It is not surprising that hard-liners are upset about an agreement that North Korea will end its nuclear activities in exchange for food and energy assistance. The agreement, and the talks that made it possible, are a large and positive change in posture and approach for the Bush… Read More
Ellsworth and the Maine Department of Transportation have come up with a traffic plan that nobody seems to like very much and some actually hate. It calls for one-way southbound traffic on the Bar Harbor Road from McDonald’s to Myrick Street, the new route that serves Home Depot. Read More
The Legislature would have a fine year if it balanced the budget honestly and came to an effective conclusion on school district consolidation. But it has set out a much more ambitious schedule that in the next several weeks will focus on a panel called the Prosperity Committee. Read More
The usual response to any extremely unacceptable behavior – a 12th drunken driving conviction, a fatal accident caused by a driver whose license has been suspended numerous times, sexual abuse of a child, drug possession – is to put the person in jail, preferably for a long time. Read More
Childhood vaccinations have been given for generations to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. A new vaccine that is given primarily to school girls to prevent cervical cancer decades later has moved public health into new territory and raised many questions. Some, such as the concern that the… Read More
As if physicians didn’t have enough trouble with paperwork, now they have a whole new record-keeping worry. Some highly sensitive personal information on 1.3 million physicians who have billed Medicaid and Medicare – the list includes some who are deceased – has been lost by the Department of… Read More
Every day in Afghanistan and Iraq, local interpreters risk their lives to help U.S. troops communicate with the public and understand the culture. They take immense risks with minimum security, and many have paid with their lives. Each year the United States offers 50 visas to these interpreters,… Read More
In much of Maine on Wednesday, families woke up to no snow … and no school. Call it precipitation anticipation. After days of news stories warning of a huge storm headed for New England, the cancellations began Tuesday, nearly 24 hours before the first snowflake fell. With so… Read More
Prefacing his presentation with “I cannot tell you everything that we know,” then Secretary of State Colin Powell sat before the United Nation’s Security Council in February 2003 and showed satellite photos he said depicted active chemical munitions bunkers in Iraq. He also warned of ties between Baghdad… Read More
Unless the Legislature’s Education Committee quickly dedicates itself to completing a fair and educationally sound means to consolidate school districts, it will be the rightful target of angry property taxpayers next election. For the long-term good of schools and the state’s tax burden, lawmakers should agree that Maine’s… Read More
By introducing a bill to slow the pace of new federal identification rules, Sen. Susan Collins today is expected to offer a way out of a growing confrontation between Washington and the states. The bill would extend the deadline for REAL ID by two years and recognize the… Read More
The premise behind the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is simple – by putting a price on carbon pollution, utilities will reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gas linked to climate change. Reducing or eliminating the costs of emissions, by giving away carbon allowances, for example, weakens the program,… Read More
Maine’s congressional delegation found things they liked in the president’s budget – money for the Penobscot River restoration, more funds for shipbuilding and national parks. But these are small positives in a budget that includes new tax cuts, reduces assistance for children and the elderly and downplays the… Read More
Boys soccer teams have been going on foreign tours for many years. This year, it will be the Ellsworth soccer girls’ turn, in a breakthrough for Hancock County. Coach Jennifer Myers says she has had it in mind for several years but only this year… Read More
The price of oil seemed to go on vacation for awhile, dropping to around $50 per barrel and making heating oil and gasoline seem much more affordable. But the price has risen again to around $60 a barrel, and businesses and consumers can’t help wondering where it will… Read More
Although in the works for years, rules announced last year to protect shore birds, such as plovers and sandpipers, prompted a furor. That alone was not reason for the department to reconsider the rules, but if the same level of protection can be provided while putting less land… Read More
There may be good reason for the government to help some small airports stay open, but that assistance should not be detrimental to regional airports. Rather than expanding the Essential Air Service program, as proposed, Congress should rethink the program and target funds to truly distant airports that… Read More
Restrained optimism on all sides surrounds another session of the six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, which opened yesterday in Beijing. It began with the positive sign that North Korea had agreed in principle to take a first step toward dismantling its nuclear programs. Read More
The idea that humans are the major cause of climate change, as detailed last week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, may not have struck many people as new. But more important than the conclusion by the IPCC that global warming in the last 50 years is… Read More
U.S. District Court in Bangor today is expected to decide whether the Maine Public Utilities Commission can ask Verizon officials to confirm they told the truth through press releases last year about the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program. The Justice Department argues that this is entirely a federal… Read More
With growing frequency, the broad middle of Congress has asserted that political, rather than military, solutions are the primary means for an effective departure for U.S. troops from Iraq. So the Senate’s refusal Monday to vote on a resolution that rejected the president’s troop build-up was a disappointment,… Read More
Like states across the country that had been accounting for retiree health care costs in a pay-as-you-go system, Maine is now looking at a very large number under new federal rules that require it to recognize a liability when it is incurred rather than when it is paid. Read More
There can be no doubt that China’s success in shooting down one of its aging weather satellites in orbit is a serious matter. The question now is what to do about it. Details of the Jan. 11 missile shot are still unclear. China waited nearly… Read More
Maine’s Public Utilities Commission is saving Maine’s businesses and individuals substantial amounts on their electric bills, and it is planning how to save even more. Its annual report on Efficiency Maine tells how that program saved money and improved Maine’s environment in 2006 through more… Read More
Longtime statehouse grumbling has had the state’s tourism office acting like summer visitors after four days of rain – absent and therefore unhelpful to Maine’s soggy economy. The brand new head of economic development here, John Richardson, an attorney and former House speaker, addressed that charge recently by… Read More
Trading the controversial payment method for the state’s health plan, DirigoChoice, for funding through a snack tax creates a more reliable source of revenue only in the minds of those with short memories. The tax proposal would be the first step toward defunding this valuable program. Read More
For years the state’s chief judge has told lawmakers that Maine courthouses are unsafe and that legislators needed to set aside money to improve security. Each year, lawmakers say they agree with the justice, but when it comes time to fulfill her funding requests, too little money has… Read More
For years, adults have been telling students they should prepare for college and work after high school, with limited results. Now a talking donkey named Norm will be spreading the same message. Norm was picked by students as the mascot of the Kick Start campaign,… Read More
Molly Ivins thought newspapers should guarantee readers one good laugh a day. The syndicated columnist brought laughter – and often heartburn, especially among conservatives – to readers of about 350 papers, including this one, at least once a week. Ms. Ivins died Wednesday at her home in Texas,… Read More
A new bill to restrict the voting rights of college students was dead before it had its first hearing this week, just as it had died the several previous times it had been proposed. But the idea behind it – that college students get lesser voting rights than… Read More
As with many other policies in his State of the Union address, President Bush’s call for improved fuel economy standards was short on details. Fortunately, lawmakers will soon consider legislation, including a bill to raise the standards to 35 miles per gallon. This approach, which is supported by… Read More
As predicted when a referendum to ban bear baiting and trapping failed at the polls two years ago, the debate over how bears are killed is heating up again in Augusta. Lawmakers will face bills that range from banning trapping to ensuring no further limits are placed on… Read More
An optimistic report on wind power by the Public Utilities Commission addresses potential sites for placing turbines. It observes that while mountain ridges traditionally have been seen as optimal places for wind-power development, large areas of flat ground – blueberry or potato fields – “are also considered by… Read More
With military officials warning of a resurgence of the Taliban this spring, President Bush is seeking an additional $10 billion for Afghanistan. More money and more troops won’t root out the Taliban without neighboring Pakistan ending its support, tacit or otherwise, for the militant religious group. U.S. lawmakers… Read More
Once more, President Bush has pushed ethanol as an alternative automobile fuel, to the delight of environmentalists, many people in the Midwest, and, naturally, the ethanol producers. In his State of the Union address, he called for “investing in new methods of producing ethanol, using… Read More
Since Gov. John Baldacci in his 2005 State of the State speech said improving cell phone coverage was one of his top priorities, dozens of new towers have been built and many so-called “dead zones” eliminated. If you want to thank someone for the improvements, look in the… Read More
When Maine joined the term limits fad in 1993, it looked to its advocates like a silver bullet that would expand democracy, force the retirement of political hacks, and (not incidentally) get rid of the longtime Democratic Speaker of the House, John Martin of Eagle Lake. It accomplished… Read More
As President Bush got a cool reception from Congress for his plans to send more American troops to Iraq, the opening days of a trial that involves the origin of the war has highlighted the administration’s determination to keep a positive spin on the rationale for invading Baghdad. Read More
The announcement by the White House on Friday that it has proposed $10 million in the president’s budget to restoring the Penobscot River gives a mighty push to a worthy project. The administration is right to support this environmental gain, and its contribution will certainly spur even more… Read More
Now that Plum Creek Timber Co. is, for a second time, revising its proposal for major development around Moosehead Lake, the company should take the time to improve the plan by ensuring that both the development and conservation are the right size in the appropriate location. It can… Read More
As much as Maine celebrates its falling rate of smokers, Gov. John Baldacci’s budget shows the extent to which the state depends on them continuing their habit. He is proposing a $1-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes to raise an additional $130 million over the biennium. Democratic leaders are… Read More
There is a simple reason that President Bush should stop issuing signing statements: They add an unnecessary and possibly dangerous level of confusion to legislation that must be applied by government bureaucrats, and often, interpreted by the courts. Signing statements were in the news again… Read More
In a speech that offered a minimum of new ideas about governing, President George Bush clearly announced his agenda Tuesday as he faced a Democratic majority in Congress for the first time. Under these proposals and despite the talk of bipartisanship, the conflicts between his administration and Congress… Read More
Advocates of tighter governmental rules to curb the human causes of climate change can draw at least three lessons from a recent announcement that some major corporations have teamed up with environmental groups to demand caps on the production of carbon dioxide. They are lessons Congress should follow… Read More
Gov. Baldacci’s tax-cap resolution, released last week, partly addresses one of the primary criticisms against it, but the plan continues to lack a good argument for its existing at all. Majority legislative Democrats will have a hard time rejecting their party leader’s plan; they should instead offer an… Read More
Under the direction of the Bush administration, NASA is cutting its Earth science program by $3.1 billion over the next five years, with the money directed toward renewed efforts to send people to the moon in preparation for a manned Mars mission. Last year, the agency dropped the… Read More
Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, has brushed off suspicions of an impending U.S. military attack against Iran as just another “urban legend that’s going around.” He may be right, but the legend, which has been churning through the Internet lately, grew out of the threats and… Read More
Lawmakers have been wrangling for two years with the prospect of a tribal gambling facility in Washington County, twice running into gubernatorial vetoes. A current proposal from the Passamaquoddy Tribe to build a racino avoids this problem by putting the proposal to a statewide vote if lawmakers fail… Read More
It’s a natural reaction to not want a sex offender living in your neighborhood, but since they cannot all be banished to a deserted island or locked up forever, a coherent state policy that directs offenders to where they will get the most supervision, support and treatment makes… Read More
Facing congressional investigations and legal challenges, the Bush administration last week reversed course and said it would seek the approval of a secret court before monitoring Americans’ international communications as part of its terrorism surveillance work. Bringing the eavesdropping program back under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is… Read More
Just in time for what looks like the political battle of the winter, the Baldacci administration this week released the results of spending limits on state, county, local and school spending. Guess which one didn’t make the grade? Those same school districts Gov. John Baldacci… Read More
The Maine Arts Commission will receive a well-deserved award Saturday for its work on making the arts more accessible to people with disabilities, older adults, veterans and people living in institutions. The award from the National Endowment for the Arts reflects well on the commission’s valuable work and… Read More
Months after Maine utility regulators said a plan aimed at increasing the amount of electricity available in New England was flawed, the attorneys general of Connecticut and Massachusetts have sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which approved the plan last year. They say the arrangement, which was mainly… Read More
If you saw the sleight-of-hand in the Senate last week over disclosure rules for earmarks, you could fairly conclude that the most important ethics reform for Congress is not the restrictions members place on each other but who is watching them long after this current wave of reform… Read More
Verizon’s intended sale of much of its telephone service in Maine had been rumored for more than a year. But with the announcement this week that the potential buyer is FairPoint Communications, which has owned subsidiaries here for several years, the state’s Public Utilities Commission has both work… Read More
Good lawyers tell stories, and Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong last year had an amazing story. It involved a black stripper, white lacrosse players at Duke University and allegations of rape. It appeared to be a narrative that nearly everyone could follow: a young woman trying to… Read More
No one should doubt the determination of the “Bangor Eleven,” the anti-war activists who staged a sit down last September in Sen. Olympia Snowe’s Bangor office. The last six of the group now have chosen 24 hours in jail instead of a $200 fine. But… Read More
When the Environmental Protection Agency adopted a rule last year that aimed to reduce mercury pollution through a cap and trade system, the agency downplayed the idea that the toxic metal is often deposited – in high concentrations – near its source. A study, published in the current… Read More
Television didn’t air one of the more peculiar events Sunday during the surprising New England Patriots’ football victory against the San Diego Chargers, but newspaper stories described how several Patriots players re-enacted a dance on the midfield emblem of the Chargers, enraging their defeated opponents. Besides showing why… Read More
Before Maine drops its 152 school districts for the 26 proposed by Gov. Baldacci, the 60 or so contemplated by the state Board of Education or any other number, it must persuade communities that the proposed districts are the most efficient, effective choice. These will require more data… Read More
Scores of news stories have noted the wonders of military medical care that have saved the lives of thousands of wounded troops and resulted in a new and growing wave of veterans who will need long-term care. Now a study has researched some of those costs and found… Read More
There may be no more fitting way to observe the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. than to recall his defining speech, delivered in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963. . googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes… Read More
Are you tired of replacing burned-out light bulbs? Would you like to cut back your electric bill? Would you like to do a bit to combat global warming? If so, the new compact fluorescent bulbs may be your answer. They last up to ten times… Read More
When the value of a property goes up, the owners are often pleased – until the tax bill arrives. Revaluations have led to huge outcries in recent years and are one reason behind the push for tax relief. Before a tax relief plan is crafted, Maine should improve… Read More
A higher bid this week from US Airways Group for Delta Air Lines Inc. will be tempting for Delta’s creditors, but it is a bad deal for passengers, especially those who depend on medium or small airports. The Senate’s Commerce Committee has a hearing planned later this month… Read More
In November 2005, coalition troop strength in Iraq numbered 183,000 without achieving the victory sought by the United States. At the end of November 2006, the coalition number was 158,000. Adding 21,500 to the more recent total, as President Bush announced Wednesday, even assuming distribution of troops better… Read More
U.S. air strikes on Somalia are said to have killed a top al-Qaida leader. The United States, however, has claimed to have killed many of the terrorist group’s leaders since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks yet al-Qaida remains intact and functional and may even be gaining strength in… Read More
House Democrats were credited last week with taking a large step toward reducing the nation’s budget deficit by passing rules requiring that tax cuts and spending increases be offset by revenue increases or spending cuts elsewhere. While it is good news that the pay-as-you-go, or paygo, rules were… Read More
The Bush administration has for years ducked the issue of climate change and how human activities are contributing to the planet’s warming. So, it is no surprise that when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed, after a court-ordered review, to list polar bears as a threatened… Read More
Four senior American statesmen have proposed that the United States start a new drive toward worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons. Their case is timely, detailed, closely reasoned, and maybe even practical. But if it is to go anywhere, it needs public discussion and determined U.S. leadership. Read More
Burning waste to create electricity makes environmental and economic sense. Importing a lot of waste to burn a small portion of it, which Maine is increasingly doing, reduces the benefits. Lawmakers and state officials, by assessing the true costs and clearly defining what can and cannot be landfilled… Read More
As Congress prepares to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act – No Child Left Behind – it would do well to notice amid the complaints of endless paperwork and celebrations of some test scores rising that schools are not the only and may not be the primary… Read More
A furious controversy is boiling away among lobbyists and bloggers over pending congressional bills to guarantee a level playing field for the Internet. Sounds eminently fair and simple enough, doesn’t it? But the blasts pro and con have made the issue needlessly complex. For example,… Read More
While mercury-contaminated soil is being removed from the former HoltraChem plant in Orrington, a former owner of the plant has long fought studying, let alone cleaning up, possible mercury contamination of the Penobscot River. The longer the mercury is in the river, the more it can spread through… Read More
A major Coast Guard modernization program has been so badly mismanaged that the service now has boats that don’t float, marine radios that aren’t waterproof and replacement vessels and aircraft that are years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget. This happened, according to news reports, because… Read More
Gov. John Baldacci officially released his budget for the next biennium Friday, after hinting what would be in it Wednesday during his inaugural address. The surprise then was that he planned to reduce the number of school districts in Maine from 152 to 26. On Friday, he revealed… Read More
If, as Oscar Wilde had it, second marriages are the triumph of hope over experience, second political terms may be the opposite. Maine saw Gov. John Baldacci begin his second four years as governor Wednesday having put away the vague hopefulness of his first inaugural address and instead… Read More
Why did the latest round of talks about North Korea’s nuclear weapons program end in a deadlock? The explanation by the chief U.S. negotiator was at best only a partial answer. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters recently when the talks were suspended… Read More
A Department of Homeland Security report released Wednesday that ranks communication strengths in cities around the country shows the department’s priority for states. The ability of emergency responders to talk if cell phone towers or landlines go down is crucial, and the report is valuable for pointing out… Read More
During the rare times when fiscal conservatives express unhappiness with the Bush administration, they are almost always referring to the size of the federal budget and the resulting deficit. Recently, however, a left-leaning think tank has rescued them from this lament by demonstrating that the concern may be… Read More
A consistent and substantial drop in domestic violence in the United States, falling by more than half since 1993, according to a new Department of Justice report, follows the path of reductions in other crimes. It also suggests that a leading cause of injury for women in Maine… Read More
A favorite new-year question for many investors is whether the markets will go up or down over the next 12 months. The answer is easy: No one knows. But most people don’t like to hear that truthful good sense, as the personal-finance columnist Jonathan Clements… Read More
Massachusetts legislators are clinging to a pointless procedural move to avoid passing to voters a proposed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. By doing so, they are merely hastening the day that voters decide the state’s oversight of their marriages is superfluous. The Massachusetts supreme… Read More
Of the promises Democrats made on their way to taking over Congress this year, their pledge to require the federal government to negotiate prescription-drug prices for Medicare recipients seems the easiest to keep. But while the idea of reducing drug costs by using the purchasing power of the… Read More
Once again, just like clockwork, here comes New Year’s Day. Once again, in a wave sweeping across time zones, the world will count backward from 10. Celebrants will wish each other the best and mean it, at least for as long as the cup of kindness brims. Parades… Read More
Only about 10 percent of Maine homes, says the State Planning Office, are sold to people from out of state, a population that is being targeted by Gov. John Baldacci as a source of higher revenues under a proposal to cap property taxes. Unfortunately, his plan would also… Read More
A group looking for agreement on the future of Sears Island has made progress and should continue its work to develop a mixed-use plan for the state-owned island. Such a plan could be used by the Legislature to evaluate proposals for development or other uses of the 940-acre… Read More
While military prosecutors in California were charging five Marines with murder in the killing of Iraqi civilians last year, Pentagon officials were holding a hearing on mental health services after reports that soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo., were not receiving adequate treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. The murder… Read More
Maine’s Department of Education recently announced that it progressed from failing to get approval for its student-assessment system to having approval pending, a step toward making the SAT – a test high-schoolers take to predict how well they will do in their first year of college – part… Read More
By the time he died on Tuesday afternoon, former President Gerald R. Ford had come to epitomize a long-ago period of civility, honest governance and remarkable healing after both a vice president and a president had resigned in disgrace. He became president in the midst… Read More
In another example of the Environmental Protection Agency not listening to public or congressional concerns, the agency last week moved ahead with a controversial plan to weaken requirements that companies report on the toxic chemicals they use and release into the environment. By quadrupling the reporting threshold, the… Read More
The president of Iran, known for his inflexibility, bravado, unwillingness to work with other factions and overconfidence in the strength of his political base, was rebuked at the ballot box recently. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will remain in power but his influence was diminished by the results of the Dec. Read More
The reaction to a Winslow man’s 12th conviction for drunken driving was understandable. Get him off the road and lock him up was the general sentiment. But, when the response to any extremely unacceptable behavior is to put the person in jail – preferably for a long time… Read More
Shortly after Maine was praised for keeping its tobacco-settlement money focused on reducing smoking, the state received a negative mark in a report card on its readiness to confront bioterrorism, bird flu and assorted disaster. The negative mark was over the state’s apparent failure to maintain funding for… Read More
It is the beginning of the third millennium of the Christian era. The Roman legions once garrisoned in Palestine long ago returned to dust. But the passing of scores of generations of common men and of hundreds of kings and tyrants and presidents has made remarkably little difference… Read More
No sooner had a commission on Dirigo Health’s subsidized insurance announced its proposal to fund it through new taxes than House Republicans responded with their opposition. It’s hard to blame them. An essential promise of DirigoChoice is that it would increase efficiency in Maine’s health… Read More
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are… Read More
A recent audit on Maine’s faulty Medicaid claims computer, affecting billions of dollars in payments, shows that progress on the system has stalled, communication among contractors is inadequate and the expertise to bring the system up to federal standards is apparently absent. Over the past two years, this… Read More
The slow approach of winter can sharpen the senses. As an unusually mild fall slides into an uncertain winter with its crisp, clear days and nights, don’t miss the pleasurable sensations that come along with the seasonal change. Here are a few: ? Trace the… Read More
The Environmental Protection Agency is right to want to make its research and reports available online. That work should be completed, however, before the agency closes its libraries and puts many of its documents into storage where they will be hard to access. The agency has the process… Read More