected to participate. It’s the seventh annual event, which this year expands into a global conference, with officials, advocates and experts from around the world tackling pressing issues surrounding education.

Dennis Brouse, host of the pubTV show Saddle Up with Dennis Brouse, was convicted of fraudulent practices in Polk County, Iowa, on Thursday (March 15), in connection with a state filmmaking tax-incentive program, according to the Des Moines Register. Brouse, who had been charged in January, also was acquitted on charges of theft and ongoing criminal conduct. Brouse’s Changing Horses Productions had been awarded $9.27 million in tax credits for five projects, but a state audit last year reportedly found discrepancies including $2.18 million in expenditures claimed by Changing Horses paid to companies outside Iowa, which wasn’t allowed, and $1 million in expenses not supported by documentation.

John Barth, managing director of the Public Radio Exchange, dropped in on Marfa Public Radio in Marfa, Texas, and wrote an account of his visit for the PRX blog. The station proved to be a lifeline for listeners after wildfires swept the area last year. Now it’s looking to expand its service vastly as it starts a station in Odessa. Marfa Public Radio’s founder told Barth that he expects the new station will reflect the “conservative, faith-based community” it will serve. You can read more about Marfa Public Radio in this article from Current, published last August.

Independent producer Kartemquin Films posted this petition online to arrange more favorable scheduling than Thursday nights for the indie showcases POV and Independent Lens. See also <Current coverage. Taking Action: PBS Needs Independents March 15, 2012 The following is an open letter to PBS. We encourage all independent filmmakers and fans of public media to join us as signatories by commenting below, or emailing us at PBSNeedsIndies@kartemquin.com, or tweet #PBSNeedsIndies to us on Twitter. Kartemquin has a long history of supporting public broadcasting, and we feel we must again rise to the challenge in raising our concern, and hopefully awareness and action, over the issues below.