While Secretary of State Colin Powell is jetting around the Middle East, his son, Michael K. Powell, is trying to railroad through a massive relaxation of rules intended to prevent media monopolies. The younger Mr. Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has handed his… Read More
Donated human tissue is used in more than a half-million procedures a year in the United States, saving the sight of patients needing cornea transplants, helping burn victims, enabling others to walk again. In the 54 years since the Navy Tissue Bank in Bethesda, Md., was established the… Read More
It has been known for years that secondhand smoke is dangerous. Slowly, smoking has been banned in offices, airplanes, restaurants, even bars in some places. The argument for preventing people from lighting up is that second-hand smoke imperils the health of people who work in these places. It… Read More
The Baldacci administration says it is committed to finding the missing paper trail for $19 million in federal welfare funding, given out, presumably, by the Department of Human Services, and anyway the governor plans to remake the DHS financial staff as part of that department’s merger with the… Read More
If the eye-popping fine didn’t catch your eye, the description of the company’s practices should have. WebNet Communications Inc., a would-be telephone company, asked Maine people if they wanted to win $100, a trip to Orlando or a free calling card. The company took the “yes” answer to… Read More
Freedom of religion, a cornerstone of this country, includes freedom from religion, a Wake Forest University professor recently pointed out on public radio in reaction to the plans of Christian aid groups, many of them evangelical, to travel to Iraq to spread their gospel. Forcing one’s religion upon… Read More
Gov. Baldacci is looking for hundreds of good men and women to fill vacancies on about 300 state boards and commissions. That means a task for the governor. It also means opportunities for Mainers who have time and energy and would like a chance to help make the… Read More
If reducing the tax on dividends doesn’t save the economy, increase the nation’s general happiness and whiten everyone’s teeth, it will not have been worth the contortions and arguments Congress suffered in forcing it into the House and Senate tax cut packages. It’s there in the committee bills,… Read More
To be or not to be? That’s the question for theatergoers and arts supporters to answer about Penobscot Theatre, Bangor’s only professional live theater company, which is threatening to take its last bow. Earlier this month, Mark Torres, producing artistic director at Penobscot, announced it… Read More
There’s no doubt the implementation of Maine’s school fingerprinting law was mishandled. Teachers were angered that they were perceived as criminals and the time-consuming nature of the process did little to win them over. But that was years ago, and the focus now should be on whether the… Read More
The most surprising thing about the recent news that the United States was once again capable of making nuclear weapons was the muted reaction it received. The United States is desperately looking for weapons of mass destruction – possibly including nuclear arms – in Iraq. Read More
A bill to require a referendum on whether financial institutions must obtain permission from clients before sharing or selling detailed information about them is unlikely to pass in the Legislature. But a modified version of it might, and it should be supported. The amended LD… Read More
Only half finished? Didn’t a U.S.-led coalition overthrow the Taliban in Afghanistan and chase out Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist gang? And didn’t the United States, in three weeks, almost single-handedly destroy Saddam’s dictatorship in Iraq? They did, spectacularly. But Osama has slipped away and… Read More
The crisis brought by a lack of affordable health care insurance had been discussed so often and at such painful length that John Baldacci’s campaign pledge to actually do something about it was shocking. Would Maine really get to bypass the blather of yet another stakeholders’ group reviewing… Read More
It is heartening to see the Bush administration join the global battle against AIDS, which has killed millions in Africa, leaving much of a generation without parents. For once turning against hard-line conservatives who want to advocate for abstinence solely, the president acknowledged that condoms and family planning… Read More
The reaction was predictable. An out-of-state group announces it has put together a star-studded panel to advocate for a Maine Woods National Park. Local residents say they don’t need any Hollywood types telling them what’s good for them: The likes of Robert Redford, Jane Goodall, Walter Cronkite, Buzz… Read More
Stories about drivers paying more attention to their cell phone conversations than the road abound – people running stop lights, running dog walkers off the street and running into telephone poles. Members of the Legislature heard these stories and more as they considered a bill to ban cell… Read More
With the truth among politicians and their distance from it being of particular concern currently, cliches – those handy hiders of meaning – are showing up more often, used by public officials, in ordinary speech and even (gasp) in the media. Among the worst is, “Nothing could be… Read More
Time, says the Baldacci’s administration budget chief, creates opportunities for new savings and sources of revenue that are not apparent now, but time, like money, is in short supply in Augusta as lawmakers try to close a $48 million gap in the next budget. Everything the administration has… Read More
John Baldacci has been acting a lot like Jimmy Stewart lately, rushing about solving everyone’s problems – patching a massive hole in the state budget, helping to negotiate a deal to keep the paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket in operation. Now, less than a month after… Read More
Now that the fact that too many people, both young and old, are leaving northern Maine has again been chronicled, it is time to stop talking about the problem and to actually do something about it. Governors for more than a century have lamented what has come to… Read More
Just as a campaign to make the size of the president’s tax cut the sole measure of its worth nearly overwhelmed the debate, Congress this week began meeting to decide what would go into the cut to make it effective. Members of the Senate Finance Committee should emphasize… Read More
President Bush needed to create a Department of Homeland Security, requiring the greatest federal restructuring in more than a half-century, because the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks exposed the redundancy, lack of communication and muddling that had crept into those functions of government with the most need for efficiency. Read More
Why is the United States so afraid of Hans Blix, the soft-spoken Swedish weapons inspector? Rather than burnishing its international image by cooperating with the other members of the United Nations Security Council, the Bush administration remains determined to find any weapons of mass destruction on its own… Read More
Places such as Moosehead Lake, the West Branch and Nicatous Lake are synonymous with the wild side of Maine. In the last decade more than 600,000 acres in Maine have been conserved with Forest Legacy funds. The federal program enables the state and private entities to purchase development… Read More
Maine needs approximately 1,000 more registered nurses now; by 2010, it will need 1,700 more RNs unless something dramatic happens; and by 2020, it will need 5,000 more, nearly a third of the total needed. The effect on the quality of patient care is unavoidable without significant action,… Read More
A recent poll shows that about one-third of nonsmokers would be likely to spend more time in bars or taverns if smoking were banned there, while only a tiny percentage of smokers said they would spend less time as a result of a ban. The poll, by Critical… Read More
Whenever you go to a hospital, doctor, dentist or pharmacy these days, you get a fresh batch of privacy notices and you have to sign an acknowledgment that you have been handed the documents. This is one more case where the cure seems worse than the disease. Read More
A report from the National Academy of Public Administration, a congressionally chartered review organization, gives Maine new ammunition in its fight to get old power plants downwind to reduce their pollution. The NAPA report is blunt in its assessment – the New Source Review is… Read More
The Maine Education Association, the teachers’ union, has gone before the Legislature repeatedly for decades to ask that teachers gain more control of local education policy by making the policies part of negotiations at contract time. The Legislature has rejected this request each time, but when it does… Read More
After years of legal wrangling over Maine’s Atlantic salmon, Judge Gene Carter’s opinion that the federal government was right to declare the fish an endangered species should be the last word on the matter. The judge said the federal agencies considered “the best scientific evidence” in deciding that… Read More
However misguided Sen. Rick Santorum’s comments were about a Supreme Court challenge to a Texas law banning sodomy between members of the same sex, they should not have been a surprise. The senator’s views on homosexuality were well known by his political party, which nevertheless made him their… Read More
To manage the news during the war in Iraq, the Pentagon tried out a novel system with a strange name. The “embedment” of news people seems to have worked reasonably well. After the disastrous Vietnam War, many leading officers vowed that never again would they… Read More
Just when corporate greed reaches a new level of embarrassment, an example of excessive CEO compensation tops it. The most recent outrage is huge cash bonuses to be awarded to the seven executives of American Airlines, a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy when it demanded,… Read More
In a time of little or no economic growth, increasing job loss and government budget shortfalls, state borrowing to encourage economic growth can be a difficult idea to sell. But it is exactly what Maine should be doing to grow out of its current slump, and the $60… Read More
A quick exit from Iraq, which some White House and Pentagon officials envision, would be a mistake. A hasty departure from Baghdad would no doubt avoid complications and save money. But rebuilding the country’s political system – a task that must be done with international oversight and assistance… Read More
Sometime this year after curing Maine’s health care crisis, the Legislature is scheduled to solve tax reform. (Can world peace be far behind?) Already, several comprehensive approaches to making state taxes fairer and more reliable have been suggested, with the governor’s plan still to be announced. There is… Read More
A four-member majority of the Ellsworth City Council has plunged the city into a mess. After plotting a special council meeting to start the process of getting rid of City Manager Tim King, the four now have pushed through a preliminary vote not to renew his contract when… Read More
People take too many antibiotics. So, it turns out, do cows and chickens. More than 50 years ago penicillin was hailed as a miracle drug because it treated illnesses and infections that had killed large numbers of people. Now, however, these wonder drugs are so overused they’re on… Read More
Anyone who’s been at a major construction site lately can attest to one thing – they often stink. That’s why proposed rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to require off-road diesel vehicles to run more efficiently and pollute less are just what’s needed this Earth Day. The… Read More
The news that Secretary of State Colin Powell will soon go to the Middle East is welcome. After much criticism of the United States for not giving diplomacy a fighting chance, it is good to see that the administration appreciates the importance of face-to-face meetings. It is especially… Read More
As the war in Iraq winds down, attention must focus on the troubled economy and the widespread underlying corporate corruption that continues to become known. The exploding HealthSouth scandal shows how major fraud can lie hidden for many years. The Bush administration deserves credit for… Read More
Too often homeowners faced with disposing of that half-full can of yellow paint or nearly empty bottle of weed killer hide them in the midst of their trash. Or they simply store them for years in a corner of their garage. To combat this problem,… Read More
Prescription drugs aren’t good for you if they stay in the medicine cabinet and prescription drug programs aren’t good for you if they can’t be used. Maine’s years of work to reduce the price of prescription drugs, particularly for the low income elderly, came down to this the… Read More
Ten years of term limits in Augusta and the debate has now narrowed enough to identify the problem. It wasn’t a lack of turnover among typical legislators, a sense that lawmakers were out of touch with constituents or the fact that the capital was short on fresh ideas. Read More
Two things to date have been missing in Iraq – Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. The United States promised to wipe out both. Whether its aim has been achieved remains unknown. Ridding the world of Mr. Hussein’s arsenal of chemical and biological weapons was a… Read More
How unfortunate that the Iraqi people, freed from decades of tyrannical rule, would destroy their history by smashing ancient artifacts and stealing others from their national museum, the world’s best repository of items from the earliest civilizations. While it is likely too late to repair the damaged items,… Read More
Success at war gave President Bush a powerful voice this week when he demanded the Senate support larger tax cuts. But no matter how loudly he insists that his version of cutting taxes is just what the economy needs, analyses from several sources quietly refute his assertions. Read More
It’s a sad fact that paper mill downsizing announcements have almost become routine in Maine. Last week, Fraser Papers announced it was cutting 190 jobs in Madawaska. The week before, Georgia-Pacific ceased making tissue products at its mill in Old Town, putting 300 people out… Read More
A decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to solicit competitive bids for emergency repairs to oil fields in Iraq was an encouraging sign that the administration understands the importance of not letting the multi-billion dollar repair become stained by secrecy and cronyism. The corps… Read More
Getting cooperation from Syria, as President Bush said he expected Sunday, may be asking for too much, but the strongly worded warnings from the president and senior Cabinet members were appropriate and suggested just how serious they considered Syria’s behavior. Finding the architects of the tyranny in Iraq… Read More
No one likes to pay taxes, but most of us begrudgingly ensure the proper paperwork is filed by today. Increasingly, however, more and more people are not paying the taxes they owe and the Internal Revenue Service is doing less and less about it. From… Read More
Maine congressional delegations traditionally have supported the arts nearly as enthusiastically as they have stood by fish and potatoes. But it was gratifying last week to see freshman Rep. Michael Michaud join the Congressional Arts Caucus, to be swiftly followed this year by Rep. Tom Allen. Read More
It took a tragic accident that killed 14 Central American men last September for most Mainers to realize that migrant workers spend their summers toiling in the north woods. Working deep in the state’s vast corporately owned forests, far from any town, these Spanish-speaking men were invisible until… Read More
A dismal stock market, terrible bond rates, anemic interest from savings accounts. Is there any place to put money that would pay back something worthwhile? How about an affordable investment in energy efficiency to save $80 million by 2012? A bill before the Legislature Monday would produce those… Read More
The best thing that can be said of the unusual congressional budget agreement reached yesterday is that senators stuck with it until they found a sensible compromise; the worst is that it lets the House act as if deficits don’t matter. The agreement ultimately will not provide the… Read More
It’s hard to feel sorry for a company like Philip Morris, which has made huge profits by encouraging people to smoke its cigarettes. But a court case in Illinois has brought many states to the defense of the corporation behind the Marlboro Man. Late last month, a state… Read More
The wildly successful production of “My Fair Lady” at Ellsworth’s Grand Auditorium is a happy reminder of the magic of old time musicals. Crowds of young and old have been coming out humming, singing and whistling tunes like “Wouldn’t it be Loverly?” “I Could Have Danced All Night,”… Read More
Maine would be a healthier place if everyone here got as much exercise as the restaurant industry’s lobbyists are getting this week in Augusta in their attempt to defeat a really useful bill. But all their scurrying and arm-twisting could have the opposite effect of slimming down Maine… Read More
Having thoroughly botched an opportunity for true international cooperation in ridding the world of Saddam Hussein, as the Americans, British and Australians are now doing with force, prominent members of the United Nations have a second chance to rebuild relations while rebuilding Iraq. Instead, they’re botching it again. Read More
The denial from the Justice Department came almost immediately. Its spokesman was unhappy that a story about the Calais Free Library suggested the FBI would have access to library patrons’ reading records. “Completely wrong,” said the spokesman. But “completely” overstates the department’s limitations; and “wrong” is also less… Read More
Sanjay Gupta is a doctor. He’s also a television reporter in Iraq and, he proved last week, a human being. Dr. Gupta, a correspondent for CNN and a neurosurgeon, performed emergency surgery on a 2-year-old Iraqi boy who was hit by shrapnel when the taxi he was riding… Read More
The age of denial in Maine is over. A few months ago, it was considered heresy to even suggest that any of the state’s pulp and paper mills might close permanently. Then, in January, a stalwart of the northern Maine economy, Great Northern Paper Inc., declared bankruptcy idling… Read More
With severe acute respiratory syndrome infecting some 2,300 people in 17 countries, the World Health Organization last Wednesday issued an unprecedented advisory against travel to China. China, the undisputed origination point of this disease with more than half the cases worldwide and, at 46, two-thirds of the deaths,… Read More
Supporting the men and women volunteers who are risking their lives in the war in Iraq means a lot more than hanging out a flag or pasting a bumper sticker on the car. They like such expressions of support, but they also need something more tangible. Read More
Congress this week will say whether it is content to let the nation slip back into rampant deficit spending or demand the fiscal discipline needed especially in time of war. The president’s tax-cut plan, offered once as economic stimulus, then long-term growth and lately as a measure of… Read More
When the Chinese entered the Korean War in 1950, forcing a headlong American retreat, Gen. Douglas MacArthur told Washington, “We face an entirely new war.” The same can be said of Iraq’s first suicide bomber and the threat of many more to come. This ominous… Read More
To oversimplify, Gov. Baldacci’s $175 million bond package offers the promise of a road and a job at the end of it. Transportation and economic development account for $145 million of the total package, which he hopes will also leverage considerable federal funding. It is a reasonably ambitious… Read More
The Reapportionment Commission completes work today on its plan to redraw legislative and congressional districts, an exercise conducted every 10 years to reflect population changes revealed by the national census. While the final boundaries for the state Legislature will be determined only after lawsuits already threatened, one thing… Read More
Maine and many other states continue to look for dramatic ways to remake health care coverage while the federal government sticks to offering incremental changes and hopes for the best. Troubling evidence arrived recently that suggests why this disconnection between the two levels of government will soon become… Read More
Within weeks of Sept. 11, 2001, the United States and Canada had developed their Smart Border plan, a 30-point strategy for making the border safer while keeping people and goods moving across. Smart Border is remarkable because it came together quickly with a common understanding of the absolute… Read More
The Pentagon last year had no success persuading Congress that it should be exempt from provisions in environmental laws concerning air pollution, toxic waste dumps, endangered species and marine mammals. So this year, when a war with Iraq was imminent, it appealed to Congress again, arguing that its… Read More
The Land for Maine’s Future Program was created by voters in 1987 with enthusiastic support of a $35 million bond issue, support that was reaffirmed in 1999 with broad approval of an additional $50 million. The program promised to preserve the state’s most special places and to do… Read More
Without a sense of the background on the scandals now being exposed at the Air Force Academy, a C-SPAN viewer might have wondered the other day why Sen. Susan Collins was roughing up Air Force Secretary James Roche. Secretary Roche had just about finished explaining that the problems… Read More
In response to surging Franco-phobia, French’s Mustard has issued a press release informing the public that, despite the name, it is an all-American product, created in New York City by R.T. French and first introduced to the hot dog at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Other food-industry… Read More
By making vagueness its primary virtue, the Supreme Court’s decision in University of California Regents v. Bakke 25 years ago guaranteed, in one form or another, the oral arguments that are scheduled to be heard today in a suit against the admissions process at the University of Michigan. Read More
Maine was among the last states to grasp the role of state government in promoting research that would lead to development that would lead to commercialization of products and to little businesses becoming larger and more prosperous businesses. The evidence that it understands now, however, can be found… Read More
A recent Washington Post editorial quoted Abraham Lincoln to bolster its assertion that the current filibuster by Senate Democrats against the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit amounted to “a kind of extortion.” Unable to get Mr. Estrada… Read More
By completing a first budget of rough cuts and tough choices, the Baldacci administration now has time to refine its work by identifying savings through efficiencies, the elimination of redundant or underused services and using the saved money for needed programs that were hurt in the budget. To… Read More
After six years on the books and four in practice, the arguments for and against Maine’s fingerprinting law for school personnel are well-known. The criminal background checks that result from the prints are a precaution to keep pedo-philes out of our schools, worth the cost and trouble if… 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
The Senate passed a budget resolution Wednesday that properly lowered the amount set aside for tax cuts, but the debate over the course of federal spending for the next decade isn’t nearly over. With a House resolution containing both the president’s massive tax cut and cuts in social… Read More
Brascan Corp.’s tentative agreement to purchase of Great Northern Paper brings both relief and, for the first time in months, a chance to look somberly at what the future of the region might be like. Or it would if a small but important part of the deal can… Read More
The shocking thing about the Bush administration’s price tag for the war in Iraq is not its size, although $74.7 billion is an awe-inspiring sum. Nor is it the precision now for something recently described by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as “not knowable” – despite its nitpicky appearance,… Read More
As the missiles fly and the tanks roll forward in Iraq, Congress has mostly closed ranks to support the troops. The hope is for an early victory with relatively few casualties, although the last three days show the possibility remains for a longer, tougher combat. Read More
The surprise reversal of the president’s tax cut, with the Senate yesterday halving the amount requested, was an encouraging sign that Congress is coming to appreciate the danger of the course it has set for itself through its debate on a budget resolution. By reducing the tax-cut size… Read More
Four of Ellsworth’s city councilors want to fire City Manager Tim King. They have called for a special meeting of the City Council at 7 p.m. today in the council chambers in City Hall. But they aren’t saying what they have against him. Two of… Read More
As severe acute respiratory syndrome – SARS – leaps oceans and spreads from continent to continent, one key question is why the People’s Republic of China – communist mainland China – waited more than four months before warning the rest of the world about the deadly sickness that… Read More
The miraculous rescue of Elizabeth Smart and the emerging details of how her captors hid the young Utah girl in plain sight for nine months have given powerful momentum to legislation that will create a national child kidnapping notification network. The president has long wanted this Amber Alert… Read More
As a rule, any time Maine businesses offer to pay more in state fees for state regulation, you take notice. Gov. Baldacci’s adamant refusal to reconsider his plan to close the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement is an exception to that rule. Initially, objections to this… Read More
Forty-one University of Maine Honors College students just happened to pick a probably wartime weekend for a trip to Washington, D.C. Reached by cell phone Wednesday afternoon as their bus had just crossed the Hudson river on the Tappan Zee bridge and was heading down the Garden State… Read More
The American flag raised by Marines over the southern port of Umm Qasr in Iraq was up for only a moment before being taken down. Wrong message: the troops are there not to lay claim but to liberate. And the best way to do that is for the… Read More
The state’s Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services cut most deeply in its children’s services budget when it came time to do its share of helping to balance the budget, and many lawmakers have been unhappy about that since they’ve seen the effect of those cuts. Gov. John… Read More
As the first strike against Iraq was being launched Wednesday night, President Bush properly warned the public that the war now under way may be “longer and more difficult than some have predicted.” The strength of Iraq’s semi-formidable military and the resolve of its conscripted troops may be… Read More
The best part about Gov. John Baldacci’s announcement Monday encouraging Maine citizens to buy renewable, local power is that switching is easy. Too many environmental programs make demands that seem reasonable to advocates but turn out to require changes in lifestyle or costs too much. The Maine Green… Read More
The largest unknown in the Senate’s calculation of its budget resolution is the cost of the war on Iraq – will it be $40 billion or $400 billion? The administration, saying there were too many variables to consider, did not include any cost in its budget. But as… Read More
President Bush’s deadline for war with Iraq is the culmination of a massive failure of diplomacy, but not his alone. Certainly, he failed to present his important case to the world in a careful and persuasive way. He failed, but so too did the United Nations in keeping… Read More
Gov. Baldacci is determined to get the state out of the liquor business, a long-anticipated and overdue exit now made necessary by Maine’s $1.2-billion budget deficit. His determination to get the state, at least to a substantial degree, out of the liquor-law enforcement business is more of a… Read More
A 30-degree rise in temperatures seemed like a heat wave, when the thermometer finally abandoned the subzero weather for the luxury of merely freezing. Spring is less than a week off and it finally feels like it. Think back for a moment about the stretches… Read More
The wait for war may now be over or it may be over sometime later this week – as of Monday, President Bush had made his absolutely final, last, ultimate ending offer for Saddam Hussein to surrender and leave Iraq. It is an singular proposal, but who knows?… Read More