Here’s the election-year headline congressional Republicans want: “Dems shun tornado victims.” And in smaller type: “Troops in Bosnia, Persian Gulf left in the lurch.” Here’s what they’ll get if they persist in using disaster relief for political purposes: “GOP embarrasses itself — again.” googletag.cmd.push(function ()… Read More
Like a little gray cloud scuttling along on an otherwise blue-sky summer day, here comes a revival of the debate about skin cancer and the protection provided by sunscreens. Takes the joy right out of backyard lounging. Of course, having good information about protection against… Read More
George Mitchell, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Gerry Adams, David Trimble, Bertie Ahern: These well-known, even famous, names offer Northern Ireland something strange and new — the opportunity for peace. Former Sen. Mitchell persevered for three years, keeping the negotiations alive when the smallest details conspired… Read More
Snow & Nealley President David Nealley recently expressed his frustration about the dearth of state help for Maine’s small businesses. It is understandably difficult for small-business owners to find the time to check out the various programs that might help them, but, in fact, many do exist. Read More
After much agonizing, Maine’s underpaid and overworked lawmakers wrapped up their session by killing a proposal to set up an independent citizen panel to study legislative compensation. The capitol was torn. The Senate, concerned that $9,000 a year isn’t enough to attract a representative sampling… Read More
Knocking down old buildings to make way for new ones seemed like a great idea 40 years ago when Bangor jumped into urban renewal. Turned out, however, that some of those old buildings held the city’s character, and when they were carted off to the landfill, the character… Read More
The Op-Ed Page today welcomes a new columnist, prepares for the return of another and says good-bye to an old friend. We hope the readers enjoy the changes. Sean Faircloth, a former state representative and senator, makes his debut as a columnist on today’s page. Read More
Bucksport has a policy enacted to save money. Bucksport has a police officer and a dispatcher who acted to save a life. Now, town officials must choose which takes priority and, sadly, they seem to be putting the policy first. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More
Pity the tobacco companies. Last spring, they thought they had cut a great deal with the attorneys general of 40 states. They follow that up by making a record $4.4 million in political contributions. Then they find out that, every once in a while, the United States Congress… Read More
As communities around Maine struggle with how to protect their children when child molesters are released from prisons into their midst, it might be useful to begin with this thought: Notification is an extreme action, one not taken for any other type of crime. It is also an… Read More
The Cumberland County Superior Court is expected to hear a school choice case tomorrow that reflects an evolution in the way the nation views church and state issues surrounding school funding. Its outcome isn’t likely to cause major changes nationally, but it may give some Maine families a… Read More
A Bates College student, accused of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others, has withdrawn from school and hopped a bus home. Another, accused of sexually assaulting two women, had a closed hearing last weekend before the college’s conduct committee and, for what in… Read More
In Washington’s lull between the farewell party for Paula Jones and the denouement of the Monica Lewinsky Story of the Century, some lawmakers are trying to sneak in a debate about reforming Social Security. With a little encouragement from the public, they might produce something of substance. Read More
Maine state senators last week listened to the horror stories about how requiring businesses to reduce toxic emissions could drive them into bankruptcy. Then they looked at the actual experiences of businesses thriving under the law since 1990 and voted overwhelmingly in support of this important program. Read More
Kids postulate the darndest hypotheses: Two years ago, at the tender age of 9, Emily Rosa conducted a school science fair experiment debunking the alternative treatment known as therapeutic touch. Today, the 11-year-old Colorado lass is the toast of the medical establishment as the youngest researcher to be… Read More
The U.S. Postal Service may have its shortcomings in areas related to the actual delivery of mail, but the federal agency is without peer when it comes to being silly. So it is with the raging dispute between Maine’s two Woodlands, one in Aroostook County,… Read More
Pity the neighbors of Bucksport who find trouble just beyond that town’s boundaries and no one to help but a Bucksport police officer. Nothing wrong with the officers, you understand. They just aren’t allowed to cross the boundary to lend a hand. Police officers have… Read More
If there really is a proverbial shelf on which countless state reports gather dust, legislators should visit it and pull down one from 1984 with the unpromising title of “Maine State Bond Policy.” Not only is it an excellent primer on the state’s indebtedness, the report accurately predicts… Read More
Congress is beginning to get serious about reducing smoking among children, and, boy, is Big Tobacco fuming. The latest proposals in the Senate show how easily the industry would have gotten off with an earlier proposal from 40 states. Now Congress needs to build support for real reform… Read More
President Clinton, in the opinion of Judge Susan Webber Wright, may be boorish and offensive, but he’s no sexual predator. The most surprising thing about the Arkansas jurist’s dismissal of the Paula Jones case Wednesday is that anyone is all that surprised. Mrs. Jones is… Read More
Once again, Democrats have used their majority muscle to shove through a one-sided budget. Once again, Republicans are miffed at being made bystanders to a $280 million decision. They should be miffed, as should all Mainers. The problem with this parliamentary power play is not… Read More
South Carolina Gov. David Beasley is worried. One of the three research universities in his state attracted a mere $80 million in grants last year. To improve the situation, he wants to direct more funding to areas within the University of South Carolina so that it can expand… Read More
It took Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott months of slow, tortuous filibusters and poisonous amendments to kill campaign finance reform. If it is possible to admire a shameful act well done, House Speaker Newt Gingrich deserves grudging praise for burying it in a mere 40 minutes of parliamentary… Read More
It’s harder to slip items into the state budget than the federal ledger. Harder, but not impossible. Here’s a small one that might be appropriate in a couple of months but should make legislators uncomfortable now. The Department of Conservation had been leasing to the… Read More
A pop quiz in clout: South Dakota has but one congressman, same as North Dakota. In the bloated highway bill working its way through the House, South Dakota is down for $60 million in special projects, six times that of its nearly identical twin. Minnesota… Read More
The average American has a pretty fair notion of what constitutes an emergency. Most often it has something to do with nature run amok, with shivering in the dark, with water up to the eyebrows, with buildings reduced to rubble. Lives are lost or at least in peril. Read More
If Maine had a nickel for every lawmaker who said something must be done with the state’s atrocious juvenile corrections system, the system would no longer be atrocious. Maine does have those nickels — they’re part of the $300 million-plus revenue surplus spilling out of… Read More
You might think a bill that streamlined the environmental permitting process, cut paperwork and reduced duplication of effort for municipalities and industry would be well-received in the Legislature. Think again. LD 1836, which strengthens the Department of Environmental Protection’s wastewater permitting program and removes inconsistencies… Read More
How anyone in Augusta can prattle on about helping Maine’s economy grow while eviscerating the most promising investment this part of the state has seen in decades is a mystery. But the State House is full of such contradictions. Like this one. Democrats last session… Read More
This is the time for legislators to get out their calculators and start totaling up the spending in Augusta. In addition to properly funding research and development through the university system, there are a few are particularly important proposals in the budget that should be supported next week… Read More
When Dan Tourtelotte helped write legislation to boost the state’s whitewater rafting industry, when he testified in its behalf before the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, he did so as a major in the Maine Warden Service, as its acting chief. What Tourtelotte knew and… Read More
Imagine a court case in which an unnamed defendent is accused by the state of serious crimes but is found not guilty by a judge. The state then insists on keeping the name of the vindicated hidden for his own good. Sounds hard to believe, but the Legislature… Read More
The House yesterday showed it is content to study the issue of forestry for another few years, hoping that the accumulated mass of evidence will someday produce a consensus on what ought to be done. Based on the current legislative session, Maine could be waiting a long, long… Read More
With the governor and 161-8 vote by the House and Senate on its side, property tax relief through a homestead exemption seems a virtual done deal, at least in principle. Now come the details, and there are a few devils to be worked out. The… Read More
The lopsided 100-35 vote Monday by which the House rejected an attempt to defeat the Passamaquoddy fishing rights bill shows a substantial majority of representatives truly want to improve the sour relationship between the state and the tribe. But the arguments used against the measure suggest Maine has… Read More
What shape an east-west highway takes and where, precisely, it goes can make a huge difference in whether it is just another road or becomes an avenue of economic growth. The state’s proposal to assess the various ideas for the highway is an encouraging start to what should… Read More
Legislators have known for years that they have passed on the mandate to fund education to local property taxpayers. Now that the state has a money surplus created, in part, by shifting education costs, lawmakers are willing to pretend that almost nothing can be done to reimburse the… Read More
In this muddled case of Jones, Lewinsky, Willey et al., events of this past weekend cleared up two things: When it comes to humor, Bill Clinton is no Ronald Reagan, much less a Henny Youngman; when it comes to an understanding of sexual equality in the workplace, neither… Read More
The Presidential Council on HIV/AIDS is absolutely right — President Clinton’s reluctance to allow federal funds to be used for programs that exchange a drug addict’s dirty syringe for a clean one is pure politics. Which is why the council’s furious assault on the boss… Read More
Another positive development in the rebirth of Bangor last week gives this city hope that it can remain more than a home for a mall and discount megastores. A tentative plan for Eastern Maine Healthcare to build offices at the old waterworks buildings should cheer residents who feared… Read More
The effort to turn concern about the economic decline of northern Maine from hand-wringing into action gained two valuable allies this week: Sen. Rick Bennett, who went from skeptic to supporter of an east-west highway; and the U.S. Census Bureau, which added a new batch of predictable numbers… Read More
Lawmakers on the Health and Human Services Committee have shaped an important bill that would improve the confidentiality of health care records. The Maine Psychological Association, however, raises an important point about a small section of the bill. A change there could save both health care providers and… Read More
Tennessee, a state of surpassing beauty and friendly folk, also is a place steeped in history, from the early days of Andy Jackson to the last sighting of Elvis. Too bad that appreciation of the past hasn’t pervaded the governor’s mansion. Gov. Donald Sundquist objects… Read More
When the homeless might be safer on the streets than in Maine shelters, is there any question that something is wrong? A bill before legislators gives them a chance to do right by this segment of society — a population many people would rather not think about. Read More
The failure of a legislative committee to fully support meaningful forestry reform is a blunder of significant consequences. Considering what they finally produced, committee members could have saved everyone time by simply sending an invitation to environmentalist Jonathan Carter to get his referendum machine cranked up again. Read More
Judith McGaw is a history professor with an intriguing theory. The University of New England academic posits that the reason women don’t like technology (her generalization, not ours) is because of the brassiere. This fundamental piece of epidermal engineering, she says, has so consistently let women down in… Read More
In the spring of 1971, the plant manager of what today is HoltraChem in Orrington pledged that if the facility were required to meet mercury-discharge laws, it would be forced to close. Now, 27 years and several plant owners later, the Legislature will again consider a bill that… Read More
A little more than a year ago, Maine lost one of its most famous summer folk when Dr. Benjamin Spock sold his Camden home to carry on his fight against failing health and mounting medical bills. On Monday, the world lost one of its most inspiring citizens, a… Read More
The filing period for signatures closed today for gubernatorial candidates and it’s clear that one political party had better things to do. Democrats should be embarrassed by their failure to field a strong candidate. Gov. Angus King, an independent, is ready to run. The Republicans… Read More
Legislators this week are scheduled to consider a higher-education bill that is important to everyone in Maine, even if their school years are decades behind them. The bill sets out to change how the state treats scholarship funding for its public universities and would establish a more meaningful… Read More
The House Banking Committee opened hearings recently on a bill to overturn a Supreme Court ruling favoring banks over credit unions. While the legislation seems assured of passage, bank officials raised important points about the civic responsibility that comes with tax-exempt status. Banks and thrifts… Read More
The preliminary report by the Maine Commission on Secondary Education, a panel of educators charged with putting some meat on the bones of Learning Results, got something less than an overwhelming endorsement from Gov. King the other day. The commission shouldn’t feel bad, though — it took the… Read More
The choice is simple and desperate: Buy a needed prescription drug for a heart ailment or pay the light bill; choose blood-pressure medicine or food. For some poor elderly in Maine, it’s a calculated risk — sometimes they take their medicine and sometimes they eat, and the result… Read More
Don’t be surprised if 18 state senators start showing up for work with bad shaves or crooked lipstick. They may not want to look at themselves in the mirror after what they did to Allen Leech. The Allen Leech, age 3, who was seriously injured… Read More
A legislative task force recently documented what many parents already knew: The most dramatic learning years for a child are the earliest. Lawmakers next week will have the chance to support a bill that does something useful with this information so that the greatest number of Maine children… Read More
The only strategic reason to expand NATO as the Clinton administration has proposed is to defend against a politically and militarily weak Russia. Though inclusion in the alliance may encourage growing democracies, the Senate would better serve the long-term interests of this country by rethinking this plan. Read More
Two equally matched competitors on one level playing field: The Maine Department of Transportation got the lineup exactly right in restructuring its plan for a modern cargo port at Mack Point. MDOT announced Tuesday it is teaming up with both of the Searsport pier owners… Read More
Though it is nowhere mentioned, HoltraChem Manufacturing Co. is entirely the target of a governor’s bill circulating this week in the Legislature. After the company’s safety foulups, that’s understandable. The bill takes the sensible step of giving the Orrington plant a timetable for coming into compliance with current… Read More
The most surprising result from a series of public meetings last fall on a gubernatorial panel’s sweeping plan to reduce waste and redundancy in county and municipal government was the emergence of a strong constituency for waste and redundancy. So today, the Task Force on… Read More
Before the Legislature gets too bent out of shape debating the merits, or demerits, of raising the state minimum wage beyond the federal level, from $5.15 to $5.40, it should pause long enough to reach some agreement on just what that measly 25 cents is supposed to do. Read More
If 25 percent of all serious bicycle accidents involve head injuries, and if 80 percent of those head injuries are fatal, what percent of all serious bicycle accidents result in fatal head injuries? Stumped? So were nearly half of the American high school seniors who… Read More
The test for a $10 million bond proposal for public land being heard today in the Legislature is simple: How well has the previous bond money been spent? By that measure, the answer is clear. Lawmakers should enthusiastically support the new request. If passed, the… Read More
Though an effort to take back Bath Iron Works’ $60 million tax gift failed recently, legislators frustrated with the way the tax break was presented last session have a chance to unload the gun many felt was placed to the heads when they were told to either support… Read More
Here’s the bottom line right up top: Maine, awash in a $300 million revenue surplus, owes some big debts. It owes its high school graduates the opportunity to go to college. It owes its younger students and their communities better support for local education. It owes itself a… Read More
It seems Congress’ resolve to keep kids from looking at pornography on the Internet is exceeded only by its determination not to trust parents, schools and libraries with the responsibility. First, there was the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which made it illegal to transmit… Read More
It’s been almost a year, March 23 to be exact, since Gary Sledzik got drunk and went for a drive. Three motorists called state police to warn them about the careening pickup roaring down the turnpike. State police failed to try to stop Sledzik during his 42-mile wild… Read More
The latest version of a proposed federal regulatory reform act is full of new quirks and gimmicks, but at heart contains the same strategy as the faulty original: Stop government regulators by overwhelming them with piles of paperwork while inviting lobbyists to meddle with health and safety laws. Read More
One of the purposes of the recently defeated state gay rights law was to bring greater acceptance and understanding of the idea that, however one felt about homosexuality, gay Mainers deserved all the rights and freedoms granted to heterosexuals. It’s an important idea, but one that may be… Read More
The State House is full of dead white guys. Even worse, it’s full of dead, white politician and lawyer guys. That’s not a cynical assessment of the current Legislature, but an inventory of the 90 portraits that adorn Maine’s most important public building. Eighty-eight pale… Read More
With what it calls its Brain Gain bill and similar legislation, Nebraska offers a lesson and a warning to Maine, where the Legislature continues its struggle to understand why educating its students and encouraging high-tech industry is crucial to the success of this state’s people. Read More
The tobacco settlement being considered by Congress this week is a bad deal for the nation, not merely because it lets the tobacco industry off cheaply but because it provides no penalties for the industry’s leaders, who have misled the public and lied to Congress. Read More
The early bird gets released on its own recognizance: 60 peace activists showed up at Bath Iron Works Saturday to disrupt the launching of an Aegis destroyer, unaware the ship isn’t due to set sail until March 28. The 15 arrested for trespassing reportedly were polite and cooperative,… Read More
Gov. King’s new proposal to severely limit emissions of mercury, while aimed at all industries, clearly is, as he said in announcing the plan Thursday, “a cocked gun” pointed at HoltraChem. And the Orrington company, if it would stop acting so picked on and abused… Read More
It’s hard to say which is more offensive — Congress’ abrupt about face on the line-item veto or the reasons given for overriding President Clinton’s scratching of $287 million in military construction projects. For years, for decades, forever it seems, members of Congress, especially the… Read More
As discouraging as it is that campaign finance reform got filibustered once again in the Senate last week, there is reason for hope. Bipartisan support is growing, a majority of 51 was reached. Evidence of corruption, abuse and influence-peddling mounts. And, perhaps best of all, opponents are down… Read More
The Supreme Court decision Wednesday limiting credit union membership to people with something in common found a 1982 federal regulation to be in conflict with the underlying 1934 law. Now it’s up to Congress to fix the underlying law. The 5-4 ruling essentially says members… Read More
Massive undertakings are best carried out, as our friend Shakespeare advised, with one fell swoop, with one killing blow; quick, clean and certain. Gov. King’s massive undertaking — a $180 million plan to rebuild the state’s dilapidated, inefficient and altogether dreadful prison system — has… Read More
Last fall, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Maine Pulp & Paper Association were strolling hand-in-hand in support of the Compact for Maine’s Forests — the late Compact for Maine’s Forests. So on Wednesday, NRCM releases a poll proving that some 84 percent… Read More
Superior Court Justice Donald Alexander pulled off a deft piece of jurisprudence Tuesday when he ruled that petitions for a medical marijuana referendum, though late, must be processed. Now it’s up to Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky to turn in some solid secretary of stating… Read More
Three proven companies, two worthy bids, one lucrative state subsidy — even the arithmetically challenged can see a flaw in the Department of Transportation’s plan for a cargo terminal at Mack Point. Tilting the playing field, creating winners and losers, on the taxpayers’ dime is a tricky business. Read More
The U.S. House of Representatives rarely behaves in a unanimous way — even the declaration of war against Japan in 1941 had a lone dissenter — so when it does march in lockstep, something is afoot. Such as the 409-0 vote the other day supporting… Read More
If it weren’t so serious, what’s going on over at HoltraChem would be funny. If it weren’t so serious. Take the latest incident at the Orrington plant whose primary enterprise seems to be the spilling and spewing of hazardous substances. Please googletag.cmd.push(function () { //… Read More
Over the next few days, the United States will dissect the deal, Iraq will crow that all it needed was an impartial intermediary, the United Nations will bask in the afterglow of successful diplomacy. Three faces saved — not a bad weekend’s work for Secretary General Kofi Annan. Read More
Maine Yankee’s decision last week to sue the U.S. Department of Energy was the result of long years of frustration over the hotest political issue surrounding nuclear power: where to put the waste. The suit might not get Yankee officials what they say they want but it does… Read More
What Medicare will or will not cover is of immense importance to older Americans. The extent of coverage for, say, home health care or prescriptions can make a huge difference in the health and budgets of millions of Americans. So anytime the system can save a few dollars… Read More
The problem is small for Bangor, and a little embarrassing. It’s the sort of thing you might chuckle about if it occurred far away. Try as it might, the city has yet to be able to rid itself of nude-dancing establishments and all the unlovely activity that goes… Read More
Thomas Varnum spent four years in Maine State Prison for raping two nine-year-old boys. Released on probation in 1996, he knocked about here and there for a while, settling in Tremont last summer. On Dec. 29, fliers bearing his likeness and his offense appeared around town, posted by… Read More
When a GOP filibuster left McCain-Feingold stuck in a ditch last fall, Senate Democrats came up with a cunning plan to get it moving again — tie the promise of a straight up-or-down vote on campaign finance reform to the utterly unrelated highway bill. No senator in his… Read More
Lawmakers who toured University of Maine science labs the week before last said they were impressed by the quality, scope and promise of the research going on there. Gov. King took the same field trip a few days ago. He also was impressed. Impressed is… Read More
As President Clinton gropes for additional reasons to bomb Iraq, he makes dangerous assumptions about the effect of his threats and, potenially, actions. Before he orders the missiles to be fired, he should explain what he hopes to gain by trying to punish a leader who, unlike him,… Read More
It takes a champion greyhound a shade more than 30 seconds to tear around the race track. It should take the Legislature not much longer to tear up a proposal allowing greyhound wagering at the state’s off-track betting parlors. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Marc… Read More
Republicans said five. Democrats said six. The governor sided with Republicans: a 5 percent increase for school funding next year, 2 percent higher than what legislators approved before they learned Maine would be swimming in surplus cash. It’s not enough. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More
Today’s Op-ed page has been cleared of its usual offerings to make room for an introduction to the health of Maine’s inland fishing. It’s a topic of high interest to fishermen, and its affect on natural areas and state finances and tourism may surprise nonfishermen. Read More
Get out the vote (if it’s not too much trouble): In trying to explain away their stunning loss at the polls last week, gay rights leaders pinned the blame for their lackluster campaign on the ice storm last month. Apparently, all was sunny on the anti’s victorious side… Read More
Advocates for the homeless last legislative session proposed a bill with great intentions and a $2 million fiscal note. Lawmakers accepted the great intentions but stripped away the money, leaving the bill seemingly useless. Turns out that great intentions can produce good results — the bill reconfigured and… Read More
One referendum down, 13 referendums to go. Anyone who thought the people’s veto of the gay rights law was a mere smudge on the big picture of representative democracy will think again come November. There now are 13 citizen-initiative petitions circulating statewide, a full baker’s… Read More
Three companies want to join the state in building and operating a new cargo terminal at Mack Point in Searsport; only one will be chosen. How the Department of Transportation answers the “who” question is important, but just as crucial is the “how.” Two of… Read More
Of course a federal judge was bound to decide that Casey Martin should be able to ride a cart while competing on the Professional Golf Association tour. Of course the Americans with Disabilites Act must supercede the PGA’s sweat-stained rulebook. It was a gimme. Martin… Read More
If this year’s State of the Judiciary speech by Chief Justice Daniel Wathen has the impact of the 1997 version, expect something more than just talk about juvenile crime. The centerpiece of last year’s annual address to legislators was Wathen’s plan to create a District… Read More
The biggest environmental success in Maine this decade was brought off not by Birkenstock-clad protesters but by the work-boot, hard-hat and pin-stripe crowds of business and industry. Since 1990, they have reduced toxic pollution well beyond state requirements and made Maine a healthier place to live. They have… Read More