Leave it to a mom who had a sick kid to come up with a serious health care plan for Maine. Pat LaMarche, the Green candidate for governor, has offered the sort of proposal Maine should have adopted years ago, before its thousands of citizens lost their insurance… Read More
The growing momentum for an east-west highway has found a strong supporter in Jim Longley, GOP candidate for governor and thorn in the side of the incumbent. Mr. Longley’s enthusiasm for the project is the kind of response east-west promoters have been looking for, in vain, from Gov. Read More
It’s hard to remember a time when boosting the self-esteem of students wasn’t a priority of educators. Committees have been formed, reports written, programs launched, grants obtained. This is important work, made all the more crucial by the myriad bad influences foisted upon kids today. Read More
The arrest of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, ruler of Chile from his 1973 military coup to his peaceful removal in 1990, is both a history lesson for U.S. interventionists and an argument for a world criminal court. Such a court could sort out the charges against a man said… Read More
With Election Day closing fast, the five-way, multi-issue race for governor lately has been dominated by two candidates and a single topic, with Republican challenger Jim Longley hammering incumbent Angus King over taxes. It’s good that Longley has focused with such singular purpose upon taxes. Read More
Politicians and officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs have debated for the last couple of years whether the erosion of services at Togus VA hospital has harmed the care vets receive. But there should be no debate about a proposed $9 million budget cut at Togus: Staff… Read More
By proclamation of President Clinton, Oct. 18-26 is — brace yourself — National Character Counts Week. It’s also National Forest Products Week. No, Mr. Clinton doesn’t know anything about trees, either. This may not be the most scintillating campaign season in Maine history, but there… Read More
Legislators, citizens and one prominent gubernatorial opponent beat on Gov. Angus King over Maine’s use of reformulated gasoline. Three weeks before the election, the governor announces the state will opt out of this federal program. Simple political capitulation, right? Wrong. Like the effects of RFG, nothing is simple… Read More
The Legislature last session decided that public utilities could bill ratepayers for the remaining costs of building or contracting for state-ordered energy sources. But before the so-called stranded costs for the prematurely quiet Maine Yankee nuclear power plant show up in electric bills, state regulators should consider why… Read More
Once again, the map tells the story — the map accompanying yesterday’s front-page report on the East-West Highway conference in St. John, New Brunswick. On the right, the bustling Canadian Maritimes, with a modern, four-lane road pushing up against Calais. On the left, mighty Montreal, with a modern,… Read More
This one may not go down in the history of strange political bedfellows, but the connection between Democratic candidate Tom Connolly and northern Maine populists is unusual even in Maine’s very unusual gubernatorial election. Mr. Connolly is an old-style Democrat who believes government can be… Read More
As the season devoted to wretched excess begins, how fitting that Congress and the White House are giving the nation a federal budget that is not separate servings of reasoned legislation but a revolting omnibus hash. Take one Halloween grab bag, an overstuffed Thanksgiving turkey and a mystery-filled… Read More
State Sen. Susan Longley says she was “like a small dog nipping at their heels.” A major state official for economic development was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as calling her a “bloodhound.” Whatever the breed, credit the Waldo County lawmaker with proving that in dealing with… Read More
Forced to chose between continuing his slaughter of Kosovo Albanians and the prospect of being on the receiving end of punishing air strikes, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic blinked Monday. Give some credit to the U.N. Security Council, some to NATO, but give most to U.S. special envoy to… Read More
While Republicans have been having a good time poking fun at President Bill Clinton for the disturbing enthusiasm he throws into raising huge wads of cash for fellow Democrats, they might keep two things in mind. Led by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, the GOP… Read More
The 300 supporters of gay rights would not have needed to march 10 miles in the rain last weekend if as much grassroots energy had been used to defeat the anti-gay referendum question last February as was expended in support of those rights Saturday. But while energy on… Read More
For Leith Wadleigh, the last straw came at one of Maine’s bigger summertime festivals. He stood with his grandchildren in the crowd that lined Main Street. He watched the fire trucks roll by, followed police cars, ambulances and a smattering of antique cars. He wondered how that soul-stirring,… Read More
After years, even decades, of neglect, the Maine Youth Center at last is the center of attention. The route has been circuitous, maybe even a bit politicized, but the destination is worth it. Police and corrections officers, judges, juvenile intake workers, lawyers, parents and inmates… Read More
Congress and the White House are paralyzed by impeachment fever. There’s no federal budget, a shutdown looms, important legislation on health care, taxation, education, the global economic crisis and a host of other vital issues languishes. The average American might well think the wheels of government have ground… Read More
No other violent crime elicits the public reaction that follows a school massacre. Not only is the killer and the killer’s family scrutinized, but the entire community comes under the media spotlight. Somebody missed something. Something was wrong. So it took extraordinary courage for Jamon… Read More
As if advantages of incumbency aren’t enough, someone involved in organizing the Portland Chamber of Commerce’s gubernatorial debate the other day gave Gov. King an added boost — an advance copy of the questions to be asked. The four challengers were good sports about it, though. The show… Read More
Gov. Angus King’s meditation released Tuesday, called The Maine Agenda, is part self-assessment of his time in office, part vision of his planned next term and part campaign brochure. Mostly, however, it is a particularly useful document to help voters form their own agendas. Not… Read More
Bad news, so the saying goes, travels on horseback. Recent developments at Bangor International Airport shows that good news sometimes hops a jet. Starting next month, Finnair, a major global airline with a reputation for first-rate service, will begin making 10 stops a week at… Read More
The announcement Tuesday that Sappi Fine Paper is selling 905,000 acres of its Maine forest lands to Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber Co. was greeted by the state’s environmenmtal organizations with reactions running the gamut from alarm to hysteria. Plum Creek responded with an olive branch. Read More
Those who worry about the depths to which this thing called modern culture can sink need worry no more. Rock bottom has been reached. From here, there’s no place to go but up. This epochal event occurred Monday night, 9 p.m. (8 Central), on the… Read More
Given its reputation as the most partisan subset of this highly partisan Congress, it is no surprise that the House Judiciary Committee voted along straight party lines Monday, 21-16, to launch an impeachment inquiry of President Clinton. By the same count, the minority Democrats lost their bid for… Read More
Under the imminent threat of NATO air strikes, Yugoslavian President/war criminal candidate Slobodan Milosevic ordered his army back to the barracks Monday, suspending for now his war on Kosovo and the systematic annihilation of its Albanian population. Why not suspend? What’s the hurry? After all,… Read More
Greetings. War has been declared over Maine’s forests and those who are not careful are going to be dragged into it, revisiting arguments of the past two years and accomplishing little. With an informative report on timber supply just released, now is the time, as… Read More
The Virgina Supreme Court last week raised disturbing questions in a right-to-die case while trying to will the law to say what it does not. The decision mirrors the public’s conflicting emotions to this difficult subject. The court Friday rejected an appeal from Gov. Jim… Read More
The half-cent reduction in the Maine sales tax last week did not send the public on a spending spree. Such restraint would be wise among those politicians now shopping for further tax cuts. Not that lower taxes aren’t a good thing at any time. They… Read More
The $20 million research and development bond going to Maine voters Nov. 3 breaks down like this: $13.5 million in seed capital for the University of Maine System; $4.5 million in start-up funds for the private sector, channeled through the Maine Science and Technology Foundation; and $2 million… Read More
After leading the Christian Civic League of Maine to considerable, even astonishing, political successes, executive director Michael Heath is leaving for a new job in Washington. While many of the 3,000 members praise Heath for his energy and determination, others blame him for the muddled condition of the… Read More
For two years running, consultants from around the country have come to Maine to assess the state’s prospects for attracting new employers. The assessment, in the jargon of the trade, is that on the big radar screen of business site location, Maine doesn’t even make a blip. Read More
Candidate for governor Jim Longley has a hard enough fight to defeat a popular incumbent without placing at the core of his campaign taxation issues that few people take the time to understand. But by combining concerns about the state’s bond trend with the planned renovation of the… Read More
Another hearing on problems at Togus and another promise of another review on the shortcomings of medical care for veterans. The congressional hearings last week on the subject were depressingly familiar, with no particular improvements in sight. By now, most vets know the score: The… Read More
The Maine Education Association — the union for teachers and university professors — naturally is free to restrict its political endorsement poll any way it wants. But it must have been chagrined when it discovered that one of the two candidates it ignored in the gubernatorial race is… Read More
Military pay lags 14 percent behind the civilian sector. More than 12,000 soldiers and sailors qualify for food stamps. Health and education benefits dwindle. Gulf War veterans are told the sickness is all in their heads. The four branches of service warn they’ll fall 10,000 recruits short this… Read More
Though it probably says more about the federal government than would make regulators comfortable, Maine officials last week celebrated the fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acted logically in a recent decision. The new EPA plan properly concluded that Maine and other Northeastern states have only partial… Read More
Look up the word “terrific” in any good dictionary, and you’ll find the preferred definition to be something like “causing terror or great fear.” Maybe that’s what Gov. Angus King had in mind last Monday when he proclaimed the Maine economy to be experiencing “really terrific growth.”… Read More
An editorial Sept. 24 did not make clear that one of the walks scheduled for Oct. 3 and 4 and sponsored by the American Diabetes Association will take place in Augusta and that another will be held Saturday, Oct. 3, in Presque Isle. Call 1-800-254-9255 for further information. Read More
The Department of Conservation’s latest report on timber supply in Maine could not be more plain: The harvesting practices for both large and small landowners are not sustainable and will lead long-term to a widespread decline of Maine’s forests. That’s the bad news. The good news is that… Read More
The latest money reports for Maine’s gubernatorial candidates show what they have shown all summer — the state has an unaffiliated governor running like a major-party candidate and a Republican and a Democrat running like contenders from the newly formed Cheapskate Party. It is a situation that might… Read More
When it was discovered a month ago that home-run slugger Mark McGwire was packing andro to get ripped (Sportspeak for ingesting androstenedione to build muscle), it looked for one brief, shining moment as though society would engage in a thoughtful debate on the true nature of athletics and… Read More
In one week, holders of individual Blue Cross health plans are going to demonstrate with their checkbooks why the debate in Congress over competing health care bills is meaningless. These holders soon will by joined by millions of Americans paying a greater portion of their incomes to ensure… Read More
After nearly three months at sea, the Viking-replica boat Snorri hit the beach at L’Anse aux Meadows Tuesday. Colorfully dressed Newfoundlanders stuffed the weary nine-man crew into a smoke-choked sod hut and fed them seal soup and squid. The nine-man crew pretty much had it… Read More
Want to work up a sweat about something truly worth getting exercised about? Then dig the old sneakers out of the closet, lace ’em up and get ready for the coming America’s Walk for Diabetes. Or, at the very least, dust off the checkbook. Diabetes… Read More
When the issue of mandating trigger locks on guns came up in Congress last year, a certain national association concerned with rifles spent considerable effort informing anyone who would listen that use of the devices created a dangerous “illusion of safety” that is part of a “continuing attempt… Read More
The nuclear-waste compact among Texas, Maine and Vermont, signed this week by President Clinton, provides only a partial answer to the huge question of nuclear waste. But it is a small relief that the low-level waste in these states will be moving out of some of the ad… Read More
Bigotry is a monster, a stupid and heartless beast that emerges from the shadows at random places and random times to cause pain for pain’s sake. This time, it’s Presque Isle. Someone, make that something, scrawled a pair of swastikas on the door of the… Read More
The wrenching tale of a man and a woman, drawn together by the inexorable power of love, hounded by a repressive, hypocritical society. Disaster, bravery and cowardice. Numbing length and numbing dialogue. Meaningful jewelry. Significant cigars. Really, about the only difference between the film “Titanic”… Read More
The proposal between Robbins Lumber Co. of Searsmont and the state to share land at Nicatous Lake in Hancock County is a terrific way for Maine to preserve open space along this beautiful lake. The deal also serves as an important lesson about the state’s long-range plans for… Read More
At first glance, it seems to be one of those odd little news items that exist to generate bemusement: Western Governors University, a highly touted, totally on-line institution of higher education expected 1,000 students in this, its first, year of operation. It has 10. Another 75 applications remain… Read More
The only thing not welcome in planning the Greater Bangor millennium celebration is a somber lecture on why the millennium doesn’t actually start until Jan. 1, 2001. Everyone already knows and almost nobody cares: The party turns on the year 2000. All other thoughts, however,… Read More
Readers of this newspaper’s six-part series, “The Two Maines: Separate but not equal,” cannot help but be left with two conclusions: Despite decades of study, government initiatives and worry, the economic chasm between the state’s southern and northern tiers only widens; and the folks hanging on in the… Read More
A band of high-tech bandits, protesting the arrest of a comrade for Internet fraud, hacked its way into the New York Times website Saturday and replaced the Gray Lady’s electronic newspaper with material of a decidedly sexual nature. Given what’s on front pages these Starr-cross’d days, you have… Read More
The Senate so burdened its budget legislation for the Department of Interior this session that the bill collapsed in a heap Wednesday after a proposal arose to add a Patients Bill of Rights to it. While Senate leaders figure out why a health care bill belongs in the… Read More
Former Alabama Gov. George Wallace was buried yesterday. The restless soul of one of the era’s most influential and tragic public figures at last is at rest. Wallace, of course, is seared into the national memory for his “segregation forever” 1963 inaugural speech, for his… Read More
Congressional Republicans have been generally cautious about how they viewed the legal questions raised in special investigator Kenneth Starr’s report, and that has worked to their political benefit. They risk ruining this advantage, however, by pressing on an already repulsed public the grand jury testimony of President Clinton. Read More
Senate leaders, who only want their fellow Americans to have the best government money can buy, were in a jam. The House had revolted, as had a slim majority from their own chamber. Soft-headed elements of the press and the public persisted in referring to those whose generosity… Read More
Most Senate Republicans view the death of campaign-finance reform as a victory, but at least one well-heeled group of adversaries will use it as an excuse to put their money where their cigarettes might be. Trial lawyers, helped by the GOP’s move to kill federal tobacco legislation and… Read More
Special investigator Kenneth Starr laid out his case to Congress and the American people last week: President Clinton lied extensively and in a variety of ways and sought help from friends to hide an extramarital affair. Congress, which has been notable all year for what it hasn’t accomplished,… Read More
The tourism season now winding down may turn out to be the best ever. While the bottom-line sales tax numbers won’t be added up for some time, early returns — Turnpike traffic and state park usage — suggest 1998 will be a record-breaker. But, as… Read More
In a preview of state legislative debate next session, an environmental group tried to make a point last week about toxins in Maine’s rivers. Its report was a great chance to tell Maine residents about the condition of their rivers. Too bad the message got lost in the… Read More
The $4 million in state money recently delivered for university research is at once an amazing 700 percent increase in this type of funding and sad evidence of a state that has yet to understand how important these investments have become. The offical start this week of a… Read More
Anyone looking for Maine’s 1998 gubernatorial campaign can find what little there is of it bright and early Monday morning at 807 Minot Ave. in Auburn. There, at the J.L. Hayes Hardware Co., perhaps clerking behind the counter or maybe stocking shelves, will be Pat… Read More
UMaine President Peter Hoff took a fair amount of heat earlier this year for his emphasis on cultural diversity in his plan called BearWorks. Now, a couple of well-respected educators indirectly support his ideas in a book on affirmative action. Derek Bok and William G. Read More
Back when the subject of abortion was debated on moral and religious grounds, opponents could disagree while understanding how each arrived at a position. Now that abortion is a vehicle for fund-raising there is no room for understanding because understanding doesn’t bring in the bucks or whip up… Read More
He’s caused pain in his marriage. He’s admitted to an improper relationship with a woman who was a workplace subordinate. He’s sorry for what he did, but not as sorry as he says those who exposed his shenanigans should be. No, he’s not Bill Clinton. Read More
It may take up to a year for Canadian authorities to determine why the Cat and the Lady Megan II collided in Yarmouth harbor last Friday, taking the life of a Nova Scotia fisherman. It should not take Maine nearly that long to reassess the place of high-speed… Read More
The Senate’s time-honored tradition of making mischief by attaching amendments — called riders — to appropriations bills reaches its height this week with a funding bill for the Department of the Interior. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, however, has offered an amendment of his own that does away… Read More
Mark McGwire smashed his record-tying 61st home run of the season Monday. Fans everywhere cheered into their TV sets. A packed Busch Stadium erupted in joy. Roger Maris’s sons were there to join in the celebration. Sammy Sosa, McGwire’s rival in this home run derby, applauded from right… Read More
Opinion polls are often described as mere snapshots of public sentiment. If so, a new survey regarding the upcoming $20 million bond referendum to bring Maine into the modern era of research and development presents one very ugly picture. Four hundred potential voters were polled… 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
The United States and Canada in the 1980s and ’90s hold extended negotiations to lower the borders on trade. Diplomats on both sides spend thousands of hours ironing out differences to ease delivery of lumber, agricultural products, beer and a dozen other items. Tourism departments in states and… Read More
Though still a favorite topic of consumer-interest groups and editorialists, campaign-finance reform has slipped from the public’s outrage list, if it ever occupied a place there. That’s too bad, because Congress is as close as it has ever been to passing meaningful reform at a time when it… Read More
Webber Energy Fuels and its president, Larry Mahaney, have been extraordinarily generous to Maine students over the years, contributing more than $1 million to scholarships and other education programs. A recent $300,000 research grant continues that highly commendable record. It’s not the gift, but the… Read More
Congratulate a governor whose biggest problem nine weeks from an election is that he did not sign a document welcoming a protected species into his state. Only the conspiracy-minded would conclude that Gov. Angus King’s recent decision to call back a mistakenly approved “Wolf Awareness Week” proclamation was… Read More
Of all the reassuring myths about small-town America, none is more willingly accepted than the idea that family and neighbors there know and care about each other, that in moments of need the folks next door always can be counted on. It is a belief accepted not only… Read More
For the third time in just two years, the residents of Topsail Island, N.C., are cleaning up after a hurricane. Really cleaning up. Hurricanes Bonnie, last week, and Fran and Bertha in 1996 caused about $125 million in damage to homes, roads and man-made dunes… Read More
A new study by one of the nation’s most esteemed universities finds that excessive use of the Internet turns normal, sociable and well-adjusted people into sullen, depressed, hollow-eyed loners. The technology companies that funded the study cast doubt upon the research, not upon their self-promoting assumptions. Read More
Having been pummeled by union attack ads during his ’96 congressional race, Jim Longley knows more than most about campaign ethics. However, his hesitation to sign an ethics pledge as the GOP gubernatorial candidate — a pledge all other major candidates gladly signed last month — is understandable. Read More
Maine’s supreme court a year ago sided with the Department of Environmental Protection and told an Appleton resident to tear down a dam that had been illegally built, disrupted aquatic life and was flawed in design. For a number of reasons, the dam is still holding back water… Read More
A weakened President Bill Clinton begins a summit today with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, whose government is falling further into chaos by the day. Given their circumstances and the fact that it is too late to simply call off their meeting, they should instead scrap whatever agreements they… Read More
The reaction after the recent opinion by Canada’s Supreme Court on the right of Quebec to secede from the nation was that the court sided, at different points, with both sides. But a closer look suggests supporters of Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard are likely to spend this fall… Read More
Despite a new poll giving him a whopping 55 percent of the vote in a five-way race and an approval rating nudging 110 percent, Gov. Angus King is taking nothing for granted and promises a vigorous campaign. None of his opponents could be reached for comment, mostly because… Read More
Cod recovery or collapse. Lobster boom or bust. Urchin industry or tapped-out gold rush. Clam flats or empty mud. An ocean on the mend or forever damaged. Fishing village or summer colony. The first six installments of this newspaper’s seven-part series, “Changes in the Gulf,”… Read More
Two years ago, the consumer-electronics industry lobbied Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to get moving on the nation’s conversion to digital television, promising that the new truer-than-life high definition TV sets would cost $2,500 or so for starters, then drop rapidly. Early this year,… Read More
District Court Judge James MacMichael made a thoughtful and appropriate decision this week over the fate of a 4-year-old boy who has HIV and whose mother refuses to subject him to further drug therapy. But the truly difficult decisions lie ahead for the court and for a family… Read More
Without the Red Square parades of Soviet troops to keep Americans attuned to events in Moscow, it is difficult to see immediately the problems a weakened and confused Boris Yeltsin presents to the United States. But this country has an important stake in seeing the reforms initiated under… Read More
From their vantage point at I-95’s last exit, it is understandable for Houlton officials to worry about what an east-west highway and an extension of the interstate would bring. But before the town council takes a formal stand against change, it should consider what it would preserve. Read More
Presented with the problem of urban blight, the Bangor City Council this week did what Bangor city councils have done for the last 30 years: Allow developers to demolish the offending buildings, erect a cookie-cutter megastore and pave everything else. The council’s action emphasizes what Bangor has become… Read More
Candidate Angus King was appalled while campaigning in 1994 that Maine ranked 43rd among states in federal research funding. He pledged to change that with a massive program of investment in R&D. Four years later, Maine ranks 49th in funding and his funding pledge has so far come… Read More
When Roger Maris was chasing Babe Ruth’s home-run record back in 1961, the nation’s sandlots, corner bars and living rooms were gripped in fevered debate. Were 61 dingers in 162 games as good as 60 in 154? Was the ball livelier and the pitching weaker? Did the cooler,… Read More
The news last week that as many as 2 million North Koreans may have died during three years of famine and that the North Korean government, according to U.S. intelligence sources, may be risking its aid deal by covertly building an underground nuclear complex is an infuriating turn… Read More
If Attorney General Janet Reno was looking for a new reason to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate questionable campaign-financing practices by the White House, she reportedly has found it in the person of Vice President Al Gore. His alleged involvement in shifting soft money to help the… Read More
A case won this week before the Maine Human Rights Commission was the easy part for a Brewer man with a mental disability. The more difficult part lies in U.S. District Court — and beyond — as he seeks to overcome the stigma that surrounds mental illnesses. Read More
If there’s anything more irritating than reading another person’s mail, it would have to be sharing another person’s mail with a few million other snoops. Especially when the culprit writes the letter in question and fills it with truly bad ideas. So Ralph Nader, consumer… Read More
The immediate reaction to President Bill Clinton’s decision to bomb suspected terrorist encampments in Afgahnistan and Sudan is one based on cynicism: He ordered the military strike to distract from his troubles with Kenneth Starr’s investigation. But hold your fire. There is too little information to draw those… Read More
Edward Hopper made the Two Lights Lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth easily more famous than other lighthouses that once illuminated the coast. The best-known of his paintings of the lighthouse hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it has been widely admired. The painting has made Two Lights… Read More
Getting there from here — there being Canada — could get easier under a pilot program taking place at four border crossings in Aroostook County. Automated monitoring equipment being placed there later this month is expected to save time and simplify trips for Mainers. The… Read More