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 inOp-Eds, Opinion
Fatuma Hussein: Reflections while looking forward to 2021
Our system is unjust and broken. For many black and brown communities, we suffer a lot, and it is not right. Notably, it is not suitable for young people of color to feel helpless and hopeless. That harm must stop. Some may say that is not going to happen. I say, yes, we can. We can stop this injustice by eradicating racism, just like trying to eliminate the coronavirus. The pandemic has taught us valuable lessons.
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Posted inLetters, Opinion
Paul Baribault: Thoughts on ‘new Republican Party’
I noticed a bumper sticker some time ago that read: “Ex Republican – Ask Me Why.” But I felt I knew. And that person has been joined by many others these past three years, including conservative thinkers like George Will. That isn’t fake news. Yet what also isn’t fake news is the midnight assistance crisis […]
Posted inConnections
Farmers receive Maine Farm Emergency Grants
UNITY — Maine Farmland Trust (MFT) and the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) have announced that 38 Maine farms have been awarded grants through the Maine Farm Emergency Grants program. This is the second round of funding on which the two organizations have collaborated to fundraise and administer in response to the needs […]
Posted inLetters, Opinion
In rebuttal: Terry Hansen: Lowry’s climate crisis views contradict experts
Columnist Rich Lowry’s dismissal of the climate crisis, which recently ran in the Sun Journal, directly contradicts the positions of our armed services, the U.S. insurance industry and financial sector. Consider the following statements: The Department of Defense: “As greenhouse gas emissions increase, sea levels are rising, average global temperatures are increasing, and severe weather […]
Posted inConnections
Auburn library to offer online nature meditation class
AUBURN — The Auburn Public Library will host “Meditating on the Wisdom of Nature,” led by certified meditation and mindfulness instructor Martin Gagnon, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13, online via Zoom. With a nature-based meditation practice, participants can train their minds to become less reactive and more at peace. From the plant […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Rich Lowry: Behold, the delivery revolution
What Amazon, and e-commerce more broadly, is doing is selling goods to consumers at low prices, while giving them more convenience than ever before (rapid delivery to their doorsteps, with the possibility of easy returns) and creating new jobs in the process.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Austin Bay: 2020’s bio-economic world war: Communist China lied; millions of human beings died
As 2021 begins, the Chinese Communist Party cover-up will continue. A CCP court just sentenced citizen-journalist Zhang Zhan to prison for questioning the CCP’s early 2020 falsehoods.
Zhan will spend four years in jail for telling the truth about communist China’s Big Lie.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Bob Neal: The Countryman: Susan Collins – radical?
Few U.S. senators have had more political power in recent years than Susan Collins, Republican of Maine. Arguably, no one has made less use of her power than Collins. She often calls herself a moderate and has identified herself with Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, also a Republican from Maine. Smith, though, used her power to […]