Real rescuers don't ask for the cash first

Homeowners fearing foreclosure can find help without paying exorbitant, upfront fees. Any outfit offering mortgage salvation in exchange for cash is actually peddling anything but, as free or inexpensive services for aiding desperate people do exist.

These unsavory firms, with reassuring names like "Fresh Start Mortgage Assistance Solutions," are a bottom-feeding product of the doubts and desperation from the home mortgage crisis. Fearful homeowners are turning to these firms to save their homes and credit scores, at a devastating price.

Recycling was poor start for campaign

Little did we know that Les Otten's announcement of an exploratory committee for Maine governor would also feature some impromptu environmental policy. Clearly, he is a fan of recycling.

It's one explanation for why Otten, a Republican, would imitate the campaign logo and Web site of President Barack Obama for his gubernatorial bid. It's bizarro politics — but nonetheless weirdly brilliant. The free publicity it's garnered is likely worth a mint.

What we have here is a failure to triangulate

The house at 711 Weld St. in Dixfield is, according to an online map, 4.5 miles from the town center in Dixfield and 2.5 miles from the center of Carthage.

Or so the map says.

It depends on how much technology is trusted to provide precise location information. If that map is accurate, emergency responders will have the detailed knowledge they need to fight a fire, find an accident, or save a life. If it's off, or dead wrong, then emergencies can turn into tragedies.

A matter of convenience

Today is the first of Maine's 20 mandatory shutdown days to be scheduled over the next two years, days when nonessential government workers are off, government offices are shuttered and the public's business is neutralized.

The savings is expected to reach $14 million, at least that's the current thinking. It's tough to say two years out exactly what the savings might be, or if the furlough actually matures to the full 10 day schedule each year.

Obama should let sun shine in

For awhile, we thought President Barack Obama would become the "sunshine" president.

On his first day in office, Obama issued a "Day One" memorandum calling for greater access to government records.

The president launched two sweeping initiatives designed to open government records to Americans.

The first gave his new chief technology officer 120 days to develop a plan for better public access to records.

Cleaning out the inbox ...

• Cheers to PO2 Lisa Martel, serving in the U.S. Navy and stationed in Kuwait, who asked the Sun Journal to deliver this message to her family and employer: 

California must face same tough choices

Now that we are accustomed to government bailouts of every stripe — from banks to carmakers — the question is actually being asked with a straight face: Is California too big to fail?

This is, as we have seen, another way of asking: Should California get a bailout?

Our quick, firm answer: No.

Clearly, the Golden State is golden no longer. California is a monstrous state with monstrous budget problems.

Its budget shortfall, about $26 billion, is about four times the size of Maine's entire annual budget.

Public/private health care plan tough to imagine

Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is shaping up to be a pivotal player again in another national debate, this one over health care reform.

Some Democrats and President Barack Obama favor creating a public option for health care insurance that would compete with the private market. Snowe recently made headlines after announcing she's open to the idea, with certain reservations.

Rain, yes, but Good news, too

The overcast skies and rain just couldn't squeeze the good news out of Tuesday's Sun Journal:

* Bravo to Dirigo basketball coach Gavin Kane who has fulfilled his goal of coaching Division I basketball.
Kane, who put together an incredible 263-17 record coaching the Dirigo girls and was 74-10 coaching the boys, will become assistant women's basketball coach today at the University of Maine.

Rain, yes, but good news, too

The overcast skies and rain just couldn't squeeze the good news out of Tuesday's Sun Journal:
• Bravo to Dirigo basketball coach Gavin Kane who has fulfilled his goal of coaching Division I basketball.
Kane, who put together an incredible 263-17 record coaching the Dirigo girls and was 74-10 coaching the boys, will become assistant women's basketball coach today at the University of Maine.
He will join University of Maine legend Cindy Blodgett and her staff where he will help with on-floor coaching, recruiting, film evaluation,

Taxing health benefits bad idea

If Barack Obama is looking for a shortcut to a one-term presidency, taxing health care benefits is it. Yet Obama aides are now signaling his willingness to do just that. They would use the trillions in new tax revenue to pay for health care coverage for the 46 million Americans who don't have any.

While universal coverage is an admirable goal, the solution isn't to more heavily tax the three-fifths of Americans under age 65 who are already struggling to pay for their own coverage.

If the school law stands, enforce it

Gov. John Baldacci has offered a breather to nonconforming Maine school districts, by granting them another year to reorganize under the landmark 2007 consolidation law. With a repeal effort coming before voters in November, this delay makes sense.

If repeal is rejected, however, leniency cannot continue. School reorganization must have some teeth, as the policy — since its inception — has been negotiated and winnowed into a much weaker form, with fewer opportunities for taxpayer savings.

In tense Iran, human rights must be saved

Iran's turmoil has caused the U.S government to tread lightly with its political response. President Barack Obama has shied from strong rhetoric, opting instead for nuanced statements that show American respect for the Iranian electoral process, yet concern for its people's welfare.

This approach has inflamed hard-liners, who feel the proper response is a powerful response. In this game of politics, though, where ground can shift suddenly under one's feet, standing firm could be counterproductive.

Cleaning out the inbox ...

Cheers and jeers from around the news:

• Jeers to a lack of information. In reporting cases of swine flu, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention thinks being specific about locations makes no difference. We disagree; the more the public knows about an outbreak, the better served we are to take precautions.

Releasing vague geographic information is unhelpful. We know swine flu was diagnosed at several summer camps in Maine, but we're only told which counties the camps are in. Is this policy meant to protect the public, or to protect the camps?

Fifty years of speaking for Maine

If there is such a thing as an "establishment" environmental advocate, the Natural Resources Council of Maine would qualify. This description is not meant to insinuate anything negative; rather, it aims to portray the organization's stability, strong influence and broad mission.

Over the past 50 years, the NRCM has developed into as potent an interest group as there is in Maine; maybe, in some opinions, the most powerful. Its work has brought environmental concerns into equality with traditional power brokers, which has struck important balances in public policy.

Tax reform in an echo chamber

Political reaction to Maine's tax reform has become so odd, we're starting to wonder if Rod Serling is writing the script.

There are Democrats mad at Democrats for passing the legislation, accusing it of masquerading as a Bush-style tax-cut wolf in progressive clothing. And Republicans — who should, theoretically, support such a policy — are mad because it is anti-business and anti-poor and they want it repealed whole-hog. (We're also guilty, for complaining the income tax cut — from a top rate of 8.5 percent to 6.5 percent — wasn't enough.)

Err on the side of study

There are plenty of claims about wind turbines. The latest deals with the weather and how spinning turbines can fool satellites into thinking they're rain, which could impede the forecasting of threatening weather systems.

We can drop laser-guided bombs in Afghanistan from drones piloted from California, but our technology cannot tell spinning steel from falling rain? This precipitation situation seems a minor cloudburst in turbine controversy; even the government admits it is easily rectified.

Clarification

The editorial of Saturday, June 20, regarding a new map of the Androscoggin River watershed, insinuated no public access to the river exists between Leeds and Rumford. This failed to acknowledge a public access point in Canton plus several others maintained by Verso paper, which were not included on the map. It was an editorial writer's error.

 

 

 

On petitions, 'caveat signor' is smart policy

Perhaps Marvin Gaye said it best in "Heard it Through the Grapevine," when he crooned: "People say believe half of what you see, son, and none of what you hear."

Gaye was — essentially — espousing that a healthy dose of skepticism and cynicism is necessary when being presented with significant information. His tune was dealing with revelations of infidelity, but his lyrics could easily apply to every one of us, when being presented with a petition to sign.

Time for detox on black liquor

Grumbles are emanating from the north, as the Canadian government readies a $1 billion bailout of pulp and paper. Ottawa blames the United State's unintended "black liquor" subsidy to American mills for obliterating the industry's competitive landscape, a subsidy never intended to benefit paper.

The Canadian government is preparing its own black liquor subsidy to compensate, under the apparent policy of two wrongs can make a right.

Restore the salmon, at Maine's pace

Widespread protestations have been heard from Maine about the federal designation of Atlantic salmon as an endangered species and the inclusion of the Androscoggin, Penobscot and Kennebec river watersheds as areas where it is now protected.

While there is broad support for restoring Atlantic salmon to sustainable levels, there is an equally broad consensus that a strict, unyielding federal mandate is the wrong vehicle to do so.

We agree.

Cleaning out the inbox

Cheers and jeers from around the news:

• Cheers to President Barack Obama, for doing what needed to be done: He swatted the fly. A buzzing housefly was aggravating the president during a television interview earlier this week, so he smushed it.

Anyway, this action earned Obama rebuke from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who suggested the president show all creatures - large and small - the proper respect.

They have a point. Our response, though, is those who want respect, give respect.

We're on the road to nowhere

Well, the good news is Maine isn't alone. On Thursday, several U.S. senators were tsk-tsking the Obama administration for failing to address the gap in federal highway funding, the Highway Trust Fund, which runs on gasoline tax receipts and needs some $7 billion to stay solvent.

By comparison, the $3 billion Maine needs for transportation projects over the next decade is a mere pittance.

A vote for better voting

There are some things government - i.e. taxpayers - should pay for. Accessible and available polling places is one.

In this regard, city councilors in Auburn did right by rejecting a proposal to consolidate voting at the Auburn Mall in lieu of locations in the city's five wards. While this would have saved money - about $8,000 annually - its actual cost to the city was likely greater.

There were community and neighborhood concerns, as some speakers mentioned during Monday's city council meeting.

A vote for better voting

There are some things government — i.e. taxpayers — should pay for. Accessible and available polling places is one.

In this regard, city councilors in Auburn did right by rejecting a proposal to consolidate voting at the Auburn Mall in lieu of locations in the city's five wards. While this would have saved money — about $8,000 annually — its actual cost to the city was likely greater.