As the nation observes the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday as a federal holiday for the 14th year, all people in every state should read this defining speech, delivered in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28, 1963. I say to you today, my friends, that… Read More
At a time when one of the nation’s leading growth industries seems to be the publication of report cards, rankings and ratings by public-policy groups, “Measures of Growth,” the annual report by the Maine Economic Growth Council, remains one of the most helpful and insightful. If report cards… Read More
In Lawrence, Mass., a family and school system are feuding over whether Ritalin, the drug used to treat thousands of hyperactive children, should be a school requirement or a family’s choice. The answer, clearly, is that families must decide the course of medical care for… Read More
In this age of tech-speak, digital jargon and other forms of bland linguistic shorthand, the project to change the identities of Maine’s unorganized townships from incomprehensible letter/number combinations that sound like Starship Enterprise coordinates to real words with real meaning was most welcome. Hedgehog Mountain Township had a… Read More
What a pleasure to hear the salutation from the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine given to the Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence. For two groups likely to oppose each other in the State House, it was gratifying that the established organization welcomed the new one in the spirit of… Read More
In two runs at the presidential nomination, Allan Keyes has established himself as the one candidate who understands the power of speech. Whether a prepared address or an off-hand remark, Mr. Keyes consistently demonstrates a gift for the well-chosen word effectively spoken. Now, with the… Read More
The mild furor over Sen. John McCain’s constituent work might be so much political sturm und drang, were it not for the irony: The Senate’s leading champion of campaign finance reform, and the Republican presidential hopeful who has made washing dirty money out of the political system a… Read More
The biggest nonstory of the week comes from that unbearably hip online magazine, Salon, which blames Secretary of Defense William Cohen for the decline of Atlantic salmon. The article wouldn’t be worth mentioning at all if Maine newspapers hadn’t picked up on the story. In… Read More
Gov. Angus King set the right tone Monday for what will be lively second session of the Legislature. His budget proposal contains a good mix of tax breaks, ongoing support and some new funding from a state surplus that may be $250 million or, more likely, considerably more. Read More
Maine taxpayers didn’t need the recent study from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation to tell them their property taxes have ballooned in the last decade – the local tax bill told them that. And while the Legislature tried to reduce some of the pain by passing the Homestead Exemption… Read More
In a case that started in Augusta and ended in Washingtom, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sent a strong message to employers: Down-sizing and out-sourcing do not excuse hate-mongering. The high court, without comment, rejected an appeal by WalMart of a lower court award… Read More
Though it is taking longer than enthusiasts expected, skateboarders in Bangor soon could have a skatepark to call their own, a tribute to their persistence and to the city’s sincerity in finding a safe place to skate. Bangor is like a lot of places that… Read More
President Clinton’s proposed investment of $10 million in “smart gun” research isn’t much money on a federal scale — but it also isn’t a panacea for resolving the problems it targets. Smart guns use fingerprints, radio waves or other owner-specific attributes to prevent people other… Read More
A full two years after the Ice Storm of 1998, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has finally provided funding to cover part of the disaster-recovery costs. To add a touch of whimsy to the occasion, the check came encased in a block of ice and Gov. Read More
As he did last year, President Clinton this week has offered a tax cut to the middle class, something around the $250 billion level over 10 years. And as they did last year, Republicans appear ready to counter with a much more aggressive tax cut, perhaps on the… Read More
While Maine’s Legislature convenes to resolve outstanding issues and divvy up some $250 million in tax windfall, New Hampshire’s Legislature has retired, leaving a $400 million education budget mess for someone else to clean up. Now, only one thing seems certain for the Granite State:… Read More
From the moment he was plucked from the sea off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving Day, Elian Gonzalez has been the rope in a tug of war between Cuba and anti-Castro Cubans in Miami. Now, thanks to a legally and morally correct decision by the U.S. Immigration and… Read More
Hard to believe it’s been 15 years since the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched the “other white meat” campaign to stimulate pork consumption. Harder still to believe that all that salesmanship, now costing hog farmers $48 million a year in mandated fees, has stimulated consumption by a less… Read More
After months of unhappy news about departing major airlines, employees at Bangor International Airport had something to celebrate last month with the announcement that Telford Aviation and Ages-Volvo Aero would be bringing a national parts and service center to the airport. The announcement gives a… Read More
Fourteen of the 25 homicides recorded in Maine last year were the result of domestic violence. It is a disturbing statistic, the increasing proportion reveals an alarming trend. The specific cases cover virtually every permutation of human relationships gone wrong. A wife is accused of… Read More
U.S. opposition to a world criminal court, when representatives from dozens of countries met in June 1998 to discuss this issue, was based on its soldiers. What if, Americans wanted to know, this court decided to investigate not just the clearly inhumane acts of despots but second-guessed U.S. Read More
Officials at the University of Maine System in recent years have approached the Legislature carefully. Cautious about public reaction, thankful for what funding they have gotten, they slowly repaired the system’s reputation, which suffered from various administrative mistakes in the first part of the 1990s. But now with… Read More
For 20 years, the feud over how best to protect the Appalachian Trail near Saddleback Mountain has alternately festered and boiled. Now, with the new year, the National Park Service and Saddleback officials are hoping to settle the matter. And the settlement is at hand:… Read More
All Mainers know that Interstate 95 begins in Houlton and ends in Key West, Fla. Now, there’s a chance to prove it. The Department of Transportation and the Maine Turnpike Authority are putting together the details of a proposal that would change exit numbers on… Read More
Teen-age lawbreakers have an opportunity for a fresh start under a program that begins today in Maine. Juvenile Drug Court, based on models from many other states, promises to be an important tool for reducing drug abuse among teens and the variety of antisocial behaviors that come with… Read More
Once again, just like clockwork, it’s New Year’s Day. Once again, in a wave sweeping across time zones, the world has counted backwards from 10. Celebrants have wished each other the best and meant it, at least for as long as the cup of kindness brims. Parades march… Read More
Historians combing through back issues of the Bangor Daily News this New Year’s Eve should be prepared for a millenniun-size jolt. The BDN’s Jan. 1, 1900 edition was brimming with the usual news of war, crime, shipwrecks — even a statewide blizzard. But nowhere was mentioned the turn… Read More
It turns out Salt Lake City’s movers and shakers aren’t the only ones dishing out lavish gifts for the 2002 Winter Olympics. According to the congressional General Accounting Office, the American taxpayer is kicking in at least $1.4 billion for the scandal-ridden games, perhaps as much as $2… Read More
Lawmakers convene next week for the session devoted, theoretically and constitutionally, to unfinished business and emergencies. One bill, LD 2206, meets both criteria. An Act to Implement an Atlantic Salmon Conservation Plan was introduced last session by Rep. Eddie Dugay, Democrat of Cherryfield, with a… Read More
Justice Andrew Mead is expected to make a decision soon in the case of John Havlin, a Hampden man accused of stabbing his 5-year-old daughter last year. Mr. Havlin’s attorney argues that his client is not guilty because of mental illness. Though this is a difficult standard to… Read More
The December issue of the journal of the National Conference of State Legislatures has a cover story titled “Can the Sales Tax Survive Cyberspace?” A more appropriate, though wordy, title for this well-researched and comprehensive piece would be “Can Common Sense Survive the Debate over the Sales Tax… Read More
A blue-ribbon commission to examine health care in Maine, proposed last week by Gov. Angus King, is an important opportunity to address issues of cost and access to medical care. The commission should be given enough resources to do a thorough job and be willing to provide bold… Read More
The numbers are rightly shocking: In just under two years, the Department of Veterans Affairs admits to having made nearly 3,000 medical errors nationwide, killing almost one in four of those who received erroneous treatment or medications. Yet those numbers would likely be typical of… Read More
Nothing taught America the value of a job like the Great Depression, and governments since then have closely tracked the unemployment rate to measure success or hardship, wealth or woe. But as Maine revels in rock-bottom jobless rates, it is fair to ask why more Mainers are not… Read More
It is the end of the second millennium of the Christian era. The Roman legions once garrisoned in Palestine long ago returned to dust. But the passing of scores of generations of common men and of hundreds of kings and tyrants and presidents has made… Read More
When serious questions arose last spring about the extent to which Maine students benefit from taxpayer-backed bonds for college loans, the Legislature did well in forming a special commission of education and finance experts to get the answers. The Commission on the Ceiling on Tax… Read More
Saying it would be “difficult to find a more historically mismanaged federal program,” a federal judge this week used all the adjectives at his disposal to try to describe the federal government’s gross violation toward 300,000 Indians that are owed far more than the promises of reform that… Read More
It might seem a bit odd, having to spend more money in order to make Maine’s courts more efficient. But a state task force’s proposal to streamline the court system is well worth the $400,000 investment — to bring better semblance of order to the state’s court rules,… Read More
Usually, one town’s debate on the placement of a new traffic signal is just that — one town’s debate, an issue perhaps of great local interest but of no particular concern to those just passing through. The discussion regarding a new light in Topsham should… Read More
Perhaps no one expected the end of the war in Kosovo to bring peace, but few members of the U.N. force that drove back the Serbians seem prepared to deal with the smoldering aftermath of resentment, retribution and death. This violence of a smaller scale persists, however, and… Read More
The joint appearance in New Hampshire last week by Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and former Sen. Bill Bradley, Democrat of New Jersey, was an astute move, a welcome reminder that politics can be about more than mindless partisanship. The joint pledge they took to… Read More
Even in a time of budget surplus, the money Maine will receive as part of a nationwide settlement with the tobacco industry is more popular among legislators than nicotine patches at a quit-smoking clinic. Fortunately, how the money is to be spent already is in statute, with the… Read More
If there is any solace in the government’s case against alleged spy Wen Ho Lee, it is in demonstrating the importance of our Sixth Amendment guarantees of a public trial and challenge against our accusers. Dr. Lee, an Energy Department scientist who worked at the… Read More
Education Commissioner Duke Albanese’s proposal to increase school funding for next year keeps a minimum promise his department and the Legislature made to the Maine public last year when they changed the state’s funding formula to improve equity statewide. It deserves support and expansion in both the governor’s… Read More
A study released Thursday on the cost of Maine’s various business-assistance programs and the benefits they bring to the economy and workers received a cold welcome from the state’s business and economic-development leaders, some of whom trashed the report before they had read it. That… Read More
Maine’s tradition of permissive trespass — the use of private land by people who don’t have explicit permission to be on that land — is unique. Nowhere else in the contiguous United States is one likely to find so much undeveloped private land open to use by the… Read More
Thanks to a gift from the Libra Foundation, as many as 1,322 Bangor schoolchildren will get to enjoy something Maine is famous for throughout the country and around the world — summer camp. The Libra Foundation is the legacy of the late philanthropist Elizabeth Noyce. Read More
If hubris were an Olympic sport, Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, would be standing on the gold-medal platform after the performance he gave Wednesday before a congressional committee. His blithe dismissal of the thought that he should personally suffer any punishment for his ruinous… Read More
The 106th Congress will not be known for its productivity, but it did begin an important bipartisan agreement in the House called the Conservation and Reinvestment Act that will help states set aside land, build parks, restore historic places and support wildlife programs. And the best part is… Read More
Plans, the poet Robert Burns told us, often work to the opposite of their intent. So could to be the case with a 1997 long-term plan to trim the size of the National Guard and armed forces reserve contingents. The 1997 Quadrennial Defense Review —… Read More
Except as a recounting of the last half-century of public attitudes and treatment of mental illness, a new report by Surgeon General David Satcher isn’t likely to tell advocates for the mentally ill anything they do not already know. The surgeon general missed an opportunity to advance the… Read More
Maine has three major public construction projects under way — the redesign and consolidation of the state prison system, the renovation of a Vassalboro school into a police training academy, the installation of a new legislative computer system as part of the State House/State Office Building makeover. The… Read More
Though preferable to a deficit, the $250-million surplus Maine lawmakers will deal with this coming session raises concerns about the state’s ability to make accurate revenue projections. On the other hand, expansion of the prison system may go as much as $20 million over budget, renovations to the… Read More
The Board of Environmental Protection early next month will decide whether to accept a proposal that would sharply curb the pollutant nitrogen oxide, a component of smog, coming from the smokestacks of FPL’s Wyman Station or allow an alternative that would let FPL purchase pollution credits. The board’s… Read More
Secretary of the Air Force F. Whitten Peters made a $600,000 decision yesterday that, in the realm of multi-billion-dollar military budgets, seems small. In the realm of how the public and Congress see the military base closing process, it could be huge. At issue is… Read More
The risks of the sea are many; who knew they flowed up the Penobscot and into City Council chambers? Bangor councilors, however, can avoid a shipwreck in their dealings with the River Dog tour boat by adopting as their goal the return of the boat to the hands… Read More
Nicotine is an addictive drug that poses a significant health hazard; that’s demonstrated by countless studies, including those made by the tobacco companies themselves. The federal government, wanting to allay the dangers of tobacco, seized upon the most convenient piece of bureaucratic apparatus at hand:… Read More
The six Republican presidential candidates have held two debates in the last seven days. The first, last Thursday in Manchester, N.H., wasn’t so much as debate as a get-acquainted mixer. The second, Monday in Phoenix, had a touch of confrontation to it, but a touch cushioned by velvet… Read More
The failure of Russia’s plan to protect itself against charges of war crimes in their proposed bombing of Grozny could be seen in the so-called safety corridor its leaders established for civilian flight. As of Thursday, the corridor reportedly remained unused, a sign that civilians either do not… Read More
If one is to believe the federal government’s pronouncements, cutting nearly 10 percent of the Togus Veterans Affairs Center’s staff will make for better veterans’ care. But proving how Togus can be better, after 77 out of 857 staff members at the Augusta-based hospital are terminated, is going… Read More
A recent Associated Press story suggested that Maine dined exceptionally well at the federal trough, consuming $1.41 in funds from Washington for every $1 it sent. But while Maine receives more federal dollars per person than its neighbors, its serving of pork looks more than a little lean. Read More
With a staff report in hand, the Public Utilities Commission will decide in the next week whether to approve the $957-million merger between CMP Group and Energy East, the New York firm that wants to buy Maine’s largest supplier of electricity. The outcome of this case should be… Read More
You’ve heard of the Gay ’90s, the Roaring ’20s, the Nifty ’50s and the Swinging ’60s? If so, you might be puzzling over this Y2K conundrum: With only zeroes to guide them, how will tomorrow’s historians refer to the millennium’s very first decade? A National… Read More
The National Education Goals Panel justly recognized Maine’s commendable performances in kindergarten to grade 12 last week in Washington. Without taking away from the high performance by Maine students, the question remains, however, of why relatively few of these high performers continue with their education in college. Read More
Taken as an example of the craft of speechmaking, Gov. King’s feisty Internet address on the proposal to list Atlantic salmon under the Endangered Species Act was one of his best efforts — well-constructed and well-delivered, it had punch and a touch of wit. The… Read More
The Maine law banning smoking in restaurants has been in effect for more than two months. The vast majority of restaurant owners and smokers have complied — some willingly, some grumpily — but complied. An even vaster majority, the 78 percent of adult Mainers who do not smoke,… Read More
The awards to Maine educators and students last week in Washington were a well-deserved tribute from the National Education Goals Panel and were evidence of what Maine residents can accomplish, no matter who the competition. Former Gov. John McKernan may have come closest to a… Read More
Recent events at Narraguagus High School provide an interesting example of how difficult it is for school officials to do their jobs or even to identify what their jobs are. Though there may be community support for the school’s punishment of partying students, the lesson from protesting parents… Read More
More than 48,000 signatures calling for a citizen-initiated referendum on the Maine Death with Dignity Act have been certified by the secretary of state’s office; the last opportunity for opponents to challenge the petitions and prevent a November 2000 vote came and went this week. Although the measure… Read More
Does “squaw” mean “prostitute”? Rep. Donald Soctomah, the Passamaquoddy tribal representative to the Legislature, thinks so, and he’s urging the state to drop “squaw” as an allowable name for geographic features. It’s difficult not to empathize. Rep. Soctomah and many Maine Indians clearly feel the… Read More
If nothing else, the Maine Public Utilities Commission showed this week that restructuring the state’s electric utilities would be every bit as complicated as promised. The question that remains is whether it will be as beneficial as it is complicated. For that answer, Maine will need patience. Read More
Front pages and nightly news broadcasts around the world all led with a common graphic Wednesday — helmeted and masked police doing battle with unarmed civilians amid clouds of tear gas and a mist of pepper spray. Not in Jakarta, Seoul or Belgrade, but in Seattle, Washington, USA. Read More
With the opening of the next legislative session in January, the roles the Maine public has become accustomed to will once again be played out: Republicans will call for tax cuts; Democrats will demand funding for various programs; and Gov. Angus King will urge, above all else, caution. Read More
The World Trade Organization, a group representing 135 nations’ efforts to reduce trade barriers, is meeting in Seattle this week to work out the details of new trade talks that would restructure the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, a 51-year-old document that sets trading rules for the… Read More
The announcement this week by McCain Foods that its New Brunswick-based plant starting next year will no longer buy genetically altered potatoes brings the genetic-engineering debate to Maine forcefully. McCain’s decision, like many other processors who sell internationally, is, in part, the unexpected result of a legislative shortcut… Read More
A year ago tomorrow Kenneth S. Apfel, commissioner of Social Security, told the National Press Club that strengthening the retirement system for millions of Americans was the most important thing Congress and the White House could do and that now was the best time imaginable to do it. Read More
When faced this summer with five 1998 state-office candidates who accepted contributions to retire campaign debt that exceeded new limits that went into effect at the beginning of this year, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Elections adopted the lenient approach. The fudging five… Read More
A just-released survey of racial attitudes in the armed forces yielded two important yet hardly surprising findings: As a whole, the American military has done a far better job than the rest of America in eliminating race as a barrier to opportunity and as a source of confrontation;… Read More
Just as the new Maine Educational Assessment tests are a challenge to students, using the bounty of results from the tests in a useful and informative way will challenge teachers and parents. More than in any year previously, the MEA is worthwhile only if communities look beyond the… Read More
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration says its new proposed rules on ergonomic injuries will provide needed protection to millions of workers harmed by the repetitive keyboarding motions of the new economy and the lifting and pulling of the old. Business says the rules are vague and open… Read More
Like schools in Lewiston and Bethel, Portland and Standish and in a dozen other communities this fall, Bangor High School and the city’s Fifth Street Middle School were closed Wednesday because of bomb threats. The persistence of these threats after school tragedies nationwide last year show that they… Read More
Christmas season is officially here, although this downright balmy weather doesn’t feel like it. Before the shopping and partying frenzy overtakes us, let’s remember those who cannot afford the presents that we take for granted, who struggle to put food on the table, let alone gifts under a… Read More
The distress from Maine’s congressional delegation over the Navy’s actions in preparation for pulling out of Cutler Communications and Telecommunications Station highlights a flawed process that serves neither the military nor base communities well. The flaws demand that the process be reviewed for Cutler and elsewhere. Read More
Harriet Beecher Stowe moved to Maine in 1850, with her husband, Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor at Bowdoin College. In Brunswick, she wrote her famous “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and many stories about New England life, including “The Pearl of Orr’s Island” (1862) and “Oldtown Folks” (1869). The latter… Read More
With the March 2000 changeover fast approaching, the Maine Public Utilities Commission has begun airing a series of TV ads to acquaint consumers with the ins and outs of electric restructuring. The campaign stars the Wattsons, an animated family of light bulbs — Watt and Flow, their children… Read More
Another year, another massive surplus, another chance to thank property taxpayers for providing the state more money than it knows what to do with. The difference this year is that lawmakers have a new school funding formula that shows exactly how much the state needs to spend to… Read More
Congress has adjourned after once again failing to enact campaign finance reform; the 2000 election is shaping up as one more dreary money-drenched season of 30-second attacks ads and blurbs of happy talk, of growing public cynicism and declining voter turnouts. Since lawmakers will not… Read More
It should have surprised no one in Maine that the logging report recently issued by the state’s Department of Labor offered neither clear culprits nor easy answers. The questions of how Canadian bonded labor affects wages and the influence of mechanization on the price of wood are complex,… Read More
Attorney General Andrew Ketterer has quickly reduced the question of establishing a charitable trust under the proposed Anthem-Maine Blue Cross merger to two key questions. In both cases, he properly has sided with consumers. The attorney general, first, has concluded that the $100 million charitable… Read More
A Michigan state jury last week found a boy guilty of committing murder two years ago, when he was 11. He was tried as an adult, and is believed to be the youngest American ever found guilty of murder as an adult. For anyone who finds it astonishing… Read More
It is far too easy to dismiss a new Tax Foundation report that Maine has the eighth-highest property taxes per capita in the country — fourth-highest as a percentage of income — as mere confirmation of what Maine taxpayers already know. It is far too convenient to cite… Read More
At 9:02 a.m., Wednesday, April 19, 1995, an explosion devastated the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168. Within the hour, news reports and government statements were rife with speculation as to which Middle East terrorist group was responsible. As Arab travelers were being… Read More
As a fuel, coal is cheap. Sen. Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, is busy in Congress this week showing why. Fellow senators would be unwise environmentally or politically to support Sen. Byrd in his attempt to exempt his home-state fuel from the nation’s laws. Read More
Within the past month, Santa Monica and San Francisco enacted ordinances prohibiting banks from charging fees to noncustomers who use their automated teller machines. Last Thursday, two of California’s largest banks, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, responded by shutting off its machines to noncustomers. Not by coincidence,… Read More
Whatever pain two Biddeford residents thought they would inflict on a black mayoral candidate by dressing as Ku Klux Klan members and parading in front of his house we hope was offset by their realization of the sheer stupidity of their act. Nevertheless, the decision by the Attorney… Read More
Pharmaceutical lobbyists are once again mad as wet hens at Rep. Tom Allen’s dog-and-pony show on prescription drugs. Rep. Allen’s recent comparison of drug costs for people vs. those for animals not only outfoxed the industry’s public-relations department, it highlighted a useful point often missed in the debate… Read More
Former Maine Sen. George Mitchell’s mission to resuscitate the Northern Ireland peace settlement hit yet another snag last week when the Ulster Unionists, the Protestant majority party in the British-controlled province, rejected the new proposals Sen. Mitchell helped craft. The Unionists continue to demand that the Irish Republican… Read More
Somewhere between the wistful attempts to pass campaign finance reform in Congress and the recent ruling in Maine that upheld public financing of campaigns here is a solution to the growing lack of faith in the political system. National reformers might look to Maine’s ruling for inspiration. Read More
The University of Vermont is the latest in a growing list of colleges and universities that want to ban students from taking lecture notes to sell unless they have the professor’s permission. In the practical sense, the anonymity of the paid note-takers makes this a… Read More
Though it wasn’t the sort of field hearing that would get a senator a lot of attention back in Washington, testimony taken yesterday in Lewiston on the dangers of lead poisoning provided plenty of information for parents and soon-to-be parents about this pervasive metal. Sen. Read More