Bangor Daily News, Jan. 24
Gov. John Baldacci can be forgiven for feeling like he is living the movie “Groundhog Day.” In the governor’s case, the repeated winter day has him preparing to give a major speech while at the same time feverishly trying to broker a deal to save a paper mill and the hundreds of jobs it provides.

A year ago, on the eve of his inauguration speech, Great Northern Paper … declared bankruptcy. This week, just prior to his State of the State address, the governor was hit by the news that Eastern Fine Paper was shutting down its mills in Lincoln and Brewer while it searched for money to keep them going.

Thanks to the governor’s involvement, Great Northern, now called Katahdin Paper, was partly saved. The East Millinocket mill is back in operation and the Millinocket mill is slated to open later this year. The mills will employ far fewer people than they did when they closed in December 2002, but hundreds of jobs remain.

The governor also stepped in last spring to prevent the closure of the Georgia-Pacific mill in Old Town. The corporation planned to shut down its tissue-making operations there and move them to New York. The governor convinced G-P to keep some machines operating in Old Town. Again, many jobs were lost, but many were saved.

Now, the governor has again stepped in and pledged to find a way to restart at least one of Eastern Fine’s mills. …

The governor and his Cabinet are to be commended for doing everything they can to restart the mills and keep as many jobs as possible. But they cannot be expected to continue to perform miracles.

As they know, they are fighting against large economic forces and corporate decisions made in distant cities. The Maine paper industry has long been in decline and the lack of investment over the years in mills here has now made the plants large liabilities for the corporations that own them. … When it comes time to cut costs, they are targeted.

The administration’s approach to helping mature industries, by lowering energy costs and taxes, for example, while boosting newer ones, is on track. But, given another mill shutdown, the latter has taken on new urgency. Saving jobs in a lagging industry is commendable; creating new ones in a growing business is equally necessary.


Goodbye Captain


The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal, Jan. 25
There’s sorrow in the Treasure House this weekend – and in the hearts of a lot of former children. Bob Keeshan, television’s beloved Captain Kangaroo, died Friday.

Many adults still can hum the catchy melody that opened his show. They grew up watching the grandfatherly Captain, immediately recognizable with his white bowl-cut hair, walrus mustache and the huge pockets on his captain’s coat that led to his name. Keeshan, who brought the character to life, died at 76 in Vermont. …

Yet it is as the Captain that Keeshan will best be remembered. Not only did he provide a superlative program for young people, but he was a welcome influence in their lives for nearly four decades.


Executing teenagers


The Post-Standard, Syracuse, N.Y., Jan. 28
If the death penalty is a faulty and barbaric practice that fails to live up to its stated purpose of deterrence by answering killing with state-sponsored killing, then what does that make it when it is applied to teenagers?

Worse.

The Supreme Court recently agreed to decide within the next year whether people younger than 18 when they committed their crimes can be executed. This is good news. It further puts capital punishment under the microscope for the vengeful response that it is. The court two years ago barred execution of criminals who are mentally retarded. Now it’s time they ban it from being used on teenagers in this nation. …


War on infectious diseases


South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, Jan. 27
Viruses of (like SARS and the bird flu) should be seen as weapons of mass destruction. And they pose an even greater threat to life than the ones which have so preoccupied the world during the war against terror.

Around the globe, governments reacted speedily and decisively in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. The United Nations passed anti-terror resolutions, governments enacted tough new laws and states suspected of harboring terrorists or developing banned weapons came under the greatest scrutiny. The same sense of urgency has, however, not been evident in the war against infectious disease. Certainly, it existed during SARS and eventually steps were taken to at least ensure a coordinated approach was adopted. …

But lessons have clearly not been learned. There is a need to ensure nations understand it is ultimately in their interests – and those of the rest of the world – to waste no time in making public even the suspicion that a dangerous virus has struck. And this may require the international community taking steps which go beyond simply trusting national governments to do what is right.