Texas’ new anti-abortion law, which the Supreme Court refused to block on Wednesday night, bars termination of pregnancy after six weeks — long before a woman generally even knows she’s carrying — with no exception for incest or rape. But it imposes no criminal sanctions.
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.
Rich Lowry: No, Afghanistan is not the end of American power
There is no sugar-coating our defeat in Afghanistan and the abject position we put ourselves in during the final days. The withdrawal is a blow to our counterterrorism capabilities, our prestige and our geopolitical position.
For all of that, though, no one in the world has the formidable advantages of the United States, which still outstrips everyone else, including China, on every material metric that matters.
Deanne Danforth: Trump delivered Taliban its real victory
Ceasing resistance to an enemy or opponent and submitting to their authority is the definition of surrender. The Taliban’s real victory was Feb. 29, 2020, when Trump’s administration signed a peace deal with the Taliban excluding the Afghanistan government. The Taliban got complete power. Afghanistan got nothing. The Taliban agreed not to give safe harbor […]
Bob Neal: The Countryman: Back stories: Will we ever learn?
Big news stories almost always contain at least one back story, a telling point that gets little notice at the time but in the long run may be as important as the main story. This back story is bureaucracy, and the main stories are the evacuation from Afghanistan, wildfires in west and renters facing eviction.
Rudolph Ziehm: U.S. stayed in Afghanistan 19 years too long
How? If the states that were contested in the last presidential election were predominantly under the control of Republicans — along with the White House, Supreme Court, Senate and the majority of the federal jurists — how did the Democrats steal the election? The answer is simple. It would be impossible. Too many Republicans today […]
Froma Harrop: Must companies treat remote workers like the others?
A study by Stanford University suggests that highly visible office workers are more likely to be promoted. Workers at a travel agency in Shanghai were divided into two groups — one assigned to work from home and the other told to come into the office. After nine months, the remote workers were promoted half as often as their in-office counterparts, even though they were 13% more productive in both hours worked and calls made.
Rich Lowry: Sorry, this was not a success
The Biden administration wants credit for the Afghanistan evacuation as measured by the sheer number of people it flew out amid a security and humanitarian crisis of its own making.
This is the arsonist bragging about how many fires he has put out.