Steve Collins – Page 115 – Lewiston Sun Journal

Columnist

Steve Collins became an opinion columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News in April of 2025. A journalist since 1987, Steve has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine and served as the State House reporter for the Sun Journal since 2016. The Maine Press Association named him Maine's Journalist of the Year in 2022. Among his other awards are the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2016 Ethics in Journalism Award, the I.F. Stone Whistle-Blower Award in 2015 and the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. Steve is a founder and board president of Youth Journalism International, a charity that teaches students around the globe about news writing, media literacy and issues of the day. His wife, Jackie Majerus, serves as its executive director. Born in Massachusetts, he grew up in a military family that took him to Norway, Ohio and Virginia, where he earned a degree in history from the University of Virginia. He and Jackie live in Auburn. They have two adult children, two collies and not enough time.

Lewiston-Auburn, Maine

Bates College to close its campus and send students home

by Steve Collins March 13, 2020March 16, 2020

The Lewiston campus is the last NESCAC college to yield to the potentially deadly coronavirus.

Lewiston-Auburn, Maine

Lewiston’s d’Youville Pavilion bans visitors to protect residents

by Steve Collins March 11, 2020March 12, 2020

Nursing homes are screening or barring visitors in a bid to stave off COVID-19, also known as a coronavirus.

Lewiston-Auburn, Maine

Fake flyers at Bates showed ‘blatant disregard’ for efforts to inform community of COVID-19 dangers

by Steve Collins March 11, 2020March 12, 2020

College officials decried the hoax and urged students, faculty and staff to ignore the flyers, which carried a forged signature of Bates’ president.

Lewiston-Auburn, Maine

Despite coronavirus threat, Bates College expects to finish academic year as planned

by Steve Collins March 10, 2020March 12, 2020

Bates officials in Lewiston are preparing for online teaching in case shutting classrooms becomes best way to deal with the COVID-19 threat.

Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, Politics

Polling places are busy as voters show up for primaries and Question 1

by Steve Collins March 3, 2020September 14, 2020

Voting has been busy in Lewiston and beyond, officials said. And voters are happy to have a nice day to go to the polls.

Maine, Politics

Voters go to the polls today to decide vaccine question, party primaries

by Steve Collins March 2, 2020March 3, 2020

Democrats, Republicans to choose U.S. presidential picks.

Maine, Politics

Vaccine question pits science versus choice

by Steve Collins March 1, 2020March 2, 2020

Supporters of Question 1 argue parents, not the state, should decide if children should be vaccinated. Opponents, including every major medical group in Maine, say immunizations save lives.

Lewiston-Auburn

The ‘unconquerable’ Mary Wheelwright Mitchell

by Steve Collins March 1, 2020March 2, 2020

When every other female student at Bates College quit under pressure in the 1860s, Mary Mitchell refused to leave. That legacy stands today as one of the school’s greatest sources of pride.