Eric Brakey plans to hand over a $1,200 gun next month to someone who signs up to be a monthly donor to his 2nd Congressional District campaign.
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 inBusiness, Maine, Nation / World, News, Politics
US House passes Jared Golden’s bill to help a federal small business program
A measure by the 2nd Congressional District Democrat to increase funding for the Small Business Development Center program got bipartisan support this week.
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Posted inMaine, Oxford Hills, Politics
Retired general quits costly race for US Senate seat
Jonathan Treacy of Oxford’s departure leaves Democrats with three active contenders for the seat held by Republican Susan Collins.
Posted inFranklin, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, News
CMP criticizes fake signs posted on Farmington explosion site
Central Maine Power officials say signs touting its proposed $1 billion transmission line project were meant to sour the public’s view of the New England Clean Energy Connect plan.
Posted inMaine, Nation / World, News, Politics
Former ambassador now living in Maine: Syrian policy ‘was always going to end badly’
Maine resident Robert Ford said President Donald Trump made the right decision to pull American troops out of Syria.
Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine
Seniors find high-dose flu vaccines hard to come by
Health officials say the shortage is only temporary and supplies of the high-dose shots often used by seniors will be available soon.
Posted inNews, Politics
Be wary about social media posts
In recent years, U.S. Sen. Angus King, a second-term Maine independent, has said frequently that American voters need be more wary of what they see online. With more care, he said, they will not fall prey easily to trickery and deceit. That advice is just as true for anonymous posts by apparently local pot-stirrers as […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Politics
Secretive Facebook pages roil Lewiston’s mayoral campaign
Two social media pages purporting to back Mark Cayer’s mayoral bid are actually undermining it, the Democrat says.
Posted inMaine, News, Politics
Ranked-choice voting has ‘Mainementum’ as it spreads across the country
Critics say election reformers ought to take a look at alternative voting systems before endorsing the one Maine adopted.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, Politics
Sara Gideon brings her US Senate campaign to Lewiston
A handpicked group told the Freeport Democrat at a Thursday roundtable that coping with the high cost of medication is difficult for many seniors.