Billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett humorously described in The New York Times last Sunday one way to enact a small piece of campaign finance reform. As novel as his idea was, however, it missed a large part of the problem and illustrated why politicians have been able to… Read More
The disgraceful prosecution of Wen Ho Lee has come crashing down in a plea-bargan settlement in which the U.S. government admitted in effect that it had no case against the former Los Alamos nuclear scientist. The man once accused of being the most dangerous atomic spy since Julius… Read More
Traffic in France has picked up from its escargot’s pace of last week. Fuel-tax protesters in Britain are calling off their blockades of refineries and depots after figuring out that Britain, which enjoys a good spectacle as much as anyone, doesn’t really want the fate of its economy… Read More
The United Way of Eastern Maine begins its 2000 fund-raising campaign at noon today at Bass Park. Its monetary goal this year is an ambitious $2.6 million, but more important than just the money is the agency’s new literacy initiative, Read for Success, which encourages adults to read… Read More
The bad news about Maine’s information-technology industry is not just that it has far fewer jobs per-capita in this field than most of the rest of the country. It is that state projections at least through 2006 show it falling even further behind, with Maine paying lower wages… Read More
Wal-Mart and Home Depot and other superstores may value uniformity for its efficiency, but they no doubt have noticed that all their planning meets a far older force here in Maine and in probably a few other places: the unspoken cooperative alliance around here between clerk and customer. Read More
Of the four main players in the never-ending rerun on the influence of violent entertainment upon the young, only the Federal Trade Commission is playing it straight. The others – the two major-party presidential candidates and the entertainment industry – seem to be looking for a punch line… Read More
No one thought getting more and better-priced air service at Bangor International Airport was going to be easy, but several recent events suggest the BIA staff and a state Air Service Task Force are making important progress. It is in the city’s interest to encourage this any way… Read More
And another thing … Responding to worries from within his party about declining polling numbers, Gov. George W. Bush says from now on his campaign will be about “real plans for real people.” Which makes the last nine months of campaigning about what? And for… Read More
Gov. George W. Bush says his $158-billion prescription drug plan is part of “keeping the promise of Medicare.” Its reliance upon the elusive health-care commodities of market competition and flexibility makes “promise” the operative word. On paper, the governor’s proposed Medicare drug benefit offers the… Read More
With a stunning $6.3 million judgment against the Aryan Nations, Morris Dees and his Southern Poverty Law Foundation now have a perfect seven-for-seven record in litigation to bankrupt white supremacist hate groups. All who root for a civil society should cheer this winning streak. An… Read More
There is much huffing and puffing lately over Gov. George Bush’s refusal to follow the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates and agree to three 90-minute debates of the sort that have occurred during the last three elections. The disappointment has prompted the governor to reconsider his position, but… Read More
Worldwide consumption of petroleum products, driven in part lately by the Asian economic recovery, is up more than 15 percent in the last decade. Consumption in the United States, in a record-setting economic expansion, is up even more. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has about a month’s supply of… Read More
The United Nations Millennium Summit in New York City this week brings together 150 heads of state, the largest such assembly ever. The agenda, essentially a list of such persistent problems as war, poverty, disease and pollution, is beyond daunting. The three-day gathering is, as U.N. Secretary General… Read More
The dream of a Star Wars missile defense system remains just a dream, thanks to a reasonable decision by President Bill Clinton. He had been reading Frances Fitzgerald’s new book, “Way Out There in the Blue,” with its devastating account of how a few zealots in the government… Read More
Where better than at the nation’s largest seller of everything to offer all the government paperwork you could want? Gov. Angus King today will unveil at the Bangor Wal-Mart an electronic kiosk said to provide information for more than 150 federal, state and local government services at the… Read More
The numbers, and there are plenty of them, in the latest Economic Policy Institute examination of the state of working families can be summarized in Maine by three charts. The first shows inflation-adjusted average family income growth in the 1980s ($10,000) vs. the 1990s ($666); the second breaks… Read More
A proposed referendum question over hether Bangor should support a methadone clinic in its midst is the understandable result of frustration over a process that has struck many in the city as arrogant from the outset. But holding a nonbinding referendum based on incomplete information in an atmosphere… Read More
With the Labor Day weekend under our belt, this is a good time to take stock. It was a great summer, with a lot of fine days and enough rain to keep things green, and the lovely fall season and possibly Indian summer are yet to come. But… Read More
If you value your privacy, you should watch out for Carnivore. The dictionary says a carnivore is “any flesh-eating or predatory organism,” but this Carnivore (with a capital “C”) is the FBI’s name for its new secret system to eat your e-mail messages. The computerized… Read More
With the number of tire-related traffic deaths under investigation now nearing 90 in the United States, officials from Bridgestone-Firestone have a clear choice as they provide congressional testimony tomorrow. They can either continue to belittle the comments of former employees, who blame working conditions and lax inspections at… Read More
A principle of good journalism is that it is better to be right than first. The recent sad case of Emulex suggests it is a principle practitioners of Internet journalism have yet to embrace. Emulex, a maker of fiber optic combinations equipment, is a young… Read More
Sky-high food prices predicted as 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
It goes by the unginly name of “restorative justice.”It’s an alternative way of dealing with crime. Instead of pitting the government against the offender, restorative justice brings three parties into the act: the offender, the victim and the community. The objective is to heal the wound rather than… Read More
In a rare outbreak of nagging conscience, the Senate Ethics Committee in 1995 adopted new rules prohibiting senators from accepting meals and gifts from special interests in excess of $50 in value. An exception was made for “widely attended events,” the understanding was that those events were meetings,… Read More
One of the many duties of legislators is to endorse or reject gubernatorial nominees to various state boards and commissions. That was the duty facing the Committee on Economic and Business Development Monday when presented with the four candidates Gov. King offered for the Maine Educational Loan Marketing… Read More
President Bill Clinton’s four-day visit through Africa was, in one sense, a way of trying to repair an early failure in his tenure and, in another, a reminder of the administration’s sometimes muted concern over a continent that supplies equal parts oil and mystery to the United States. Read More
Is there any other product but prescription drugs that inspires state legislators, governors and members of Congress to wage “Don’t Buy American” campaigns? Is there any question that the situation has passed through absurd to tragic when politicians regularly lead the legally dubious practice of taking busloads of… Read More
Jacob Plumley of Minnesota finally got his diploma the other day, two months after the rest of the Harding High School Class of 2000 got theirs. He got it after a summer spent in remedial classes. Unlike his classmates, he got it in a near-empty gym with no… Read More
Vicente Fox doesn’t take office for three months, yet the president-elect of Mexico already has performed one miracle. His stunning victory in July ended 71 years of unbroken rule by the famously corrupt Institutional Revolutionary Party; it came in an election seen as the first truly fair and… Read More
Bath Iron Works officials say they are surprised that the shipyard’s largest labor union so utterly rejected the company’s contract offer and that the vote to strike was so lopsided. If a subsidiary of one of the nation’s largest defense contractors were capable of such feelings, embarrassed would… Read More
George W. Bush admits he needs to do a better job explaining his plan for a $1.3 trillion tax cut. Democrats say the problem isn’t the explanation but the plan itself. Beyond the argument over semantics, and the charges and counter charges about which party… Read More
Whether Bangor has gangs in its midst is less important than recognizing that a substantial group of teen-agers, hanging out together, are pushing each other to commit small-time crimes and are a danger to themselves and others. Without overreacting, the city should take steps to ensure 14-year-olds have… Read More
When Dwight D. Eisenhower was asked what was his biggest mistake as president, he is supposed to have replied, “I made two, and they’re both sitting on the Supreme Court.” He referred to Chief Justice Earl Warren and Justice William J. Brennan, both of whom turned out to… Read More
Concerned that its downtown streets are getting uglier as they get busier, city officials in bustling Portland are applying for a $500,000 federal grant to beautify – they call it “boulevardize” – four of their more hectic thoroughfares with trees, shrubs and bushes. The theory is that drivers… Read More
The rules were set Tuesday for the impeachment trial of the chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Justice David Brock aces judgment by the state Senate Sept. 12 on four charges; the standard of proof will be up to each senator’s conscience; it will take a… Read More
Like another unpleasantness that threatened the Clinton-Gore administration, the investigation into the vice president’s visit to a Buddhist temple during the 1996 campaign came down to truthfulness under oath and then a definition. Attorney General Janet Reno may have spared the vice president this week the burden of… Read More
FPL, owner of the Wyman Station power plant in Yarmouth, needs to reduce the plant’s emissions of nitrogen oxides, which contributes to smog. For nearly a year, the Natural Resources Council of Maine has been trying to get the public interested in this question before the Board of… Read More
Gov. George Bush got a bounce after the GOP convention that moved him clearly ahead of Vice President Al Gore. The vice president, in turn, got a bounce after his convention that may have put him slightly ahead of the governor. Media analysts may talk about America’s fractured… Read More
The strange case of Wen Ho Lee has taken an even stranger turn. Federal prosecutors describe him as the worst atomic spy since the Rosenbergs. Yet he is charged only with improper handling of computer files when employed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, something other government employees… Read More
The major party conventions are history. With nomination suspense and platform controversy out and televised spectacle and fund-raising excess in, it’s history without a trace of democracy’s spontaneous tumult. More like a well-scripted Roman orgy. Republicans in Philadelphia – at least those who wrote sufficiently… Read More
A New York federal judge’s decision that an Internet magazine’s posting of computer code for decrypting DVD movies violates copyright law is being hailed as a major victory for the entertainment industry. The words U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan used to back up that decision are a… Read More
The public learned last week just how badly Gov. George Bush wanted to keep this campaign and his political party away from the continued investigation of the Monica Lewinsky affair when his communications director lamented the press announcement on the day of Vice President Al Gore’s acceptance speech… Read More
Ethical questions around human experiments was brought forcefully to the public last fall, with the death of Jesse Gelsinger, an 18-year-old who died while taking part in experimental gene therapy. If the public was unsettled by his death, the medical community was more so, and last week a… Read More
Electric deregulation was born in Congress and lovingly embraced by the states, based upon the promise of cutthroat competition and cut-rate prices. Through still in its infancy, this free market approach to an essential of civilization already is making mischief. It’s a problem of demand… Read More
The average physician leaves medical school $91,000 in debt from medical-school bills; a new dentist owes $83,000; and a medical psychologist, $49,000. Because these professionals are so valued and, in many rural areas, so rare, the federal government offers a loan-forgiveness program to entice them to places where… Read More
After spending a significant portion of his speech talking about himself and his upbringing, Vice President Al Gore Thursday reminded the public that “the presidency is more than a popularity contest, it’s a day-by-day fight for people.” The presidency is a fight for many things; the presidential campaign,… Read More
Though an independent, Gov. Angus King probably didn’t win many friends this week among those frustrated by lawmakers in the two major parties. His opinion, however, that Maine should make it more difficult for activists to place referendum questions on the ballot is on target and should start… Read More
However real and deeply moving were the emotions of North and South Korean families reunited this week in Seoul and Pyongyang, the events themselves were a well-scripted gesture in public relations for the leaders of two countries whose half-century standoff seems badly dated in a post-Cold War world. Read More
Five University of Maine undergraduates this weekend will present their research and analysis of genetically engineered foods at a prestigious conference in Italy, the first time that work by students has been accepted at the convention. The paper is a noteworthy accomplishment at an international level for the… Read More
The various businesses and municipalities told they are financially responsible for the clean up thus far of a waste-oil site in Plymouth had two things working against them, in addition to the usual draconian Superfund rules: PCBs and toxic cleaning solvents also found their way onto the site,… Read More
For the few Americans to whom the thought had not yet occurred, television and newspaper commentators pointed out again after President Clinton’s speech Monday at the Democratic National Convention that Al Gore is not nearly as effective a speaker as the president. Given that the president is not… Read More
There is no finer food than the french fry when it comes to the health of the Maine potato industry. The announcement by McCain Foods USA last week that it would build a potato-processing plant in Aroostook County that would require 15,000 acres of potatoes annually gives a… Read More
The way Bridgestone-Firestone Inc. responded to mounting evidence that certain models of its tires were structurally and dangerously flawed is a case study in how some large corporations get such bad reputations. Early reports of tire failures, and deaths, were dismissed as inconclusive. Lawsuits were settled, provided the… Read More
Ten years ago, Wal-Mart was for many Maine communities just a small cloud on the horizon. For some people it was a promise of better shopping opportunities and commercial development. For others it was a threat. Wal-Mart sent in its top spokesman, Don Shinkle, then… Read More
Hard to believe it’s been just eight years since the Reform Party charged into the political arena. After the party’s sadly comic convention last weekend in San Diego, it’s harder still to believe what’s become of a movement founded on the principles of open and honest government, fiscal… Read More
American Airlines canceled thousands of future flights last week, disrupting the plans of hundreds of thousands of travelers because its stressed-out pilots have had it with mandatory overtime. Mandatory overtime was a major sticking point in the failed negotiations that led to the Verizon strike that disrupted telephone… Read More
Fifty-five years ago today, Japan’s Emperor Hirohito told his cabinet to prepare to “endure the unendurable,” to accept terms of surrender ending World War II. The celebrations across the United States during the two-day holiday that had been declared were a combination of exuberant relief and of prayers… Read More
The Verizon strike has been called “the strike of the 21st Century.” It is a clash of old economy issues of job security and working conditions against new economy concepts that companies not constantly expanding will shrink, that any job done here probably can be done just as… Read More
Attorney General Andrew Ketterer advised them not to pay it. Gov. Angus King asked them not to pay it. So when Maine Educational Loan Authority board members met Thursday to consider a $204,000 bill for lobbying and public relations, they voted, naturally, to pay it. Read More
Attorney General Andrew Ketterer advised them not to pay it. Gov. Angus King asked them not to pay it. So when Maine Educational Loan Authority board members met Thursday to consider a $204,000 bill for lobbying and public relations, they voted, naturally, to pay it. Read More
The record a legislator compiles in roll-call votes is one of the most useful decision-making tools the thoughtful voter has at re-election time. There’s simply no fudging on the ayes or nays. Advocacy groups use this record to good effect as well. Whether the particular… Read More
Wildfires are ravaging almost every Western state. With months to go until the snow falls, this already is the most damaging summer since 1988. With every day and every new fire, a new record is set. Blame prolonged drought and high winds, conditions that are… Read More
The marvel of the last legislative session was the deft way in which Gov. Angus King ushered through his “Laptops for Lunchboxes” proposal. The idea of equipping every seventh-grader with a laptop computer was met with nearly statewide derision upon its unveiling early last spring. It was pronounced… Read More
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds no clear evidence that the Brady handgun law has reduced gun deaths. The National Rifle Association seems very pleased with this, asserting that “schemes like the Brady waiting period have nothing to do with reducing… Read More
The Olympic movement suffered two embarrassing moments Monday. One is being written off as a harmless prank; the other, anything but. The first incident occurred during the cross-Australia Olympic torch relay that will conclude in Sydney when the Summer Games begin on Sept. 15. As… Read More
The choice of a running mate is often described as the first test of a presidential candidate’s decision-making skills. The selection of a person able to step in and lead the nation in what by definition would be a time of crisis is a task crucial to creating… Read More
Whether drug behemoth SmithKline Beecham can drag Maine through enough legal twists and turns to escape being part of a plan to get lower-priced prescription drugs to the uninsured, Maine, first, should stick to its plan based on the same price negotiations used by federal agencies, HMOs and… Read More
Maine officials are irate that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which proposes listing Atlantic salmon as an endangered species in eight Maine rivers, plans to spend just $1.2 million to save what it calls the last truly wild remnants while it lavishes $6.2 million on artificial stocking… Read More
Why do so many firefighters die on duty? The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health wants to know why so many die and how to reduce the toll, which averages 105 a year nationally. The agency recently sent an epidemiologist to Unity to investigate… Read More
To the extent that a nomination acceptance speech is the way a presidential candidate formally introduces himself to the nation and sets the tone for the coming campaign, Gov. George W. Bush on Thursday night made a good first impression and struck a chord that resonates. His relaxed… Read More
It’s a warm day in August and veterans are telling members of Congress of their concerns about the lack of staffing and the long waits for appointments at Togus medical center. This may sound like the meeting Rep. John Baldacci held Wednesday, but it took place in August… Read More
One of the more interesting aspects of Congress’ long and fitful debate over campaign finance reform is how often the best arguments for it are made by those most against it. The latest example of this paradox wrapped in befuddlement is a GOP concoction called the 75 Percent… Read More
Congress should take note of a recent study predicting that prescription drug prices will double over the next decade. If true, the price increase would make the timid steps proposed so far seem worse than inadequate. High drug prices, a third of Medicare recipients without coverage and a… Read More
“Many years ago, the governor’s father served in the Pacific, with distinction, under the command of my grandfather. Now it is my turn to serve under the son of my grandfather’s brave subordinate. I am proud to do so for I know that by supporting George W. Bush… Read More
Warning bells are ringing for Southwest Harbor. The latest warning of rocks and shoals ahead comes in the current issue of Down East magazine, in an article headed “For Sale: One Harbor, Nice Town.” The magazine quotes a complaint by Ralph Stanley, legendary builder of… Read More
HCA, until recently Columbia/HCA, recently set a record by agreeing to pay the federal government $745 million to settle a Medicare fraud case brought about by a complaint under the False Claims Act. The military and the Federal Aviation Administration last year learned though a complaint under the… Read More
In the aftermath of the Camp David summit, that immediate failure wrapped around a glimmer of hope, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was rightly perceived as a statesman of uncommon courage. It was Mr. Barak, after all, who dared think the unthinkable – that Jerusalem could be divided,… Read More
To hear Napster tell it, the online music service it offers is just one big 1950s sock hop, with 20 million fun-loving kids swapping tunes the way kids have since the days of 45 rpm. It’s the hippy counterculture sticking it to The Man, in the form of… Read More
In only six months of increased traffic patrols by the Bangor Police Department, the improvement in traffic around the city is noticeable. The public has plenty of reason to support this change which should make for a better – certainly safer – place to live. Read More
The surprise of a recent Sierra Club poll on creating a national park in northern Maine was that the general impression of the park’s supporters as underdogs just trying to be heard is wrong. Statewide anyway, they appear to be a majority of Maine citizens. What this majority… Read More
Members of Congress have left Washington for vacation, but if you ask them whether your Social Security and Medicare money is safe without a vigilant Congress guarding it, many will tell you “Not yet, but we’ve got negotiators working on lock boxes to take care of that.” Congress… Read More
Just a few days ago, Consumers Union published “Building Strong Foundations,” a handbook for the creation of the charitable foundations that result when nonprofit organizations convert to for-profit. In it, CU makes the point that the assets of nonprofits belong to the public – those assets are, after… Read More
President Clinton got it right in describing the recent trade agreement between the United States and Vietnam as a “historic step in normalization, reconciliation and healing.” It took five years of tough bargaining, and it took guts on each side to reach the accord. The… Read More
Four major national health organizations, including the American Medical Association, have released a study directly linking violence in entertainment to increasing violence among children. Based upon more than 30 years of research, the study finds the effects of violent television, music, video games and movies to be measurable… Read More
The Legislature’s Business and Economic Development Committee meets today on the possible sale of Maine Educational Loan Marketing Corp.’s $504 million student-loan portfolio to Nebraska-based National Education Loan Network. This transfer of a public resource from MELMAC, a state-sanctioned nonprofit, to NELnet, an out-of-state for-profit, comes from out… Read More
Functional foods are as old as iodized salt. They are as familiar and beneficial as orange juice with added calcium, vitamin D milk, enriched flour. The new generation – everyday foods laced with unregulated drugs and unproven promises – can be, at best, as ineffective as snake oil. Read More
Can vandals apologize? Can destroyers say “Oops? Surely, there must be some ceremony of atonement for the silviculturally destructive, and if there is, Mead Corp. and Dorman Farm in Milo appear to be the deserving recipients of lavish mea culpas. At least as important, Maine deserves a break… Read More
Genetic engineering – a daunting phrase in itself – has not only confounded the public with the intricacies of its current and future use, but has raised ethical questions about its application. With this summer’s completion of the race to map the genome, huge leaps in technology place… Read More
If Elaine and John Couri can turn the Norumbega building into something anywhere near as successful as their other donation to the Bangor community, the Hammond Street Senior Center, this city has just received an enormous gift. Thanks are due to the Couri Foundation for making Bangor a… Read More
Maine learned at least a couple of things in a recent hearing on the prevailing wage in the construction industry: the people who assembled the natural-gas pipeline through Maine last year made a lot more money than the average construction worker here; and figuring out how much construction… Read More
When Toysmart.com filed for bankruptcy in May, the demise of the online toy retailer was dismissed by the Internet industry as merely an inevitable casualty of the transforming economy. The company’s slash-and-burn tactics – its blatant breaking of a pledge to protect customer privacy – suggests that the… Read More
Secretary of Defense William Cohen may well be right that the threat of the biological weapon anthrax is real and in the hands of nations that might use it against U.S. soldiers. But even Pentagon officials recently admitted that its plan to protect those soldiers with a vaccine… Read More
Secretary of Defense William Cohen may well be right that the threat of the biological weapon anthrax is real and in the hands of nations that might use it against U.S. soldiers. But even Pentagon officials recently admitted that its plan to protect those soldiers with a vaccine… Read More
What’s your first thought when you learn that 8,300 mammoth recreational vehicles are converging on Brunswick for an RV convention in mid-August. And, worse, that a third of them will head afterward for Bangor, Ellsworth, Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. Panic. That’s the way… Read More
A newspaper reporter asked Vernon Jordan, “You just spent the Fourth of July in Jackson Hole right? Were there many other African-Americans out there?” She got a cool answer from the polished, self-assured corporate director, Wall Street banker and pal of President Clinton: “When I… Read More
Packing the bags and preparing to leave in a huff are familiar and time-honored elements of that peculiar brand of brinkmanship known as Middle Eastern diplomacy. At the first Camp David summit in 1978, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was so angered by the perceived intransigence of Israeli Prime… Read More
Maine’s official sailing vessel, the Bowdoin, has been joining the world’s tall ships this month at millennial celebrations at Boston and Halifax. Wherever it sails, it heralds Maine’s seafaring tradition. Soon the historic schooner, with its characteristic spoon bow and striking lack of bow-sprit, will be sailing proudly… Read More
These are the dregs left for the Justice Department 17 months after the Senate voted against the impeachment of President Clinton: Did a spokesman for investigator Kenneth Starr lie about giving out information concerning whether Mr. Starr had the authority to indict President Clinton, a man, coincidentally, also… Read More
There is no more inspiring vista in the nation’s capital than the view from the hill of the Washington Monument down the length of the Reflecting Pool to the Lincoln Memorial. From the simple tower to the courage of those who formed this union to the neoclassical temple… Read More