Recent complaints from insurers and others who say premiums could be pushed higher because of an assessment to fund the Dirigo health care plan badly miss the point and the process of Dirigo. There is no good reason for private-insurance premiums to rise because of a Dirigo assessment,… Read More
This fall’s foliage, now mixed with snow in some parts of Maine, has come mostly in yellow and burnt orange, with only a rare showing of the usual brilliant red. Not that this year’s fall colors lack beauty, but they’re giving us a different kind of beauty. The… Read More
Rosa Parks’ grandmother warned that the young girl would be lynched before she was 20 if she continued to stand up to white people. Rather than such a grim end, the girl grew up to launch the civil rights movement by refusing to stand up. Ms. Parks, 92,… Read More
All over the country at this instant airline travelers are taking off their shoes, putting them in gray plastic bins and sending them through TSA scanning machines. As far as anyone knows, no shoes have blown up airplanes since this exercise began. On the other foot, the public… Read More
When President Bush spoke recently about Harriet Miers’ religious beliefs, he was trying to stem a storm of protest by several prominent conservative Christian leaders. They had hoped for a clearly recognized conservative. Here is what he told reporters in the Oval Office: “People ask… Read More
Eastern Maine Community College would use bond money, if approved by voters in November, to replace leaky windows in its main building. Highway crews would use a share of their bond money for guardrail repair and bridge painting. The University of Maine System has labs that need rehabilitation. Read More
Historians and biographers need access to presidential papers if Americans are going to learn the full truth of how their government has operated. With an executive order issued several years ago by President Bush, information from four administrations would be shielded from public view. Congress should overturn the… Read More
Many questions remain about the prospects for liquefied natural gas facilities in Washington County. Some of them may be answered this week when officials from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Coast Guard come to Calais for a public information session. It will be helpful to hear… Read More
It is going to take a lot more than a national cartoon hog to solve national and regional energy problems made worse by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It will also take more than Gov. John Baldacci urging conservation, which he has done in response to tight natural gas… Read More
If the Senate is auditioning for the role of FEMA during Hurricane Katrina, it’s got the part. Foot-dragging, directionless debate, ignoring people in crisis in favor of protocol – it’s all there in the Capitol, epitomized by a debate over how to deliver badly needed Medicaid funding to… Read More
One of the first rules of journalism is to take good notes. So it is baffling why a top New York Times reporter, Judith Miller, can’t make sense of the notes she took during critical meetings and phone calls with a White House official. Her confusion raises many… Read More
Faced with high fuel prices and possible shortages, President Bush suggested that Americans might give up unnecessary driving trips. His brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, parked his gas-guzzling Ford Expedition and is now riding in a hybrid Ford Escape. The governor’s actions speak louder than the president’s words. Read More
Over the next 10 months, the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, will use $450,000 raised by GrowSmart Maine to develop ideas that this state already has considered repeatedly in its recent past. Given the evident problems with Maine’s economic struggles, their reappearance shouldn’t be surprising. But if… Read More
Adolf Hitler’s autobiography, written in the 1920s, blamed Germany’s troubles on capitalism and the Jews and laid out his expansionist program that led to World War II. Now, an intercepted 6,000-word letter from one of Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenants has done much the same thing for the… Read More
The recent announcements of Robert Spear departing as the Baldacci administration’s agriculture commissioner and Press Secretary Lynn Kippax moving out of the governor’s office over to the Department of Health and Human Services as DHHS Spokesman Michael Norton leaves are strong signals the governor is preparing his administration… Read More
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have a straightforward task in reviewing Harriet Miers’ fitness for the Supreme Court. Because expertise in constitutional law is high among the qualifications to serve on the nation’s highest court, Ms. Miers must demonstrate long-standing thought and experience in dealing with the… Read More
The vote by Iraqis on a constitution last weekend will be dissected dozens of ways over the coming weeks, but the most important outcome was that a vote was held, the outcome beforehand was unknown and the give and take of democracy played out in various ways. The… Read More
A bookshelf worth of recent studies has found that American kids are getting fatter. Further studies, as if they were needed, reveal that poor food choices and a lack of exercise are to blame. The federal government’s response to this obesity epidemic is to turn the food pyramid… Read More
When a legislative task force on Maine’s homeland security needs meets for the first time today, its biggest challenge will be to keep the risks the state faces in perspective. While it may be tempting to call for equipment to combat bioterrorism in every community or more money… Read More
James Dobson has made himself a key figure in the forthcoming Senate consideration of the nomination of Harriet Miers for the United States Supreme Court. The prominent evangelical conservative has strongly supported the nomination, saying that undisclosed sources have given him information unknown to others proving that she… Read More
In a state with limited financial resources, it is always tempting to do government on the cheap. Time and again, though, this approach ends up costing more and creating a lot of problems. The latest example is the state’s migrant education program, which until recently was run by… Read More
An important last-minute deal between Iraq’s religious and ethnic groups has brought the Sunni minority back into the political process. More important than the 11th-hour changes to the constitution is the fact that these groups are working together. That doesn’t mean that minority groups won’t still try to… Read More
As part of the plan to privatize the nation’s flight service stations, the facility in Bangor last week was given more work to do with fewer people to do it. With such a formula, privatization will no doubt save money, but safety, for pilots and passengers, will be… Read More
Heeding warnings that millions of people would likely die if there is a worldwide flu pandemic, U.S. officials are busily seeking ways to contain and minimize the effects of such an illness. Much attention has focused on vaccines with calls for government production facilities and liability waivers to… Read More
It was startling how similar the complaints were from victims of the Kashmir earthquake and Hurricane Katrina. “No one has come to help us,” echoed through the snow-covered mountains in Pakistan just as that phrase was repeated outside the New Orleans Superdome and in small towns along the… Read More
With high fuel prices and fears about shortages of natural gas, coupled with concerns over greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired plants, nuclear power is again being discussed as a source of electricity. The Maine Yankee plant, where decommissioning was certified as complete by the federal government last week,… Read More
With state lawmakers now expressing their concerns about the state’s switch from the Maine Educational Assessment to the Scholastic Aptitude Test for 11th- graders, the commissioner of education should slow down and reconsider this rushed and misguided decision. Sen. Michael Brennan, a former long-time member… Read More
A minor scandal rattled the Bush administration last year when government agencies were caught buying favorable news coverage. At the time, the Bush administration’s response was murky. Now, after the Government Accountability Office declared that many of these government expenditures were illegal, Education Secretary Margaret… Read More
It is encouraging that Plum Creek Timber Co. is listening to criticism of its plan for more than 400,000 acres around Moosehead Lake. One test of whether the company is serious about revising its plans to ensure they better conform to local values and state guidelines is whether… Read More
Continued Republican anger over the president’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court is mere distraction from more pressing issues in Congress. Ms. Miers, barring surprises, has a long set of hearings with the Senate Judiciary Committee before a decision is made about her fitness for the… Read More
The Environmental Protection Agency is to be commended for wanting to make the information it collects about toxic chemicals more useful to the public. Reducing the amount of information available, however, is not a good way to accomplish this. The Toxics Release Inventory was established… Read More
A bid in the Senate last week to raise funding for the valuable Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to its authorized level failed on a technical point, but showed a slim majority of senators would support it. That is possibly good news though in itself it is… Read More
Eastern equine encephalitis, like other mosquito-borne diseases, is a serious illness that often leads to death. The danger of contracting EEE, however, must be kept in perspective. Over the last 38 years, an average of fewer than 5 people have died each year from the disease. Precaution is… Read More
Just as storms sank the massive Spanish Armada four centuries ago, the executives at Nissan must worry that Katrina, or at least the high gas prices that followed it, will swamp their own Armada, a 9,600-pound SUV that gets 13 miles per galleon, er, gallon. Not just the… Read More
In an effort to strengthen U.S. resolve to continue the war in Iraq, President Bush Thursday gave a speech full of passion, but short on specifics on how the United States will prevail. Most troubling is that the president’s vision of progress in Iraq conflicts with what U.S. Read More
When the next flu pandemic strikes, about 90,000 to 200,000 Americans will die if advanced medicines are available and state agencies have planned properly, according to an estimate by the Centers for Disease Control. If there are no vaccines and the planning looks like New Orleans last month,… Read More
Well before the first bet can be placed at the Bangor racino slated to open later this year there have been many attempts to rewrite the state’s gaming laws. Some want to make them more stringent. Others want to expand gambling. All of this is premature. Read More
If you had a listed military base in the last round of base closures, one of the ways to protect it was to show it had what the Defense Department called “jointness,” which is a vague way of saying a base had more than one use – a… Read More
Forget all the blithely certain analysis you’ve seen over the last two days. The most honest response to the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court is, “Well, that’s something, isn’t it?” An attorney with no discernable paper trail, a friend (pejorative word: crony) of the president,… Read More
For the second time in as many weeks, President Bush has gently suggested that Americans should conserve gasoline by driving less. This time he went farther and suggested that the federal government should set the example by encouraging employees to use public transportation and by using less energy. Read More
The announcement yesterday from Republican gubernatorial candidate Peter Cianchette that he was quitting the race after being in it for only a couple of months was both a surprise and an opportunity for the GOP. The party has grown stronger in recent years not because it has moved… Read More
Those calling for exemptions from new, stricter bankruptcy rules for the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita have their hearts in the right place, but their logic is too narrow. Unexpected expenses – because a hurricane destroys their home, they are diagnosed with cancer or they lost their… Read More
Whenever there’s a crisis, scam artists are quick to get into the act. With gasoline prices at record highs in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, bogus remedies have arrived right on time. There are useful ways, of course, to cut down on gasoline… Read More
Gov. Baldacci is right that the best way to fully clean up the former HoltraChem plant is to dig up and remove tons of soil contaminated with mercury. Unfortunately, the company now liable for cleaning up the Orrington plant objects to this costly plan and favors containing the… Read More
Rep. Kevin Glynn of South Portland recently announced his concerns about Maine’s Medicaid billing failure that began last January but that, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has improved considerably since. He is correct to be concerned – everyone who has looked at… Read More
Corporate pensions have already become an endangered species. Many firms prefer to let their employees make their own retirement arrangements, with combinations of IRAs and 401(k) plans. Now a new threat has appeared on the scene. A company goes into bankruptcy and tries to persuade… Read More
After close to a decade as head of Friends of Acadia, Ken Olson plans to retire in February. A search committee is hard at work, culling through 82 applications to succeed him as president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit organization. He will be… Read More
More highway signs and informational brochures and better training for tourism industry employees are helpful ideas, but they are not going to draw more tourists to Maine. Better accommodations and easily-accessible recreation opportunities will. The state has spent years studying and talking about nature-based tourism. Read More
Added to a destructive $330 billion deficit already on the books, Congress this week was handed a poorly considered bill for rebuilding Louisiana and a starve-the-beast series of cuts to government services that demonstrate a disregard for the value of government service. Americans were horrified by the images… Read More
Maine’s newly doubled cigarette tax has predictably brought stories of smokers, especially in southern Maine, crossing the border into New Hampshire to buy cheaper smokes. The cross-border shopping was expected by anyone paying attention and even factored into revenue projections based on the added $1 per pack. Read More
For years, Mainers have been exhorted to go to college. In a logical next step, the new president of the University of Maine has called for a “top-to-bottom” review to ensure the school is doing everything it can to ensure that its students graduate. A companion review of… Read More
As the Small Business Administration prepares to loan potentially billions of dollars to victims of Hurricane Katrina, the agency must ensure it maintains proper oversight of the money to avoid problems like those that may have followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The SBA has said it will… Read More
The tax reform the Legislature was going to consider last spring, then this summer, has now been pushed back to its winter session. Reform has been on the agenda every session for 20 years, and if it is being delayed again, you can assume that not only do… Read More
When a disaster like a hurricane strikes, it is only natural for many people to want to help. However, having dozens of volunteers show up at emergency management agencies or other relief groups often is not helpful. Instead, those who want to help out should sign up now… Read More
Guidelines released by the Bush administration last week provide a good framework for improving the nation’s fishing policies, which are scheduled to be updated this year. Although controversial, the administration’s push to privatize fisheries by limiting access and catches provides a new way to solve the decades-old problem… Read More
A newly released federal report says Maine is making substantial progress in fixing its failed Medicaid computer system, a failure that stranded hundreds of health care professionals through much of this year without payments adequate to keep their doors open. The report, by the Centers for Medicare and… Read More
Americans are paying attention to gasoline price spikes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and as Hurricane Rita arrives in Texas. Many are confused by a market where bulk purchases are made based on what prices are expected to be months in the future. Here’s… Read More
It is no secret that jails have become de facto mental health institutions and detoxification centers. The result is jails overcrowded with people who need mental health and substance abuse counseling, not incarceration, to improve their situation. A small program in Kennebec County aims to change this situation. Read More
Even if attacks killing nine Americans in Iraq hadn’t occurred just days after Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, declared “great successes” against insurgents, plenty of other information would have disputed the idea. As Nathaniel Fick, a former Marine captain who led infantry… Read More
The measurable part of the United Nations’ Millennium Declaration – known as the Monterrey Consensus – says the central challenge facing the world’s poor is globalization and its unequal distribution of wealth. For five years since that declaration, member countries have shared broad agreement about solutions to this… Read More
Maine is right to reject federal funding that requires the state to focus solely on abstinence-only programs rather than offering comprehensive sex education, including abstinence. There is no evidence that programs that tell children to wait until marriage to have sex actually work. Worse, there is evidence that… Read More
Nobody ever said that negotiating with North Korea would be smooth and easy. So the jubilation over the deal struck recently on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula was premature. So were the hand-wringing and we-told-you-sos over North Korea’s demand a day later. The Monday agreement… Read More
With lots of serious reasons for worrying about gambling, former Gov. Angus King employs one of the more irrelevant against the pending racino in Bangor when he observes that its temporary site is the old Miller’s restaurant, “where you can’t even see the raceway or smell a horse.”… Read More
The president’s recent promise that “we will not just rebuild, we will build higher and better” along the Gulf Coast is going to cost the federal government at least $200 billion, and if the money is to come from any source but borrowing, Congress must get organized quickly. Read More
It’s nearly time for hackmatack trees to put on their autumnal show. They are unusual in that they have needles but are not evergreens. You can soon spot them when the needles turn golden before dropping and they stand out among the dark green pines and spruces. Read More
Although there will be widespread ripple effects from the bankruptcies of Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp., few of them are likely to be felt here. Bangor, thanks to the growth of regional jets and above average increases in passengers, is a healthy market, according to… Read More
With development at Bangor’s waterfront arriving slowly, the recent groundbreaking of the city’s new police station, just up the street from the waterfront, was a positive and important event for Bangor. It was doubly so because city officials at one time resisted siting the station at… Read More
Although far from the physical ravages of Hurricane Katrina, many low-income residents of Maine and other northern states will face a cold winter without help from the federal government. The storm knocked out refineries, ports and oil rigs, driving up already high fuel prices. Heating oil prices are… Read More
With more than $60 billion already approved and many more billions on the way to help reconstruct New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast, the nation will undertake, as the president said Thursday, “an unprecedented response to an unprecedented crisis.” Making sure that money is well… Read More
These days a helpful clerk often reminds you that if the gadget you’re buying conks out after warranty you would be glad to have bought an extension. As with insurance, almost everything can be protected if you are willing to pay the price. But the proper question is:… Read More
A final recommendation by the Base Realignment and Closure commission was one of its more sensible. It noted in sending its conclusions to President Bush last week that the commission’s work could have been more complete had it been allowed to wait until after the release of the… Read More
Faced with the failure of the Department of Energy to set standards for nearly two dozen household appliances, 15 states, including Maine, have turned to the arena where many environmental policies are set these days – the courts. This could have been avoided if the Energy Department had… Read More
A flurry of international decisions in August has produced both a fresh crisis and an opportunity for a settlement of the long-simmering dispute with Canada over its export of softwood lumber. Canada says that the United States has illegally collected $5 billion since 2002 in… Read More
You’d think President Bush would have learned from the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington that disaster relief is too important to be left to cronies. He didn’t, and that’s one reason why the Bush administration was unprepared for the worst natural disaster… Read More
The public doesn’t generally make a distinction between a lobbyist working in the State House or in state office buildings, so state rules shouldn’t either. When a lobbyist meets with a state agency to make a case that a new rule be crafted a certain way or suggests… Read More
The public had seen that John Roberts, the president’s nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court, looked strong on paper – Harvard College and Harvard Law, clerkships for Henry Friendly and Supreme Court Associate Justice William Rehnquist, Office of the White House Counsel, Justice Department, U.S. Court… Read More
The findings of an independent committee investigating the United Nations’ oil-for-food program add urgency to the need to reform the international agency. The group’s report, as well as one done this summer by a congressional committee, can lead the way to a move effective body. The best suggestion… Read More
Maine spends $7.7 billion a year on health care and is just sick about it. The cost of care is too high, too many people don’t even get care, the steep increase for health insurance (up 77 percent between 1998 and 2002 while incomes increased only 6 percent)… Read More
Wall Street is in the midst of a scandal over lavish gifts by stockbrokers to the people who run multi-billion-dollar mutual funds. Fortunately, federal investigators are on the case. Their immediate target is Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest mutual-fund operator. The New York Times broke… Read More
The Senate today is expected to have a chance to overturn a deeply flawed rule regarding the emissions of mercury, a potent neurotoxin. Although most lawmakers are likely to let this opportunity pass, the fact that a significant number of senators, including Maine’s, have taken the unusual step… Read More
Just how much time has passed between Sept. 11, 2001, and the present is demonstrated by the nation’s difficulty in focusing on Afghanistan and al-Qaida for more than a few seconds before being diverted from the base of attack that killed 3,000 at the World Trade Center, the… Read More
No one knows the cost of the huge tasks of relief, cleanup and reconstruction after the worst national disaster in our history. Estimates keep mounting. Congressional leaders, having passed $62 billion in aid already, foresee expenses of $100 billion or up to $200 billion that… Read More
The good news from Acadia National Park is that there isn’t much vandalism this year. But visitors could use a few tips in how to prevent wear and tear, especially on Mount Cadillac, which attracts about 500,000 people a year. This summer, only about 20… Read More
Over 35 years, the unambiguous purpose of the Clean Air Act has been to push power plants, factories, homes, automobiles – nearly anything with a chimney, smokestack or tail pipe – to cut pollution. Rules that allow for increased pollution are counter to the spirit and language of… Read More
A Republican proposal to temporarily suspend state taxes on gasoline may allow people to pay less at the pump, but it does nothing to address the larger problem – Mainers and Americans must use less oil. State lawmakers should talk about fuel prices, but they must do so… Read More
A recent study adds to the need to loosen restrictions on stem cell research. Researchers found that embryonic stem cells, if they are kept alive for long periods of time, mutate and can become tumors, just like normal cells. This means that restrictions that limit federal research to… Read More
Bangor’s Birch Stream has been taken for granted for so long that state environmental personnel aren’t even sure of its source. Due to concerns raised by local residents, the short waterway has gotten a lot of attention recently and been cleaned up. More work remains to be done… Read More
Just before the mayor of New Orleans blamed Washington, and the governor of Louisiana did the same, followed by members of the Bush administration trying to blame the Louisiana governor and maybe the mayor – just before, that is, there was blame to slice and serve to various… Read More
Balancing personal responsibility with state regulation, as a government task force on dangerous drivers acknowledges, is a difficult job. The task force, convened less than a month ago, has found that balance and developed several good recommendations for solving a long-standing problem. Many of their suggestions rightly focus… Read More
Those who watch the television industry as much as they watch television itself will recall that about a decade ago, digital television was said to be on the way to enriching humankind’s experience with clearer pictures and new spectrum revenues. Digital television did arrive, slowly, in some markets,… Read More
Ever since President Grover Cleveland signed an act making the first Monday in September a legal holiday to honor America’s workers, Labor Day has been a holiday of conflicting themes, an odd mixture of the somber and the frivolous. Even 19th-century labor organizer Peter J. McGuire, credited with… Read More
We’re getting fatter. The vexing problem remains what to do about it. Government programs and televised admonitions are only part of the solution. Americans must understand that their expanding waistlines are a serious problem, both for their health and the country’s financial well-being. Then, they must do something… Read More
A panel recommending cuts to Medicaid may have provided opportunity to Congress this week when its major savings came not from cutting services but from getting lower prices for prescription drugs and extending drug rebates to Medicaid’s managed-care plan. Those are the sort of changes advocates for expanding… Read More
The images from New Orleans could just as easily come from Mogadishu. People, all their possessions stuffed into plastic bags, walking, to where they didn’t know. Young children their hands outstretched to grab food offered by relief volunteers. Snipers firing on evacuation helicopters and hospitals. googletag.cmd.push(function… Read More
When asked whether foreign aid was needed to help Hurricane Katrina’s victims, President Bush said Wednesday the United States has not asked for help: “This country is going to rise up and take care of it,” the president said. “You know we’d love help but we’re going to… Read More
Watch out for the word “free.” There may be a catch. That’s what has happened with the federal government’s plan to let every American obtain free copies every year of their credit reports on the Internet from the three major credit reporting agencies. For Mainers and residents of… Read More
The Bush administration has issued an order requiring groups fighting AIDS to publicly denounce prostitution as a condition for receiving federal funds. The impulse is understandable, but the order harms the important work the administration is funding. Of course, most people oppose prostitution. But in… Read More
The rain and wind from Hurricane Katrina, which passed near, but not directly over, New Orleans was bad enough. But then the worst-possible scenario unfolded: The levees that held Lake Pontchartrain at bay began to leak. By Wednesday, 80 percent of the city was under… Read More
You may not have used a backpack when you were in school, but they now are high on the back-to-school shopping lists. These days, every school student seems to need one. They’re a good way to carry books, laptops, baseball mitts, lunches and the other must-have stuff. But… Read More
Members of the Senate who prefer not to be weighed down with a lot of paper could do themselves a favor when they return from vacation to confront the reform of the estate tax. The Congressional Budget Office has a simple set of numbers that will give them… Read More