The new military pay and retirement benefits plan proposed by the Defense Department last week is bold, expensive, long overdue and absolutely necessary. It’s also, unless Congress and the White House suddenly develop an unprecedented measure of self-control, at the mercy political gamesmanship. Before the… Read More
When the attack from drug manufacturers comes, it won’t be subtle. But then, when your industry posted $24.5 billion in profits last year, you have little incentive to be subtle. You have, however, a bank truck full of incentives to destroy Rep. Tom Allen’s bill that tries to… Read More
Monday, the winter solstice, was to have been the Maine Greens’ day in the sun, as supporters gathered at the State House to watch Pat LaMarche assign her gubernatorial votes to the newly revived Green Independent Party. And there, attracting just as much attention, was… Read More
Since its founding in 1971, Doctors Without Borders, the world’s largest private medical relief organization, has provided medical relief to victims of natural disaster and war in more than 70 countries. More than 15,000 volunteers have gone to the most remote and dangerous places, enduring hardship, disease, violence… Read More
It is nearing 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… Read More
He’s led the U.S. Senate, helped bring peace to Northern Ireland and advised President Clinton on how to behave himself — former Sen. George Mitchell says nothing much shocks him anymore. Wait until he gets a close look at the Olympics. googletag.cmd.push(function () { //… Read More
It is not just a coincidence that the legislative task force to identify essential school services came up with a proposal that would cost an additional $130 million to $150 million. That’s roughly the amount General Purpose Aid to Education has been underfunded during this decade. Read More
Like proposals before it, the state’s new three-year plan for reducing the long-term population at Bangor Mental Health Institute and improving community mental-health services makes sense to just about everyone. And like those earlier plans, its success depends on the state’s ability to adequately care for patients outside… Read More
Neither bombing presidential palaces nor starving Iraqi citizens has forced Saddam Hussein closer during the last eight years to leaving or being removed from office. A man who seems not to care about his people easily deflects sanctions and missiles. If the White House is ever going to… Read More
Quick, name the most influential person in American politics, the individual with the power to steer the republic’s course, the clout to set the agenda, the muscle to determine what gets done and by whom. President Clinton? Damaged goods. Vice President Gore? Dented. Speaker-to-be Bob… Read More
An increase in the gas tax is about as welcome to motorists as a speeding ticket, but the alternative of maintaining fewer roads and bridges and cutting local road programs is even less attractive. Now is the time for anyone with a good alternative for raising $56 million… Read More
When the new Legislature convenes next month, Maine Public Broadcasting will be there, asking for a $9.4 million bond issue, half of what is needed to convert to digital. The conversion is not an option, it is a federal order. It must be under way by 2002 and… Read More
One week after the National Marine Fisheries Service announced an economically devastating 80 percent cut in the Gulf of Maine cod harvest, the Massachusetts congressional delegation has responded with a request for $100 million in disaster relief for New England fishermen. The quick response is… Read More
A perceptive story Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal helps explain why Congress has become an exceedingly partisan and angry place. The animosity the story describes, unfortunately, cannot be easily cured, especially under the current system used to elect members of Congress. The Journal story… Read More
The cynical reactions of Republican congressional leaders to U.S.-British airstrikes on Iraq merely confirm the obvious — partisan politics will beat statesmanship every time. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott jumped the gun — literally — by announcing several hours before the attacks began that he… Read More
A UMaine parent sends along the the following newsclipping from The Maine Campus “Sex Matters” column by Associate Professor Sandra L. Caron: “What is this new sex position that’s supposed to lead to amazing orgasms … Have you heard of it? I need details! Male, Senior”… Read More
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives goes where no House has gone in 130 years — debating and voting on the impeachment of a president. How odd and distressing that a voyage into such scarcely charted waters will end at a destination so obvious. With… Read More
The Nature Conservancy yesterday showed what commitment and access to ready money can buy in Maine. Its announced intention to purchase 185,000 acres in northwestern Maine from International Paper is both welcome news for conservation and the fourth startling example this fall of the changes taking place in… Read More
U.S. companies are finding the north more to their liking, according to a corporate site selector, because of the ready availablity of labor, the work ethic, company loyalty and the arrival of natural gas. Maine, right? googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes =… Read More
The most menacing threat to Social Security is not that it will run out of money two or three decades hence, but that members of Congress will use the current talk of reform to advance political agendas only tangentially related to protecting the retirement system. That is only… Read More
Encouraged perhaps as much by rock-bottom unemployment levels as anything else, President Clinton appears ready to give greater support to congressional measures that expand Medicaid and Medicare so people with disabilities can retain health benefits when they return to work. The idea should appeal to both Republicans and… Read More
The difference of opinion between Education Commissioner Duke Albanese and Gov. Angus King over the size of the budget for General Purpose Aid to Education is largely just part of the process of knocking together an overall state budget. But the commissioner’s budget appropriately highlights the need for… Read More
The megaships are coming. But where will they dock? So began a Nov. 22 New York Times story on the big story in the shipping business — a new generation of immense cargo ships is on the horizon, but there is not a port on… Read More
City Manager James Kotredes was to be part of the new Brewer: A busy, uptempo place that knew how to attract business, work with state and federal regulators and turn a tired spot into something grand. His surprising admission of theft when serving as Millinocket’s manager means that… Read More
You live in Belfast, Rockland or one of those charming little towns in between. You fall asleep one night in the region commonly known as Midcoast. You wake up the next morning and you’re somewhere else. A warp in the time/space continuum? Mischievious space aliens?… Read More
No organization exemplifies the spirit of the holiday season like the Salvation Army. The sidewalk Santas with their bells and kettles are just the most visible part of a yearlong effort to help the most vulnerable among keep their homes warm and food on the table. Read More
An astounding study by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services earlier this year found that Medicare pays nearly twice as much for the same drugs purchased by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The study should prod Congress to reform a system that is… Read More
Proud as a new papa, state officials this week crowed that Maine in 1997 had the lowest infant-mortality rate in the nation and perhaps lower than any other country in the world. With all the discouraging news about health-care costs and access, the low mortality rate is worth… Read More
A standing-room-only, highly emotional crowd of industry, environmental and regulatory types is expected to be on hand in Wakefield, Mass., today when the New England Fisheries Management Council meets to save the cod. With all of the interested parties in the same place at the same, this would… Read More
In the language of legalese, a tort is the connection between an injury and a wrongful act. Last week, a panel of esteemed scientists, reiterating scientific verdicts of nearly a decade, reported it found no proof a link exists between leaking silicone breast implants and disease. An injury,… Read More
The 119th Maine Legislature held its ceremonial opening Wednesday with the pomp of swearing in lawmakers, the circumstance of electing officers, the blunder of undermining the state Constitution. It does not bode well that the first official act of this Legislature is to usurp the… Read More
As if to prove that there was no sense in whining about the switch from Delta to Comair flights at Bangor International Airport, the purchase Friday by American Airlines of Business Express shows that what deregulation takes away, deregulation can bring. In this new system, these sorts of… Read More
The Public Utilities Commission will decide soon whether Maine Public Service customers will join the rest of Maine and the rest of the nation in increased competition for the sale of electricity. Its decision should rest with the idea that the logic that pushes a little state like… Read More
The Supreme Court this week let stand the most sensible course for Maine Yankee, which must hold onto its high-level waste until a federal site is found, but could sue the Energy Department because of the delay. It should. The two-part ruling from the D.C. Read More
In this season of giving, it’s good to remember those less fortunate. Like Exxon and Mobil. Don’t laugh — you try scraping by on profits of $8.4 billion. Leave some change in that tin cup taped to the gas pump. Say a prayer for higher… Read More
Poor Henry Hyde can’t catch a break. No sooner does he expand the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment inquiry to cover campaign financing than the Federal Elections Commission finds the Dole campaign at least as guilty as President Clinton’s in the 1996 race. The poor timing makes the committee… Read More
The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on whether Census 2000 should be traditional or accurate. Although the court isn’t given to tipping its hand, the indications are that the Nine Wise Ones may sit this one out. Steering clear of a fight about power and… Read More
Call him — or her — the Unknown Legislative Spouse, the unlucky person who fields constituent phone calls, takes on all the child-raising duties during the session and spends plenty of nights alone while the devoted mate settles matters of great urgency in Augusta. She — or he… Read More
Any more victories like this and Premier Lucien Bouchard will need a search party — or, better yet, a time machine — to find the “winning conditions” he wants before calling another referendum on Quebec secession. The upside of Monday’s vote for Bouchard is that… Read More
Before a 1996 Supreme Court ruling leads to compensating businesses that lost revenue from changes in the law, Congress should seek a clarification of the decision. The court’s action may cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. A plurality of the court held in the… Read More
Maine’s Republican and Democratic leaders have been awfully busy since the Nov. 3 election assuring the public — and reassuring themselves — that, despite getting humiliated by an independent in the race for governor, the state’s two official parties have everything under control. Meanwhile, Maine’s… Read More
Because the American dream more often consists of a large home on a couple acres in the countryside (but not too far from town) rather than a smaller place on a smaller lot right in town, Maine’s taxpayers must pay an additonal $50 million and $75 million a… Read More
Dr. Jack Kevorkian says he had two goals when he went on TV to cross the line between aiding in a death and causing one: to get charged with murder and to force a debate on physician-assisted suicide. In the first he succeeded, with additional… Read More
To argue that Maine rivers support a truly wild Atlantic salmon population is to be misleading; to say that a vigorously applied Endangered Species Act will restore that population is whimsical. But in threatening to sue federal agencies over Maine’s Atlantic salmon restoration plan, environmental and fishing organizations,… Read More
The overwhelming majority of Maine cider is safe, not to mention healthful and tasty. But the small chance of cider apples coming into contact with a dangerous pathogen means that consumers need to be informed about how the cider they buy was processed. It does not mean, however,… Read More
In times of crisis, when chaos stalks the land and the very fabric of society is being rent by malevolent forces, it is always wise to step back for a dispassionate assessment of the situation. So regarding the current calamity, only one conclusion can be… 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
The proposal by the State House Democratic leadership to constrain the governor’s ability to submit legislation makes sense — if the intent is to ignore the constitutional separation of powers, to make everything partisan and to create a 185th legislator. Senate President Mark Lawrence and… Read More
School officials, community leaders and parents do lots of worrying about how to keep kids from abusing drugs and alcohol. No sooner is a “revolutionary” method found to teach kids about the dangers of abuse, it seems, than a study comes up to refute its effectiveness. One program,… Read More
In his first speech since rejoining the Legislature, Rep. John Martin scolded the news media — especially large Northern Maine daily newspapers — for focusing upon personalities more than issues. The once and future Czar of Eagle Lake then outlined his political philosophy: “Reward your friends and punish… Read More
Maine dieticians gathered in Bangor last week heard Sen. Susan Collins tell one of the more frightening stories in the battle for safer foods. The story contains a couple of important points about safety, although it is not one to share around the dinner table. Read More
Readers of this newspaper’s recent three-part series on juvenile crime cannot help but be torn. Repulsed by young prison inmates such as Cote Choneska, who justifies firing six bullets into a defenseless storekeeper he didn’t know was a nice guy, or Jason Mann, who compares beating and robbing… Read More
The Breast & Osteoporosis Center opening at Eastern Maine Medical Center this weekend is a shiny new example of how excellent facilities, combined with effective government support, can make for a healthier community. The center is a welcome addition to the medical services already offered in the Bangor… Read More
It would be trite to say that the opening session of the House Judiciary Committee wasn’t jurisprudence; it was theater. Banality would be the observation that Kenneth Starr isn’t a truly independent prosecutor, he just plays one on TV. The next commentator who comments that most Americans would… Read More
It should be obvious to HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo by now that the Northeast is not going to just sit back and take getting whipped with the short end of the disaster-relief stick. In the two weeks since the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it would… Read More
The state’s Pesticide Control Board this morning was expected to consider for the second time in a year whether to allow genetically altered corn to be grown in Maine. Monsanto, which now wants to delay the proceeding, may have concluded as many in the public have that board… Read More
In 13 months and 13 days, the world will not come to an end. Long before then, the world will have had enough of this panic-for-profit Y2K business. Survivalists, always more comfortable when doomsday breathes down their necks, head for the hills. Political activists shriek… Read More
Whatever motives Florida Power and Light has for trying to escape from its $846 million deal with Central Maine Power, the decision exposes how far everyone involved in the electricity business has to go to understand the effects of deregulation. In the FPL case, this lack of knowledge… Read More
As a lesson in governance, threatening a legal business to pay now to avoid lawsuits by states in the future isn’t going to make it into the Proud Moments in American History textbook. Yet the proposed tobacco-industry settlement is evidence that the industry remains ready to deal to… Read More
Maybe Al Gore really should be the next president. Anything to keep him from pursuing a second career as a diplomat. The vice president was sent to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation annual meeting in Malaysia to announce a joint U.S./Japan $10 billion rebuilding plan… Read More
At a time when the citizenry cries out for diversity in its public institutions, when people of all walks of life demand equal access and fair representation, one body of lawmakers remains oblivious, packing its leadership positions with Southern white males. Just who do those congressional Republicans think… Read More
The variety and seriousness of problems brought about by a new law restricting access to health-care information requires legislative action this winter. Several compelling examples of the unintended effects of the law show lawmakers overreached in their effort to shield patients. Beginning Jan. 1, An… Read More
Leaders of Maine’s Democratic Party have missed no opportunity since the Nov. 3 election to congratulate themselves for retaining control of the Legislature. Lots of crowing, backslapping, high-fiving. They say they have the vision. They say they have the agenda. They say they have all… Read More
Thousands of villagers died every year from drinking the microbe-laden water fetched from small, fetid ponds. The government and an international relief agency embarked upon a massive campaign to provide safe, drilled wells. No one suspected the aquifers those wells tapped were contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic. Now,… Read More
Some Mainers might now wish that the electric line Vice President Gore grabbed during the ice storm had a little juice in it. At least it would have shocked him into remembering Maine longer than the Clinton administration appears to. Its miserly level of federal disaster relief from… Read More
The Eastern Maine Children’s Museum proposal last week to use half the available space in the Freese’s building presents a terrific educational source for the region’s children and a boost to the downtown. City councilors, who will consider the proposal during the next few weeks, have one of… Read More
Furious activity in the Persian Gulf: American warships, planes and troops converge; U.N. weapons inspectors and international relief workers evacuate; Iraq’s propaganda machine cranks. It’s time for the next showdown With Saddam Hussein. Congress suddenly wants to argue with the Clinton administration about the world’s… Read More
In less litigious times, the complaints brought by the Maine Civil Liberties Union against Maine’s Clean Elections law might have been settled outside of court. The practical problems raised with the reform are serious, but most of them can be solved without abolishing the law. Read More
Imagine the surprise organizations supporting workers’ rights would have had if the White House task force on sweatshops actually proposed international guidelines leading to a living wage for people toiling in garment factories. From a nation whose own minimum wage does not come close to being a living… Read More
The legislative commission studying the opening of a state-owned discount liquor store in Fort Kent has made the right call in opposing it. Even better is its recommendation that it might be closing time for the new bargain booze outlet in Calais. Not because there’s… Read More
Maybe we should credit John Glenn, the indomitable astronaut and World War II combat veteran; or the impact of Steven Spielberg’s powerful movie, “Saving Private Ryan”; or the fact that today marks the 90th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. Read More
Republicans in the House of Representatives are again being hectored by socially conservative members who blame recent election losses on the moderates among them. But outside their tiny circle, the only person nodding in agreement is Vice President Al Gore, who would want nothing more than to have… Read More
It took a lot of running by gubernatorial candidate Pat LaMarche to get Maine Greens back to where they were four years ago. Now, as they did after Jonathan Carter’s 1994 campaign, they can celebrate a good showing at the polls. They can plan the creation of a… Read More
1. Create and maintain a highly functional, multi-modal transportation system that connects the northern half of the state to the rest of the state, the nation, Canada and global markets. 2. Create and maintain a state-of-the-art telecommunications and engergy network to help overcome distance and… Read More
Ask Gov. Angus King to name which programs he is most proud of and he will invariably mention Learning Results, which measures education outcomes and raises the standards for most schools in Maine. One of the ideas behind Learning Results is that if Maine can identify where a… Read More
The Public Utilities Commission has had a pleasant problem with the School and Libray Network it helped create in 1995. The project to wire Maine to the Internet came in ahead of schedule with only half its $20 million spent. What to do with the leftover money?… Read More
When the new Maine Legislature convenes in January, it can have no doubts that there is one thing voters throughout the state want — a future. The $20 million bond for research and development passed Tuesday with nearly 63 percent of the vote. In any… Read More
The wonderful world of high-definition digital television flickered into view last Sunday with ABC’s “Wonderful World of Disney” broadcast of “101 Dalmatians.” This Sunday, CBS joins in with a couple of pro football games. These events are of little concern to the typical American because:… Read More
The school-choice argument heard this week by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court contains many familiar themes from cases around the country, but one that the state has yet to properly answer rings as true as a campus chapel bell. How is it, choice advocates ask,… Read More
Trying to find that silver lining in an unexpectedly gloomy Election Day, Newt Gingrich pointed to Maine’s re-election of an independent governor as an example of how the electorate has rejected Democratic policies. With that much spin, Mr. Speaker now generates his own gravitational field. Read More
Gov. Angus King not only won re-election by a huge margin, he won it big all over Maine. This change from his slim victory in ’94 should mean an end to speculation about whether an independent can influence the Legislature and start talk about how fast legislators can… Read More
The flood waters of Hurricane Mitch are receeding, revealing what Honduran President Carlos Flores Facusse calls a “panorama of death.” To others, it is a catastrophe of Biblical proportions, a hellish vision out of Dante. In Nicaragua, rescue workers hear cries coming from within the… Read More
First order of business for newly elected or re-elected legislators is to get a copy of the new Maine Policy Review and read an article by Patrick M. Dow and Ralph Townsend called “Reforming Maine’s Education Funding Process.” The piece is an excellent introduction to what certainly is… Read More
For months, the experts have been predicting a record low turnout today because Maine voters are: A) appalled at the president’s behavior; B) repelled by the investigation of that behavior; or C) uninspired by the ho-hum campaigns for governor and Congress. Disgust, backlash or boredom — choose your… Read More
Just in time for Election Day, a new, more complex view of one of the nation’s founding fathers dumps a mess of uncertainty on the White House doorstep. If Thomas Jefferson can maintain his place in history after confirmation of his affair with a slave, how about the… Read More
The great thing about Election Day is that there’s a Day After Election Day, the beginning of a brief, happy season in which partisan rhetoric and posturing gives way to earnest discussion of real issues. This year, it runs from Nov. 4 until the New Hampshire snow is… Read More
With all the talk about the Two Maines, the Other Maine, economic disparity and population shift, there is one thing that binds this state together — its single telephone area code. Good old 207. It seems like a small, technical matter, but it has significant practical and emotional… Read More
Torn by economic disparity, shifting population, bruising battles over forestry and gay rights and a growing seccessionist fever, Northern Maine sees reasons almost daily to resent the southern part of the state. More than ever, Maine needs a leader who can bring the state together again by bringing… Read More
Rep. John Baldacci may well be the hardest-working person in Maine politics. In two terms representing the 2nd Congressional District, the Bangor Democrat has proven himself to be a detail-oriented, constituent-focused consensus builder. He deserves a third term. He’s not the flashiest in the House;… Read More
Tom Allen went to Washington in 1996 after promising voters that he would work on issues that were basic to their lives: education, child care, clean water. During his two years as a representative for the 1st Congressional District, his major legislation, with the addition of campaign finance… Read More
Do you favor a $20,000,000 bond issue to improve the Maine economy by supporting innovative research and development by businesses and nonprofit and educational institutions in the fields of biotechnology, computers and other information technology, aquaculture and marine technology, forestry and agriculture and advanced materials?… Read More
Do you favor a $7,000,000 bond issue for the following purposes: (1) $3,350,000 to construct water pollution control facilities, providing the state match for $10,000,000 in federal funds; (2) $1,000,000 to protect the public health and safety and the environment by providing funds for the cleanup of tire… Read More
Like other ideas the federal government has had for storing nuclear waste, the national compacts to collect low-level wastes have looked better on paper than in practice. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should view the recent rejection of a proposed site in Texas as an opportunity to rethink the… Read More
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rose to power promising Jewish settlers he’s rather fight than cede any more territory on the West Bank. Now, his career rests on swapping land for peace. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has kept his people unified to a considerable degree… Read More
When Attorney General Andrew Ketterer initiated his Civil Rights Project for Maine schools two years ago, the purpose was to create a mechanism through which students targeted for racial, ethnic, religious or sexual reasons can alert someone of the harassment before it escalates to violence. Read More
Of all the questions candidates for governor are asked, none are more important than the ones dealing with Maine’s most vulnerable populations — the very young and very old, the infirm, the impoverished. Add to that list the people dependent on Maine’s mental-health system, which has undergone significant… Read More
Every good political campaign needs a slogan, a pithy phrase of bumper-sticker length that presents a candidate or an issue in concentrated form. “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too” worked in a pre-bumper era; “Maine is on the Move” would be a more recent hit. It gets… Read More
The pick-up trucks are of a later vintage and the tree butts on the stalled logging trucks aren’t what they used to be, but not much else at the blockades along the Maine-Canada border is different from the protests of the 1970s. Then, as now, the issue was… Read More
The $300,000 payroll of a cluster of truck stops, an official in a small Northern Maine community said the other day, grows threefold as it circulates through the local economy. Elsewhere, but nearby, a downtown revitalization project is sold on the promise that every dollar spent will become… Read More
If these land sales continue, Maine residents are going to think that any chunk of real estate under 1 million acres is hardly worth bothering about. But Irving’s announced purchase last week of nearly half of Bowater’s 2 million acres is both a recommitment in Maine to logging… Read More