Like snowmobiles and personal watercraft before them, all-terrain vehicles’ sudden popularity has been met with a sudden dislike of the behavior of some of their riders. And just as certainly as an ATV will find mud, complaints about them have found a Legislature willing to pass laws to… Read More
War is the No. 1 subject – and almost the only subject – these days in the nation’s capital. The atmosphere is tense. As the war against Iraq draws closer and seems almost inevitable, Washingtonians know that their city is the prime target for any terrorist response. Read More
Frost heaves seem worse than usual this winter. Drive along even some of the main state highways and, without warning, you can hit a bump that can give you a jolt, make you bite your tongue, or, if you are in that age group, shake loose a denture. Read More
For lawmakers who wondered why Maine went through such prolonged agony last year in trimming relatively small amounts from state spending only to have Gov. John Baldacci swiftly slash $1.2 billion in the next budget, Sen. Karl Turner of Cumberland had the answer. “This budget has something for… Read More
Contrary to some reports, the debate next week over the Bush administration’s drive to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge still holds a good chance of victory for the conservationists. Two mainstays in the struggle to save the area from exploitation are Maine’s… Read More
The estimate last week from the Congressional Budget Office that President Bush’s budget proposals would swell the federal deficit by $1.8 trillion over the next decade demands a forceful response from Congress. It demands that continued talk of major tax cuts be held against the reality of a… Read More
A bill scheduled for hearing today before the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee tells Maine to do what it committed to do years ago: Work intelligently and incrementally toward reducing pollutants that contribute to climate change. LD 845 is a modest bill and would merely help Maine catch up… Read More
In what should surely stand as the finest example of wishful thinking in recent Maine history, then-Gov. Angus King last November cut $5.7 million from the Maine Learning Technology Initiative – the laptop fund, the program he had been vigorously defending for more than two years – to… Read More
Students at Sumner High School in East Sullivan recently crowded into the gym for a performance of “The Laramie Project,” an in-the-round production of a play about the brutal killing of a gay student in Laramie, Wyo. Most of them watched and listened with rapt attention. Read More
Without doubting the crisis in health care coverage, recent legislation offered by Sen. Olympia Snowe to provide lower-cost insurance for small businesses presents more problems than it solves. If the purpose of insurance is to spread risk among a broad range of people and offer an affordable guarantee… Read More
The Bush administration’s initial assertion of a clear link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida has now been reduced to his association with “al-Qaida-type organizations,” but the U.S. policy of invading Iraq to thwart terrorism remains unchanged. Last week, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency told… Read More
As the debate heats up over banning sweet snacks from school vending machines in Maine, it may be worth noting that Coca-Cola Co. has just awarded a grant of $1 million to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry for the fight against tooth decay among children. Coming soon… Read More
The arguments and opinions offered in the Supreme Court’s double rulings Wednesday on California’s controversial “three strikes” law provide fascinating insight on the complex issues of penology, prisoner rehabilitation and recidivism. The glimpses these rulings offer into the minds of the nation’s highest jurists are interesting, too. Read More
The federal government’s obligation to help states can be made simply: It has money (though also a growing deficit) and the states don’t. The taxes raised at the federal level come from the same taxpayers as those who contributed at the state level, and 23 states in the… Read More
In his report to the United Nations Security Council Friday, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Iraq has taken several cooperative steps in the last three weeks toward peaceful disarmament. The Bush administration, both in advance of the Blix report and in reaction, said that Iraq’s “token… Read More
The reliable U.S. House likely will soon approve the size of the president’s tax-cut package, which provides little for short-term stimulus but plenty to encourage long-term budget deficits and discourage badly needed reform. The Senate Budget Committee probably will act similarly; but the package should be stopped and… Read More
While the rest of the country worries about war with Iraq, terrorism, a slumping economy, state and national deficits, and the pros and cons of a massive tax cut, life on the little offshore island of Islesford goes on. The islanders were mostly asleep last… Read More
If, as one staffer suggested, the fight this week over the Legislature’s own budget was a dress rehearsal for the larger debate over the state budget, the possibility of a stinker of a show this spring – The Capeman comes to Maine – is a real possibility. Or… Read More
Throughout the Maine Legislature’s long deliberations on an anti-war resolution (or, in its latest incarnation, a pro-diplomacy, pro-troops if diplomacy fails resolution), opponents have held that the question of Iraq was too complex, too divisive, too far removed from the Maine Legislature’s jurisdiction. Supporters countered that the question… Read More
Drug spending for American seniors over the next 10 years will total $1.8 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That would make the president’s plan to spend $400 billion over that time for Medicare drug coverage and the overhaul of the entire system something… Read More
Amid all the good reasons for merging the state Departments of Human Services and Behavioral and Developmental Services, one of the best is rarely mentioned. A merger would require spring cleaning of the sort that should be done annually but almost never is: The departments would be forced… Read More
The image of al-Qaida, haughtily promoted from within and resignedly conceded from without, has been that the terrorist organization and its murderous agents are too cunning, too disciplined, too just plain smart to be stopped. Against that, the way Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the architect of the Sept. 11… Read More
Gov. Angus King last year vetoed a bill to provide equal insurance coverage to mental health, saying Maine could not afford it. Gov. John Baldacci last month vowed to support the same bill, saying, “It’s the right thing to do and it will end cost shifting and save… Read More
Faced with perhaps the most important vote of their legislative lives, 19 members of Turkey’s Parliament weighed the arguments for and against allowing American troops to use the country as a base for a military attack against Iraq. They consulted their constituents. They listened to their hearts. Then,… Read More
It is time for President Bush to rethink and reshape his $670 billion tax cut plan. This is not merely the view of the president’s partisan opponents, but increasingly of his strongest allies. Republican governors are alarmed at the damage this plan would do to their state budgets;… Read More
Over time, President Bush said in November 2001, “it’s going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity. You’re either with us or against us in the fight against terror.” They were tough words in a frightening time, and many nations lined… Read More
Hard to believe it’s been just 12 years since Maine and, specifically, Bangor were the toast of patriots everywhere for the rousing round-the-clock welcomes given to troops passing through Bangor International Airport as they returned home from the Gulf War. Today, we are just toast. Read More
A first reading of the latest serious attempt at tax reform in Maine is encouraging. Formed by Speaker Michael Saxl last year, a group of distinguished Mainers from across the political spectrum have produced a draft report that quickly gets to the core problems of Maine’s tax system. Read More
The Air Force was correct earlier this week to want an immediate investigation into alleged sexual assaults and rapes at its academy. But it chose the wrong investigators. If female cadets are to have confidence in the outcome of an investigation and parents are to believe they can… Read More
President George Bush offered a strong case Wednesday for going to war against Iraq, with the leading and previously underappreciated reason being the improvement of human rights in the Middle East and the escape of “misery and torture” at the hands of Saddam Hussein. The speech was an… Read More
Can the many disagreements among politicians about the rising costs of Medicaid be taken seriously? The debates among the Bush administration, members of Congress, governors and state legislators focus on the rising costs of this program as if there were something unusual about it. But unless these leaders… Read More
In just the last two years, more than 16,000 Maine workers have lost their jobs because of the changing global marketplace, according to the Department of Labor. The state can shake its fist all it wants at the unfairness of world economics, but these valuable Maine citizens are… Read More
The Legislature’s Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation Committee has held public hearings on four bills designed to restrict the twice voter-approved Land for Maine’s Future program. Three have received unanimous or nearly so “ought not to pass” recommendations from the committee. The fourth should as well. Read More
A report just published by a privately funded task force points the way toward a possible peaceful resolution of the escalating confrontation between the United States and North Korea. The 36-page report by the Washington-based Center for International Policy says the current confrontation is heading toward either a… Read More
Starting with Carter over Ford in 1976, governors – sitting or former – have won six of the last seven presidential elections. In all but one case (Reagan over Carter in 1980), the loser has come from Congress or the White House. That’s quite a… Read More
The shortcomings of the region’s juvenile court systems leave New England unprepared to adequately serve a growing number of teenagers in its correctional system, according to a new report, which makes many reasonable recommendations for change. But like Maine, the other New England states barely have the funding… Read More
If Sami Al-Arian were an underworld kingpin and his seven associates bagmen and enforcers, the 50-count indictment for conspiracy to commit murder, money laundering and racketeering handed down in Tampa by the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday would be news of only local interest, just another skirmish in… Read More
Until recently, the Bush administration has led Americans to believe that war with Iraq can be quick and relatively easy. After all, the 1991 ground war against Iraq lasted only 100 hours. And the campaign in Afghanistan routed the Taliban and al-Qaida in short order (although both survived… Read More
Ever since Maine voters passed the Clean Elections Act in 1996, this state has been held up nationwide as a leader in election reform. For the last five years, as director of the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, William Hain III has had a front-row seat… Read More
Maine health officials were proud a couple of years ago to report that the rate of teenage births in the state had dropped to among the lowest in the nation, suggesting that the state and non-profit programs that teach birth control and abstinence were unusually effective. Now a… Read More
The state a few years ago discovered the need for a highway link across Maine because enough citizens yelled for enough time that the economic disaster under which much of the state was suffering was caused in part by its distance from everywhere else. A divided four-lane highway… Read More
Blunt remarks, however true, are most easily acknowledged from a distance, so when a recent story from Reuters news service appearing in the Los Angeles Times referred to Maine residents as “the fattest people in New England,” it must have seemed obvious to the slender, fit readership of… Read More
Maine is getting out of the liquor business. The decades-long trend toward privatization (from a 70-store state monopoly in the 1970s, only 13 of the Maine’s 260 retail outlets are state-owned today) and the impact the $101 million savings closing those stores and divesting the wholesale operation would… Read More
A theory asserting that very low doses of many toxins are, in fact, beneficial has been around for several years and, while embraced by some, is viewed either as an interesting idea or doubted entirely by many toxicologists. But the theory, called hormesis, arrived for public consideration this… Read More
The Feb. 10 issue of Newsweek has, on that Tip Sheet page regularly devoted to the latest in conspicuous consumption, a useful buyer’s guide to $5,000-and-up TV sets – HD, plasma, LCD and such. A sidebar describes the upscale urban trend of buying firewood online – for $53,… Read More
George Washington took office April 30, 1789, but the Senate waited until Aug. 5 of that year to reject one of his nominees – Benjamin Fishbourn of Georgia, one of 102 appointments submitted by President Washington to become collectors, naval officers and surveyors of seaports. The Senate thus… Read More
Maine hospital officials are understandably nervous about the Medicaid cuts proposed in Gov. John Baldacci’s biennial budget, but their estimation of the size of the cuts they face may do more to divide lawmakers over the issue than bring understanding. The better choice is to keep working with… Read More
From professional pundits and to amateur wiseacres, everybody’s having a ball with the federal government’s new guidelines on how to prepare for and survive a terrorist attack. Comical images are conjured up of the panic-stricken American family fleeing for safety with a “grab and go” bag of disaster… Read More
North Korea poses a far greater danger than Iraq. And yet the Bush administration prepares for war within weeks against Iraq, while relying on threats and name-calling and a possible air strike in dealing with North Korea. Iraq’s nukes are probably several years in the future. North Korea… Read More
A prime feature of the 1998 tobacco settlement between the states and the industry was that the very skillful marketing people employed by the tobacco companies would stop targeting children. One way they agreed to do this was by banning the use of cartoon characters – notoriously Joe… Read More
Maine appeared in national media a couple of years ago because of its problems with abusing painkillers and, shortly after, heroin. It returned this week as one of the leading places where the treatment for drug abuse itself has turned deadly. Stories in both The… Read More
Perhaps you walked into Pat’s Pizza as a nervous freshman at the University of Maine hoping to find a filling, affordable meal. You found that and found yourself suddenly connected to generations of UMaine students who went looking a good meal and found so much more. You went… Read More
The Justice Department is writing a sequel to the USA Patriot Act of 2001, a wide-ranging expansion of the post-Sept. 11 legislation that gave the government unprecedented powers in domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement. This Patriot Act II is being prepared amid the utmost secrecy: congressional committees… Read More
Everyone should know by now that most fast food is fattening. So it came as no surprise not long ago when a federal judge in New York threw out a damage suit by two overweight teenagers blaming McDonald’s instead of themselves. But a close reading of the 65-page… Read More
If that voice on the tape really turns out to be Osama bin Laden, and if the disdain for Saddam Hussein on it (for instance, the reference to “infidel regimes in all Arab countries, including Iraq”) is overlooked and it is accepted that the mere mention of Iraq… Read More
As a gift to the timber industry, riders placed earlier this week on the omnibus appropriations bill about to be passed by Congress were lavish, extravagant even. As an example of legislative process, however, the decision to attach with minimal debate highly contentious amendments to a bill that… Read More
A major step toward rational public policy was taken quietly last week. Several of the nation’s largest retailers began collecting taxes on their online sales. For now, it’s voluntary and on as small a scale as anything can be that involves such giants as Wal-Mart,… Read More
A colder than normal winter, a general strike in Venezuela and a pending war in Iraq have combined to push the price of oil to painful highs. Historically, such situations have meant that those living in the Northeast, a region dependent on heating oil, turned down thermostats and… Read More
France and Germany spent their weekend leaking a secret plan to force Iraq’s compliance with U.N. disarmament resolutions by doubling, even tripling, the number of weapons inspectors, perhaps even augmenting them with a thousand or so international military observers. The Bush administration spent its weekend angrily dismissing this… Read More
Maine’s average population may continue to grow older, but the studies about the shortage of caregivers for the elderly spring eternally youthful. The newest of these, like its predecessors, argues that the shortage of certified nursing assistants, home health aides and others already is affecting Maine’s elderly, and… Read More
In this era of do-it-yourself medicine, many folks with real or imagined ailments are risking their health by trying drugs and herbs and diets and exercises they have heard about or read about or found on the Internet. They need solid help and advice and warnings against dangerous… Read More
Maine has lived for more than a century off a well-deserved reputation of its workers. Costs may be higher, the weather more severe and the state may be farther from major markets, but businesses have opened in Maine in part because they knew of the skill and reliability… Read More
With stagnation and even deflation afflicting financial markets everywhere, Japanese banks have struck upon a novel way to get things moving again – paying people to borrow money. OK, the negative interest rate offered by the Bank of Japan (at current rates, payback is roughly 99.02 percent of… Read More
The passage was brief in the State of the Union last week, but it was unmistakably clear: President Bush intends to present himself as a friend of the environment, a president who can reduce regulations on business while protecting the natural wonders of this nation. It is an… Read More
The applause from lawmakers Wednesday for Gov. John Baldacci’s budget should not mask the reality of the difficult choices the new governor has made. Proposing to close a billion-dollar shortfall without a broad-based tax increase was necessary to jolt Maine out of its slide toward economic failure. But… Read More
Remember the Balanced Budget Amendment? Many members of Congress not long ago were so certain that, for the good of the nation, federal budgets must not exceed what was contained in the public purse, they were willing to change the U.S. Constitution to make their point. Now with… Read More
In a rare, and uncommonly orchestrated, televised interview on Tuesday, Saddam Hussein said the proof that Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction is that United Nations inspectors have been unable to find any. The United States is instigating war because it wants to control the world’s oil… Read More
Acid-tongued Ann Richards, former governor of Texas, said that George W. Bush was born on third base but thinks he hit a triple. That’s a way of saying that he doesn’t realize what special advantages are enjoyed by him and other sons and daughters of the rich and… Read More
When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933, in the depth of the Great Depression, he told the American people, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” His firm leadership as president allayed the economic fears that gripped the country and used those fears to… Read More
President Bush paid tribute on behalf of the nation and the world Tuesday to seven courageous astronauts and to the aspirations they embodied. Just a few miles from the memorial service at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the grueling and gruesome work of recovering wreckage – human… Read More
The most important part of President Bush’s plan to reform Medicare is its apparent flexibility – the plan itself isn’t especially flexible, but the administration’s willingness to alter the proposal’s shape as doubts are raised about it may prove positively yoga-like. Given the reaction among congressional Republicans, the… Read More
Without the required tens of millions of dollars, Bangor can dream all it wants about a new auditorium without anything much happening. But the dreaming can be more than a distraction, and the thoughts of placing a new facility downtown rather than at Bass Park should be welcomed… Read More
The great thing about opposing government waste, fraud and abuse is that everyone already agrees with you: those leery of government feel vindicated in their suspicion and those enamored of it want government unburdened by incompetence. But there is a huge difference between opposing nebulous,… Read More
Suddenly, with one brilliant flash of light 40 miles above Central Texas, the complacency about manned space flight disintegrated Saturday. The long roll of sonic booms caused by debris re-entering the atmosphere at 18 times the speed of sound drowned out the carping about the shuttle program as… Read More
The debate of the proposed expansion of the landfill in West Old Town boils down to two issues: environmental concerns and worry over increased truck traffic on small roads. On both fronts, the state could do more to quell disapproval from area residents about this project. Read More
Longtime health care advocate Joe Ditre of Consumers for Affordable Health Care recently observed that Gov. John Baldacci had three “P’s” in his favor as he tries to overhaul health care coverage in Maine: policy, political will and popular support. The governor has respected policy experts, a commitment… Read More
You’d expect the Library of Congress, as it begins an effort to preserve and catalog important American sound recordings with the same care already extended to important American documents and memorabilia, to include on its just-published list of the first 50 projects something so thoroughly American as an… Read More
Anyone in Maine who knows anything about our long and constructive relationship with New Brunswick knows Elsie Wayne. Her resume defines public service and accomplishment: two terms on the Saint John Common Council, four as mayor, now midway through her third as member of Parliament; awards and honors… Read More
The United Nations inspection process, resumed in November and only now getting up to speed, stands in the way of what otherwise would be a countdown to war with Iraq. President Bush is expected to tell more about his war plans after meeting in Washington… Read More
President Bush had hinted for the week leading up to what would be his second-most important speech to date – after the post-Sept. 11 response to terrorism – that he would be looking less for agreement through compromise and more to win support through being bold. He met… Read More
Maine’s technical-college and university systems have been growing steadily closer through sharing resources, agreeing to a hybrid community-college system and seeing students spend two years at the technical colleges then want to continue for a four-year degree at a state university. But the announcement Saturday that the two… Read More
An American U2 surveillance plane crashed in Hwasung, South Korea Sunday. The Air Force pilot ejected safely; two buildings on the ground were destroyed and four South Koreans were injured, though not seriously. The pilot has apologized for the accident, saying he did all he could to steer… Read More
The federal General Accounting Office may have set a milestone for optimism last week with a report called “Lessons Learned from Electricity Restructuring,” a sentiment that suggests a level of understanding that probably exists somewhere but certainly not with the general public and perhaps only tentatively with the… Read More
It is unfair that a new governor handed a billion-dollar shortfall – one that unsurprisingly turns out to be closer to $1.4 billion – also must confront an immensely popular referendum that would significantly shift school funding from local to state responsibility. But such a measure has attracted… Read More
The $390 billion federal spending package passed by the Senate late last week is called an omnibus because it combines what should be 11 discrete spending bills into one. Better to call it an SUV – it’s bigger than it needs to be, it’s not terribly efficient, but… Read More
A proposal to rejuvenate harness racing by offering slot machines at the Bangor Raceway should be debated absent the horses. This is a plan to put a small casino in Bangor, with some of the money it generates possibly being used for a variety of good causes, including… Read More
We like Gov. Baldacci’s idea of soliciting suggestions from the public on how to solve Maine’s budget crisis, if for no other reason than the refreshing message it sends that state government can listen as well as lecture. Sorting through the hundreds, eventually thousands, of e-mails from the… Read More
Real progress yesterday in the struggle to return the Great Northern Paper Co. mills to operation provided a first, crucial sign of hope for a region fighting to keep itself alive. But there remain many details, many uncertainties, many occasions when the cooperative spirit among the unions, creditors,… Read More
The Maine Center for Public Health has offered some good advice this week in observing National Healthy Weight Week. It applies not to a single week, however, but over a lifetime, and part of the advice boils down to getting the kids out of the house for some… Read More
Maine’s repeat ranking of third nationally for hospital performance is both cause for congratulation to the state’s hospitals and their staffs and a curiosity. So much attention in health these days is focused on the money part of it; studies by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services… Read More
In 1990, the General Accounting Office designated the U.S. Department of Education’s student financial-assistance programs – some $50 billion in loans and grants a year – a high-risk area for waste, fraud, abuse and, for good measure, mismanagement. Since then, the watchdog over all federal agencies has given… Read More
A star athlete in a championship season is found to possess a massive amount of banned performance-enhancing drugs. His university hushes up the situation and lets the athlete keep playing. Were this to happen at a major Sports U., the public might see it as just another example… Read More
Last fall, the U.S. House Ethics Committee was asked a question that at the time seemed to straddle the line between fine-tuning and nitpicking: Were the gifts of food – pizza, Chinese takeout and the like – lobbyists often sent to the offices of congressional staff working late… Read More
President Bush has put Saddam Hussein in a box. Mr. Bush is giving Saddam the Hobson’s choice of either admitting that he is amassing weapons of mass destruction or continuing his denials. Since he insists (without presenting proof) that the denials are false, either course is a cause… Read More
During a Great Northern Paper Inc. bankruptcy court hearing Friday, Judge Louis H. Kornreich expressed frustration with the lack of timely and complete information from the company – in this case, whether GNP had paid court-ordered bills for wages and electricity – and the difficulty that adds to… Read More
Buried within the thousand or so pages of the mega-appropriations bill the Senate is expected to consider this week is a small but important amendment that could help keep the Northeast’s air from growing dirtier. In an era of environmental rollbacks, the Senate should support this measure. Read More
Given the questions of race and racism in Maine and the nation that ended 2002 and began 2003, 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. Read More
America’s favorite vehicle could become an endangered species. The so-called sport utility vehicle, or SUV, has been an object of controversy and the butt of talk-show jokes. Now the nation’s chief auto safety regulator has it in his sights. Jeffrey W. Runge, administrator of the National Highway Traffic… Read More
There is much that is disturbing, even maddening, about the bankruptcy of Great Northern Paper Inc. The long history of concessions wrested from workers, of tax breaks and taxpayer-backed loans, the sale of such assets as forest lands and the power system, the flow of money from Maine… Read More
Individual fishing quotas – divvying up an allowable catch of a particular species among established participants in that fishery – have been a controversial conservation tool since first introduced on a limited basis in three fisheries by federal regulators in 1990. A congressional moratorium on new IFQ programs… Read More