Alex Lear
Staff Writer
Alex Lear is a lifelong Mainer who has spent 25 years in journalism -- the first 20 as a reporter for newspapers in Damariscotta and Falmouth, then as Opinions section editor for the Sun Journal and now a digital producer with the Maine Trust for Local News. His long-running “Learics” column won first place in the Maine Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest. He and his wife Lauren are kept young by their 9-year-old daughter Alaina. Send feedback and suggestions to Alex.
Posted inLetters, Opinion
Marc Jalbert: Trump should be there for the people, not himself
The handwriting is on the wall; we’re in for a bumpy four years with President Trump at the helm. His cabinet choices are just shots in the dark, with little to no regard about getting a job done, given that qualifications are, for the most part, absent. When I hear him talk about Canada, Panama […]
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Posted inLetters, Opinion
Dave Griffiths: ‘Cruelty, thy name is Trump’
Cruelty, thy name is Trump. Barbara Res, an engineer who ran Donald Trump’s construction operations in the 1980s, told The Washington Post, “It was always, ‘We’re going to sue’ whoever he thought was against him. He enjoyed it. He liked to make people suffer.” After that collision over the Potomac River killed 67 people, our […]
Posted inLetters, Opinion
Stuart and Nancy Greene: Rep. Libby publicly bullied a trans teen
Shame on Rep. Laurel Libby. How dare she use the power of her position to publicly bully a trans teenager in our state? Libby is a state representative in the district where we live, and she barely won the last election. Her unkindness and lack of empathy should stop her political career now. In response […]
Posted inLetters, Opinion
Renee Cote: Golden needs to oppose Trump’s policies
In news reports from around the country, U.S. Rep. Jared Golden has been quoted as saying his office has been inundated by calls in recent days about Elon Musk, not President Trump: “My constituents, and a majority of this country, put Trump in the White House, not this unelected, weirdo billionaire.” Golden, like his mentor […]
Posted inLetters, Opinion
Jane Costlow: Trump tramples on liberties protected at Iwo Jima
In Feb. 19’s Sun Journal the cartoon by Dave Grunlund is of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. It’s an image that has become synonymous with the extraordinary sacrifice and determination of American servicemen in World War II, a war we fought with allies to defeat the murderous, imperial ambitions of both Germany […]
Posted inLetters, Opinion
Tina Riley: Mainers deserve bipartisan efficiency
When the Appropriations Committee voted unanimously for the supplemental budget, the Maine Legislature looked like a rare beacon of bipartisan efficiency. Then the guy who didn’t bother to show up for the work session blew it up. Maine’s over-stressed medical system and thousands living in poverty are holding their breath as the Legislature once again […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Rich Lowry: The art of the manufactured crisis
There is no doubt that the administration is determined to exercise the maximum possible power over the federal bureaucracy, and it may, if it hasn’t already, overstep its bounds. Everything is being litigated as we speak, and the administration will surely win some and lose some.
Posted inLetters, Opinion
Deborah Mason: Newspapers should be reintegrated into schools
I am a retired high school teacher. I have been a middle school guest teacher since 2020. Over the course of my classroom teaching, the daily newspaper has been a constant in my classroom. I grew up with the newspaper at home and the Weekly Reader in school, and I have subscribed to a seven-day […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Lew Alessio: The politics of funding AIDS
Ceasing funding for global AIDS prevention, education and treatment, as is being proposed, is not merely inhumane. It is immensely ignorant of the most basic understanding of the disease and its risks to all humanity that continue to this day.