Once mills, now malls

In this withering economy, Monday's announcement by TD Banknorth was welcome news. The bank is opening a new $16 million call center at the Auburn Mall and promising to create 250 new jobs in the process, which would put the center's peak at 500.

Auburn and state officials worked hard to bring this deal to fruition, blending the right amount of incentives and breaks to make it palatable and possible.

Take the offensive on speech

The Farmington Board of Selectmen's decision to prohibit political activity on public property, ostensibly to silence one aggressive petition-gatherer, would be perfectly justifiable if not for its pesky noncompliance with the whole Constitution thing.

There's the rub. What sounds good for the people - allowing public concerts to occur without interruption - runs counter to a founding American principle, the right to free speech.

Selectmen were wrong to prohibit political activity on public land.

No chance for Celotex

Bank of America - which argued it is so vital to America's future, it couldn't be allowed to falter - has forced another mega-corporation to fail.

Celotex, which has a plant in Lisbon Falls, was forced to liquidate after Bank of America refused to accept a corporate restructuring plan, which included the resignation of Celotex CEO Jim Knight, to recoup its investment.

Bank of America is the largest bank in the United States.

Celotex was the largest fiberboard manufacturer in the world.

Bank of America received $45 billion under the government'

Home health a blank check from Mainers

Inadequate oversight. Poor management. Galloping costs.

Maine's home health care industry is vulnerable to fraud and abuse because no one seems to be accounting for the tens of millions of dollars spent for non-medical services for an unknown percentage of Maine's elderly and disabled.

Home health a blank check from Mainers

Inadequate oversight. Poor management. Galloping costs.
Maine’s home health care industry is vulnerable to fraud and abuse because no one seems to be accounting for the tens of millions of dollars spent for nonmedical services for an unknown percentage of Maine’s elderly and disabled.

Public access lost in Bethel

Bethel is not such a far cry from Rumford after all, at least in terms of adherence to Maine's Freedom of Access Act and respect for the public's fundamental right to know.

Last month, the Bethel Board of Selectmen twice met without posting the meetings, a requirement under Maine law, mimicking a similar move by Rumford selectmen in April to convene illegal meetings.

Bethel then outdid the shenanigans in Rumford by deleting public documents from at least one municipal e-mail account.

Over a period of months, as Bethel Town Manager Scott Cole has prep

Cleanout out the inbox . . .

• Cheers to the anonymous donor who gave Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School more than $1 million for scholarships. Among the scholarships given out tonight during the school's graduation will be an additional $100,000 from this new donation.

Teens really need sleep

And your Mom was right about one other thing - You need your sleep!

A new Columbia University Medical Center study says teens who get at least eight hours of sleep had fewer cases of depression and suicidal thoughts.

The study examined data on 15,659 teens. Those with parental-mandated bedtimes at midnight or later were 25 percent more likely to suffer from depression and 20 percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts compared to teens with 10 p.m.

Stress index shows we're hurting less

Sure, times are tough, perhaps the toughest many people have seen in their lifetimes. But, like your mother probably told you, things could always be worse. And, indeed, they are much worse in other parts of the U.S.

Hard to believe, but we are fairly sailing through this recession compared to the really hard-hit parts of the country.

The Associated Press has created a sort of misery index, a single score attached to every county in the U.S.

Tax reform: Baldacci should resist efforts to water down bill

If we wait for the perfect tax reform bill - one that offends no one - we will wait forever.

That's why Gov.

We deserve an efficient and effective system

Bluntly, most of us will die on the government's dime.

A cycle of good

Danyell Giroux lost her three-wheeler and learned a valuable lesson last week: There are more good people than bad.

Giroux is 12 years old and suffers from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which makes it difficult to ride a two-wheeler. Instead, she pedals around on an adult-sized trike for transportation and exercise.

Eight years later, fraud continues

After nearly eight years of war, you'd think we could get this right.

But no.

A first step in changing policy, image

When it comes down to it, we can live with paying another $5 on a restaurant tab of $100, if it means the income tax rate is cut by 2 percent. We're happier having that money to spend how we want, rather than letting Augusta politicians spend it as they want.

This is an inch-deep assessment of tax reform, which was passed by the House and Senate on Friday and plopped on the governor's desk. Gov. John Baldacci has some concerns regarding the bill, LD 1088, so - as of this writing - it's unclear if he'll sign it.

Soule is an allegory for these times

If a storyteller was looking for one person to exemplify the troubles of the American economy, they couldn't have conjured a better character than Travis Soule.

Soule was perhaps the most aggressive, high-profile property developer in the Twin Cities. He invested millions into downtown Lewiston - for apartment buildings and commercial properties - and built new condominiums from scratch in Auburn, among others.

Everywhere, it seems, he had a partner.

Cleaning out the inbox...

Cheers and jeers from around the news:

• Jeers to arson at the topless coffee shop in Vassalboro. The savage firebug who sparked the blaze put the lives of seven people in jeopardy, including two infants. If this was an attempt to convey a message of morality, it went horribly awry. The only message sent is one of ignorance and contempt.

The topless coffee experience isn't for everyone. Bare skin doesn't make java taste better. Yet in our society of laws, the shop had a right to exist.

Action speaks louder than our potential

In Washington, D.C., today, a cadre of Maine dignitaries - our Congressional delegation, Gov. John Baldacci and UMaine professor Habib Dagher - will meet Energy Secretary Steven Chu to discuss the state and university's place in the energy economy.

Maine has an endless coastline and vast swaths of open ocean, perfect for harnessing electricity from the wind.

Viditorial: The topless coffee shop and lessons learned

Barn offer didn't match its real value

In his book "Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain," legal scholar Richard Epstein asserts the Fifth Amendment, like all laws outlining eminent domain, is "linked together in sentences of great power, but of equally great abstraction."

This simply means there's power within the words around taking property - just compensation, public use, due process - but great leeway regarding their definitions.

Make it the best holiday possible

The irony in listening to legislative debate about establishing a "sales tax holiday" is lawmakers seem to forget tax exemptions are granted all the time, just not directly to consumers.

Lawmakers held spirited debate about the Columbus Day weekend holiday last week. (One even sang the Marden's jingle to make her point.) Arguments fell along two lines: those who think the holiday would be good for business and consumers, and those who think it's a shoddy, expensive gimmick. They're both right.

But neither side has the evidence to prove their point.

Viditorial: Dreaming of a sales tax holiday

Tony Ronzio previews tomorrow's editorial:

Good for GM, good for America

 

There's a numbness around the bankruptcy of General Motors that belies its significance for the American economy, society and culture. Of all U.S. manufacturers, the "General" is perhaps most intertwined with the country. Its successes were American successes.

Viditorial: Good for GM, good for America.

Tony Ronzio previews tomorrow's editorial:

Feds must decide on Real ID

A year ago, lawmakers and Gov. John Baldacci were bullied into compliance with the Real ID act with threats that innocent Mainers would be banned from commercial flying. Legislation was hastily written up and approved, mandating residency and citizenship/legal status to get a driver's license.

The state had a problem of illegal licensing too, as all too regularly carloads of non-Maine residents (and oftentimes undocumented aliens) were coming here, getting licensed, then scooting to parts unknown.

Mainer, can you spare eleven cents?

The gas tax increase endorsed Thursday by the Legislature's Transportation Committee should be considered one of the great disappointments of this session. Funding the state's transportation infrastructure needs more than more money - it needs a complete overhaul of its philosophy.

It was clear a year ago, when gasoline prices surged, that the subsequent decrease in fuel consumption would wreak havoc with transportation funding. This has remained blindingly apparent during the recession, as fuel consumption was curbed by slowing economic activity.