Federal rules on mercury pollution are too lenient and need to be overturned. Members of Congress this week took an important step in scrutinizing the flawed rules. Sen. Susan Collins was the first Republican to sign on to a Joint Resolution of Disapproval and a petition to require… Read More
No area of life is more charted, graphed and tabulated than education yet in at least the recent past state reports of their graduation rates have been, to be polite, a crock. Even as broad state policies were established based on these numbers, they were plainly suspect –… Read More
Ten years after a long and, at times, acrimonious, debate over the formation and goals of the Northern Forest Lands Council, a brief review of the work recently shows the states involved achieved some of the easy recommendations but only a few of the harder ones. Ten years… Read More
It is not surprising that President George W. Bush Tuesday tied the war in Iraq to the larger war on terrorism. The former is becoming increasingly unpopular at home, while support for the war on terrorism remains stronger. The problem, how-ever, is that Iraq had no connections to… Read More
Maine’s budget forecast looked slightly less dismal this month, providing an opportunity to do something besides make desperate cuts to fill budget holes. The year-end numbers put Maine about $43 million up in fiscal year 2005, a tiny amount compared with the sudden surpluses other states are experiencing… Read More
Studies released recently that differed by a factor of 10 in estimating the cost of cleaning up MTBE are further evidence that more information is needed before making a decision on who should pay for the cleanup and how much money will be needed. It is also good… Read More
There has been much hand wringing since the announcement last week that The China National Offshore Oil Corp. is trying to take over a U.S. oil company. While there is plenty of political and economic tension between the two countries, this deal, if it goes forward, does not… Read More
The most frustrating part of the earlier debate over the health effects of Agent Orange, the defoliant used during the Vietnam War, was the sense that the Pentagon wanted veterans to stop talking about the issue and just take its word for it there was little danger. That… Read More
Senate Republican leaders have, for now, decided to pursue a vote on the nomination of John Bolton to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. If this does not happen, there has been talk of President Bush putting Mr. Bolton on the job through a recess appointment. Although… Read More
The Bush administration is continuing to push China on the military front. Larger battles are likely to be fought in the economic realm. This is where the greater danger, and if history is a guide, success may lay. Soon after President Bush took office, there… Read More
The Maine Public Broadcasting Network remains in trouble despite the reprieve in the House this week. The least of its problems is at the state level. The Maine Legislature cut its appropriation by $39,000 as part of its effort to correct the state’s out-of-balance budget. The network’s president… Read More
Every Maine school child is likely familiar with Miss Rumphius. Wanting to emulate her grandfather, Miss Rumphius travels the world and returns to live by the sea. The one task she has trouble with is fulfilling his charge to make the world more beautiful, until, with the help… Read More
The result of the state courts’ broad interpretation of “public benefit” in eminent domain cases could be seen Thursday when a divided Supreme Court ruled local governments may seize someone’s home or business if the private development planned for that spot could provide for a larger tax base… Read More
When negotiations begin by the governor conceding his position is no longer his position, the best thing his adversaries can do is quickly make an offer that favors theirs. This is partly the case with the debate over Maine’s next bond package – the governor has announced his… Read More
Republican Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado says he led the state’s largest tax-relief package in its history, cutting sales, personal-income and capital-gains taxes while eliminating the marriage penalty. Conservative publications admire him, according to his web site, with plaudits from the Wall Street Journal, the Economist and by… Read More
This year’s red tide outbreak, the worst in three decades, has led to unprecedented efforts by government officials to help. Emergencies have been declared and federal assistance promised. But, when Maine officials tried to gather evidence of economic hardship here, they had a hard time. This could be… Read More
In response to Maine and other states trying to provide discount prescription drug programs for residents, the drug industry has for years argued that it already provides discounts to qualified applicants. Sometimes these private programs have been substantial, sometimes meager, but finding them has been uniformly difficult, so… Read More
“Our goal is not merely to limit Iraq’s violations of Security Council resolutions, or to slow down its weapons program. Our goal is to fully and finally remove a real threat to world peace and to America. Hopefully this can be done peacefully. Hopefully we can do this… Read More
Conservation easements have been a popular way to protect land in Maine and across the country. A proposal being considered in Congress would make such easements and land donations much less attractive to donors, likely stalling conservation efforts. A better approach would be to thwart fraud through accrediting… Read More
They buried Warren Fernald yesterday. Family and friends gathered at the Stanley cemetery on Little Cranberry Island for the graveside ceremony. Mr. Fernald was devout in his own way, but he didn’t go to church and didn’t want his funeral in the church. He said he didn’t want… Read More
Whatever else the Maine Legislature accomplished or failed to accomplish this session, it will leave the capitol looking better, at least virtually, through a much-improved and attractive new Web site. As a means for keeping the public in touch with the events in Augusta, its new pages are… Read More
A coalition of hard-line North Korean generals and Workers’ Party leaders won out at least temporarily in a February showdown over nuclear policy with a “dealer” faction that sought a diplomatic solution of the current crisis. Their position was helped by the Bush administration. That… Read More
The scourge of methamphetamine, which is sweeping the Midwest, is just beginning to strike Maine. The Legislature has enacted a strong preventive law, and officials are getting set for a statewide educational campaign against a seemingly inevitable Maine epidemic of this disastrous drug. What makes… Read More
As the United Nations nears its 60th anniversary, the world body should be dramatically reformed, not by withholding money or blowing up its headquarters as some have suggested, but through improved management and the insistence that democracies band together to end genocide. These are the reasonable recommendations of… Read More
Proposed federal rules to minimize the risk to right whales from fishing gear would disproportionately harm Maine lobstermen. Protecting whales is necessary, but it doesn’t have to happen at the expense of a Maine industry. Expediting research on new gear would better solve the problem. Read More
The year before Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar helped hijack American Airlines flight 77 and fly it into the Pentagon, they lived in San Diego in the home of an FBI source. Mr. Mihdhar was suspected in the attack on the USS Cole and was known by the… Read More
“Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee, and I’ll forgive Thy great googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if… Read More
Opponents of liquefied natural gas have genuine concerns, but resorting to complaints about the makeup of a panel that will address the Washington County Council of Governments’ annual meeting tonight in Machias will not get them answered. Given widespread interest in and concern about the… Read More
Nearly every state has a rainy day account and a mechanism that sends revenues its way, just as Maine does. Many of them also have sentry legislation that keeps the money from being used unless a super majority of legislators approve, which Maine doesn’t, but could have under… Read More
Since a bipartisan proposal to cap greenhouse gases was defeated in the Senate two years ago, more evidence has accumulated that climate change is a serious problem and that human activity is at least partly responsible. More important to Washington policy-makers, a growing list of business leaders is… Read More
When legislators of both parties enthusiastically approved Dirigo Health two years ago, no one following the issue had any doubt that the ambitious undertaking of making sense out of health care coverage in Maine would need revision and reworking as it grew. Nearly every attempt to do that,… Read More
A wise Mainer said the other day: “America has the best health care system in the world -with two exceptions: It’s uneconomical and it’s unethical.” Uneconomical because it is far too costly. Unethical because it doesn’t cover 45 million of its citizens. googletag.cmd.push(function () {… Read More
It’s hard to know whether to take seriously a plan from the Bush administration to allow fish farming in federal waters up to 200 miles from shore. Given the problems that Maine fish farms have had, moving operations farther offshore may sound good, but it may create more… Read More
The entity that manages New England’s power supply has come up with a bad solution to a real problem. Worse, the proposed solution would cost Maine electricity customers an average of an extra $190 a year. The problem is that there needs to be enough… Read More
The public has annually and correctly blamed the Legislature for failing to agree on anything like comprehensive tax reform, and newspapers for the last couple of weeks were suggesting the Taxation Committee would have nothing to offer when the session ends. This week, on a 7-6 nearly party-line… Read More
The Base Realignment and Closure Commission has complex decisions to make about hundreds of bases targeted by the Department of Defense and relatively simple ones to make about the Defense Finance and Accounting Service centers, including one in Limestone. For DFAS, it must ask two… Read More
Congress has been trying for years to craft an asbestos trust fund. It still doesn’t have it right, and Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins should not support the legislation. Although the Senate Judiciary Committee late last month overwhelming passed a $140 billion fund, committee members immediately said… Read More
When University of Maine System trustees earlier this week approved an average tuition increase of nearly 8 percent for next fall, they blamed the Legislature. They are right to point fingers at Augusta, but not for the reasons they gave. While state funding for public… 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
By unanimous vote, the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee early Tuesday morning supported the supplemental budget to the state’s overall budget for fiscal years 2006-07, addressing some important debts faced by the state and demonstrating that bipartisan cooperation is possible there and in Maine’s next challenges. With less than two… Read More
Deep Throat emerged from the shadows just in time. Anonymous sources had been getting a bad name. Dan Rather had relied on some documents about President Bush’s military service, but their authenticity was disproven. Newsweek reported that a copy of the Quran had been flushed down the toilet… Read More
Maybe you’ve had the same thoughts we’ve had while waiting in an airport line to remove jacket, shoes, belt, the odd paper clip, and pass them through security screening: For all the work the agents are doing, an alert terrorist is going to figure out this system quickly. Read More
Behind the headlines about salmon lawsuits and draconian regulations, the aquaculture industry, regulators and environmental groups have slowly developed rules and practices that, when fully implemented, should position Maine salmon farms to be leaders in the industry. These efforts to encourage sustainable farming should be rewarded, by consumers… Read More
Whatever else the state wanted taught with its new school funding, it will succeed in providing Accounting 101 to school boards, town councils and anyone else trying to understand the new Essential Programs and Services model. The best way for everyone to get passing grades, however, is to… Read More
Earlier this year, Gov. John Baldacci made improving cellular phone reception one of his priorities. Although there are many places in Maine where cell phone coverage is lacking, the industry’s signature question, “Can you hear me now?,” is being asked across the country. According to… Read More
Recent news stories have suggested that the U.S. Small Business Administration is shortchanging Maine by allowing big companies to get contracts that are meant to help small ones. SBA officials will likely hear such complaints when they come to Maine next week as part of a national series… Read More
A bill aimed at keeping Canadian loggers out of the Maine woods isn’t likely to work and could put American jobs at risk. It also puts the Maine Legislature at odds with the state’s congressional delegation. Because of heightened security concerns last year, the U.S. Read More
In the real world, taking money that you are not entitled to is considered stealing. In Augusta, however, accepting extra money for not doing extra work is justified by the majority of legislators. Pledging to give that money to charity, as some of them have, doesn’t make taking… Read More
The rejection of a European Union constitution by voters in France and The Netherlands may be more an issue of timing than substance. While fears of job loss and benefit cuts are real, many voters rejected the constitution out of frustration with their own government’s policies, not international… Read More
Never mind that John R. Bolton insults his subordinates; so did Lyndon Johnson and a lot of other public servants going all the way back to Theodore Roosevelt and John Adams. Never mind that he belittles and denigrates the United Nations, where he seeks to take a seat. Read More
Acute legislative politicking has again extended into June, a time of final exams and report cards. This is the work of largely the same Legislature that last year got failing marks on a tax-relief plan, forcing Maine into multiple referendum votes and a lot of needless confusion over… Read More
The meeting last week between the congressional delegations of Maine and New Hampshire and the chairman of the base closure commission, Anthony Principi, should have been informative. But it wasn’t because the information both the delegation and the commission need to review base closures is being held by… Read More
Meanwhile, the rain fell with cruel persistence. You felt that the heavens must at last be empty of water, but still it poured down, straight and heavy, with a maddening iteration, on the iron roof. Everything was damp and clammy. There was mildew on the walls and on… Read More
The premise of a federal program to ensure the safety of cargo headed to the United States was simple: Companies that certify they are meeting security standards will have their shipments inspected less. The problem, according to the Government Accountability Office, is that the certification comes before companies… Read More
Northward is the direction Maine’s official sailing vessel, the Bowdoin, should often be pointing its characteristic spoon bow, and that’s where it is scheduled to be headed once again, on June 1. The historic schooner will set out on a month-long training cruise to Newfoundland,… 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
The bond-rating downgrade this week from Moody’s Investors Service adds to base closure and the borrowing in the state budget as a reason for reducing the amount of money the state proposes to borrow this year. This is less a reflection on the value of the projects than… Read More
State officials have asked Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, to launch an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent mercury rules. While the rules are flawed, such a request, for now, is premature because a review of the regulations is… Read More
Anything Amnesty International says is catnip to conservatives, who leap at the chance to call the organization anti-American. The Bush administration Wednesday leapt to belittle Amnesty International Wednesday when the organization demanded reform at the U.S. prison camps at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a broad… Read More
Having international flights diverted to Bangor may be good for the city’s coffers, but if the intent of the federal “no-fly list” is to keep potential terrorists out of the air – and this country – passengers need to be more closely checked before a plane takes off. Read More
The news reports last week were shocking: Young children are being kicked out of preschool at an alarming rate, according to a Yale University study. Maine ranked second in the nation for expelling preschoolers. The study sheds light on important issues – the training and compensation of preschool… Read More
Should physicians who perform superior work receive a higher reimbursement rate from the state? How does money in health care affect quality? Maine soon will know the answers to these questions as “pay for performance” expands across the state. It is a trend worth watching. Read More
An agreement among senators Monday to avoid a fight over the use of filibusters on judicial nominations was a reassertion of that body’s elevated practices of debate that had all but collapsed in recent years. The seven Republicans, including Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, and seven Democrats,… Read More
Brokerages and bond traders are cheering, but the recent news that the Treasury Department is considering issuing 30-year bonds again could be bad for the average American. The move confirms that the United States will be running budget deficits for years to come and that interest rates are… Read More
Poppies and the lagging anti-opium campaign in Afghanistan had been set as the main topic for President Hamid Karzai’s four-day visit to Washington. A sharply worded cable from the United States embassy in Kabul had blamed Mr. Karzai for being “unwilling to assert strong leadership.”… Read More
If South Korean scientists are someday able to replace diseased cells with healthy lab-created cells that can eliminate Parkinson’s, diabetes or Alzheimer’s, should Americans suffering from these diseases be allowed that treatment or should the government order it withheld? If the answer is to allow it – and… Read More
All seemed pleasant recently between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin as they rode in a Russian automobile together and stood side by side in Tbilisi, Georgia, before probably the greatest crowd the ancient city had ever seen. That was until President Bush praised Georgia’s democracy and… Read More
Hiking trails, as the name suggests, should meander through the woods or cross mountaintops, not parallel paved roads. The International Appalachian Trail, which stretches 1,300 miles from the end of the Appalachian Trail atop Mount Katahdin to Cap Gaspe, Quebec, and then jumps across the water to Newfoundland… Read More
Although the tribal council at Pleasant Point this week voted to sign a contract to build a liquefied natural gas facility on its land on Passamaquoddy Bay, the project is far from reality. In addition to needing numerous federal and state approvals, local opposition – both on and… Read More
More than two years after President Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” aboard an aircraft carrier, U.S. military leaders are giving a sobering assessment of progress in Iraq. In a briefing this week, the top American officer in the Middle East acknowledged that the training of Iraqi police and military… Read More
Now that the shock from the base-closure news has passed, Maine turns to its strategy for convincing the Base Realignment and Closure Commission that the Department of Defense has made a terrible mistake in recommending the broad closures in Maine. BRAC will hear any number of emotional appeals;… Read More
Perhaps as important as the recommendations from a task force on the Penjajawoc Marsh is the fact that the suggestions were made at all. After years of acrimony, it is remarkable and helpful that landowners, developers and conservation proponents have come up with a comprehensive plan for the… Read More
Newsweek was wrong to run an article that relied too heavily on an anonymous source who later changed his story. The magazine also should have been more aware of the reaction its reporting of the desecration of the Koran was likely to spark. How this story came to… Read More
Maine combs its hair and shines its shoes before it visits bond-rating firms so its just-released Powerpoint presentation for Fitch Ratings agency is as positive as can be. But for those who have heard nothing but doom for a decade about Maine, there is also some real reason… Read More
President Bush, who has yet to veto a single bill, has threatened to veto any highway bill that exceeds $284 billion. The House came in on target. The Senate, how-ever, last week voted to allow its bill to exceed the president’s cap by $11 billion. When the two… Read More
Part 2 of Gov. John Baldacci’s next budget seemed to shock Maine hospitals when released last week. The governor is proposing to take money set aside in the first part of the budget for future hospital payments and use it, largely, to cover a Medicaid funding reduction from… Read More
The votes of Maine’s Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins can be decisive in the current flurry of issues on which the Bush administration is desperately seeking victory: the John Bolton nomination for United Nations ambassador, controversial judicial nominations, an administration attack on the filibuster rule and partial… Read More
MasterCard’s security chief, Sergio Pinon got a nasty shock two years ago when his bank called to tell him that his own identity had been stolen. The Wall Street Journal told the story last week. A Nigerian man had telephoned a Miami bank, identified himself… Read More
Often the best environmental news is news about what won’t happen. Recently, good news arrived for Maine when a company trying to build an enormous cement plant along the Hudson River, near Albany, N.Y., ended its pursuit after six years of fighting and a lengthy community debate. Read More
The base-closure list, Sen. Susan Collins said the other day, is “like a sword of Damocles hanging over our head.” Yesterday, it fell on Maine. And fell. And fell. It chopped 6,938 jobs from the state (13,000 indirectly), making Maine easily the hardest hit in the nation. The… Read More
Faced with higher standards under both the state’s Learning Results and the federal No Child Left Behind Act, some Maine schools are struggling to comply. To help schools identify their shortcoming and develop ways to overcome them, the Department of Education is preparing to dispatch teams across the… Read More
A year after the nation first learned of the abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison by U.S. personnel, and then learned that the abuses weren’t confined to that prison, the debate over brutal interrogation techniques has turned toward the conclusion that those techniques aren’t very effective because… Read More
With high heating oil and electricity prices, energy costs have been on the minds of many Mainers lately. The Maine Legislature can take a simple step to ease those concerns a little by passing a bill that will require the most energy-efficient models of more than a dozen… Read More
In a flier encouraging local bases to plan Earth Day activities, the Army touted its concern for the environment. “The Army is committed to total compliance with environmental laws,” the flier listed among “Army Earth Day Messages.” What the flier didn’t note is that the Department of Defense… Read More
The second part of Gov. Baldacci’s biennium budget, expected tomorrow, is not only a vehicle for meeting new state costs such as overdue payments to hospitals. It is a chance for Democrats and Republicans to try again to reduce the budget’s reliance on revenue bonds, which neither side… Read More
It may be years before there is a single fire district for this region or a better model may be developed, but the Brewer fire chief has wisely started a conversation that must be kept going. Fire Chief Rick Bronson has proposed that a single… Read More
When asked about the effect of free trade agreements on local economies, government officials tend to rely on the old clich? that there are winners and losers. If you’re a loser – especially of your job – they admit, free trade doesn’t look like such a good deal. Read More
Wednesday could be a crucial day for Maine’s approaching decision on what sort of voting machines it should have. A work session is scheduled for LD 1026, An Act to Provide Uniform Voter Verification and Recount Requirements for Voting Machines. The Legislature enacted a similar… Read More
The latest number for enrollees of DirigoChoice health care coverage is positive news and is beyond what had been anticipated by Anthem, the insurer carrying the state-designed product. But Dirigo had always had a larger mission than to just offer affordable insurance. It is an attempt to bring… Read More
The benefits of wind power in Maine have been talked about for decades. This has generated a lot of hot air, but no energy. A bill, sponsored by Sen. Ethan Strimling, offers a good way to end the talking and start the power generation. As… Read More
President Bush’s latest contribution to the crisis over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program was to call its leader, Kim Jung Il, “a tyrant” and “a dangerous person.” North Korea’s Foreign Ministry fired back, calling Mr. Bush “a half-baked man in term of morality and a philistine whom we… Read More
Last year, the Secretary of State’s Office was told to crack down on uninsured motorists. The result – hundreds of angry Mainers and thousands of dollars wasted. Now, lawmakers have preliminarily endorsed a common-sense solution to the problem, which should be approved by the Legislature and implemented by… Read More
With the Base Realignment and Closure Commission ready to consider the latest list of proposed closures from the Pentagon, a new report from an advisory panel urges the Department of Defense to slow the pace of its overseas base closures because U.S. bases may not have enough room… Read More
If conservative members of the board that oversees public broadcasting wanted to know if public television and radio are liberally biased, they didn’t have to sneak around and hire someone to monitor one network program, they simply could have looked at information collected by their own agency. Read More
Would you believe that Norwegians are paying $6.66 a gallon for gasoline? Most of them pay it with barely a whimper, although the Norwegian Automobile Association has said, “Enough is enough.” googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var… Read More
The problem with state budgets nationwide, says a recent assessment by the National Conference of State Legislatures, is that while “most states report that revenues are surpassing estimates, spending pressures for K-12 education and Medicaid continue to plague” them. That report would have sufficed for the message Maine… Read More
When a juvenile, and his family, enter the corrections system, fear and confusion often rule the day. Having an advocate ensure that both the juvenile and the corrections system do what they are supposed to could go a long way toward easing that apprehension. A bill before the… Read More
Fifteen years after its launch, the Hubble Space Telescope continues to exceed the expectations of astronomers and other scientists. But without needed repairs and upgrades, the telescope could go dark within three years. NASA should not allow that to happen. Last year, the director of… Read More
There is good reason to proceed with caution as state regulators consider the largest development plan in Maine’s history, a proposal from Plum Creek Timber Co. to develop and conserve more than 400,000 acres around Moosehead Lake. A comprehensive zoning plan for the region certainly would have made… Read More
Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has a simple solution to the imminent closure of Bangor’s Flight Service Station, slated for shutdown along with 37 others. His bill would identify the jobs at these stations as “inherently governmental,” precluding them from a competitive bidding process and maintaining their role… Read More