This is as unacceptable as it gets. COVID is already wreaking havoc in our everyday lives even now, two years into it, and now we have bus drivers quitting due to poor management, being berated and problems not being addressed, let alone solved? We also have a manager who is licensed to drive a bus, […]
Alex Lear
A Maine native and Colby College graduate, Alex has been covering coastal communities since 2001. He lives in the Portland area with his wife Lauren, 4-year-old daughter Alaina, and 7-year-old bulldog Walter. He has released four CDs of original music and does occasional research work for Marvel Comics' collected editions.
Joe Hall: Wabanakis and the state can work together
Maine says it wants better relationships with its Wabanaki neighbors. For that to happen, the state needs to recognize that Wabanakis have rights parallel to those of all other Native American peoples in the U.S.
Froma Harrop: Democrats should seize the good news
Fabulous jobs numbers, a fading pandemic and a president doing his job with quiet competence should embolden Democrats to drop their funk and campaign furiously for the midterms. Ignore President Joe Biden’s weak poll numbers. The good news should eventually wash over the gloom.
Leonard Pitts Jr.: LGBTQ kids, raise your voices and make haters hear you!
I can only imagine how isolating and lonely it must feel, in the awkwardness of your adolescent years, to have a governor declare your sexual identity so abnormal it can’t be discussed in school — just when you may need to talk about it the most. If there’s some teacher you trust, he or she would now be breaking the law if you confide in them.
Sharon Bergeron: Bill would allow ‘land grab for developers’
When does a housing crisis become a land grab for developers? Answer: When LD 1884 allows a statewide housing shortage to make null and void decades of Auburn residents’ due process in determining Auburn land use. Auburn residents have chosen multiple times to protect the 18,000 acres (down from 35,000) of farmland since 1964 from […]
Sen. Richard Bennett: Funding crucial in tackling ‘forever chemicals’
This session the Maine Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee, on which I serve, has devoted a lot of time and energy to the emerging crisis of PFAS contamination. Also known as “forever chemicals,” this class of persistent cancer-causing chemicals is a threat to public health, and we now know that our state has extensive […]
Rich Lowry: Trudeau should give in to the truckers
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should give in to the truckers on the vaccination mandate, and then the protestors should declare victory and go home or, at the minimum, take a step back from any confrontation with the police.
Bob Neal: The Countryman: Can anybody here play this game?
Democrats at the federal level aren’t demonstrating much ability to govern. The burden weighs heavily because Republicans have proved to be the “anti-government” party. So, Dems must deliver, and so far they haven’t brought home much bacon.