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
A dispute over plans to expand a pier on the Bar Harbor waterfront could blow over in a few days. But for the present it has brought the job to a standstill and led to some dark suspicions. An agreement to provide details on the building’s size and… Read More
From its second experience with public financing for gubernatorial races this year, Maine can conclude two things: All that money attracts a lot of candidates, including many with almost no chance of winning, and campaigns that game the system likely will be even more present next time. The… Read More
Next time you buy lobsters, make sure that you aren’t tricked into buying a phony substitute. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, supposedly the nation’s protector against deceptive labeling, has recently permitted sellers of surimi, a fish-paste product that looks like lobster or crab, to drop the term… Read More
Katahdin Lake, which Gov. Percival Baxter long wanted to include in the park he created, is now part of Baxter State Park. This is great news, but as important as the addition to the park, is the discussion about land use and access that the deal fostered. That… Read More
State police have taken an important step to stop the practice of garage shopping for a vehicle inspection sticker by requiring garages to remove half the sticker from cars and trucks that fail state inspections. The next step is for lawmakers to set a fair penalty for owners… Read More
The history of nuclear waste disposal in the United States is one of broken promises, wasted money, obfuscation and delays – decades worth of them. It may get worse as incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has declared the federally designated repository in his home state of Nevada… Read More
If, as Barbara Tuchman once wrote, “books are the carriers of civilization,” what is the Internet but the carrier of conspiracy? And while we appreciate the thorough report released this week on the death of Diana, princess of Wales; know of no plot hidden by the 9-11 Commission;… Read More
Maine disperses more than $600 million in economic development funds but doesn’t know what it is getting for its money, according to a review of 46 state-run programs by a non-partisan legislative review agency. Fortunately, the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability suggest simple and immediate fixes… Read More
Has any report been more widely anticipated and more quickly discarded than the work of the Iraq Study Group? Yet it has already served to change the talk about the war, allowing for new strategies, and even new goals. And it re-emphasized what Congress already knew – that… Read More
On three occasions over the last decade, the Bangor City Council has had a member leave unexpectedly, and each time the remaining members decided a full council was important enough to the operation of the city that a special election was warranted. That is understandable, and it is… Read More
Three years after repeated previous failures to reform the $70 billion U.S. Postal Service, Sen. Susan Collins can claim victory on major legislation almost no one has heard of but that will affect nearly everyone. Her bill steers the Postal Service toward a more competitive, more stable future. Read More
Remembering the Maine, the battleship sunk in Havana harbor more than a century ago, could increase the size of your federal income tax refund. It all has to do with telephones and military spending. Like all military endeavors, lawmakers, who rallied support for the 1898… Read More
Congress didn’t accomplish much during its brief lame duck session, but lawmakers did pass a major revision to the nation’s fishery management law that, for the first time, prohibits overfishing and sets up a quota system. These are overdue changes that will help rebuild fish stocks, which should… Read More
Holiday gifts are such fun – with one big exception: Opening them can be a challenge, and potentially dangerous unless you’re careful. Take tools or cameras, for example. They usually come enclosed in plastic bubbles so tough that it can take great strength and special tools to cut… Read More
The Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement is now known internationally for refusing to allow beer to be sold here with a label that depicts Santa Claus. It also refused two other beers with labels that include topless women, one of which is from a painting by Delacroix, “Liberty… Read More
That the Maine Heritage Policy Center is not a political action committee – as charged in a complaint before the Maine Ethics Commission today based on the organization’s work regarding TABOR – is obvious from a single condition of state law that characterizes PACs. The condition demands the… Read More
North Korea’s president soon will have to scrounge the black market to get toys such as the iPod that complement his luxurious lifestyle. That’s the main consequence of the reportedly latest Bush administration plan for coping with what is probably the most imminent threat of expanding nuclear weapons… Read More
An advisory committee has offered helpful suggestions for improving Maine’s conflict of interest rules and the process for investigating violations. Lawmakers should adopt their recommendations that would, among other things, broaden the conflict of interest standard and allow the public to file ethics complaints against lawmakers, to maintain… Read More
Funding for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, particularly covering the department’s expenses without relying solely on hunters and fishermen, is a perennial issue. It has come up again in the form of payment for searches and rescues. Rather than charging those who are lost and injured,… Read More
The lesson of property-tax relief over the last two years in Maine is that residents badly want it, but they will not accept legislation that jeopardizes the future of the state. The first bill lawmakers are likely to see next session is a version of the former LD… Read More
Saddam Hussein’s sentence of death by hanging was handed down on Nov. 5, and President Bush hailed the trial as “a major achievement for Iraq’s young democracy as and its constitutional government.” Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki predicted the hanging would take place by the end of the… Read More
Although the approach is too late for projects that have already begun a federal review process, a dozen New England congressmen and senators have asked for help from the Department of Energy in coordinating a regional approach to siting liquefied natural gas facilities. Reps. Tom Allen and Mike… Read More
Accounts, comments and reminiscences of that terrible morning 65 years ago give dramatic emphasis to America’s need to commemorate Pearl Harbor. Dec. 7, 1941, was a colossal lapse and failure militarily and a tragic awakening to the realities of war and eventually to a new era in international… Read More
Progress in Iraq these days is measured in how many ways sympathetic officials can tell President Bush that the war there has reached a desperately bad place for the United States. The information is not new, but the difference this time is that Congress knows to tell the… Read More
With the confirmation of Robert Gates as secretary of defense assured, Sen. Susan Collins, a member of the Armed Services Committee, made a smart move during his confirmation hearing yesterday by asking Mr. Gates whether he would back the reappointment of the special inspector general for Iraq. The… Read More
As a model for strengthening his Cabinet, Gov. John Baldacci might look back to 2005, when his Department of Environmental Protection endured a small crisis over former Commissioner Dawn Gallagher’s dealings with International Paper. Baldacci solved it by replacing his commissioner with David Littell, an official respected by… Read More
Al Jazeera English is a brand new television channel that broadcasts world news from a Muslim and Arab perspective. Its stories could help Americans understand the growing global conflict that seems to bear out Harvard Professor Samuel P. Huntington’s 1993 prediction of a “clash of civilizations.”… Read More
The Public Utilities Commission’s recent rejection of bids to provide residential electricity in Aroostook County provides a cautionary tale as Maine considers withdrawing from the regional energy management system. The problem in Aroostook County is that the market is too small to encourage numerous energy suppliers to participate. Read More
A new report says that payday loans cost Americans more than $4 billion in excessive fees, but the document praised Maine and other states that have enforced reasonable loan caps. The Pentagon, which found that a growing number of soldiers couldn’t be deployed because of debt, convinced Congress… Read More
When the new Democratic Congress tries to rein in the expanded powers claimed by President Bush, it faces one formidable obstacle: Vice President Dick Cheney. In 1987, as a U.S. representative from Wyoming, he was vice-chairman of a joint committee that investigated whether the Reagan… Read More
Last February, Gov. John Baldacci asked a group of business and labor leaders and economic-development experts to re-examine the state’s Community College System and find ways to match skilled workers with business demands in Maine. The resulting report challenges the governor and Legislature to invest significantly more in… Read More
Bangor’s school committee had an opportunity last week to clear up through a public hearing doubts about the recent election and the quick departure of its top vote receiver. The committee rejected that opportunity, and now faces an unhappy public. Rather than allow this situation to fester, the… Read More
President Bush earlier this week blamed much of the violence in Iraq on al-Qaida, the terrorist group backed by Osama bin Laden. While this may serve the president’s need to tie the war in Iraq into the larger war on terror, al-Qaida’s growing involvement in Iraq is a… Read More
The surprise move by the Canadian parliament to consider Quebec a nation within Canada has more to do with politics than practical considerations. As such, the resolution likely doesn’t mean much for the largely French-speaking province that borders Maine. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Stephen… Read More
Some coastal landowners are worried that new regulations aimed at protecting shore birds will force them to forgo their dreams of oceanfront homes. While lawmakers will soon look for ways to better target these regulations, coastal property owners may have bigger concerns than birds. Coastal insurance rates are… Read More
With an increasing number of people building homes, seasonal and year-round, in the Maine woods, the demand for services in these remote parts of the state will continue to increase. A legislative study committee has come up with some good suggestions – first, educate newcomers about what is… Read More
When UMaine hockey player Derek Damon skipped classes last spring, the coach forced him to miss the opening game of postseason play. When the associate head coach of women’s basketball, Kathy Karlsson, reportedly failed repeated sobriety tests this month after being stopped while driving in Bangor, she was… Read More
A survey of recent University of Maine graduates showed that many were able to find work in Maine, at least as they begin their careers. That’s a good sign for a state concerned with growing its economy. But for Maine to thrive, it will need many more college-educated… Read More
It won’t decide the presidency or determine the majority in Congress, but the vote recount under way in Florida’s 13th Congressional District is worth watching closely for what it says about voting-machine technology and the public’s faith in the election process. Both are being tested now. Read More
Does same-sex marriage threaten the institution of marriage? That has long been a staple charge by leaders of campaigns for federal or state laws to prohibit homosexual marriage. Authors of a recent op-ed page article in The Wall Street Journal disagree. Darren R. Spedale, a… Read More
The incoming chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, recently said the agenda for the committee would be to look back to the use of prewar intelligence and at practices such as surveillance of phone calls and at future threats from terrorism. Read More
Having concluded that 15 or more years of dispute over the intended use of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway was likely enough, Gov. John Baldacci put together a group to create a means for cooperation. The group’s draft report, released this week, is a welcome step backward. Read More
For anyone still wondering whether Iraq had yet degenerated into a civil war, this week provided the answer: It’s worse than that. Hundreds of Iraqis dead in the last few days; 3,700 killed last month; and sectarian, insurgent and criminal violence spreading across Baghdad with the United States… Read More
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken an important first step in delaying rules that would require all trucks and airline passengers crossing the border from Canada to pay a fee to help pay for inspections. It should now use the additional time to search for less burdensome… Read More
President Bush reopened the old debate on the Vietnam War recently by saying in his visit to Hanoi that the lesson he drew from that bitter experience was that, in Iraq, “We’ll succeed unless we quit.” That aligned the president with the small group of… Read More
Harriet Beecher Stowe moved to Maine in 1850, with her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at Bowdoin College. In Brunswick, she wrote her famous “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and many stories about New England life, including “The Pearl of Orr’s Island” (1862) and “Oldtown Folks” (1869). The latter… Read More
Maine and other states last week properly opposed continued federal attempts to identify dozens of long-term storage sites for spent nuclear fuel. Maine, under federal law, has paid billions of dollars over decades to help develop a single, secure repository for this waste, and Congress no longer has… Read More
The federal government in recent years has doubled what it spends on abstinence-only programs despite the fact that these programs and their materials don’t undergo scientifically based evaluations of their accuracy or efficacy. After the Government Accountability Office reached this conclusion, the Department of Health and Human Services,… Read More
Like most school committees, Bangor’s board keeps issues affecting students at the forefront of its agenda; unlike most committees, its efforts in recent decades haven’t been interrupted by intra-board battles that pit ideas and personalities against each other. But that is what is happening now in Bangor, and… Read More
Energy efficiency doesn’t elicit a lot of excitement, but ensuring that appliances and other equipment use as little electricity as possible is becoming increasingly important. So, the Department of Energy’s recent agreement to belatedly set efficiency standards for nearly two dozen common appliances is a positive step. Read More
Cars are the new got-to-have in China. And Shanghai, the world’s most modern big city, already has a traffic problem. How it copes with the problem may have some lessons for the United States, whose big cities have far worse rush-hour traffic jams. Members of… Read More
Four years ago, the federal Trade Adjustment Act included a tax credit for health care, so that workers who lost their jobs – then, in Maine, it was Hathaway and Dexter Shoe, Saucony and International Paper – could still get coverage. That change was helpful, but far better… Read More
In the five years since the Sept. 11 attacks, Maine has grown accustomed to the idea that its traditionally relaxed border crossings have changed, if not permanently than at least for a long time. But that does not mean that high-cost and multiple forms of ID are necessary. Read More
Yet another study has warned that tourism is stagnating or even declining. Rather than waiting another season to see if the prediction is true, the state and its lucrative tourism industry must take action now to draw more visitors to Maine and get them to stay here longer. Read More
Comic Relief, the fundraising telethon for the homeless, announced this week that it would raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, many of whom still lack decent homes more than a year after the disaster struck. What the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs, however, is Tragic Relief,… Read More
As Lyndon Johnson did 38 years ago, President Bush has asked a group of senior public figures to advise him on how to deal with a long war that is increasingly unpopular and seemingly unwinnable. President Bush’s group was created by Congress with White House… Read More
A sharply divided committee on the future of Sears Island will have failed its mission if it does not come to agreement on the outline of a plan for use of the 940-acre state-owned parcel. Failure is the continuation of the status quo, which means an uninviting chain… Read More
A welcome new plan to expand health-insurance access from the main lobby of the industry describes the direction in which the health care debate is headed – directly toward Maine, with its higher levels of Medicaid coverage. But to persuade taxpayers to spend hundreds of billions more to… Read More
Democrats talk about bipartisanship and many no doubt feel committed to it, but the new majority party in Congress got elected in part by disagreeing with the legislation Republicans have passed. It now must be thinking about which pieces to reconsider. As it does, it should include the… Read More
With so much information available on the potential harm from secondhand smoke, it’s hard to believe that drivers don’t know to refrain from smoking while carrying children in their cars. But if a recent survey is an indication, adults commonly expose kids to smoke this way, which makes… Read More
Journalist Jim Lehrer spoke last week of his time in the Marines at the dedication of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Va., on the 231st anniversary of the corps. The speech was an eloquent expression of why the museum was so worth constructing. Read More
In a study published in the current issue of the journal Science, a team of researchers warn that if current fishing trends continue, the world’s commercial fish and seafood stocks will collapse by 2048. This will cause widespread hunger, economic hardships and more polluted oceans. Imposing strong limits… Read More
Wall Street’s year-end bonuses, already at what many ordinary folks consider an obscene level, are leaping higher again this year. The Wall Street Journal foresees a “green Christmas” – green not as in environment but as in greenbacks. The New York Times says that investment bankers will take… Read More
The Federal Communications Commission recently began the process of considering new rules to reduce the number of birds killed in collisions with communications towers. The best way to reduce collisions is to have fewer towers by collocating equipment on one structure. The FCC rulemaking furthers the national discussion… Read More
John Baldacci begins his next four years as governor of Maine with a twofold challenge. His campaign was noticeably short on specifics as to what he would do during his final term of office: He must quickly take the broad themes of the campaign and the agendas that… Read More
Terrorism, the war in response and the war in Iraq give Veterans Day special urgency today. The nation is encountering new types of warfare, wondering about old enemies and, appropriately, recalling with new respect the veterans of wars past and present. All of this gives the origins of… Read More
Although Democrats made large gains in the Maine House, their majority in the Senate shrank to just one seat. While Democrats in the House may feel emboldened to pass legislation, with or without Republican support, bills must still make it through the closely divided Senate to become law. Read More
Maine is among the few protesters of more than a hundred entities that earlier this year agreed to a plan designed to ensure New England would have adequate, well-sited power plants for the coming decades. Though the framework of the deal is complicated, the state’s complaint is straightforward… Read More
With Democrats gaining control of the House and, depending on the final outcome of close races, perhaps the Senate, they must use their majority to look forward, not backward. While there will be strong temptation to emphasize investigations into pre-war intelligence and energy policy negotiations, putting their efforts… Read More
More than 40 percent of Maine voters supported a tax- and spending-cap measure that by most accounts needed immediate repair were it to pass. That level of support for the Taxpayer Bill of Rights was an expression of the chronic frustration over a signal failure of Maine government. Read More
The Pentagon has held Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi photographer working for The Associated Press, in a prison camp for seven months for “imperative reasons of security.” The military, however, has not charged Mr. Hussein with a crime or provided his employer with evidence of his wrongdoing. It should… Read More
Even as the U.S. military’s central command is cataloging Iraq’s slide into chaos, the Republican lawyer in charge of ensuring that billions of tax dollars are properly spent there learned his job had been quietly terminated. Sens. Susan Collins and Dianne Feinstein immediately announced plans to reinstate that… Read More
If fire departments attacked just the smoke coming from a burning house instead of the underlying fire, they would use fans instead of hoses. “And the house would burn down faster,” Dr. Vincent Felitti said the other day in Maine’s introduction to his work on the underlying reasons… Read More
The cold weather got to you? Lost the old pep? Can’t get motivated? Try voting! There’s no better way to reinvigorate the democratic-republic in you than to cast a vote for a worthy candidate or against one who didn’t impress. Want another reason? Your neighbor, or maybe even… Read More
Opiate addiction in some Maine counties has risen tenfold in the last decade and it has at least doubled in many others. Treating addicts and preventing new addictions is a long-term community endeavor. The Acadia Hospital and Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems are to be commended for their nascent… Read More
Because of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers and the public have a much better understanding of our universe. So it is welcome news that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to repair the telescope rather than letting it fall into the ocean. Last week,… Read More
John Baldacci for Governor Any leader who can close a $1.2 billion budget gap without raising broad-based taxes, who could begin Pine Tree Economic Zones, enact Dirigo Health, lead on the creation of the Community College System and launch Maine’s broadband access program has built… Read More
Maine, according to recent reports, has many more school administrators and government employees than the national average. It turns out the state also generates a lot more trash, which can’t be blamed on all the bureaucrats simply tossing out more paper. Maine’s numbers are likely… Read More
Properly, the explosive “Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change” report to British Prime Minister Tony Blair from Sir Nicholas Stern is being picked at by climate change economists worldwide. The report is clear in its warnings about the severity of climate change and certain in its conclusions… Read More
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 is entirely clear about the possession of a robin’s feather.t ttIt is against the law for those without specific permission “to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to barter, barter,… Read More
Last week, the White House jettisoned the phrase “Stay the course” to describe its strategy for Iraq. Tactics change all the time to respond to the enemy, has become President Bush’s new mantra. What the changing rhetoric misses is that the overall policy in Iraq is failing and… Read More
Sex is what matters everywhere else you look this campaign season. And not just the Mark Foley scandal, either. Harold Ford, running for Senate in Tennessee, got zapped by his opponent’s commercial highlighting Mr. Ford’s visit to a Playboy-sponsored party. A House candidate in New… Read More
Preventing diseased fruit and invasive plants from entering the United States is necessary, but inspecting all trucks entering from Canada and charging trucks, ships and airline passengers to pay for the inspections doesn’t appear to be the right approach. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which… Read More
When environmentalists and residents of northern Maine agree on anything related to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, it is a momentous occasion. That’s why proposals, which are the same in principle but differ in detail, to create a commission to oversee and make management decisions for the waterway offer… Read More
Sens. Olympia Snowe and Jay Rockefeller want ExxonMobil to stop funding organizations that doubt the human-induced effects of global warming, noting that the corporation in 2004 funded 29 separate groups that deny climate change. This battle sounds similar to the decades in which tobacco companies denied the dangers… Read More
When it became evident Maine wasn’t going to roll over, Cabela’s Inc. withdrew its demand for a tax exemption and is apparently moving ahead with plans for a store in Scarborough. Although state tax officials were ready to make the right decision, Congress should re-examine the sales-tax exemptions… Read More
Ratewatcher, the handy little magazine from the office of the Maine public advocate, recently offered more ideas on how to reduce some telephone charges. Here are some highlights: For 411 directory service, there’s no need to pay the $1.25 fee from a cell phone or… Read More
A recent report by the Brookings Institution pointed out that Maine has had many good development ideas over the last few decades, but that it has often failed to adequately sustain them, “which has undercut the effectiveness of under or unfunded initiatives.” Something of the same problem is… Read More
Plum Creek’s private agreement to conserve more than 340,000 acres in the Moosehead Lake region should remain separate from the state’s consideration of the company’s application to develop house lots and resorts on other land it owns in the region. The company’s $35 million agreement with The Nature… Read More
A panel reviewing the Legislature’s ethics laws is off to a good start by recommending that the public be allowed to file complaints and that hearings on valid complaints be conducted in public. To complete its task, the committee, which meets two more times next month, must still… Read More
The latest evidence that the current approach to commercial fisheries regulation in New England isn’t working came last week when new federal rules, requiring a reduction in the time fishermen spend fishing, were announced. Federal regulators want more fish left in the water to rebuild… Read More
The recent news from The Commonwealth Fund that Maine is among the states with the highest percentage of residents who have health coverage is good news here but sobering nationally. Maine improved partly by expanding coverage through MaineCare and by creating DirigoChoice, but mostly the state moved up… Read More
In George Orwell’s classic novel “1984,” he speculated that a future totalitarian government would control not only the present but even the past by consigning inconvenient historical facts to a “memory hole.” The Bush administration, certainly not fascistic as some extremist critics are charging, is… Read More
As in states across the nation, Maine is home to candidates whose campaigns are inspired primarily by their anger about the war in Iraq. They want U.S. troops to leave Iraq either immediately or quickly. The growing success of the insurgents and the nascent Iraqi civil war fuel… Read More
DDT has certainly had its ups and downs. The powerful and almost indestructible insecticide was hailed in World War II as the “savior of mankind” as it killed the fleas that carried typhus and the mosquitoes that spread malaria. Farmers increased their harvests by spraying it on crops… Read More
Whether Democrats retake the House, as national polls are concluding, or not, Maine needs strong representation on issues such as the war in Iraq, Medicare and Social Security reform, the $8.5 trillion debt and international trade pacts. It needs funding for transportation and environmental protection and a firm… Read More
Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to state that a citizens’ initiative or people’s veto petition must be submitted to local or state officials by the constitutional deadline in order to be certified and, in the case of a citizens’ initiative, must be filed with the… Read More
Sen. Olympia Snowe’s willingness to take – and maintain – a principled stance, that is sometimes at odds with her party, coupled with her ability to develop bipartisan compromises on important issues have served her and Maine well in the Senate. Her consistent popularity indicates Mainers are pleased… Read More
Do you want to limit increases in state and local government spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth and to require voter approval for all tax and fee increases? Groups that support the Taxpayer Bill of Rights ballot initiative fairly say that Maine… Read More