President Bush was on target when he said at a news conference yesterday “the need is urgent,” for a quick deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon. But he missed, intentionally, when asked whether that force would be the one to disarm Hezbollah. There is, as of… Read More
The Maine Gambling Control Board has made a wise move in proposing a moratorium on further expansion of slot-machine gambling. In a non-binding resolution, the board called for a breathing spell to judge the impact of the 475 slot machines at Bangor’s temporary Hollywood Slots and the expansion… Read More
To fill your environmentally sound flex-fuel vehicle with E85 – 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline – all a Maine resident must do now is drive to Lititz, Pa., where the closest public station exists, according to the Department of Energy web site. That’s 605 miles from Bangor. Read More
An analysis of the impact of proposed development in the Moosehead Lake area released this week by Eastern Maine Development Corp. provides many interesting ideas about improving roads, ensuring landfill capacity and worker housing. But the most important aspect of the report is its assessment of the region’s… Read More
In her ruling Thursday that would end the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit took the argument of “inherent powers of the presidency” back to their source and found them not nearly as expansive as the White House has asserted. Read More
The Bush administration has a fair point in its complaint that states misuse a Medicaid rule to tax hospitals and nursing homes in order to raise revenues that then are used to leverage more federal dollars for care. There’s no logic to such a system and it shifts… Read More
Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney have it wrong for two reasons as they lead the charge in a strategy of accusing Connecticut’s Democratic voters with a willingness wave the white flag and cut and run on the war on terror. Increasing opposition to the Iraq war helped give… Read More
Although NASA is best known for its space missions, the agency is a leader in research about Earth. Or, at least it was. The agency recently dropped the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet” from its mission statement. The wording change, coupled with recent attempts to… Read More
It is no secret that terrorists want to blow up airplanes. Keeping explosives, no matter their form, off planes is crucial, but so is stopping terrorists using any means before they board aircraft. The United States, according to recent reports, is lagging on both fronts. The Department of… Read More
In the unending pursuit of economic development for a state that could really use some, the announcement this week that Netflix, the huge movie-subscription service, would open a distribution center in Portland was a relatively small story. But it was important as a means of highlighting the effects… Read More
Even as Superior Court Justice Roland Cole last week supported the ability of the Dirigo Health Agency to set insurance-industry payments for the program, a state blue-ribbon commission was looking for a new system of revenues that would avoid the controversy caused by that payment. The panel certainly… Read More
A new phrase has crept into the language: helicopter parents. It refers to a growing custom of parents hovering over their children to protect them against the hazards and temptations of modern life. The hovering now extends to one of the age-old bastions of youth independence – summer… Read More
Much of the opposition to putting wind turbines on Redington Mountain comes from the fact that it is currently undeveloped and part of a large unbroken forest. There is less opposition to Maine Mountain Power’s proposal to put turbines on nearby Black Nubble Mountain. Before Maine decides whether… Read More
By flip-flopping on its stance toward the fighting between Israel and Hizbollah, the Bush administration not only changed course in that tragedy but signaled that it is confronting its own goals in Iraq. Implied in this change is an understanding obvious enough as to be banal if so… Read More
Bad advice has plagued the Bush administration ever since it started planning to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein. Ahmad Chalabi, an Iraqi ?migr?, was a favorite early source for the Pentagon, Vice President Dick Cheney and insufficiently skeptical news reporters. Although largely discredited now,… Read More
You probably thought it was difficult to save millions of dollars, but Sens. Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, and Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota, recently described a simple procedure nearly anyone could follow. Begin by “buying” $9.5 billion worth of nonexistent stock, registering… Read More
Maine education officials knew the state would flunk federal testing requirements when it switched to the SAT last year. Now that it has formally been informed of its failing grade – and an accompanying $114,000 fine – the state is asking the federal Education Department to reconsider. Reconsidering… Read More
A three-state consortium, including Maine, that will negotiate lower prescription drug prices for Medicaid recipients is a help – the effort has already saved Maine $1 million. But to truly have buying power to push drug companies to lower prices, the federal government should do the negotiating. Read More
Maine lobsters have cachet. That’s why posh restaurants from Paris to Hong Kong to New York put Maine lobster, not Massachusetts or New Brunswick lobster, on their menus. It’s also why dealers from other states and Canada are selling their crustaceans as “Maine” lobsters. The… Read More
News of the disruption of a suspected terrorist plot in England reminds travelers from the United States and the world that planes are still a favored target of militant groups. If the terrorists’ goal is to create disruptions and sow fear, they have accomplished it. Fortunately, however, this… Read More
The shutdown of a major oil field in Alaska should vividly remind Americans of a pressing problem. The United States uses a quarter of the world’s oil but has only 3 percent of its oil reserves. With the largest single source of those reserves temporarily… Read More
Israel’s decision to send troops farther into Lebanon shows that its military strategy to weaken Hezbollah is not working. That is all the more reason to pursue a diplomatic end to the fighting that has raged for nearly a month. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot… Read More
A judge’s ruling that the savings brought about by DirigoChoice, the Baldacci administration’s health care coverage plan, are appropriately calculated and an appropriate mechanism for funding the plan won’t settle disputes about the initiative but it provides a solid direction for a commission that is currently reviewing Dirigo… Read More
A new twist in the financing of corporate buyouts is enriching the purchasers and driving many an established old-line company into debt, layoffs, contraction or even bankruptcy – all this with meager public regulation. The winners, according to a recent analysis by The Wall Street… Read More
The missile defense system, known as “Star Wars,” doesn’t work well under a barrage of rockets, according to a recent failed project. Since future battles aren’t likely to involve one-time shots of large missiles, the system’s protective value must seriously be questioned. As reported recently… Read More
With the Bush administration determined not to act on climate change, states and cities are doing what they have to – combating the problem on their own. Last week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a trans-Atlantic emissions trading program. The next day… Read More
Timing matters in politics, so what better time than during the recent heat wave to remind southern senators who do not like the North’s annual winter reliance on federal energy-assistance funds that their constituents depend on that same source for cooling? That reminder, however, is only the beginning… Read More
The Maine Public Utilities Commission is expected to consider today whether it should investigate the question of Verizon’s cooperation in Maine with the National Security Agency. Writing in late July about this prospect, the Department of Justice told PUC Chairman Kurt Adams such an investigation would be “a… Read More
Legislative leaders have finally agreed on a slate of nominees to fill a long-vacant seat on the state’s ethics commission. Although the position, which must go to someone who is not a member of the two major political parties, appears close to being filled, the stringent requirements that… Read More
Opponents of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights recently had a couple of lawyers explain that despite what TABOR’s authors might say, the ballot measure could force towns to cut their budgets – and therefore services – below the levels of the previous year. The citizen’s initiative may have… Read More
Red tide will plague the Maine coast every year, so the Department of Marine Resources is smart to want to research ways to minimize the algae’s impact on the people who harvest and grow shellfish. The department hopes to use $750,000 in federal funds for this work. Using… Read More
Iraq slammed back into the news yesterday on comments from the United States and Britain over the seriousness of the insurgency there. That insurgency shows no sign of exhaustion and is, in the words of the British ambassador to Iraq, William Patey, increasing the likelihood of “of a… Read More
While it is encouraging that the federal Food and Drug Administration says it is moving closer to approving the “morning after” pill for sale without a prescription, the Senate should await final approval for the pill before voting on the new head of the agency. Read More
The dissecting of a right whale on a beach on Campobello Island offered a rare public view of the demise of one of the rare cetaceans. Although the cause of the young whale’s death has yet to be determined, it appeared to have many scars from colliding with… Read More
A month after Mexicans went to the polls to vote for a new president, the outcome of the election remains unclear. Like this country’s 2000 election, the final outcome is now in the hands of a court. Whether conservative, pro-business Felipe Calderon, the declared winner by just 243,000… Read More
It is the lament of many a Mainer: summer does not last long enough. This was reinforced recently when stores began advertising back-to-school sales. The end of summer may be fast approaching, but there is still time to check off items on your summer to-do list. Read More
A citizen’s group opposed to the placement of a major crossing between Maine and New Brunswick wants the Army Corps of Engineers to hold a public hearing on the matter before reaching any conclusion, which it is expected to do later this month. The request for a hearing… Read More
Like Maine, Vermont has a small but busy “Impeach Bush” movement; unlike Maine, it has the only Socialist member of Congress in Rep. Bernie Sanders, who is running for Senate this year and has plenty of reasons to be supportive of the movement. But he isn’t, and he’s… Read More
Wind farms hold the promise of power without climate change-inducing greenhouse gases. But the tall towers and large turbines, especially if perched on mountaintops, change a scenic landscape. The choice then is between two public goods – clean, renewable power and preserving unique areas that are often used… Read More
The Bush administration’s assertion that a lasting cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah can occur only if Israel is allowed to first kill enough members of Hezbollah reflects its actions in Iraq. There too it believed that by hunting down, in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s words, “pockets of dead-enders,”… Read More
As the Senate this week began debate on a bill to allow more oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback said the issue was all about two numbers: 3 and 75. That is $3 a gallon gasoline and $75 a barrel oil. There are… Read More
It’s a natural reaction to not want sex offenders living in your neighborhood. However, consideration of laws restricting where offenders can live should be based on rational debate grounded in facts, not on emotions or imagined conversations between sex criminals. An examination of whether new statewide policies are… Read More
With an increasing number of Medicare recipients reaching the “doughnut hole,” the gap in the program’s prescription drug coverage, Congress is busy trying to make this unfortunate policy less painful. The one sure way to do that is to eliminate the hole, a reform that is at once… Read More
Many people dream of working less and making more. When it comes to New England’s lobster fishery this may not be just a dream. A new study, by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, finds that lobstermen could catch the same amount of lobster, or more, by tending fewer… Read More
Fourteen weeks before the election and already the gubernatorial race has multiple ethics complaints. Who said the campaigns weren’t filled with overachievers? But for all the bluster and newspaper ink devoted to the alleged crimes, no one yet has enough information to pronounce guilt, and the candidate (and… Read More
House and Senate negotiators have been trying for months to find agreement on a complicated bill to strengthen the quasi-governmental agency that ensures pension plans and pays out benefits when plans default. The airlines’ ability to fund their pensions has been one sticking point; this week, when agreement… Read More
When world leaders gather in Rome today to discuss ways to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, their focus will appropriately be on an immediate ceasefire and an international force in southern Lebanon to keep the peace. Both, however, are fraught with complications that will be difficult,… Read More
The business group forming in the Bangor region to try to figure out what sort of broadband would best serve this area and how the service would become affordably available can be successful only if many businesses offer ideas. This is a chance for the region to work… Read More
However deeply serious and troubling the news is from Israel and Lebanon, it cannot obscure other challenges to peace. North Korea and Iran are both believed to be developing nuclear weapons, and the United States has no effective strategy to stop them. The policy of pre-emptive attack re-mains… Read More
Now that the government officials, talk show hosts, call-in participants, bloggers – and, yes, even a few editorial writers – who called The New York Times treasonous for reporting details of a secret banking surveillance program have had a chance to cool off, they should reconsider… Read More
The recent unanimous decision of a federal panel to recommend the vaccination of girls and young women against the viruses that cause cervical cancer is a huge step in reducing the deadly disease. Without enough funding to make the vaccine available to those most at risk, however, this… Read More
Terrence MacTaggart has begun his brief return as University of Maine System chancellor well by demonstrating that he understands public concerns about and hopes for the university system and is prepared to act on both. What he deserves in response is broad support to persuade lawmakers to join… Read More
Two pieces of legislation that passed in the Legislature last session pushes Maine to rethink the way electricity is sold in Maine, marking a measured retreat from the nation’s most far-reaching electricity restructuring. In an opinion piece this week, Central Maine Power’s president, Sara Burns, has no such… Read More
Ah, summer. Sunshine, shirtsleeves, picnics, swimming, boating, hammocks, backyard grills and just goofing off. But something else always enters the picture. There’s the cell phone call from I-95, “We’re coming.” The frequent apology that “We can stay only a week.” The casual remark that “We… Read More
By an overwhelming vote last week the Senate approved the reform of the beleaguered Fed-eral Emergency Management Agency, a vote that will become more important as the agency is called upon more often to address the aftermath of more extreme weather due to climate change. Now it faces… Read More
The exercise in clarity in the Senate this week over easing restrictions on stem cell research is not just about politics. A presidential veto, announced before a vote Senate leaders knew would not be sufficient to override it, reinforces a false choice over what could be life-saving research. Read More
When you drive out of Winter Harbor onto the Schoodic Peninsula and see a sign welcoming you to Acadia National Park, you may think you are entering the Schoodic area of the park. Think again. You have another two miles to go. The park owns only the relatively… Read More
No good news goes unpunished in an election year, demonstrated by the campaign-style announcement this week by Gov. John Baldacci that General Fund revenues finished $74 million ahead of expectations and the subsequent negative reaction from Republicans, which both sidestepped the point. The point is… Read More
The Bush administration’s predilection for secrecy and the failure of Congress to oversee intelligence and other government operations are a bad combination. Finally, a key lawmaker has had enough. In a terse letter, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, warned President Bush that he may… Read More
Despite positive descriptions from federal regulators, many fish stocks in New England continue to be overharvested and, worse, many of the fish caught off the region’s coast are simply thrown away because they are not commercially valuable. An update of the nation’s fishing laws, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, passed… Read More
The last deception in the newest attacks between Israel and Lebanon occurred more than a week ago, when the question of proportional response seemed to still matter: The kidnapping of a soldier or two soldiers is worth X number of retaliatory deaths but not Y. But now there… Read More
With a major shove from the Supreme Court, the Bush administration has realized that the Geneva Conventions aren’t so “quaint” after all. In a reversal of policy, the Pentagon told all Defense personnel that they must comply with the decades-old international agreement on prisoners of war. Read More
Now that the Bush administration is belatedly seeking ways to combat international terrorism within the bounds of national and international law, because of the Supreme Court’s rejection of its current approach, the question arises: How did we come to stray so far from our historic roots in justice… Read More
In its report on Hurricane Katrina, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Susan Collins, recommends more independent review of Army Corps of Engineers construction of levees like those that failed in New Orleans. Such reviews are also supported by the National Academy of… Read More
The state this week touted the completion of two projects made possible by federal land preservation funds, but it is in danger of not being able to complete a similar conservation deal near Bangor. President Bush included two Maine projects in his list of 31… Read More
The work of a recently formed committee on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway has been made more difficult – perhaps impossible – by the actions of two northern Maine lawmakers. Sen. John Martin and Rep. Troy Jackson used a bulldozer to reopen a road on the waterway that was… Read More
An unsurprising but important study from the Business Roundtable concludes the nation is unprepared for a major natural or manmade assault on the Internet. The economic costs of a broad failure of the Internet for weeks would be huge, as would the government’s ability to direct services for… Read More
The images from Mumbai, India – crumbled railway cars, blood-spattered victims – were hauntingly familiar. Although the results are as horrific and despicable, this terrorist attack, unlike the ones on trains and buses in London and Madrid, is complicated by the motives of the apparent perpetrators. Read More
The National Marine Fisheries Service recently painted a rosy picture of the country’s ocean fisheries, noting that most fish species are not being over harvested. This assessment does not hold true, especially for New England, according to a soon-to-be-published study. The study finds that only three of 67… Read More
The Land Use Regulation Commission is right to separate, as much as possible, a conservation agreement from Plum Creek Timber Co.’s application to rezone thousands of acres around Moosehead Lake for development. The company’s agreement with private groups to conserve more than 300,000 acres in the area is… Read More
There’s no better example of the national Democratic difficulty with the war in Iraq than the senatorial re-election campaign of Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. Elected with 63 percent of the vote in 2000, he is now struggling through a primary against a novice opponent, businessman and war opponent… Read More
Maine officials knew the state had flunked its federal education-testing standard when it switched to the SATs for 11th-graders, but they did not know how lonely flunking would be. While only 10 states got full approval for their plans, a mere two ended up in the outright failure… Read More
In a city not under constant pressure to lower tax bills, Dakin Pool in Bangor would be put on the list for rehabilitation and improved as needed. But Bangor is feeling the pinch of few extra dollars and lots of demands, so the pool, which has served the… Read More
The goal of Maine’s laptop program was to ensure that technology became an ally to students, rather than an obstacle. Numerous studies have found that this has happened, so it is welcome news that the program has been renewed for another four years. After lawmakers… Read More
Though New England as a whole did worse than the national average for job growth last year, Maine lagged behind the region, and this part of the state lagged behind the southern portion, making for a dismal report recently from the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston. Maine joined… Read More
Three recent events will turn up the heat on the climate change debate. Unfortunately, it will take more than court cases and scientific reports to speed up the glacial pace at which Congress is tackling the problem or to melt the White House freeze on climate change action. Read More
It is natural for anglers to want to catch large, easy-to-hook fish. It is unnatural, and harmful, for them to put such fish in rivers, lakes and ponds, on their own. Such is the case with northern pike, which were recently discovered in the Penobscot River, causing state… Read More
The Maine lobster industry has been getting hit from all directions lately. Friends of animals complain that lobsters suffer. Friends of the ocean complain that Maine lobstermen may be catching too many of the crustaceans and endangering the resource. The facts don’t bear out these… Read More
Despite tough talk about pre-emptive strikes and the possible deployment of an American missile shield last week, the restrained response Wednesday to North Korea’s missile strikes has been appropriate and should continue. Shortly after the United States sent the space shuttle Discovery into orbit on… Read More
The U.S. Department of the Interior made mistakes in contracts for deep-sea oil and gas drilling by exempting companies from royalty payments to the federal government. To correct the problem, lawmakers are pressuring companies to renegotiate the contracts. While encouraging these negotiations is appropriate, blackmailing companies – by… Read More
Maine’s Department of Education administered the SAT to meet federal testing requirements despite early warnings from the feds that the test, designed to predict performance rather than reflect what has been learned, would likely not be accepted. Last week, the federal agency announced Maine was not in compliance… Read More
Below is an excerpt from the document this holiday is about. Two hundred thirty years ago, representatives in the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and adopted their Declaration of Independence. It expressed frustration and anger with the policies of Great Britain and its king. It… Read More
When it comes to Maine’s Freedom of Access law, the good news is that police and municipal officials have gotten better at complying with the rules, according to a recent audit conducted by the Maine Freedom of Information Coalition. The bad news is that public records weren’t provided… Read More
Everyone likely has at least one building in Bangor they wish wasn’t there. For some it is the city’s central fire station, an oversized concrete block plopped on Main Street. For others the bane of the architectural existence are the city’s auditorium and civic center or maybe it’s… Read More
In the decade since the end of welfare, Maine, like many states, has learned that it could move many more families than it expected from assistance to work. Its caseload in that time has fallen by more than half. It has also learned that state support – training,… Read More
Everybody knows at least the first line of Longfellow’s poem about the village blacksmith: “Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands.” But many may not be aware that the chestnut tree has gone the way of the elm, wiped out by blight. The… Read More
The discovery of shortnosed sturgeon in the Penobscot River for the first time in nearly three decades may be a good indicator that environmental conditions on the river have vastly improved. That would be good news for sturgeon and other fish, including Atlantic salmon. University… Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday strongly rejected the Bush administration’s plan to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay in secret military tribunals. Such tribunals violate both American military law and the Geneva Conventions, the court concluded in a 5-3 decision. After the decision President Bush said he would work… Read More
Add to the stolen laptop containing data about veterans and active-duty personnel, a similarly swiped laptop with personal information from the Federal Trade Commission, improper posting of personal information from the Navy and improperly disclosed data on employees from the departments of agriculture, energy and even the Government… Read More
Look around Maine now that textile work is all but gone, paper-mill jobs have receded, agriculture struggles and fishing has reached its limits. The places where these industries employed tens of thousands aren’t producing the same sort of work they once did but they aren’t empty either. ATVs… Read More
Lobbying by the Pentagon has helped Republicans embrace the Iraq war as a supposed positive instead of a negative in their anxious campaign for the November congressional elections. In the recent start of the long-delayed great debate, they settled for no exit plan from the seemingly endless war,… Read More
People look to the U.S. Supreme Court for clarity. In a wetlands case decided recently, the court muddied the water instead. Fortunately, a dramatic shrinking of the Clean Water Act’s reach, which was espoused by the conservative wing of the court, failed. Instead, the court supported limiting the… Read More
The most interesting number in the annual Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Data Book, to be released today, is not the one that will likely receive a lot of coverage. The one that may get more attention is the sharp increase in the number of teens ages… Read More
With the federal debt growing and entitlement costs growing even faster, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg proposed last week to bring back the one element of the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings fiscal restraint that actually worked: the threat of program cuts that forced Congress to pay attention to the deficit. Unfortunately,… Read More
Maine legislators were informed last week the Department of Health and Human Services would have trouble awarding a managed-care contract for mental health services by Jan. 1, 2007. This is of particular interest to legislators for several reasons, one of which is that they have already booked savings… Read More
The talk and apparent threatening action from North Korea is troubling – and confusing. The country, according to U.S. officials, is preparing a test launch of a ballistic missile. But, one of the country’s top diplomats said this week that while North Korea had the right to develop… Read More
A Legislative panel reviewing the state’s ethics laws must devote attention to a serious problem with current ethics laws that limits complaints to lawmakers, and only during the current session. This needs to be changed so that the public, including advocacy groups and department officials, can file complaints… Read More
Verizon is once again trying to sell off its telephone service in Maine. That could be bad news for all telephone users, for Maine’s economy and for the company’s 3,000 employees here. Details are skimpy. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the big… Read More
By scrapping a controversial re-write of National Park Service management policies, the Department of the Interior has returned the agency to its historic role of preserving natural landmarks instead of maximizing their recreational potential. While this is a welcome turnaround, reaffirming the service’s mission without giving it enough… Read More
China, with its big city’s broad boulevards suddenly jammed with cars, is plunging into the same love-hate automobile obsession that has long since absorbed the United States. As The Wall Street Journal reported recently, nearly 1,000 new cars are hitting the streets in Beijing every day, crowding a… Read More