The current legislative debate over a transportation bond highlights the problem of making hard and fast promises. To pass a budget, legislative leaders agreed that no borrowing would be included in the package. That has left a $60 million bond, supported by the Transportation Committee, in limbo when… Read More
When the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to weaken requirements that companies report on the toxic chemicals they use and release into the environment, it said it was making the reporting easier. The agency didn’t take into account how having less information would affect state and federal regulators… Read More
While an isolated crime – no matter how sensational – doesn’t necessarily mean laws should be rewritten or public policy revamped, lawmakers are rightly reviewing the state’s sex offender registry after two men included in the online database were killed Sunday morning. Such reviews should… Read More
At a time when much attention is focused on both the growing American obesity epidemic and the loss of open space amid suburban sprawl, it is troubling that the Bush administration has included no funding in its budget for a program that helps communities build parks, ball fields… Read More
With a pack of recently retired generals calling for his resignation, it looks more like a question of when than if Donald Rumsfeld will decide that he needs to spend more time with his family. The unprecedented assault from military leaders adds powerful pressure to… Read More
The early weeks of spring arrive with their cherished events: Crocuses lift through the thawing earth on the sunny sides of buildings, children begin searching for the baseball gloves they left somewhere – under the bed, maybe – and the Bangor Daily News appeals to scofflaws of Bangor’s… Read More
Record high oil prices appropriately have many people, including the president, concerned. Given increasing demand and constrained supply, those concerns aren’t going to be significantly eased any time soon. Longer-term fixes, if there are to be any, will have to include changes in consumer behavior such as the… Read More
Inactivity and extra weight cost Maine residents $2,134,702,914 a year, according to a study sponsored by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and MaineHealth. That is an alarmingly high (and precise) number that suggests investments by employers and others to encourage employees to take the time to stay… Read More
Of the various recent outrages contemplated by Congress, one its members will not hear about from the public is a gimmick to pay for a tax cut with another tax cut – in this case, flipping regular individual retirement accounts, open to everyone, into Roth IRAs, which were… Read More
The Easter morning killing of two registered sex offenders should prompt lawmakers and other officials to reconsider aspects of the state’s online sex offender registry. A key question is whether information about those convicted of lesser crimes should be as readily available as that for the worst offenders. Read More
If you are finalizing your federal tax return today – you had three extra day this year thanks to the 15th falling on a weekend and Patriots Day on Monday – you know how difficult it can be to negotiate a form 1040 and its convoluted instructions. Unfortunately,… Read More
Yesterday was Patriots Day. For those who wonder why the bank was closed or why they had an extra day to finish their taxes, here’s a primer on this uniquely New England holiday and its oft-forgotten hero. Listen, my children, and give a pause for… Read More
The tragedy of a terrorist attack at a port is nearly matched, to hear Washington Sen. Patty Murray describe it, by its economic aftershocks. She and Sen. Susan Collins have written a bill that attempts to reduce the chances of such an attack and prepare for the aftermath… Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court let the Bush administration off the hook recently when it refused to hear the case of the alleged “dirty bomber” Jose Padilla. Because the administration has played “Where’s Jose?” the case raised only “hypothetical” claims, the majority wrote in deciding not to take the… Read More
Some, though not all, providers for the mentally ill in Maine are more than wary of a plan by the Department of Health and Human Services to make Medicaid here a managed-care system for their clients. Specifically, they fear a loss of necessary services under a capitated system… Read More
Just as there is good reason to be distrustful of the extremist rulers in Iran, there is reason for caution with the Bush administration’s warnings about the immediacy of danger from Tehran’s nuclear program. This is not to suggest equivalence between the two, but the administration’s overstated buildup… Read More
Flying isn’t the fun it used to be. There’s all this new security, seats are cramped and watch out if the passenger ahead of you leans back. And you can forget about eating unless you have a taste for crackers with peanut butter or tiny pretzels. Read More
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton stood on the banks of the Penobscot River in 2004 and called an ambitious plan to remake the river “perhaps the most significant step to restore the Atlantic salmon in the past century.” While the encouragement was welcome, removing… Read More
Any chance Congress could pretend it never heard of immigration and stay away from the issue until after the election? We don’t think so either, so when the Senate returns from its two-week break in late April, expect to see more arguing over a bill that many Republicans… Read More
Maine lawmakers want to increase the jail time for sex offenders who prey on young children. Mandatory sentences won’t achieve this goal so lawmakers are right to seek other solutions. They appear close to a good compromise with an amended bill that would establish sentencing guidelines but allow… Read More
A gallon of regular gasoline around here had jumped to about $2.70 by the start if this week when the Energy Department predicted gas will cost an average of 25 cents more per gallon this summer vs. a year ago. Last August, gas reached a record of $3.07… Read More
Attorney General Steven Rowe has raised constitutional concerns about the citizen’s initiative Taxpayer Bill of Rights, known as TABOR. These questions should be a central part of the debate over the spending restrictions. TABOR may not go forward in November if a recent court decision… Read More
A glowing description on the Internet of something called Guaranteed Returns Diversified Inc. says that it can accept only 17 more investors in its newest hedge fund. It predicts a return of 22 percent for the first three months and at least 32 percent later on. It claims… Read More
Lawmakers in the Maine House have rejected a legislative committee’s notion that a bill requiring lobbyists to disclose their work with government agencies was a solution in search of a problem. Rather than waiting for a problem to arise, members of the House saw this bill for what… Read More
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners was scheduled to hold a symposium on climate change in September in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina postponed the meeting while dramatically reinforcing the fact commissioners were focusing on an issue with major implications for the insurance industry, and the rest of the… Read More
Al Jazeera, the Arab news organization that blankets the Muslim world, plans to offer a 24-hour television channel in English starting in late May. How well Americans will receive it remains a big question. The televised news service burst into prominence in 2001, when it… Read More
The news trumpeted by Consumers for Affordable Health Care this week that Maine insurance companies had failed to file lobbying expenses with the Bureau of Insurance, as required under the Dirigo health reforms, was an unacceptable situation for the companies. But they make up only half the equation,… Read More
Plum Creek Timber Co.’s revised plan for the Moosehead Lake region eliminates development on remote ponds, proposes a cross-country ski resort next to an existing downhill area and includes permanent conservation easements – all positive changes and all requested by the public. The development plan… Read More
A small but determined group of people who work in downtown Bangor would rather move their cars several times a day or try to outsmart parking enforcement officers instead of putting their vehicles in one of the city’s parking garages. This would be laughable if it didn’t have… Read More
Enough participants have fallen into the doughnut hole of Medicare’s Part D drug plan that members of Congress should hear plenty from older constituents as they begin their two-week break starting today. Rather than offering bland condolences, senators and House members can support three commonsense changes to the… Read More
A legislative committee rightly reconsidered its four-way vote on preserving land around Katahdin Lake and came out strongly in favor of a compromise to divide the parcel in two with hunting allowed on one part. This is a good compromise that should be approved by the House and… Read More
The best that can be said about new vehicle fuel economy rules issued by federal regulators last week is that the largest sport utility vehicles will finally have to meet gas mileage standards, no matter how meager. On the bad side, buried in the voluminous rules is language… Read More
A Canadian man who says he was tortured in Syria after being sent there by American officials appears to have passed through Maine. State lawmakers should take a stand against the state being a stopover in the U.S. government’s rendition program, whereby those suspected of terrorism are sent… Read More
The departure of Texas Rep. Tom DeLay from Congress marks a new phase in the Republican Revolution, which took control a dozen years ago promising a new way of doing business in Washington. Over the last several years, it has looked much like a larger version of the… Read More
If you notice your member of Congress spending more time at home than usual, there’s a reason for it. The U.S. House of Representatives has very little work scheduled for this week, this month or the year. Having met in session for votes on just 18 of 64… Read More
For years state government has urged municipalities to coordinate services to make them more efficient. A recent proposal by the Maine Municipal Association to hand over the financing – and, therefore, part of the control – of county jails would let the state take those steps in efficiency. Read More
Who is really to blame for the cruel and disgusting incidents recounted in the trial of Sgt. Michael J. Smith, 24, of Boynton Beach, Fla., the dog handler convicted by a military jury of abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq? Photographs that surfaced… Read More
It seems like yesterday that Gov. Angus King faced a reluctant Leg-islature, some skeptical parents and many uneasy or even hostile teachers when he pushed through his “Lunchboxes to Laptops” plan to put a computer into the hands of every seventh- and eighth-grader in Maine’s public middle schools. Read More
If the state’s ethics commission failed the public last week by refusing to investigate a lawmaker for potentially violating ethics rules, lawmakers have failed the commission by neglecting to appoint its fifth member. This problem can be remedied in the short term by naming the… Read More
Some senators and advocacy groups are complaining that the freshly passed Senate bill to reduce the influence of lobbyists on Congress is too weak to be effective. The issues may need to be taken up again as new abuses are revealed, but the bill, if properly carried out,… Read More
By now you’ve probably heard about the gap in achievement between male and female students – from the earliest years, girls get better grades than boys, they are more likely to go to college and more likely to earn college degrees. As is common in other states, Maine… Read More
The release Thursday of reporter Jill Carroll offered a glimmer of hope amid the continued bombings and fears of civil war in Iraq. Her release was met first with joy and relief, and then many questions. Ms. Carroll, a freelance journalist for the Christian Science… Read More
Somewhere among the administration’s slow response to Katrina, its Dubai Ports disaster and dead-on-arrival 2007 budget, conservative commentators urged President Bush to shake up his administration by naming new people to top positions. The role of chief of staff, occupied by Andrew Card, was mentioned regularly. Read More
It was bad enough that lawmakers were persuaded by one sportsman’s group to interfere with a Baxter State Park land deal. Now, a few legislators have tied their support of the land agreement to the unrelated issue of grooming the park’s perimeter road for snowmobiles. Such posturing should… Read More
The Senate Judiciary Committee worked through one of the most emotional issues of the session Monday, offering needed rationality in a debate that included the competing interests of providing secure borders for the nation while at the same time allowing a work force of millions of undocumented workers… Read More
It may seem odd that a man known as “Cap the Knife” for his efforts to cut government spending in the Nixon administration could go on to oversee the biggest peacetime increase in defense spending. To Caspar Weinberger, the math was simple: “We won the Cold War, and… Read More
The Senate went from white-hot ready to pass lobbying reform in January to, a few cooling weeks later, willing to let the whole issue die. That suggests more than mere uncertainty about what reform should look like but a desire among senators not to further restrain the largess… Read More
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has begun preliminary review of two proposed liquefied natural gas facilities in Washington County. There are also more than a dozen other proposals for LNG terminals on the East Coast. Rather than considering each proposal individually, it would make more sense to consider… Read More
Maine and 13 other states won a major victory last week when a federal court rejected “a Humpty Dumpty world” view of pollution control that resulted in the weakening of the Clean Air act. Despite this victory, the Bush administration is still trying to put the pieces of… Read More
Private enterprise enjoys a widespread reputation that it can do things more efficiently and at a lower cost than government. There are recognized exceptions, of course, like Medicare (at least until they added the privately run Plan D for prescription drugs) and, of course, the armed forces. Read More
Conservative television and radio commentator Bill O’Reilly is pushing for passage of laws requiring 25-year minimum sentences for child sex offenders. Lawmakers in Maine have wisely realized that this ratings-getting scheme is the wrong approach and won’t protect the state’s children. They should now go a step further… Read More
With hospitals listing prices and the federal government, Maine Quality Forum and other organizations expanding data on performance, the sick and someday sick will soon be able to examine levels of care with more information than ever. The outcome will change medicine from a question of trust to… Read More
Minority advocacy groups often try in vain to change the Constitution. Recent failed efforts include proposed amendments to outlaw flag burning and gay marriage. Both of them seem to be stalled in the face of strong opposition. But a current proposal appears to have more steam behind it:… Read More
A stakeholders group failed to solidify agreement over the management of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. So did an advisory committee and a legal settlement with the federal government. Now, state lawmakers are being asked to step in. If legislators want to be helpful, they should not hurriedly pass… Read More
If a budget resolution is supposed to be a blueprint, the Senate last week approved a set of plans that builds a structure unsupported by revenues, one that is unlikely to withstand the political forces of an election year. The bill is a jumble of program saves and… Read More
The Maine House is expected to consider a bill to give Maine voters a chance to extend term limits. Legislators should pass the bill and voters should increase term limits to 12 years. A referendum to limit legislators to four consecutive terms, or eight years,… Read More
A new poll by Strategic Marketing Services in Portland gives an old answer to what Mainers worry about most. “Jobs” was the top response when 401 Maine adults were asked earlier this month what they thought the most important issue was facing the state. One of the reasons… Read More
Lawmakers have come up with a good way to complete a deal that will add prime land to Baxter State Park while also allowing hunting in the area. The best compromise being considered today by the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee is to divide the parcel in two… Read More
Legislators who were negotiating a supplemental budget for Maine yesterday – they were stuck on several issues, including whether to bond for highway funding and how much to pay of the anticipated debt to hospitals – had a useful way to solve some of their disagreement. State Rep. Read More
It was telling last week that Gov. John Baldacci’s proposal to have Maine self-fund its DirigoChoice insurance contained so few details. That properly makes his plan not an assertion but a question: Do the benefits of switching to a self-funded program produce, under a variety of conditions to… Read More
If you have ever been put on hold indefinitely, or if you have waited in vain for a promised rebate, or if someone gave you a bad time when you tried to return a defective product, take heart. A quiet revolution is just getting underway in the customer… Read More
An alternative electricity pricing scheme, endorsed last week by most utility regulators in New England, is not an improvement over a controversial federal plan to encourage more power generation by paying electric companies, whether they produce more power or not. Both plans harm Maine consumers for the benefit… Read More
Three years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, what is most striking is the change in the way Americans discuss the war. Gone are measures of how many schools may be built, how much electricity is flowing and how soon the country’s oil will be able to pay… Read More
Plum Creek is not seeking to rezone for development land it owns around Moosehead Lake because it wants to remake the Maine landscape or to bring more tourism jobs in the area. The company is seeking the change – which would allow resorts and hundreds of house lots… Read More
Advocates of impeaching George Bush may have been pleased last December when the conservative newspaper Barron’s, a sister publication of The Wall Street Journal, started discussing it too. Now, they may feel otherwise. Outside groups had long been campaigning for impeachment, mainly on the Internet. Read More
More convincing evidence that the era of large paper mills is ending in Maine came Thursday with the news that the Georgia-Pacific mill in Old Town is closing, we hope temporarily. State officials are optimistic that a buyer can be found for the facility. A smaller, specialized mill… Read More
The Senate Intelligence Committee stands in the middle of some of the most important work Congress will do this year. It also stands in the way. Not only has it failed to complete its work on investigating how the White House used intelligence leading up to the war… Read More
The Legislature’s Labor Committee has properly voted to direct the Maine State Retirement System to sell any holdings in Sudan because of its human-rights violations. The divestiture is largely symbolic – worth about $60 million – but symbols are important, especially when other states join in, as a… Read More
President Bush is again touring the country and reassuring Americans that democracy will triumph in Iraq and American troops will return victorious. Those admirable goals are made more difficult daily by sectarian violence. He’s also changing the subject – to Iran, which Secretary of State… Read More
In 2002, MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, paid hospitals $175 million for services; for 2006, it budgeted $399 million. Yet it will owe, by July 2007, some $300 million more than it has put in the budget. While recognizing that the Baldacci administration has made a serious effort… Read More
News that the country’s largest tobacco companies are contesting their yearly payments to states sounds like a bad development. But because Maine has done a good job of managing its tobacco money, the worst that will happen here is that funds will have to be juggled to keep… Read More
If Maine is ever going to give char-ter schools a chance, LD 1640, an amended, limited, permission-driven document, is the best way for all sides to determine how the schools would work and what their effect would be on public schools. The state Senate, expected to consider this… Read More
For years, liberals have been saying the tax cuts under President Bush wouldn’t have much of an effect on the economy but would drive up the deficit. Congress largely ignored them while the White House trumpeted the growing economy as proof that the cuts worked. But with more… Read More
The fight over Gov. John Baldacci’s DirigoChoice health coverage has come down to a debate over who pays for the subsidies in the plan. At stake is the coverage for 14,000 individuals and 2,000 small businesses and the future of the program itself. But so far, neither the… Read More
Congress succeeded this week in scuttling a deal that would have seen ownership of operation of six U.S. ports transferred from British to Dubai ownership. Never mind that a 45-day review, which would have determined if the ownership change had national security implications, had just begun. Never mind… Read More
Five states, including Maine, are suing the federal government over a Medicare rule that takes state tax money and applies it to the new federal prescription-drug program. They claim, plausibly, that Congress has crossed the federalism line between encouragement and coercion in declaring that states owe money to… Read More
The Supreme Court’s 1998 rejection of the line-item veto was simple. There was no mountain of precedent, no hair-splitting, no great debate. Just a straightforward reading of that remarkably straightforward document, the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, the presentment clause of Article I that says the president can do only… Read More
In an era when many family newspapers were sold and technology rapidly changed the news business, Joanne Jordan Van Namee remained steadfast in her commitment to keep the Bangor Daily News in her family and to ensure the paper informed and educated her hometown residents. Mrs. Van Namee,… Read More
As re-runs go, the quality of this year’s energy-assistance show was outstanding. Through a combination of compromise and persistence, Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins yet again advanced legislation that would increase funding for the important heating subsidy. But they must know that future seasons for this… Read More
A committee set up to study Maine’s bear hunting, baiting and trapping laws has taken small steps to improve those laws. More important, the committee suggests studying the impacts of baiting on bear health and gathering more information about bear trapping, data that would be useful when referendum… Read More
As federal regulators and regional fisheries managers continue to debate how much time commercial fishermen can spend fishing, the need for a different approach becomes more obvious. That approach should include a strict overall catch limit coupled with a quota system to divide up that catch. This would… Read More
A legislative group studying Maine’s security has come up with many ways to better prepare the state for an emergency. Most of their suggestions don’t carry large price tags, making it easier for lawmakers to adopt them. The task force, chaired by Sen. Ethan Strimling,… Read More
A group of human rights lawyers has researched the deaths of 98 detainees in the American war on terrorism and concluded that eight of them were tortured to death and one-third of them were likely homicides. Yet, in the four years since the first known… Read More
The value of the 2006 Maine Kids Count data book, released last week by the Maine Children’s Alliance, is found primarily neither in its statewide numbers nor in this year’s edition. But by examining the county-level information and looking across several years of data, these annual check-ups show… Read More
With rising tuition rates and more students taking out loans to further their education, there has been much concern that college may not be a wise investment. A recent study should allay such fears. Two economists, Lisa Barrow of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago… Read More
A United States district court judge has dismissed the first legal test of the Bush administration’s practice of “extraordinary rendition”- shipping a terrorism suspect to a country where interrogation can be accompanied by torture. The case is worth watching as it works its way through an appeal process… Read More
Trying to build a nonsectarian government while sectarian violence rages is the new conundrum facing the United States in Iraq. The situation is made worse by the United States’ tenuous relationship with neighboring Iran. Nearly 400 people have been killed since Feb. 22 when a… Read More
A great opportunity to fulfill Gov. Percival Baxter’s vision by adding a key parcel to the park he created appears to be unraveling in Augusta. While it is unfortunate that sportsmen have convinced many lawmakers to oppose the deal, further compromise may be necessary to complete the complex… Read More
Even as Reps. Tom Allen and Mike Michaud joined Gov. John Baldacci last week to condemn reductions in federal spending to Maine, legislative Republicans were busy drawing attention to the fact that the federal contribution to the state has increased substantially in recent years. Both are correct, pointing… Read More
Rep. Thomas Saviello, who was dogged by accusations that he used his legislative position to benefit his employer, International Paper Co., did the right thing in permanently stepping down from the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee. Although this should prevent future problems, it does not mean that investigations of… Read More
Before more than a dozen candidates for governor decided to run on public funding, Maine lawmakers had borrowed enough from the Clean Election Fund so that even if the candidates got the required signatures and $5 contributions, the state no longer had enough money to cover their campaigns,… Read More
The furor over a sale that would put a Dubai company in charge of six U.S. ports has exposed American vulnerabilities. More than four years into the War on Terror, government agencies still aren’t sharing intelligence information and a lack of resources has left large gaps in port… Read More
If you are among the many Mainers who get their prescription drugs from Canada, don’t worry about reports of increasing seizures by U.S. Customs. Canadian pharmacies that send mail orders to the United States expect seizures from time to time. If a package doesn’t reach the customer, the… Read More
American bravado met reality in Turin. Bravado didn’t fare so well. After 17 days of sports on snow and ice, these Olympic Games should be remembered for the quiet champions who worked hard and brought home the gold – without hype and hubris. Seth Wescott… Read More
A plan to install 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound has generated a lot of opposition, much of it from wealthy residents worried that their views will be ruined. Approval or denial of the project, which already has undergone four years of regulatory review, should be based on… Read More
There has long been talk about Maine and other Northeastern states working more closely with Atlantic Canada to improve the region’s economy. That talk with be ratcheted up a bit this spring when a new group that is promoting a regional approach to business holds a conference in… Read More
Maine’s forestry and hospitality industries could again face a labor shortage later this year if Congress does not raise the cap, at least temporarily, on the number of visas available to foreign workers. In 2004, the federal government for the first time enforced the national… Read More
The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices did a disservice to the public and Rep. Thomas Saviello Thursday be refusing to investigate a complaint that the lawmaker violated state conflict of interest and ethics laws. The commission can rectify the situation by quickly acting on a… Read More
The potential effects of climate change were vividly displayed last week when scientists showed Greenland’s ice sheet melting more rapidly than previously thought. In Congress, however, the pace remains glacial. Even as data accumulate showing that humans are contributing to a rise in atmospheric greenhouse… Read More
Congressional outrage over a deal to allow a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates to take control of six U.S. ports is as much about the unknowns of the agreement as anything specifically known. With President Bush promising a veto of any legislation that slows this plan,… Read More