PBS NewsHour has big plans for midterm election evening on Nov. 2. Anchor Jim Lehrer will host a live interactive special from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. both on-air and online, according to a show statement. After 10 p.m. online there’ll also be live blogging, interactive graphics, an election night mashup video and a social media stream highlighting comments on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and AIM.

Robert Feder, media blogger on Chicago Public Radio’s Vocalo.org, writes that its blogs are taking “a short break” and will return in a week or two on the redesigned website of WBEZ.org. Vocalo, which kicked off as a multimedia public-square discussion space in 2007, is having a rough go of it. A strategic plan (PDF) presented to Chicago Public Radio’s board last October said, “As a website Vocalo must be seen as unsuccessful so far” (Current, Jan. 11, 2010).

A Twitter from Sesame Street’s Bert, longtime pal of Ernie, prompted Sesame Workshop to declare that, no, the two are not gay. In Bert’s posting, he used the term “mo,” referring to his hairstyle. In a Sunday (Oct. 24) story the Los Angeles Times reports: “Reading ‘mo’ as slang for homosexual, gay bloggers rejoiced.” The paper notes that “the show’s latest season feels more LGBT-friendly than ever,” with guest stars including openly gay comic Wanda Sykes. But Ellen Lewis, Sesame Workshop’s corporate communications v.p., told the Times that the show is not consciously trying to appeal to gay viewers.

American Experience’s “Freedom Riders” doc is giving 40 college students the chance to ride along with the civil rights activists on the route of their famous 1961 trip. Students will be on board May 6-16, 2011, the 50th anniversary of the freedom rides (background from the Civil Rights Movement Veterans). The trip is the centerpiece of the unique outreach for the series, airing that month. College students may apply here. UPDATE: Also, don’t miss the National Center for Media Engagement/WGBH webinar Nov. 10 on the Freedom Riders outreach; more here. NCME says it’s streaming the entire program for station staff to preview leading up to as well as after the webinar.

In a U.S. District Court filing in New York on Friday (Oct. 22), ivi TV asked that the case against it by several broadcasters including PBS be moved to Seattle, where the company is based, reports Broadcasting and Cable. The broadcasters are asking the court to stop ivi’s streaming of their TV signals online either by restraining order or preliminary injunction (Current, Oct. 4). ivi says online TV station streaming is legal with its license from the U.S. Copyright Office. Here’s a copy of ivi’s latest court filing (PDF).

Rob Bole, CPB’s v.p., digital media strategy, spoke on “Public Media in a Digital Age” Oct. 12 at the FedTalks 2010 confab. Innovators from sectors such as citizen engagement, cyber security and open government addressed administration officials and other government reps at the one-day event. Check out Boles’s presentation here.

The Independent Television Service (ITVS) reports that seven of its productions have been chosen as official selections for the 23rd International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Nov. 17-29, the world’s largest doc showcase. Many ITVS films received critical acclaim at recent IDFA’s, including last year’s best feature length film winner, Last Train Home, and The Most Dangerous Man in America, with its special jury award to a film not in competition. Here’s a list of ITVS’s 2010 IDFA films at the Beyond the Box blog.

Planet Forward, a multimedia environmental innovation project at George Washington University, will be collaborating with Nightly Business Report to develop environmental programming, NBR has announced.   Viewers will submit ideas to tackle energy and climate challenges through PlanetForward.org, and the partners will jointly produce stories around the most interesting. The series premiered Oct. 21 with Planet Forward host Frank Sesno appearing. The first episode looked at the new 100 percent electric Nissan Leaf.

NPR President Vivian Schiller dispatched this apology Sunday evening, Oct. 24 [2010], six days after the network set off a pre-election political firestorm with its firing of news analyst Juan Williams. She stands by the decision but not the way it was handled. Dear Program Colleagues, I want to apologize for not doing a better job of handling the termination of our relationship with news analyst Juan Williams. While we stand firmly behind that decision, I regret that we did not take the time to prepare our program partners and provide you with the tools to cope with the fallout from this episode.

Ken Tomlinson, the former CPB chair who was forced off the board after campaigning secretly and successfully to get two weekly political programs of his liking onto PBS, wrote in the Washington Examiner Friday (Oct. 22) that the public broadcasting he wanted can never be achieved: “I had long believed that the many tentacles of public broadcasting should be reformed — not defunded. I now realize I was wrong. Federal funding for NPR should be eliminated — as should handouts to CPB and PBS.” NPR’s firing of Juan Williams was “outrageous, but these people did the nation a favor,” he wrote.

NPR fired news analyst Juan Williams late yesterday over comments he made about Muslims during an Oct. 18 appearance on Fox News. Williams, a news pundit and commentator who had contracts with both networks, was reacting to remarks by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly when he said: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they’re identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried.

... This is our deepest embarrassment as public broadcasters. I have heard the arguments, and I understand the imperatives, but to think that, hucksters aside, we spend more of our energy and on-air promotional time, pushing programs that have nothing to do with our mission, is shameful....

The Vegas PBS Educational Technology Campus has been awarded the Outstanding Building of the Year (TOBY) Award in the Earth category by the Building Owners and Managers Association, the station announced today (Oct. 20). The TOBY recognizes excellence in building management and acknowledges the Educational Technology Campus’ green operations and maintenance practices. The Vegas PBS Educational Technology Campus is the first television building in the United States to receive LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (Current, Jan. 8, 2010).

The new Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies will be recorded at WTTW, “returning to the roots of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel’s original Sneak Previews program,” the station announced today (Oct. 19). Production is expected to begin in January 2011 for the 26-episode season, which premieres Jan. 21. Series co-exec producers are Chaz and Roger Ebert. Former WBBM Assistant News Director Don Dupree returns to direct, after 15 years as a producer and director starting with Siskel & Ebert at the Movies.

Don’t lose this number — 712-432-6610 — because that’s yet another way to get PBS NewsHour. The show announced today (Oct. 19) that the audio is now available anytime via mobile or land line. AudioNow lets listeners hear the daily one-hour PBS NewsHour broadcast without downloads or data services.