Barbara Hinckley, 95, lost everything to a sweet-talking scam artist who told her she’d placed second in a sweepstakes for the Publisher’s Clearing House.
Steve Collins
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.
Posted inNews
Signs of scams and how to avoid them
The Maine Attorney General’s Office advises that as a general rule, all scams have similar traits. Here are some obvious ones that raise red flags in its Consumer Protection Division. — You are contacted out of the blue. Anyone who calls, emails, sends you a letter, texts or comes to your dooryard out of the […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Hour Town: Did anybody really know what time it was in L-A in 1921?
As Daylight Saving Time was instituted during World War I, losing or gaining an hour caused big drama and confusion in Lewiston-Auburn.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, Politics
Jared Golden favors formal impeachment inquiry to investigate President Trump
Maine’s 2nd Congressional District representative remains unsure whether the president should be impeached, but favors a fair process to figure out what Donald Trump has done.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
Maine aims to test every toddler for possible lead poisoning
A new law requires screenings for every child at ages 1 and 2 in bid to catch lead exposure early and minimize the health impact it can have.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
Maine aims to test every toddler for possible lead poisoning
A new law requires screenings for every child at ages 1 and 2 in bid to catch lead exposure early and minimize the health impact it can have.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, Politics
Senate Democrats eye programs for broadband, student debt relief and more
At a town hall session in Auburn, lawmakers discussed their “Fighting for Maine” agenda and plans for the next session in Augusta.
Posted inMaine, News, Politics
Democrats hopeful as they bring campaigns for U.S. Senate to rural Sangerville Grange
SANGERVILLE — For a few hours recently, the 115-year-old East Sangerville Grange Hall, one of those classic white clapboard New England structures, stood at the center of what may prove the most important U.S. Senate race in the nation. That mid-October Saturday night marked the first time each of the Maine Democratic Party’s Senate contenders gathered […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Bates snags federal cash to help study Lake Auburn
Researchers hope to use more technology to help understand the algae blooms that impact many American lakes, including the one that Auburn and Lewiston rely on for drinking water.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Mayoral candidate Mark Cayer says he struck a pedestrian while driving
The Lewiston hopeful, who got a ticket for failing to yield to a pedestrian, said the woman was injured but is out of the hospital.