Not only are you what you eat, you are how much you eat. A slew of recent studies shows that Americans are gaining weight at a startling clip. One in three Americans is now classified googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]];… Read More
The best reason for renewing the Superfund trust fund is no farther away than Plymouth, where a 15-year attempt to clean up an old oil waste site has led to lengthy, costly negotiations to recover cleanup costs from hundreds of businesses and organizations in Maine. The Senate today… Read More
Today’s headlines about wars and job losses got you riled up? Angry at the kids for leaving their toys scattered across the living room floor? Hopping mad because your favorite team lost again? Calm down and take it easy – it could save your life. Read More
However transitional, temporary or interim, the Iraqi constitution signed yesterday was a triumph of the rule of law over tyranny. Many Americans will dislike the means used to arrive at this historic point, others will object to provisions within the constitution itself. But the expressed desire of a… Read More
There is a fundamental disagreement between industry officials and environmentalists over when to ban chemicals that appear to be dangerous to humans. This conflict was played out recently in the Maine Legislature when lawmakers considered a bill to ban brominated flame retardants (BFRs). The chemicals, used to treat… Read More
You can mark down one more consequence of America’s war in Iraq: Down East Maine’s jewel, a familiar pleasure spot for Mainers and a prime magnet for tourists from all over, is on a tightened budgetary leash. This year, you won’t see as many rangers on duty as… Read More
Five years and $2 million after the Legislature revived thoughts about trains running to Eastport, the first phase of a study is ready for its public unveiling. Expect to hear a lot about buses. Advocates of the original plan saw a 10-year, $73 million project… Read More
The numbers are not new, nor are many of the solutions, but a just released legislative report on the exodus of young people from Maine once again highlights a pressing problem. Based on a vague definition of a complex economic and demographic issue – “Maine’s youth are leaving… Read More
The most startling figure in the Maine Children’s Alliance annual survey called Kids Count is that the number of childhood hospitalizations for mental health or substance abuse rose by approximately 40 percent between 1999 and 2002, the last year for which data is available. Nearly 2,500 hospitalizations a… Read More
Although many Mainers may still not know what a biathlon is, the northern part of the state has been in the biathlon spotlight this week and, by all accounts, it has shone. On the first day of racing in Fort Kent, the crowd gathered to… Read More
The problems with the “Unborn Victims of Violence Act” begin with its popular name, Laci and Conner’s Law. The nomenclature is supposed to honor Laci Peterson and her unborn son, Conner. Ms. Peterson’s husband, Scott, is now on trial for murder. The problem is that… Read More
Gov. John Baldacci has assembled a thoughtful, provocative, complex package of tax cuts, tax shifts, incentives and spending caps designed to strengthen Maine’s creaking tax system and thwart ballot initiatives in June and November. Whether the plan he announced Wednesday would be effective will be seen in the… Read More
Allowing heavy trucks to travel on interstate highways, rather than the back roads they must now travel north of Augusta because of federal law, would result in fewer accidents and save the state up to $2.3 million a year in maintenance costs, according to a new report conducted… Read More
The knock on John Nicholas within the Department of Human Services, which will be part of a new agency he has been nominated by the governor to run, is that Mr. Nicholas is strictly a numbers guy, good with the budget but he doesn’t know policy or programs. Read More
It’s a good idea for Maine’s Legislature to focus on the proper funding of the federal education act, No Child Left Behind, but lawmakers will be disappointed if they think they will be able to get an exact accounting of the act’s costs here, as a legislative bill… Read More
Those who still doubt the benefits of the Land for Maine’s Future program should talk to officials in Washburn. The small Aroos-took County town of 1,600, west of Presque Isle and Caribou, has “been in the economic doldrums for 20 years,” says Town Manager Jim Gardner. Read More
A group of prestigious scientists recently issued a report accusing the Bush administration of distorting scientific information for political gains. The administration immediately retorted that it was the Nobel laureates and heads of some of the country’s leading research universities who were politicizing science. Such bickering could be… Read More
What child – or adult – has not delighted in the tongue-twisting rhymes and fanciful characters in Dr. Suess books? The Cat in the Hat, the Grinch and Sam, I am, are some of the most readily recognized characters in young children’s literature. Readers, young… Read More
At a time of continuing budget shortfalls, a $50 million pot of money is tempting to lawmakers trying to balance the books. In this case, the pot of money is the Fund for a Healthy Maine, an entity set up in 1999 to manage Maine’s share of the… Read More
The most encouraging sign from a Senate Armed Services hearing Wednesday on reports that dozens of servicewomen in the Persian Gulf area and elsewhere were sexually assaulted or raped by fellow troops was the expression of outrage by the senators themselves. Committee members should follow up their displeasure… Read More
For the second time in five weeks, President Bush has resorted to the little-used strategy of a “recess appointment” to seat a conservative federal judge who had been blocked by a Democratic filibuster. In appointing Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,… Read More
It was easy for lawmakers and the media to criticize Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan for saying that Social Security benefits need to be trimmed, especially because he tied the need to rein in entitlement spending to the rising federal deficit. The Fed chairman was… Read More
Considering that Maine has some of the lightest sentences nationwide for child sex abusers and that longer prison sentences would reduce the ability of repeat offenders to assault children, the conclusions of a recent legislative commission were understandable and deserve support. But recommending more prison time is just… Read More
By insisting on a new battle in the culture wars, fought on the field of gay marriage, President Bush this week divided the country needlessly, attempted to affix a prohibition on an evolving social question to the U.S. Constitution and put at risk rights that gay men and… Read More
Maine cannot escape the national and global urge toward economic efficiency that sends jobs to where they can be done most cheaply, homogenizes downtowns or erases them altogether, that makes once-thriving rural communities all but obsolete. But it can preserve its memory of what makes Maine the place… Read More
Some Washington County residents are naturally apprehensive about a plan to open a methadone clinic in Calais. The county, where adult arrest rates for possession of synthetic narcotics were nine times higher than Maine as a whole in 2000, however, cannot continue to send addicts trying desperately to… Read More
It is too early to tell if consumer advocate Ralph Nader’s entrance into the presidential race is better for conservatives or liberals. It does, however, raise some important questions. His electoral votes in 2000 were more than enough to tip Florida and New Hampshire from Al Gore to… Read More
Dora Anne Mills, Maine’s health officer, paused and seemed to draw a deep breath before answering the question, “Is mold a serious health threat in Maine?” Some Mainers are certain it is. Brian and Lisa Priest, of Pembroke, for example. In a five-year dispute, they… Read More
After the Legislature strongly supported a bill to crate an oversight agency for state government in 2001, the public may have thought the agency would be operating by now. But it isn’t. In fact, the legislative committee that was supposed to be appointed to create the agency has… Read More
The last thing Congress needs in an election year, when tempers and posturing tend to peak simultaneously, is a long fight over gun rights. But with a bill on lawsuit immunity for gun manufacturers coming up at the same time as reauthorization of the assault-weapons ban is due,… Read More
A controversial landfill expansion in West Old Town received an initial nod of approval from the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection earlier this week. The landfill, now owned by the state, can be expanded if 23 conditions are met, according to a draft approval from Commissioner… Read More
If you haven’t seen UMaine Today, a magazine that describes itself as chronicling the “creativity and achievement at the University of Maine,” take a look. We recently read the January/February edition, found it as impressive as its previous editions and called Margaret Nagle, its editor, to express our… Read More
It is not often that a candidate abandoning a political race encourages others to follow in his footsteps. That is what Howard Dean did this week as he gave up his bid for the White House. In a speech in Burlington, Vt., Dr. Dean announced… Read More
If the picture of the 3-year-old whose front teeth had rotted away was not enough to get your attention, perhaps Dr. Jonathan Shenkin’s observation that it is not uncommon for him to see young children who have decay in all of their teeth caused you to drop your… Read More
This vacation week marks an intermission but certainly not an end to a deadlock over the future of the popular veteran assistant principal of Ellsworth High School. As long as it continues, the prospect is for more protest marches, more disruption of the educational process, and more outrage… Read More
Recent news stories about Maine drawing newcomers faster than 46 other states, the sale of a Winslow snowmobile trailer manufacturer to Swedish sport rack giant Thule and the upcoming World Cup biathlon in Fort Kent may seem unrelated. But all are tied together by a common thread –… Read More
If something is working, as the adage might go, don’t hand it a drink in front of naked women. Bangor city councilors should keep this vividly in mind as they ponder changing a city ordinance to allow a strip club to open on the fringes of town. Read More
John Kerry’s emergence as the likely Democratic nominee for president has exposed a sore spot in America’s historical memory – the Vietnam War. That conflict, the nation’s longest, caused far more damage than the 58,235 American troop deaths, thousands more wounded in action, still far more Vietnamese and… Read More
While it is discouraging that the Bush administration-crafted road map to peace in the Middle East has been folded up and put back in the glove compartment, there remains hope that a different route suggested by Israel may quell the tension between that country and the Palestinians. Read More
After federal Border Patrol agents swept Portland for illegal immigrants last month in what was reportedly an intimidating manner and federal authorities in Washington, including Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, were notified of the federal behavior, there seemed to be only one thing left to do: Restrict the… Read More
With the proliferation of cruise ships along Maine’s coast, it is only natural that environmental regulators want to develop strong policies to prevent the degradation of the water and creatures that live in it. Lawmakers are currently grappling with how best to do this. Although not popular with… Read More
If the Maine Harness Racing Commission wants to save time, it should slow down. Or at least slow down long enough to observe the appeals process about to take place because of the ahead-of-schedule decision on leasing the wholesale portion of the state’s liquor business. Rather than saving… Read More
With tax season upon us, those who can’t wait to get their federal income tax refund check and are tempted to take out a loan, offered by many tax preparers, to get the money quicker might want to think twice. The loans, officially called refund anticipation loans (RALs),… Read More
Eliminating the tax on business equipment, as Gov. John Baldacci proposed to do during his State of the State speech last month, makes much sense. As the prior administration found out, however, this is hard to do. And with a proposal to reduce property taxes on the ballot… Read More
President Bush’s spectacular vision of sending an American to Mars via the moon has forced a tough decision: Mars vs. the Hubble telescope. To prepare for an attempted Mars landing many years from now means pulling the plug on the eye in the sky that has already proved… Read More
Employees of three blueberry processing companies recently met with a University of Maine dean and threatened to withhold funds for a new research building. They did this because they were mad that a long-time university employee was quoted in this newspaper as saying that the companies could weather… Read More
The Maine Taxpayer’s Action Network, intentionally or not, couldn’t have given the state more chances to avoid its property-tax cap, a sledgehammer blow to municipal budgets that likely will go to voters via citizen’s initiative either in June or November. Where MTAN warned, the state dithered. It delayed. Read More
Want to improve your kids’ health? Get a dog. A just published article in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that children who spend their first year around a dog are much less likely to develop allergic skin rashes, a sign that their immune systems are… Read More
When President Bush announced in his 2003 State of the Union speech that he was committing more than $1 billion to boost research into using hydrogen to power cars to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil while also improving the environment, many people were rightly pleased. “A single… Read More
Very few people outside the process used by the Baldacci administration to lease Maine’s wholesale liquor business will know whether the process was fair and to what extent the state followed established standards for bidders. But enough serious questions have been raised about the selection and more than… Read More
Doubters of the administration’s reasons for invading Iraq may have been disappointed by the commission President Bush assembled to look, in part, into the quality of intelligence provided by the CIA to the White House. That commission has a broader mandate, looking at intelligence gathering generally, than the… Read More
Massive food and water shortages forcing millions of people to flee their homelands for more hospitable climes causing border blockades, nuclear proliferation and constant war may sound like a scenario from Hollywood thriller. But such a scene may not be far-fetched, according to a Pentagon report on the… Read More
Coping with winter is tough enough on the mainland. Out on the Cranberry Isles, it’s something else. Barbara Fernald’s column in a recent Mount Desert Islander tells a couple of stories about neighborliness and coping with the current unpleasantness. A resident of Little Cranberry, Herb… Read More
One of the most frequent criticisms of Americans is that they don’t understand world affairs and are unable to view global problems from differing perspectives. Mainers will have a chance to change this later this month when the Camden Conference focuses on U.S. foreign policy in the 21st… Read More
Righting a wrong is a difficult process, especially so when resources are limited. But, continuing state financial hardship should not preclude state lawmakers from setting aside more money to compensate the victims of decades of abuse at the Baxter School for the Deaf. Hundreds of students suffered beatings,… Read More
Maine Democrats will attend caucuses Sunday to help choose their party’s presidential candidate. They have several strong choices, and picking among them might be difficult. Here are three general criteria to make it easier: Which candidate best represents the values of the party; which inspires the public to… Read More
Maine is taking another step toward bringing the blind and visually impaired into the economic and cultural mainstream. Leading the way is the Iris Network, the new name for the old Maine Institute for the Blind, started 99 years ago. The Iris Network board of directors has just… Read More
With only a quick reading of its recommendations, a task force on aquaculture could be faulted for passing the buck on bay management, the concept that bays along Maine’s coast should be managed as a whole, not from fish farm lease to fish farm lease. Rather than deal… Read More
Naturally, the boss gets higher pay than the underlings. But 531 times as much? That’s the average multiple for the chief executive officers of American corporations, according to a survey by the research firm Towers Perrin. It was only about 40 in 1980. In Britain, the multiple is… Read More
The estimates of how many hundreds of billions in new debt are in the president’s budget matter only as a starting point for Congress. The administration’s $521 billion deficit in the next budget is the result of several factors – a war, a recession, excessive tax cuts. But… Read More
An initial study on Maine’s creative economy suggests that its impact on the overall economy is quite small, which is to be expected given the brief time the state has focused on developing it. But Gov. John Baldacci is correct to see that in addition to their many… Read More
A new study confirms that not only is obesity bad for our health, it is bad for our pocketbooks. The growing obesity epidemic cost American taxpayers $75 billion annually in medical expenses, according to a study released recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and RTI… Read More
Maine has suffered the infamy of having the highest tax burden in the country for so long that when someone says it no longer does, the news doesn’t register. This is not to suggest that Maine enjoys its suffering; but it may not trust good news, especially when… Read More
Public access to public corporations is essential, so the recent changes at Eastern Maine Healthcare are a positive sign. But it is important to remember that they are just a means to improved health care for the region, not the improvement itself. Earlier this week,… Read More
There should be no argument that the Land for Maine’s Future program and the projects it has funded have benefited the state. Turning a rail corridor in Aroostook County into a snowmobile trail, preserving spectacular stretches of coastline and making them accessible with hiking trails, and protecting large… Read More
The evidence continues to mount that Maine’s school laptop program is working. Report after report has found that students are more interested in their studies, do better work and can access a wider range of materials. The latest study, by the George J. Mitchell Scholarship… Read More
Perhaps the walls of security going up around Maine’s border are required to alert the state to how much it depends on a region that is not defined by state or national boundaries. But just as some Maine residents living along the border with Canada need to move… Read More
Is it possible state government just misses the publicity? Maine was the featured state in a 1995 Governing magazine article called “The End of the Hospital Tax Charade,” in which its $110 million tax-and-match plan was described as “an elaborate procedure designed solely to grab additional federal Medicaid… Read More
The five lawyers protesting the use of closed military tribunals to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be dismissed as overzealous jurists looking out for the best interests of their clients. Except for the fact that they are members of the military, the same institution they now… Read More
The comments Sunday by weapons inspector David Kay were the most succinct argument to date against pre-emptive war. Speaking of his inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq he said his predictions that he would find weapons were not “coming back to haunt me in the… Read More
Definitions matter. Especially in debates of controversial topics such as school consolidation. Just as an advocate for small schools derided what he called “the bigger is better” attitude, his “smaller is better” mantra lacks context. Marty Strange, policy director for the Rural School and Community… Read More
Whether you figure your own federal income tax or have an accountant do it, you may need it calculated twice. Once is for regular tax. The second calculation – if you don’t make it, the government will – comes up with a figure called the alternative minimum tax. Read More
Last time, the presidential election plunged into an agony of uncertainty over who had won. Part of the problem was chads, those bits of paper left on partly punched punch cards, making it hard to figure a voter’s intent. And some armed forces troops overseas lost their votes… Read More
Recent cold snaps have closed schools, stalled cars and stressed electricity supplies. But, come spring, there could be a small benefit from the extended deep freeze. Because the long spell of sub-zero temperatures came when there was a lack of thick snow cover to insulate… Read More
Brickbats started flying as soon as former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill’s book came out. Anyone who breaks ranks in such a disciplined organization as the current Bush administration must expect backlash. Sour grapes, some critics said. Of course he was sore about being fired. Some complained that he… Read More
Several readers have written in to question the many numbers surrounding the state’s lease of its wholesale liquor business, including those in an editorial Wednesday repeating the Baldacci administration’s assertion that it would turn a profit on the lease. As usual, readers made several good points. Read More
Gov. John Baldacci can be forgiven for feeling like he is living the movie “Groundhog Day.” In the governor’s case, the repeated winter day has him preparing to give a major speech while at the same time feverishly trying to broker a deal to save a paper mill… Read More
Scandal recently has rocked the $7 trillion mutual fund industry, and it’s only the beginning. Chief executives of three fund companies have left their jobs abruptly. Other officers have quit or have been forced out. Many of the departures involve special treatment for certain big investors. They were… Read More
Engineered Materials of Maine represented a major part of the future economy of the region. Its recent closure was a dismal sign. But instead of reason to give up hope, the failure was a demand for reassessment and it was evidence that much more work must be done… Read More
The confluence of a State of the State address by Gov. John Baldacci and a State of the Union address by President George Bush gave Maine an extended examination of the state of things Tuesday. The verdict was much the same from both: There’s a lot of work… Read More
Land conservation deals have been struck, millions of dollars spent and new regulations adopted, but still the number of wild Atlantic salmon returning to Maine’s rivers remains abysmally low. Federal and state biologists have long scratched their heads over the lack of fish despite efforts to improve their… Read More
The recent charge by lawmakers that they were deceived by the governor’s office over the leasing of the wholesale portion of Maine’s liquor business is silly and destructive. This is a well-worn debate in Maine, a 30-year tradition of lengthy discussion on a subject all lawmakers should know… Read More
Crafting a state budget lately has been less about number crunching and more about keeping fingers crossed and hoping new revelations of financial mismanagement don’t collapse existing fiscal assumptions. With this in mind, the Baldacci administration wants a $109 million supplemental patch to its current budget enacted quickly… Read More
Just as this region has built an extensive and expanding mall along Stillwater Avenue, over time connecting individual shopping areas into the region’s most extensive retail bonanza, two land trusts would like the other side of the street to provide a corridor for wildlife and people that would… Read More
In announcing his space initiative last week, President Bush talked of bold missions and fulfilling commitments. He did not, however, answer an overarching question: Why do people, Americans, need to travel to the moon, Mars and beyond? The president spoke of the need to “see… Read More
Given the questions of race and racism that persist in Maine and the nation, there may be no more fitting way to observe the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. than to recall his defining speech, delivered in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963. Read More
The battle over blueberry prices in Maine is likely far from over with talks of a settlement from one side and flat denials of the makings of a deal from the other. One thing both the blueberry growers and processors agree upon, however, is that state involvement in… Read More
Any doubters of the importance to Maine of overhauling the state’s two major social service departments need only look at the crowd of fellow citizens in the state capitol this week protesting cuts made necessary, in part, because of inaccurate budgeting and inefficient service in those departments. Badly… Read More
There’s usually fanfare when a university opens a new building. But the recent opening of the refurbished steps leading to the University of Maine’s Fogler Library passed without much ado. Repaired steps, of course, aren’t that interesting, but this project deserves attention because of who pushed it along… Read More
You know the trouble with growing old – you suffer from creaky budgets, swollen deficits, fallen entitlement programs. And let’s not even talk about the number of times you have to get up in the middle of the night to raise interest rates. Pretty bleak, but when the… Read More
Spurred by shrinking school enrollments and tight budgets, education officials have for years talked about consolidating schools. The talk was just that, however, and there has been comparatively little action. That should change with the recommendations from a governor’s advisory committee. The committee of education… Read More
Lawmakers have tried before to square the volumes of Maine laws pertaining to veterans’ benefits, from property tax breaks to burial in a veterans cemetery. But despite the effort, scattered throughout Maine are veterans who fall through the loopholes in these laws, confused and sometimes bitter that, while… Read More
It is understandable that northern Maine loggers and officials from the Irving company, the state’s largest landowner, are growing increasingly frustrated over their stalled contract negotiations and the resulting work stoppage, which has lasted more than a week. This, however, is a complex problem with no easy solutions… Read More
If anything was to be learned from last year’s outbreak of a mysterious disease in China, it is that the country’s penchant for secrecy allowed severe acute respiratory syndrome to spread nearly unabated for months. So it is distressing to read that China once again is trying to… Read More
Especially in Maine, NAFTA is a polarizing issue. As Maine’s economy becomes increasingly internationalized, Mainers increasingly debate the pros and cons of the 10-year-old free trade agreement among the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Advocates emphasize gains in exports and employment that result from increased… Read More
With a budget shortfall nearly three times the size of Maine’s entire state budget, California and its fiscal problems may not seem to have much in common with Maine. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, like Gov. John Baldacci, like governors in many states, took the same no-new-taxes approach to… Read More
Intimidate” is a tough, fighting word, and people took notice when Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist used it in a pointed rebuke to Congress in his annual year-end report. He referred to a little-noticed law enacted last spring that placed federal judges under special scrutiny for imposing sentences… Read More
The argument from the camp of presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is that the media have virtually ignored the Ohio congressman’s long-shot campaign. The campaign staff may have a point: Rep. Kucinich last week brought a chart reportedly showing waste in Pentagon budget to a recent debate broadcast on… Read More
After professing his company’s commitment to Maine and its horsemen, Shawn Scott has sold his interest in Bangor’s horse racing track during contentious hearings about his capability to run the track and to install slot machines there. Mr. Scott has proven that he is a shrewd, if not… Read More
With the cost of prescription drugs rising another 15 percent last year, it is no wonder state government, which has considerably less health care money than it has demand, would try to reduce costs wherever possible. One of the several areas it chose was the amount it paid… Read More