When you’re part of a cooperative, there are positives and negatives. Maine experienced a major negative last week when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a new pricing plan to fund the building of new electricity generating facilities in New England. Because growing demand for electricity is greatest… Read More
The Dixie Chicks, a well-known country music trio, are heading into a tough season. But their story carries a useful lesson for the United States. First, what’s happened to the Chicks? After successful appearances on “60 Minutes” and the cover of Time magazine, they have… Read More
Burn a tattered American flag as part of its proper disposal, with respect and dignity, and no law-enforcement officials will come knocking. But burn one out of anger at the United States or a president or a political party and a proposed constitutional anti-desecration amendment would find your… Read More
The Maine League of Conservation Voters last week chose Gov. John Baldacci to try out its first gubernatorial report card and decided the governor ranked a middling B -. Many of the comments in the report card are well informed and useful. But it is at best deceptive… Read More
Just as congressional gamesmanship over Iraq last week hit its apex, The Brookings Institution updated its Iraq Index, one of the most revealing catalogs of the war’s results. Among its most striking accounts is the progress being made in recruiting Iraqi security forces – they have nearly reached… Read More
The recent news that nine southern and coastal counties with a history of air pollution problems are now in compliance with federal ozone standards is positive for the health – physical and economic – of Mainers. It also strengthens the state’s case that current clean air rules need… Read More
The complaint that there’s nothing to do in Bangor after working hours has been answered again this summer. Outdoor concerts are returning to the city, but in a new location near the center of downtown. Weather permitting, browsing at the artisans’ market and listening to music in Pickering… Read More
There has long been talk of the need for an east-west highway in Maine and for better cooperation among northeastern states and eastern Canadian provinces. A study that will soon get under way will formally marry these two concepts while cataloguing existing gaps in the region’s existing transportation… Read More
A task force created to assuage fears that the public was losing access to private lands could instead open the door to landowners charging fees to those who want to use their land and roads. This shift to making money from traditional access may be furthered by the… Read More
Using the Internet to talk, shop, study or pester your friends with well-worn jokes already takes up enough of your time so you may not have learned about “net neutrality.” But if you want to keep the Web unimpeded for these valuable pursuits and for, say, creating a… Read More
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week appeared before a Senate committee to discuss the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and nearly every senator asked him about the lack of local preparedness grants. Chairman Susan Collins observed that Mr. Chertoff had achieved the unlikely feat with… Read More
Maine’s supreme court recently decided a case of rights over a child by dividing them in half, agreeing that even while the child is in the custody of the state, his parents have a say in a possible life-or-death decision: whether to put into effect a do-not-resuscitate order. Read More
Should the cheers Tuesday for GOP gubernatorial challenger Chandler Woodcock from supporters of John Baldacci worry state Sen. Woodcock’s party? The Baldacci supporters were cheerful because Republicans chose their most conservative candidate to compete in a large field, and Democrats plausibly believed the choice most helped the governor. Read More
When FBI agents searched the Capitol Hill office of a U.S. representative last month, they touched off a legal and political dispute that is far from over, largely because it is over much more than just a raided office. House Republican and Democratic leaders, usually… Read More
Thousands of facilities across the country make or use large quantities of hazardous chemicals. Nearly five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there are no federal rules or security standards for these manufacturing companies, water-treatment plants and refineries. A bill, sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins, would for… Read More
Many of The Home Depot’s shareholders are mad as heck and they aren’t going to take it anymore. They were enraged by disclosures that the company’s chief executive, Robert L. Nardelli, received $245 million in compensation in his five years there, while the stock slid 12 percent. Read More
The Bush administration didn’t need the suicides of three Guantanamo detainees last week to demonstrate the effectiveness of a prison system that spreads hopelessness among its population. More than three dozen prisoners had already attempted suicide at the camp. This certainly isn’t to say the administration wanted the… Read More
If you sometimes drive from Bangor to Ellsworth on Route 1A, you have watched a transformation from a narrow, winding, potholed road to a wider, straighter, smoother highway – most of the way, at least. What’s more, the delays during a long construction period have been minimal. Traffic… Read More
Phrases like “constitutional crisis” and “unchecked presidential power” may sound like hyperbolic Democratic criticism of President Bush and his wiretapping programs. But these strong words are coming from powerful Republicans concerned that the White House is overreaching in its assertions that the president can interpret laws as he… Read More
Dams alter water quality, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled recently in a case involving Maine’s S.D. Warren Co. The unanimous ruling sends an appropriately strong signal that states have the power to regulate dams to restore or maintain fish runs. S.D. Warren, a subsidiary of… Read More
Just as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is pressing his rivals in the militant Hamas party to accept Israel and to work toward the creation of a Palestinian state, the Israeli government has quietly begun building a new settlement in an effort to secure more land. The Israeli action,… Read More
For more than a decade, Sears Island has generated far more animosity than dollars for the local economy. A recently formed group charged with developing a plan for the state-owned island has a chance to change that, but only if its members focus on the best use of… Read More
The killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a positive development in the war in Iraq. However, the tempered remarks of President Bush, in comparison to the optimism that succeeded the capture of Saddam Hussein, appropriately conveyed the complexity of the war in Iraq. Read More
Both Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins understand that elimination of the estate tax is unaffordable in the face of a rising national debt and the expected costs of the war, Medicare, Social Security and the alternative minimum tax exemption, to name a few. But opposition to… Read More
Bangor city councilors cannot be blamed for looking to trim the city budget wherever possible – seemingly annual referendums to restrict spending and a regular drumbeat about Maine’s high tax burden ensures that. But they should also have clear criteria as they cut programs so that tax savings… Read More
Gov. John Baldacci will easily win his primary race next week against challenger Christopher Miller of Gray. The question for Democrats is whether they should feel reassured or concerned by this inevitability. The answer is reassured – Gov. Baldacci has led Maine through some difficult times and in… Read More
Republicans are fortunate to have three strong candidates for governor, but they also have a tremendous challenge. An incumbent governor has been beaten only twice in Maine’s history, when both times a Democrat knocked off a Republican. If the reverse is to happen in 2006 in a field… Read More
The worst weapon this nation can use to combat pandemic flu is fear, yet to hear stories about the nation’s vulnerabilities and possible resulting death rates is to feel nothing but fear. Thoughtful preparedness for this serious situation is much more useful, not to mention… Read More
The Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate is more notable for who is not running than who is. Well-known legislative and congressional Democrats looked at Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe’s nation-leading approval rating, her more than $2 million in campaign funds and strong party support, and they balked. That… Read More
Rejection of the bonds to pay for drinking water and wastewater projects, which are important to the health, safety and economic wellbeing of Maine residents, as well as a highway bond, highlights the problem of financing necessary, on-going work with bond money, that must be approved by lawmakers… Read More
Leaders of the Bush administration- with the notable exceptions of Vice President Dick Cheney and first lady Laura Bush – are about to make another losing try for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Sen. Bill Frist, the majority leader, has slated it for floor… Read More
President George Bush deserves credit for his administration’s offer to talk directly with Iranian officials about the country’s nuclear program. But while such talks would end a nearly three-decade hiatus of diplomatic relations between the countries, it is not clear that the offer will open the door to… Read More
With the Land Use Regulation Commission currently assessing Plum Creek Timber Co.’s development plan for the Moosehead Lake region – the largest development ever considered in the state – much is likely to be read into the staff’s recommended denial of a smaller subdivision in the same area. Read More
A project former Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton called “perhaps the most significant step to restore the Atlantic salmon in the past century,” aims to restore fish habitat in New England’s second largest watershed without significantly reducing hydro-electric power generation. With the president and other leaders pushing… Read More
The most interesting part of a campaign by Unity08, a new group formed to elect a bipartisan ticket to the White House in 2008, is that it would test whether Americans really want an alternative to the ever-narrower concerns of the two major parties. The group can succeed… Read More
Admitting the obvious never seemed so important as when President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week conceded they had made substantial errors in the Iraq war. President Bush’s new course, from what previously was a mild recognition of repaired mistakes, helps him by removing… Read More
DirigoChoice, the Baldacci administration’s health-coverage plan, was fought over all legislative session, mostly over two bills. The first, after several amendments, would have limited enrollments in the plan by cutting the plan’s funding, among other things. The second would have expanded the state’s involvement with coverage by allowing… Read More
When a casino opens, the local crime rate remains steady at first but begins to rise after two or three years, according to a survey by two economists covering all 3,165 counties in the United States. Their findings are worth considering as gambling continues to… Read More
The federal Forest Legacy program has helped preserve some of Maine’s well-known landmarks such as Moosehead Lake and the West Branch of the Penobscot River. Once again, however, the program is under attack from a small group of Republican lawmakers. As they have in the past, fortunately, Sens. Read More
Mounting world outrage over abuses at the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is reaching a climax. The most recent criticism has come in a lengthy review of U.S. policies by a United Nations panel of human rights officials that condemned the treatment of terrorism suspects and… Read More
Americans have become used to reading about corporate accounting scandals. But, when the company involved operates under a government charter that gives it special benefits, the question of how these types of schemes continue takes on added importance. The answer isn’t more regulations but tougher enforcement of those… Read More
Long before sales and sports and the three-day weekend, Memorial Day was a day of mourning. Turning grim Civil War battle experiences into something lasting and inspiring, Gen. John Alexander Logan set aside May 30, 1868, “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves… Read More
If the United States can have a national bird, there’s no reason it cannot also have a national language, though keeping it healthy and thriving may be trickier than protecting the American bald eagle. Several Sunday-morning commentators have asserted the debate over the language bill last week was… Read More
A recent follow-up by two state officials involved in expanding the state’s targeted property tax break, called the circuit breaker program, suggests that were the program to be used by all who qualify, almost all residents who pay high taxes would find relief. It is an encouraging conclusion… Read More
Just in time for the summer tourist season, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun requiring photo identification for anyone over age 14, a surprising turn for many who cross from Canada into Maine regularly. It’s also one more reason to bring order to the balance between security… Read More
A jury’s guilty verdicts against Enron Corp.’s top executives should dramatically end an era of corporate excesses and accounting schemes to exaggerate corporate success. After six days of deliberation, a jury in Houston Thursday found the company’s founder and former chairman Ken Lay and former CEO Jeff Skilling… Read More
Voting, and registering to do so, has been made a lot easier in Bangor, leaving little reason not to cast a ballot in the upcoming elections. To streamline voting and perhaps save the city some money, Bangor has gone from eight to four polling places,… Read More
Having warmed a few hearts and many homes with his discounted oil to states last winter, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is reportedly making a similar offer for next winter to Europeans who struggle to pay their heating bills. Meanwhile, the Bush administration recently took the largely symbolic step… Read More
Through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the state has for years been oil dealers’ largest customer, spending about $24 million a year. It has not, however, received a discount even though it is a predictable, reliable customer that pays up front. The Maine State Housing Authority,… Read More
After more than a year of inactivity, the House Ethics Committee has gotten back to its job of investigating the behavior of the chambers members. The committee announced last week it was launching investigations of two representatives, a Republican and a Demo-crat. Although it is encouraging that the… Read More
The formation this weekend of an Iraqi government is a positive step. However, the new government must fulfill its pledge to stop the bombings and killings, something it and U.S. troops have been unable to do for three years, to reverse the troubling trend of middle-class families leaving… Read More
In its response to a request that the Maine Public Utilities Commission look into telephone surveillance, Verizon will say only that it can neither confirm nor deny its participation with the federal government in such a program. And, anyway, it says, the issue is classified so the PUC… Read More
A controversy over free trips for judges has reached a crisis point, and Maine’s U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby has been asked to take a close look at the matter. The conviction of Jack Abramoff and current investigations of members of Congress who have… Read More
For years, Maine residents have been told to go to college so they can earn more money. New scholarship programs were started by the Legislature to overcome financial hurdles to higher education. Still, the percentages of Mainers with college degrees and high school graduated going on to college… Read More
For the first time next year, tuition at the University of Maine System is expected to exceed state appropriations, a result of the state share falling from more than 70 percent of the total budget in 1989 to just 45 percent by 2007. Maine lawmakers spend a lot… Read More
With a freshly found $40 million to $60 million budget surplus burning a hole in Maine’s pocket, the temptation for lawmakers to spend the money is strong. An urge to drop a proposed bond and pay for projects Maine would otherwise borrow for is both strong and understandable. Read More
Organic and Wal-Mart may not seem like a likely combination. With the retail giant’s announcement that it plans to sell much more organic food and products in its more than 6,000 stores, the two are now firmly connected. What that means for a movement rooted in local farms… Read More
Like so much Congress has done in the name of improved security after 9/11, the Real ID Act is an overreaching measure that will burden states with minimal benefit. A growing chorus of states and national organizations concerned about the act’s looming deadline, lack of federal funding and… Read More
Despite overwhelming support by the Legislature and Maine’s boat building industry, the boat school at Eastport remains in jeopardy. The state’s $650 million boat building industry, which employs 5,000 Mainers and is the only growth sector in Maine’s manufacturing economy, needs an expanded and well financed boat school… Read More
Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, named to head the CIA, is expected to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, where he will be grilled on the extent of the National Security Agency’s recently revealed surveillance program. But many of the committee’s questions may be best answered by… Read More
A tentative agreement last month finally may have settled the long-running softwood lumber dispute between the United States. The deal to end the 25-year fight was possible, in part, because of the soaring value of the Canadian vs. the U.S. dollar. The record high value… Read More
President Bush laid out a realistic middle ground approach on immigration Monday. The president called for better control of the U.S.-Mexican border, a guest worker program and the continued assimilation of immigrants into American society. While many questions about his plans to improve border security by assigning National… Read More
Now that they’ve had time to read the bill that was supposed to save Dirigo health, some Democrats are having late-session second thoughts. That’s understandable; the deal gave away a lot while providing the state with few assurances that the health care program will be around a year… Read More
The tax cuts on capital gains and dividends approved last week by Congress are open to every American – all you need is a very large stock portfolio. You don’t have a large portfolio? Congress is helping you out there, too. It offers inspiration by… Read More
President Bush is expected tonight to address the country to build support for new laws on immigration that would create provisions for additional border security, a new guest worker program and eventual citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the country. His chances of… Read More
The University of Maine could hardly have made a better choice when it decided to award a doctor of science degree to Katherine O. Musgrave, professor emerita of food science and nutrition, on Saturday at its 204th Commencement. Her long teaching and research career in… Read More
An understandable conflict between the rights of develop-ers and those of citizens who oppose a development can soon be resolved by the Legislature – but not by the bill they currently have before them. That bill, LD 1481, takes the current unfairness toward developers and shifts the law… Read More
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which has shirked its oversight responsibilities by not investigating the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping and failing to complete its work on investigating how the White House used intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq, has a chance to redeem itself. Read More
Allowing humanitarian aid to reach Palestinian citizens is necessary to alleviate suffering and avoid violence that could result from prolonged hardships. How this gesture by western countries will affect a long-term resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains unknown. In January, the Islamic group Hamas, branded… Read More
“The time is at hand for America to fulfill man’s centuries-old dream of harnessing the energy of the tides.” That was Secretary of the Interior Stuart Udall writing to President Kennedy in 1963 touting the benefits – cheap energy, jobs, a tourist “magnet” bringing money to the area… Read More
This year’s mild winter and early spring are good news for those eager to plant a garden or hike in the mountains. But the warmer than usual weather also means Maine is likely to have a bumper crop of bugs, some of them carrying illnesses such as Lyme… Read More
The letter from the president of Iran to President Bush offers an unexpected opportunity for a fresh diplomatic relationship between the two countries. But the Bush administration shows by words and action that it wants no diplomacy with Iran. In an ominous echo of the… Read More
With $20 million in federal disaster assistance perhaps headed to New England shellfish harvesters and red tide already forcing closures of harvesting areas in Maine, some of the relief money should be used for more than compensating those who lost money last year. As the… Read More
We don’t know what separates one intelligence expert’s specific qualifications from another in naming a new director of the Central Intelligence Agency. But a couple of broad themes are apparent in the dramatically changed circumstances of intelligence gathering over the last several years that suggest President Bush’s nominee… Read More
Serious questions keep arising about what looked at first like a minor dirty campaign trick in the 2002 New Hampshire election of a U.S. senator. Recently, the Associated Press reported that a GOP telemarketing firm implicated in two criminal prosecutions involving the issue got startup… Read More
The Ministry of Health in China recently reported the country’s 18th case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. More than 30 countries have now registered the flu’s presence, and the question of how to react to a pandemic is spreading even faster. The answer is… Read More
With winter, such as it was, a fading memory, it’s high time to get out to the coast or the lakes or the mountains. Days can be warm enough for a hike in shirtsleeves, a bike ride in shorts and even a picnic lunch. Trees are budding, so… Read More
Why is it important that someone from Topeka, Los Angeles, Hong Kong or, for that matter, Nova Scotia know where sex offenders are living in Maine? It isn’t, yet current state law insists that every nut with a grudge worldwide be handed an address and picture of the… Read More
The death of a pedestrian struck by a gasoline tanker in downtown Bangor this week refocused attention on efforts to raise the weight limits on Maine’s interstate highways. While this remains a priority for the state’s congressional delegation, the difficulty of securing a legislative remedy means Bangor must… Read More
A national snapshot of income growth among states in USA Today this week shows Maine growing ahead of the national average since 2000, though it continues to trail in per-capita income. While far from a definitive work, the article’s list does show the economic picture is complicated and… Read More
Three challenges face Tony Snow as he takes over as White House press secretary, making it a particularly tough assignment. First, he must get along with the White House press corps, which has always been a pampered elite group, vying for attention in the televised… Read More
Now that lawmakers have pushed back their adjourn-ment date, they have more time to debate tax changes and road repairs. They also have time to find a fifth member of the state’s ethics commission, a position that has been vacant for more than a year. This post should… Read More
Maine’s roads need to be repaired but coupling a $60 million transportation bond with a suspension of indexing the state’s fuel tax is a poor solution. The move won’t provide relief to taxpayers and it will cut into the same road repair revenues that the state would supplement… Read More
Checking the background of U.S. port workers, as the Bush administration announced last week it would begin doing five years after promising such reviews, is a positive, if belated, step. Such reviews will be more useful if they are coupled with legislation sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins that… Read More
Never mind that giving a $100 rebate to take the sting out of high gas prices, as proposed in the Senate last week, doesn’t solve long-term oil problems and isn’t affordable anyway. The slapdash way the plan was put together, tossed to the public then partly taken back… Read More
Lawmakers tackled a difficult, emotional issue and came up with a good compromise aimed at increasing the punishment and monitoring of sex offenders who prey on children. Last week, legislators passed a bill that sets a 20-year standard for first-time child sex offenders. The new law also requires… Read More
The one saving detail of the Dirigo health proposal approved by the Senate last week and awaiting a House vote later this month is that the program wasn’t killed outright. Otherwise the deal is as close as possible to giving up on finding health care savings and expanding… Read More
The state, through the Efficiency Maine Program, has long advocated replacing standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights to lower power bills and reduce electricity usage. Lately concerns have been raised that CFL bulbs contain mercury. While this is true, the small amount of mercury in each… Read More
National Intelligence Director John Negroponte revealed recently that nearly 100,000 Americans are working in intelligence in this country and abroad. At a time when Osama bin Laden is still at large and Iran’s nuclear capabilities remain a mystery, it is appropriate to ask what all these people are… Read More
The constriction of free speech through the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, now being protested by a propped up Christian Civic League of Maine, is the price Congress was willing to make the public pay to remove a legal means to Congress’ own corruption. It is an… Read More
The big news from a Senate report on the response to Hurricane Katrina this week was its recommendation to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency – an agency one of the report’s authors, Sen. Susan Collins, called “discredited, demoralized and dysfunctional. It is beyond repair.” But because the… Read More
Now that Plum Creek Timber Co. has filed a revised version of its development and conservation plans for the Moosehead Lake region, the hard work of evaluating the proposal begins. This review, by the Land Use Regulation Commission, shouldn’t be swayed by a public relations campaign to promote… Read More
Maine businesses got more than they could have hoped for even if it wasn’t all they requested in the elimination of the business-equipment tax approved by the Legislature’s Taxation Committee this week. As important, the Legislature got over a hurdle it had failed to clear for a decade. Read More
Briefly, after Hurricane Katrina knocked out some of the Gulf Coast’s oil infrastructure, President Bush promoted energy conservation. Unfortunately, that newfound conservation appreciation was short-lived. With gas prices again hovering around $3 a gallon, the president’s solution centers largely on getting Americans to buy new cars – hybrids… Read More
Consistency has never been a hallmark of Congress, but sneaking an amendment to kill a Massachusetts wind farm into a spending bill shows there isn’t much substance behind recent claims that lawmaking will be more transparent. The last-minute maneuver, which would give the governor of… Read More
The tenure of University of Maine System Chancellor Joseph Westphal should have been instructive to the state. Now that system trustees have decided not to extend the chancellor’s contract and to seek a replacement, they should look hard at their own expectations for the next leader of Maine’s… Read More
With the closure of the Georgia-Pacific mill, Old Town is grappling with a large hole in its school budget. Neighboring Orono also has budget trouble, mostly because the number of children in town is declining. These problems present an opportunity for the towns to consider school consolidation, from… Read More
The Home Depot is one of 11 major U.S. corporations that has been paying its chief executive officer astronomical salary and “incentive benefits” while its stock has gone down. The CEO got more than $50 million in total compensation in the past two years while total stockholder value… Read More
Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer, but it has big challenges, too. Critics accuse it of underpaying its employees, skimping on health benefits, neglecting safety measures and forcing neighboring stores out of business. Townspeople – in Waldoboro and Damariscotta, for example – have petitioned to keep Wal-Mart and… Read More
Maine’s longtime debate over taxes on business equipment is a three-way negotiation that won’t be settled until all sides – municipalities, the state and businesses – find it in their interest to lose a little. The focus today will be on the state as lawmakers on the Taxation… Read More