Thursday’s meeting between Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Prime Minister Tony Blair led to nothing of substance — no peace plan, no agreement on reunification, no accord on amnesty. All it produced was the one thing Northern Ireland needs at this moment above all else — hope. Read More
When the Maine State Academy of Hair Design shut its doors last summer, leaving hundreds of trainees in the lurch and owing hundreds of thousands in refunds, the U.S. Department of Education was roundly criticized, not just for bungling its oversight of the school’s student loan program, but… Read More
If viewed with one eye shut, the impending federal rules to reduce drastically the cod harvest in the Gulf of Maine looks like the right move at the right time. Open both eyes and things start to look a bit blurry. Yes, the National Marine… Read More
A nation that promises a sport utility vehicle in every driveway is not a nation prepared to do anything but talk tough about air pollution. Vice President Gore started his trip to Kyoto barely willing to do even that, instead offering a confusion of proposals he called “flexibility.”… Read More
When Attorney General Janet Reno announced last week she would not appoint an independent counsel to investigate campaign finance abuses in the Clinton administration, the worst her critics could come up with was that the decision was based upon a too-narrow application of the law. Read More
With the start of the 1998 legislative session less than a month away, there are encouraging signs that the state’s $185 million revenue surplus will be given nonpartisan treatment. What’s discouraging are signs that the prime beneficiary of this novel approach to government will be… Read More
An exciting proposal before the Bangor School Committee tonight would add Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen to the staff of Bangor High — at least for a day or two a year — as well as give a local middle school a new name. The plan is… Read More
To prevent another outbreak of gruesome and fatal mad cow disease, British health authorities announce their intention to ban the sale of bone-in beef cuts after the first of the year. To show their gratitude for being shielded from harm, British consumers promptly dash out to grab up… Read More
That a single family’s concerns about Shaw House could generate weeks of community discussion and debate shows the difficult position Shaw House has placed itself in. To continue to operate with anything like widespread support in Bangor, it needs an extraordinary education campaign and a renewed commitment to… Read More
The banns have been published, the happy couple has plighted its troth, but before Bath Iron Works and Ingalls Shipbuilding get too connubial about this new Navy destroyer deal, Maine taxpayers just might have a few questions before they forever hold their peace and shell out $60 million… Read More
Say CarTest to certain Maine drivers and stand back while they fume over a program that was supposed to result in cleaner cars but instead produced frustrated motorists. CarTest is gone, but the federal clean-air requirement that created it is not. The state, understandably hoping to avoid a… Read More
Fifty-six years ago tomorrow — Dec. 7, 1941 — Japanese dive bombers shattered a quiet Hawaiian Sunday morning with their attack on Pearl Harbor. As such events recede into the past, they often become remembered only in round-numbered anniversaries and eventually forgotten, but that must not be so… Read More
Speaker Elizabeth Mitchell’s $17 million plan to repair, restore and retrofit the State House is ambitious. And it’s about time someone showed some ambition regarding the dreadful condition of Maine’s most important public building. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var… Read More
Attorney General Janet Reno’s decision to reject Republican demands for an independent councel to inspect White House fund-raising activities was logical based on the narrowness of her inquiry, but leaves many larger questions unanswered. And even more troubling than her decision was the tremendous amount of work necessary… Read More
The Board of Environmental Protection is expected to consider Dec. 17 an agreement between the state and HoltraChem Manufacturing, the state’s largest generator of mercury-contaminated waste. Though the deal is both far reaching and expensive for the company, a key question for board members is whether it will… Read More
The death of Charles M. Sullivan yesterday saddened Bangor and left it without one of its leading citizens, a man who for a quarter century gave so much of his time, expertise, humor and good sense to the city. His civic and academic contributions will be remembered and… Read More
An advisory board charged by Gov. King with redesigning Maine’s bloated prison system has until the end of the month, just two more meetings, to develop its recommendations. The first of those meetings is today. This usually would be the time to wrap things up,… Read More
The world’s attention now is riveted upon Kyoto, Japan, and the global warming conference. The world has this bad habit of frittering away its attention on such fruitless enterprises. Not that the world needn’t reduce, in a big way, its output of greenhouse gasses. That… Read More
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s proposal Monday to the Security Council to consider increasing the amount of oil Iraq may export should be viewed as an opportunity for the United States to keep a guiding hand on these tense negotiations. In exchange for oil sales, U.S. officials should… Read More
Technically, those who would overturn Maine’s gay-rights law are off to a good start. They collected a mountain of signatures, more than 58,000, for their people’s veto petitions; those signatures have withstood scrutiny by both the secretary of state and a Superior Court justice. The appropriate letters of… Read More
Last week, on the eve of the holiday season, a national organization that tracks philanthropic giving released a report showing that the New England states, including Maine, trail the pack in supporting charity. Explanations, and excuses, were offered: New Englanders are an independent lot; they… Read More
Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey seem like an awfully nice young couple. Their seven new babies are cute as seven little dickenses. Their two-year-old daughter is sure to be a loving and devoted big sister. So now that the national astonishment has subsided, now that the… Read More
The only thing more puzzling than why 18 Pacific Rim heads of state would have themselves photographed in matching leather aviator jackets is just what, exactly, did the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference accomplish — other than ensure that the aviator jacket becomes the most passe item of apparel… Read More
Less than three months after two powerful diet drugs with a tendency to blow out heart valves were yanked from the market, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a new concoction that’s a lot different — it’ll just send your blood pressure through the roof. Read More
In forums ranging from formal public hearings to chats down at the corner coffee shop, Mainers have made it clear for months they want two things, and tow things only, from the Legislature when it convenes in January to deal with the state’s revenue surplus — fair, meaningful… Read More
On the surface, the movement to nominate the Penobscot as an American Heritage River seems a placid thing, a presidential pat on the back for a job well done, a helping hand from the government to keep up the good work. But, as evidenced by… Read More
If any good has come from the recent showdown with Saddam Hussein over his secret stash of biological and chemical weapons, it might be the world’s realization that such secret stashes exist and are spreading. That was the conclusion reached by Defense Secretary William Cohen… 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
By the slimmest majorities last week, the Maine Principals’ Association decided to reintroduce Maine high-school athletes to the rest of New England. Done properly, the results of this decision will have lasting benefits to the competitors and the state. By a 26-25 vote, MPA agreed… Read More
Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. brought in as its natural-gas partner Energy Pacific, a nationwide gas company based in Los Angeles. Central Maine Power recently wedded New York State Electric & Gas Corp. Now the race is on for these companies and one or two others to become the distributor… Read More
The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission happily surprised fishermen nationwide last spring when it recommended for the first time the removal of a hydro-electric dam, the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River. The commission should follow the advice of staff members when it meets today to… Read More
One of the big pieces of unfinished business Congress left behind before recess is reform of bankruptcy law. With a decade of steady and disturbing growth in filings now exploding, this business cannot remain unfinished for long. The economy is humming, unemployment’s on the run,… Read More
Federal regulators next year will decide how the cost for decommissioning Maine Yankee nuclear power plant will be covered. It is a difficult decision involving hundreds of millions of dollars. The key for regulators is to separate the unavoidable costs of operating a nuclear plant from business practices… Read More
Bon mot of the month With the Granite State especially annoying of late, whining incessantly about ownership of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and with slovenly motorists depositing all manner of objectionable flotsam, from pizza crust to soiled diapers, in our turnpike’s new toll baskets, it… Read More
The debate over physician-assisted suicide sometimes has been confused with a debate over whether doctors and other caregivers will be allowed to hasten a terminally ill patient’s death. It iractice of helping the terminally ill die already occurs. The question is whether to set standards for this practice… Read More
The old saw that a compromise must be good if both sides still grumble is, as a matter of logic, seriously flawed and, as a matter of fact, often untrue. But the compromise worked out this week between Monhegan and Friendship fishermen, while merely a temporary truce that… Read More
Maine garment and shoe industry workers lost 3,800 jobs over the last decade or so as companies found cheaper labor overseas. As long as a ready market and lack of protections for this labor persist, Maine will continue to lose. That’s one of the reasons the Bangor Clean… Read More
November is National Diabetes Month, and if ever a disease deserved more attention from the public and policy-makers, it is this sneaky killer that affects 16 million Americans. It’s the primary cause of new cases of blindness; it leads to kidney disease, amputations, high blood… Read More
The worst thing about the government’s plan to let some motorists install on-off switches for air bags doesn’t have anything to do with constitutional rights, free will, premature lawmaking or unfunded mandates. The worst thing is what the plan says about the thought processes of… Read More
What is most amazing about a semester-long computer foulup within the University of Maine System is the patience of students who have been denied the financial-aid checks that many of them need in order to both go to school and pay rent and eat. Their overlong wait, however,… Read More
After threats early in his admnistration to end most-favored-nation status to China, President Clinton backed away from his position, saying he prefered engagement to estrangement. The danger in his second stance is that the United States will mistake the release this week of political prisoner Wei Jingsheng as… Read More
At first glance, the possibility that a new military accounting center at Limestone might be closed just two years after it was opened to ease the pain of losing an air force base looks like one more planning blunder by the Department of Defense. But… Read More
The recent gusher of jobs in northern Maine has been welcome news after so many years of dry employment wells. Two telemarketing companies promise enough jobs to drop the unemployment rate from 7 percent to 5 percent. These firms seem well worth the high praise they are receiving,… Read More
With President Clinton on a four-day Western tramp praising wetlands, boosting industry, hobnobbing with Hollywood and, most of all, helping the Democratic Party retire its $14 million debt, the average citizen might well wonder just how much it costs to operate Air Force One. Go… Read More
Those expecting swift and decisive action by the U.S. Department of Education on the financial aid scandal at Maine State Academy of Hair Design should not feel disappointment. They just need a clock that ticks in glacial time. Six years after DoE uncovered student loan… Read More
The discussions between Bangor City Council and the Maine School for the Arts have arrived at the cul-de-sac of negotiating stages — they have gone as far as possible and now are going in circles. The city, properly, doesn’t want to commit money to the project to turn… Read More
President Clinton has handled threats this week from Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein cooly and properly, but if is he to advance a military solution he would benefit from a lesson President George Bush taught last time a significant number of U.S. warships headed for the Persian Gulf. The… Read More
The Land Use Regulation Commission staff got it right in recommending approval of the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s bingo hall in Albany Township. Now, as LURC itself gets down to business, it’s time for opponents of this relatively innocuous project to get a grip. Two thousand bingo… Read More
In completing the purchase of Sears Island and shifting the immediate focus from cargo to cruise ships, the state again is driving home an important point — 940 acres is room enough for both nature and commerce. The tentative plan presented by Gov. Angus King… Read More
A jury finds scientific testimony compelling enough to convict a British au pair of murder and a long stretch in prison. The judge disagrees, reducing the conviction to manslaughter and time served. Fifty doctors immediately denounce the judge’s decision, saying the defense’s medical evidence was inaccurate and unscientific. Read More
After hearing for years about the high cost of making an in-state toll call, legislators last session did something about it, passing a bill that instructed the Public Utilities Commission to find a way to align the cost of in-state calls with out-of-state calls. A fine idea, but… Read More
Though they have lacked the charged atmosphere that the former governor of Massachusetts, William Weld, brought to his fight to become the ambassador to Mexico, two recent nomination battles show the same meanness of spirit in the Senate as Mr. Weld’s fight last summer. It is a situation… Read More
Two hundred fifty-seven years ago, King George II drew a boundary line separating New Hampshire and Maine and the line stood, largely uncontested, for more than 200 years. Then Maine instituted its income tax and suddenly the precise location of the line became highly questionable to the residents… Read More
The next time Congress and the White House hold a sleep-over, as they did this weekend, we hope they’ll draw the drapes. There are some things innocent taxpayers should not have to watch. In polite society, the wheeling and dealing on behalf of fast track… Read More
Whether Massachusetts Judge Hiller B. Zobel was right to reduce the conviction of Louise Woodward from murder to manslaughter is something only the young British au pair knows. Only she knows whether she shook an 8-month-old baby to death, only she knows whether a momentary loss of control… Read More
In 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the silence of peace fell across Europe. Exactly one year later, on the first anniversary of the truce, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as Armistace Day, honoring the Allied soldiers who fell in… Read More
A lot of good can be found in the results of Tuesday’s election: the statewide turnout of 37 percent exceeded expectations by half; approval of the turnpike widening showed voters can lay their North-South differences aside; support for bond issues demonstrated a willingness to invest in environmental protection,… Read More
One of the most important debates facing lawmakers come January will be on restructuring Maine’s antiquated and inordinately expensive corrections system. One of the most persistent and unified voices in that debate must continue to be that of Washington County. The eastermost region has done… Read More
The welcome news that the state is forecasting an additional $185 million in revenues for next year gives Maine an opportunity to think about not only what it wants to do with the money but how its tax system raises that money. Of the three… Read More
Sprawl is one of those puzzling public-policy phenomena that usually are best understood when seen in a rear-view mirror. People can identify sprawl once it is too late to do anything about it, but they want little to do with trying to prevent it. That costs Maine plenty… Read More
The National Marine Fisheries Service, a federal agency, rejects a lobster management plan developed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a confederation of state resource managers, fishermen and legislators, calling it inadequate to protect the valuable species from overfishing and collapse. At first glance,… Read More
The campaign this fall to widen a 30-mile stretch of the Maine Turnpike seemed less like a race than a foregone conclusion. While approximately 60 percent of voters agreed with turnpike officials that the two-lane highway needed another lane, voters might also consider the second half of the… Read More
The problem with leaving a job half done is that someone eventually has to go back and finish it. And it’s never any easier the second time around. So it is with Iraq. Six years ago, coalition forces shredded the renegade nation’s army in just… Read More
Jonathan Carter said all along that his organization could defeat the Compact for Maine’s Forests if it had adequate funding. On Tuesday, after spending serious advertising dollars and with the crucial support of property-rights advocates, he proved it. The environmental “No” side of Tuesday’s vote… Read More
For years, Terence Hughes and his ardent band of anti-abortion protesters have picketed health clinics and hospitals carrying photos of bloody fetuses, a pro-life message with death as an exclamation point. Disturbed by the gory display, Elliot Scott lined up beside Hughes Saturday at two… Read More
One of the healthiest debates beginning in the United States these days is about dying: How and under what conditions the terminally ill will end their lives. A bill recently introduced in Congress gives Medicare and Medicaid recipients more information in this debate and deserves support. Read More
Dan Gwadosky is a nice man, a good citizen and a first-rate secretary of state. We wish him well in all his endeavors; we just hope he’s dead wrong in his projection for today’s voter turnout. Twenty-five percent. A mere one-fourth of the 936,487 eligible… Read More
Science goes where it can, making advancements into the smallest particles of the human body, identifying individual genes that control our futures with the hope that greater understanding will allow people to live longer, healthier lives. But there are unintended consequences to this new information. Read More
After making a hideous, filibustered mess of campaign finance reform this fall, the Senate now will hold a straight up-or-down vote by March. Citizens who desire cleaner elections should thank their local pothole. After doing his level best — or worst — to block changing… Read More
The decision last week by the Bangor City Council to reject a plan that would have allowed residents to fund a baseball stadium was disappionting for several reasons. But more important than that single vote was the opportunity it now presents for city residents to start offering ideas… Read More
New Hampshire Gov. Jean Shaheen says a 1761 map she unearthed while traveling in England is proof positive Ye Olde Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is in her state, not ours. Nice try, Mum, but we’ll stick with our 1997 Rand McNally. Good luck with that jet lag. Read More
Of all the silvicultural debates surrounding the Compact for Maine’s Forests, the greatest reach into irrelevancy occured this week when voters were asked to consider how many football fields could fit into a theoretical number of clearcuts, if three-fourths of the Compact were ignored and foresters cut the… Read More
“Do you favor adding one travel lane in each direction to the southern end of the Maine Turnpike, paid for by turnpike tolls, to reduce accidents and congestion?” If the issue were whether the bottlenecked 30 miles of Turnpike between York and South Portland ever… Read More
Thirty years ago the Eastern Maine Development District began its life as a funnel for federal grants to this region. Its growth since then has been impressive, and its service to the wide range of interests in this part of the state make its current incarnation more important… Read More
“Do you favor amending the Constitution of Maine to remove language providing that all persons under guardianship for reasons of mental illness are disqualified from voting?” This provision of the state constitution continues to exist long beyond its usefulness, if it ever had any, based… Read More
Middle- and lower-income families need a way to pay for elementary and secondary school costs, according to Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. That’s why he sponsored a bill that would create tax-free education accounts — for families earning up to $150,000 a year. Imagine… Read More
“Do you favor a $56,850,000 bond issue for improvements to municipal and state roads, state and local bridges, airports, state ferry vessels and terminals and rail and marine facilities that makes the state eligible for approximately $129,740,000 in matching federal funds?” There are a lot… Read More
“Do you favor a $10 million bond issue to provide funding for the Adaptive Equipment Loan Program fund, which provides loans to individuals with disabilities to purchase adaptive equipment, and to small businesses to improve accessibility, and for improving accessibility and addressing related safety issues at the University… Read More
A one-month postponement in the trial of 13 Passamaquoddy Indians for saltwater fishing without state licenses is a necessary and wise move, but it is unlikely to solve the riddle of jurisdiction. An issue that has festered for 17 years probably won’t be settled in 30 days in… Read More
“Do you favor a $7,000,000 bond issue, which will match $15,000,000 in federal funds, to construct water pollution control facilities, to clean up tire stockpiles and to make drinking water improvements?” Maine voters have a solid history of backing bond issues for environmental cleanup. Question… Read More
The conflict over the recent addition to Baxter State Park offers an opportunity for Maine to address uses there and on future tracts. However, unless the state is willing to include in its calculations the traditional uses of hunting and trapping, as well as new access questions, it… Read More
“Do you want the Compact for Maine’s Forests to become law to promote sustainable forest management practices throughout the State?” Opponents argue that the compact is either a long, complicated list of regulations or it is just so much chatter about the forests. But it… Read More
The federal complaint filed against Microsoft this week raises a gigaheap of questions for regulators to ponder in this Digital Age. Can the law keep up with the blazing speed of technological innovation? When does offering the customer more become a crime? Will Bill Gates’s Evil Empire rule… Read More
Pursuing economic development is a way of life in Washington County. That practice is paying off with a nearly perfect pitch to become half of the state’s new two-prison corrections system. Maine must redesign its prisons — the second-highest per inmate cost in the nation… Read More
No one ever lost an election running against the tax man. Not content with a sure thing, political opportunists in Congress now want apple pie and motherhood as running mates. It’s hard enough watching Republicans and Democrats outdo each other with the anti-IRS rhetoric. After… Read More
Children can suffer in two ways from domestic violence: as witnesses, when they see one parent beating the other; and as targets, when the abuse is physical and direct. The longterm results of both are devastating to them as individuals and to society generally. Today’s… Read More
In many ways, the 1997 World Series is all-too familiar in its banality: overpaid mercenaries scratching and spitting their way to endorsement fortune; commentators spewing space-filling statistics and pointless anecdotes; innings squeezed in between beer and car commercials. But for Maine, this Fall Classic offers… Read More
Veterans Administration officials agreed to a 120-day plan last month to significantly improve the delivery of care to Maine veterans. The first interim deadlines for the plan arrived last week with some encouraging results, but how well Togus veterans hospital meets these conditions may be overwhelmed by the… Read More
For a governmental backwater so obscure it’s a frequent target for extinction, the Federal Maritime Commission sure knows how to get the most out of its 15 minutes of fame. In just a day and a half last week, the four-member commission accomplished what legions… Read More
Half the mystery behind the funding of those opposing the Compact for Maine’s Forests has been cleared up. Jonathan Carter, leader of the Forest Ecology Network and an opponent of the compact, can answer the other half by clarifying fair questions about a recent election filing. Read More
With the 2000 presidential election a scant three years off, it is understandable that potential candidates would be digging the plaid shirts out from the back of the closet and dusting off the hard hats. The common man schtick takes some rehearsal. It’s also understandable… Read More
Attorney General Janet Reno offered a decent compromise last week over her investigation of White House fund-raising activity. By including FBI Director Louis Freeh — not a big fan of the president’s — she has removed some of the conflict of interest questions around the Justice Department’s work. Read More
It must be nice to live in the black-and-white world of RESTORE: The North Woods and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation. Wild runs of Atlantic salmon are in decline, so list them as endangered species, close the watersheds of seven Maine rivers to any significant human activity and hope… Read More
Based on the titles of his books, almost any place could make a claim on James Michener. “Hawaii.” “Alaska.” “Texas.” “Tales of the South Pacific.” “Mexico.” “Chesapeake.” And, for anyone left out, “The World is My Home.” Maine has its own direct connection to the beloved author of… Read More
We don’t know exactly who the Caremi Partners are, where they’re from, what they want or why they’re spending $150,000 to defeat the Forest Compact. Neither, apparently, does Jonathan Carter, but he should find out. Carter’s attempt to present his anti-Compact campaign as a squeaky-clean,… Read More
Bangor City Council did the right thing when it formed an ad hoc committee to figure out whether to support building a baseball stadium: the committee recently returned an encouraging plan that calls for public and private investment. The stadium, the potential home of the… Read More
The Maine fishing industry lost a tough leader, a strong advocate and a good friend with the resignation Wednesday of Marine Resources Commissioner Robin Alden. The reasons for Alden’s departure are entirely understandable — a husband and a young daughter require attention and a life… Read More
The 50-state rush to offer health insurance to the children of the working poor is a commendable change from previous years of neglect. Maine can take advantage of the new federal money gusher for children’s health by following a couple of ideas presented at a conference this week… Read More
Never having met lobsterman Doug Goodale, we have no way of knowing what he thinks about in his private hours. But the man who recently lost an arm in about the most horrific way possible recently said something that anyone facing obstacles in life would do well to… Read More
The problem with fast-track authority for trade agreements with Chile and other nations can be seen in the pact itself. A company caught pirating intellectual property — say, compact discs — faces stiff penalties and may be closed down under the agreement. A company caught busting unions and… Read More