Sign In:


Mark LaFlamme is a Sun Journal reporter and weekly columnist. He's been on the nighttime police beat since 1994, which is just grand because he doesn't like getting out of bed before noon. Mark is the author of eight published novels and rides a dual sport motorcycle everywhere he goes. Unless it's winter, in which case he just sulks a lot.

Latest
  • Published
    July 2, 2020

    Fire, police officials wary about Fourth

    Add a lunar eclipse, coming on Sunday, and the convergence of circumstances starts to feel like prophecy. 

  • Published
    July 1, 2020

    ‘Click and boom’: Fire marshal report sheds more light on Farmington explosion

    A heavily-redacted report of the Sept. 16, 2019, explosion at the LEAP Inc. building that killed a firefighter and injured seven other people is consistent that there was no smell of propane.

  • Published
    June 28, 2020

    Mark LaFlamme: Yeet! and other words you need to know

    East bound and down So “Smokey and the Bandit” was playing at the drive-in this week, but I was working and couldn’t go. It’s a real bummer, too, because not only is the movie a blast, but afterward, you get to watch all the dorky moviegoers, amped up by the Bandit’s driving antics, trying to […]

  • Published
    June 22, 2020

    Street Talk: Can I interest you in a spot of tea?

    I’ve started drinking tea and it’s gotten so bad that the discovery of something like chamomile in the ingredients list can send me into a fury or an all-day depression. 

  • Published
    June 21, 2020

    Talk of the town: Party like it’s 2019

    Parks and playgrounds reopening That’s a relief. This whole lockdown business has been particularly difficult for skateboarders. While the parks were closed, they had to resort to beating themselves with bricks, flinging themselves down stairways and running into trailer hitches to maintain the lifestyle of skinned knees, bashed elbows, pounded shins, jolted chins and the […]

  • Published
    June 21, 2020

    50 Years of Katahdin Adventures

    It started around Father’s Day weekend in 1951 and for the next five decades, Joe Lelanksy didn’t miss a trip, taking his pack of Boy Scouts with him for the first 25 years.

  • Published
    June 21, 2020

    Mark LaFlamme: Elmer Fudd and the cancel culture

    “When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”  ― George R.R. Martin  My relief is enormous.  I can’t tell you how many nights I lie awake in bed, terrified by the thought that Elmer Fudd and Yosemite […]

  • Published
    June 19, 2020

    Juneteenth celebrated at Edward Little High School

    The day commemorate June 19, 1865, when a Union Army general read an order in Galveston, Texas, announcing that all slaves were free. 

  • Published
    June 19, 2020

    Man dies in motorcycle-truck collision in Auburn

    The accident occurred at Garfield and Perkins Ridge roads.

  • Published
    June 19, 2020

    Lewiston police union issues statement on City Council resolution

    Among other things, Lewiston police would like to equip its officers with body cameras for all sworn personnel.