The pressure will be intense on members of Congress tomorrow to quickly pass measures said to expand the Justice Department’s reach in fighting terrorism. But while it wants to appear to be taking action against the attacks last week, Congress has no need to rush these measures through… Read More
The word “normal” may seem archaic, even absurd, given the extent of this tragedy. Although there may never be a return to pre-Sept. 11 normal, small but definite steps are turning the nation in the right direction. One agency of government that has been particularly… Read More
In both word, at the National Cathedral last week, and deed, President Bush is proving to be more than a capable leader in a time of crisis. He has responded to the airplane attacks with calm and determination; he has understood the nation’s outrage and turned that outrage… Read More
The latest study from supporters of a national park in Maine argues more forcefully than ever that a park would be an economic as well as environmental benefit. Though some of the numbers in the study seem optimistic, the responses from opponents need not be more of the… Read More
Island Explorer, the free bus system that carries people into and around Acadia National Park, has just finished its third year as a roaring success. It carried 239,971 passengers this past summer – 25 percent above last year. Its 17 propane-fueled buses running on seven… Read More
Ray Downey . William Feehan . Peter Ganci . Rev. Mychal Judge . Yamel Merino . Terry Lynch . Yeoman 2nd Class Melissa Rose Barnes . Technician 2nd Class Kris Romeo . Technician 3rd Class Christopher Lee Burford . Technician 3rd Class Daniel Martin Caballero . Read More
Suddenly America’s world has changed. And, as rescuers search the rubble for survivors and leaders scramble to heal the national trauma, restore order in the national economy and plan retaliation (how and against whom?), the rest of us must take time out from shock and grieving to do… Read More
The most difficult job in Bangor at lunchtime yesterday belonged to Ric Tyler of the television station WLBZ 2. Mr. Tyler served as master of ceremonies for the Community Response Rally at Bass Park, an event United Way of Eastern Maine had scheduled instead of its annual fund-raising… Read More
President Bush faces a test of leadership unique in this nation’s history. Franklin Roosevelt was confronted with a cowardly sneak attack, Lincoln with war on American soil, neither with an insidious enemy that seeks not victory on the battlefield but merely to strike terror for terror’s sake. Read More
Living as a community seems more important than ever after Tuesday’s attacks, so the beginning of the annual fund drive by United Way of Eastern Maine – the charity organization that contributes to the well-being of thousands in Penobscot, Piscataquis, Washington, Hancock and Waldo counties – takes on… Read More
Just before 9 a.m. yesterday, the world’s television screens were filled with a picture destined to become the abiding image of our age – heavy black smoke erupting from fiery gaping holes in the upper floors of New York City’s World Trade Center. During the terrible minutes that… Read More
Even in black and white, the frustration shouts from the page. “Why doesn’t anyone help us?” Washington County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Michael Riggs was quoted in this newspaper Monday. “Why are we seemingly left alone here?” Lt. Riggs’ frustration is warranted. His department, and the… Read More
Ever since Vice President Dick Cheney offered his flippant “personal virtue” line about conservation and was properly scolded for it, members of the Bush administration have been trying to show that they have something more than coal for hearts. They will soon have an opportunity in the Senate… Read More
A renewed push in Congress to provide access to lower-cost prescription drugs in Canada arrives just as a couple of new studies emphasize the overall medical savings that costly drugs achieve. Combined, they put the debate over medicine back to where it began five years ago. But the… Read More
A year and a half after the state and land managers for 656,000 acres of forestland just north of Moosehead Lake began negotiations for public easements there, a memo from the Attorney General’s Office provides a sense of just how complicated the deal is – and how important… Read More
The question of siting a new Bangor Hydro transmission line, currently before Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection, is a splendid example of the tradeoffs among costs, environmental protection, aesthetics, reliability and a host of other considerations that go into meeting the need for power. And given the changed… Read More
The decision by the Justice Department to stop pursuing a breakup of Microsoft adds a new twist to a case already a mess of tangles. Depending upon who’s spinning the twist, the latest move represents either a wise move away from unproductive punishment and toward actual remedy for… Read More
As Congress continues to debate President Bush’s proposal to allow expanded access to federal funds for religious organizations providing needed social services in their communities, one church and one small community right here in Maine have gone beyond debating to actual doing. The China Lake Conference Center is… Read More
Supporters and opponents of proposed Wal-Marts and similar stores across Maine have plenty to disagree on – the changes the stores bring to a town’s character, environmental concerns, the health of downtowns. But they should not have to battle over economic data that could give a clearer picture… Read More
For years – make that many years – municipal leaders from Maine’s service centers have gone to the State House, individually or in small groups, to make the case that communities providing the health care, higher education, jobs and shopping for their regions could use some help paying… Read More
The 39 hospitals in Maine made themselves national leaders, according to a Maine environmental group, when they agreed to stop using mercury-containing supplies and medical equipment. The agreement, announced last week, was good news and an example of how an industry, working together, can make a major difference… Read More
Are old folks too rich to deserve a discount? Delta Air Lines thinks so. Same for two big Colorado ski resorts, a restaurant chain in Florida, and an increasing number of hotels, restaurants and movie houses around the country. The Wall Street Journal, in a… Read More
Knowing well in advance that the World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, would take a definite anti-Israel spin, the United States had several ways to prepare an appropriate response. The one it chose – leaving the conference in a huff – was the least desirable. Read More
Washington, D.C., is a city of monuments. Now, a new monument is going up in the nation’s capital; not to commemorate heroism, but to concede failure. It is a fence – 9feet high, 21/2 miles long. It will enclose 220 acres, including the White House,… Read More
California Democrats are taking an intriguing, though troubling, approach to ridding themselves of that blow-dried embarrassment known as Rep. Gary Condit. A preliminary redistricting plan drawn up by state party leaders won’t make the evasive congressman come clean, but it might, they hope, make him go away. Read More
Sky-high food prices predicted as a New York City truck drivers’ strike spreads across the river into New Jersey. Holiday weekend death toll reaches 124 on the nation’s highways. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner… Read More
If those aforementioned lines of communication are open, a new survey sponsored by the AFL-CIO suggests there’s a lot of static in the connection. That spirit of compromise has a ghostly pallor. The telephone survey, conducted in July by Hart Research, polled 1,792 workers, including… Read More
Years ago, a popular song started, “I want the waiter with the water.” Well, if that rings a bell you can forget it if the soft-drink companies have their way. They are campaigning against tap water, which is free, in favor of bottled “spring water,” which probably comes… Read More
The Bangor City Council should be commended for putting a gay rights ordinance on its agenda. Given the exceedingly ugly and divisive campaigns opponents of these basic protections have mounted in recent statewide referendums on this issue, the council is, in fact, conducting itself not just commendably, but… Read More
In what the White House proudly describes as his “bluntest remarks” yet on whether the United States and Russia can come to agreement on amending the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to accommodate a missile defense shield it expressly prohibits, President Bush now says he will withdraw from the… Read More
Dishonest butchers used to put a thumb on the scale to add weight and value to the meat being sold to the unsuspecting customer. Modern methods are more sophisticated but just as dishonest. Take Ivory Soap’s concentrated dishwashing liquid. Until recently, it came in a… Read More
The Palestinian resistance movement has turned to the Internet to tell its story to the American people, to seek approval and support, and, perhaps most important, to raise funds for the weapons it needs for what amounts to a war against Israel. In going after… Read More
It was fitting that President Bush chose Independence, Mo., as the place to take a stand in defense of fiscal prudence. Independence is, of course, the hometown of Harry S. Truman, the famously blunt president who defined the Oval Office as the place where the buck stops. Read More
A report showing that lead remains the state’s most serious environmental health hazard has prompted two legislators to call for universal blood screenings for children under age 6. That is possibly a good idea, but before the Legislature mandates the screenings, doctors should be given time to make… Read More
According to a new report by the Program on International Policy Attitudes, a Maryland-based research organization, a solid majority of Americans – 69 percent – believes Africa is important to the United States. Of six regions of the world mentioned in a Newsweek poll cited in the report,… Read More
Space has always been its own inspiration, a place of recent vast adventure and hero-making flights. Glenn, Shepard and Armstrong fired the dreams of a generation of children who hoped that someday they too might blast away from earth, float free from the bother of gravity, perhaps leave… Read More
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time for Pawtucket, R.I., in order to cement relations with Belper, England, to give its sister city a 7-foot tall Fiberglas Mr. Potato Head – the most famous product of Pawtucket’s Hasbro Inc. – made to resemble the 18th-century… Read More
Fiscal conservatives often complain that one of the biggest problems with government – especially the government of a state that now officially has the highest tax burden in the country and that is ranked as one of the worst places on the continent to do business – is… Read More
With The New York Times prominently displaying Maine’s nation-leading tax burden this summer and the Financial Times of London writing about the state’s economic stagnation, why wouldn’t USA Today publish back-to-back days of graphics announcing Bangor International Airport as having the nation’s worst performance record in June? One… Read More
In the news business, a false story sometimes takes root in the public thinking and the truth has a hard time catching up. For example, the latest test of one of President Bush’s favorite projects, the National Missile Defense system, was hailed as a brilliant success. Television news… Read More
The Bangor School Committee this week was correct to turn down the opportunity to add their positions to the City Council’s in a referendum on raising stipends. But they should not ignore the intentions behind the offer: The seat on any civic board should be compensated so that… Read More
A recent survey from the Maine Hospital Association shows a steady increase in the use of emergency rooms in Maine, leading to speculation about causes and costs of this change. But while the latest increase – 8 percent between 1998 and 2000 – probably can be attributed to… Read More
At a time when so many economic signals seem to be pointing down in Maine, the announcement of a major expansion at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor is very good news. Maine has taken the right steps in encouraging research and development during the last several years,… Read More
More important than Maine’s first-in-the-nation rank for cases of asthma is the national doubling of this affliction during the last two decades. Though when properly treated, asthma is manageable for most people, the lack of a clear cause for the increase is worrisome and demands further research. Read More
President Bush’s Aug. 9 address to the nation on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research was a thoughtful presentation on the scientific and ethical concerns in play, and his decision to fund research only on existing stem cell colonies effectively balanced those concerns. It was clear, however,… Read More
The proposal by the U.S. Postal Service to restrict mail delivery in parts of Northern Maine and a half dozen other rural places in the nation betrays the very idea of a national delivery system. Postal officials should reverse this idea and make the needed investments to keep… Read More
Thirty years ago, refrigerators used 1,800 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, making them the biggest power drain among home appliances. The federal government stepped in a few years later, after the ’73 oil embargo, with required efficiency standards and, by 1991, power required to run refrigerators had… Read More
In an annual rite of summer that is both ancient and tiresome, the Maine wild blueberry industry’s need to irrigate is clashing with other users of the state’s lakes and ponds. Equally ancient and tiresome is the explanation that unusually dry weather this summer – or last summer… Read More
Almost everyone thinks teen-agers don’t get enough sleep. What to do about it is something else. Sleep specialists have been studying the problem for more than two decades. The American Sleep Disorders Association says that the average teen-ager needs about 9.5 hours of sleep per… Read More
Apparently believing that aggression is the best defense, Big Tobacco recently responded to complaints that it broke its agreement and still targets its advertising at teen-centered magazines by saying, in effect, “Tough.” Small wonder then that the most effective anti-smoking advertising takes on a similar edge. And good… Read More
It’s a rare thing when opportunity snubbed makes a return visit. It’s rarer still for it to pound on the door with both fists. The snub in question occurred some three years ago, when the Maritimes & Northeast natural gas pipeline was being laid across… Read More
The Department of Commerce last week looked over the decades-long complaint by the United States that Canada unfairly subsidizes its softwood lumber industry, considered Canada’s claims that it is merely more efficient at its sawmills and decided preliminarily both were right, sort of. The decision, which is not… Read More
Good for Montreal, for showing the “Picasso Erotique” exhibition of 350 sexy paintings and drawings and sculptures and ceramics from all over the world. Good for Picasso, for putting on paper and canvas (and bronze and clay) his thoughts and fantasies from youth through old age. Read More
The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee has just begun a thorough review of Maine’s child protective system. Though sparked by a single incident – the suffocation death of 5-year-old foster child Logan Marr last winter – this review would be necessary and overdue even without that tragedy. Read More
Bangor Hydro’s four-year plan to reduce energy costs to its customers, rejected by the Public Utilities Commission this week, would have been approved several years ago and could well look like a bargain several years from now. But for the PUC to accept it now would not only… Read More
It has been two months since CIA Director George Tenet, dispatched to the Mideast by President Bush, returned with an accord designed to re-establish the security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority required for peace talks to resume. The horrifying events of the past week claimed many… Read More
Twenty-nine years ago, Congress passed the Rural Development Act, which directed federal agencies to look first to less expensive places outside urban areas when building new facilities, both to distribute more evenly the economic and social benefits of federal development and to save money. Long term, the policy… Read More
As George W. Bush relaxes at his Texas ranch, it’s fitting to recall another executive August holiday that ended, not with saddle sores and smoldering barbecue pits, but with an eight-point document that later inspired the United Nations. The president was Franklin D. Roosevelt; the… Read More
Despite being supported by voters twice in the last decade, Maine’s constitutional ban on voting rights for the mentally ill under guardianship was properly tossed out last week by U.S. District Judge George Singal. His summary judgment made it clear that even the state’s retreat on a redefinition… Read More
The leading public reason so far for imposing term limits on Bangor’s School Committee is that the Bangor City Council has them. One of the supporters of putting the question of term limits to a vote asked recently, “Why don’t we have some unity here?”… Read More
New Census 2000 data show that Maine falls well below the national average in both personal income and higher-education attainment, a situation a State Planning Office analyst blames on geography – the numbers are lower in northern Maine, which is too far from Boston to… Read More
In announcing his policy on embryonic stem cell research Thursday night, President Bush could have merely split the difference between the extremes. Instead, his thoughtful response begins in earnest what is certain to be a long public debate on biomedical ethics. Mr. Bush, who clearly gave the matter… Read More
More than one person in 10 in rural America has never visited a dentist, according to the American Dental Association, a figure produced in part, perhaps, from habit and in part from poverty, but certainly also in part from a nationwide shortage of dentists. Sen. Susan Collins, observing… Read More
Coming just a week after the depressing news that Maine, in 1998 anyway, had the nation’s highest tax burden, the news of its top 10 scores on eighth- and fourth-grade mathematics national exams was something to cheer. It shows that sometimes all that government investment pays off in… Read More
President Bush seems to have it right that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty stands in the way of the National Missile Defense that he is determined to build. But he seems to underestimate the difficulties of getting around the pesky agreement. The treaty, signed and… Read More
As time runs short to reauthorize the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact, the region’s members of Congress need to restate the case for keeping this valuable support. For a relatively small price – far smaller than the added cost that has been passed to consumers since the compact began… Read More
Perfect Paul is the voice you hear if you listen to the National Weather Service’s shortwave radio broadcasts. Paul uses the phrase “hazy, hot and humid” a lot. Sometimes he issues small-craft advisories or warnings. Once in a while he warns of an approaching hurricane. Read More
The visit to the Allagash this summer by officials from the National Park Service has left state government a little embarrassed and a little defiant, as if Maine were surprised by guests before it had a chance to clean house and so decided to insist it preferred sloppy… Read More
Even the harshest critics of the 1996 reform of welfare have had trouble quantifying concrete problems with the rules that have resulted in millions of Americans moving from government assistance to work. Work, especially work that pays at least a living wage, is in most ways better than… Read More
It can come as a rude shock when you walk into a favorite restaurant around here and find total change. Instead of paper place mats, with advertisements or lobster-picking instructions on them, there’s a spotless tablecloth. Instead of paper napkins, you find fancy cloth napkins, maybe stuck into… Read More
The April 20 shootdown in Peru of a private plane carrying Baptist missionaries – killing American Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter, severely wounding pilot Kevin Donaldson – was seen at the time as a tragic mistake, collateral damage in the War on Drugs. A new State Department… Read More
President Bush’s faith-based initiative is a prime example of that type of legislation which is worthy in concept, yet devilish in the details. The worthy concept is that religious charities, already rich in staff, expertise and compassion, should have greater access to federal money to meet social-service needs,… Read More
A near tragedy calls for some serious rethinking. That’s what the Friendship Sloop Society is doing after the sloop Endeavor sank off the Rockland breakwater during its recent annual races. Endeavor, a capable 25-footer with a topmast, skippered by Richard Stanley of Southwest Harbor, a… Read More
If, as Paul warned the Romans, there are wages for sin, Michael Heath and his Christian Civic League of Maine want to make sure they come without benefits. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner =… Read More
A commission headed by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford this week presented a blueprint for election reform to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing debacle the world’s leading democracy suffered in the 2000 elections. President Bush gave his qualified blessing to the report, endorsing its key… Read More
For turning a fire hose on the sputtering twigs that fuel Maine’s economic furnace, there’s nothing like consecutive national news stories showing that that state has the highest tax burden and ranks a dismal 48th in business friendliness based on those taxes. Embarrassing as these stories may be,… Read More
The worst conclusion Congress could draw from a new study on vehicle fuel efficiency is that because members of the National Academy of Science believe previous fuel advances led to more highway deaths nothing can be done now. The NAS report, instead, should spur legislation that uses its… Read More
Few carcinogens in drinking water are allowed at the current level accepted for arsenic, making the House’s vote last week to maintain the level imposed by the Clinton administration but dropped by the Bush administration a reasonable, even encouraging outcome. But Maine has an equal if not more… Read More
In a symbolic victory, the people of Vieques voted overwhelmingly Sunday to demand the immediate withdrawal of the U.S. Navy and the cessation of the live-ammunition exercises that have pounded their tiny Puerto Rican island for six decades. In a petulant response, the Navy said… Read More
Shielded by the work of a citizen’s committee, the Bangor City Council is edging toward a substantial pay raise for city councilors. The raise – from the current $400 annually to $2,000 – would be placed before voters in November and, if passed, wouldn’t take effect until 2003,… Read More
The Senate this week is expected to take up reform of the nation’s refugee law, which since 1996 has made entry into the United States substantially more difficult for people with valid claims of asylum. The reform, of which Sen. Susan Collins is an original co-sponsor, is known… Read More
After its disgraceful performance of two weeks ago, when it buried campaign finance reform with an argument over the rules of debate but no actual debate, the U.S. House of Representatives this week begins the process of redeeming itself. Like most redemption, this one requires nothing more, or… Read More
A week rarely goes by in which we do not receive at least one letter from a reader who left a purse or wallet in a shopping cart or on a store counter or park bench and then is utterly flabbergasted that someone was nice enough to return… Read More
The best reason to hurry reform of Social Security is not that the system is near demise, as the president’s commission on the retirement insurance concludes, but that the grandstanding of the 2002 elections is nearly at hand, to be followed shortly by the interminable opportunism of the… Read More
A new Brookings Institution report confirms what anyone who’s driven around southern Maine lately has had plenty of time to ponder while idling in traffic jams – the Greater Portland area has one of the worst cases of urban sprawl in the nation. Ninth worst, according to Brookings,… Read More
Just one day after two U.S.-based scholars were convicted on trumped-up espionage charges in trials that bore no resemblance to justice, the Chinese government has announced that Gao Zhan and Qin Guangguang will be deported back to this country on medical paroles. This not unexpected turnaround comes just… Read More
The fourth class of the Bangor Regional Leadership Institute graduated recently, sending another 20 or so freshly re-educated, highly motivated adults back into the community charged with making a difference. If you’ve never heard of BRLI, chances are very good you will benefit from its impact in the… Read More
When the 178 nations quit congratulating each other over their achievement of working out an agreement on a modified Kyoto treaty while the United States watched at an embarrassing distance, they will turn to the largest single producer of carbon dioxide and wonder whether this nation will take… Read More
One study after another has shown that Americans are too fat for their own good. The fattening of Maine, like other places, often starts with the sodas and chips and candy that students buy at vending machines. They gobble them down when mid-morning hunger pangs develop because they… Read More
The first batch of tax refund checks is in the mail. During the next 10 weeks, more than 90 million American taxpayers will receive federal rebates as part of President Bush’s tax cut plan. The rebates – $600 for couples, $300 for singles – are… Read More
The last time Bangor City Council took up the question of term limits for the School Committee, in 1994, it put off a vote on the issue indefinitely because, as one councilor said at the time, “Why should we preclude someone who’s doing a good job from continuing… Read More
The lobster catch has been slow starting this season. Warren Fernald, who fishes around the Cranberry Isles, hauled 100 traps a couple of weeks ago and got only three lobsters. Landings have picked up since then. His son, Bruce Fernald, fishing farther offshore, has traps that are so… Read More
The announcement last week that the federal government would withhold approximately $177,000 from the Maine Department of Human Services over foster care administration sounded a lot worse than it was. While DHS should always act to avoid these kinds of mistakes, the federal government regularly disallows certain state… Read More
If you’ve eaten popovers and strawberry jam on the broad lawn overlooking Jordan Pond… If you’ve had dinner in the old wooden Jordan Pond House that burned down in 1979 or in its brick successor that stands there now… googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot… Read More
When the House buried campaign finance reform recently after having passed the same legislation twice previously, it confirmed what many suspected – those two earlier votes were done under the cover of the Senate’s blockade. The Senate passed the bill this spring and the House’s cover was blown. Read More
The people of Calais have good reason to be terribly discouraged that the new international border crossing they have long sought may be headed eight miles out of town, leaving them bypassed off the beaten path. They also have good reason to be utterly perplexed by a new… Read More
Among all the tributes to Katharine Graham, who led The Washington Post to greatness and died last week at the age of 84, one fact stands out: She put the news first. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes =… Read More
Sen. Susan Collins was right Wednesday to support a bill that dramatically increases the nation’s commitment to developing sustainable sources of energy and builds a climate change strategy for the United States. This large and growing problem can be solved, but it will take a serious effort and… Read More
President Bush is right to want to increase the number of options for Medicare coverage, improve the quality of care under the health coverage program for millions of seniors, streamline administration and provide an increasingly important drug benefit. But his reform plan, including a discount card for prescription… Read More
There is no sense in restating what nearly everyone already has said about the case of Chandra Levy, the young California woman who disappeared in Washington two months ago, and how her friend, Rep. Gary Condit, should come clean. But on the question of Rep. Condit’s private life… Read More