Maine has a history of major wildfires that have over the years left towns in ruins.
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, Lewiston-Auburn
Lewiston leaders hail governor’s plan for a New Mainers office
Officials say the new office will help integrate immigrants into Maine’s workforce
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
Nonprofit is just the fifth owner in the Sun Journal’s 176-year history
Since its roots as a weekly in 1847, only four owners have guided the city’s oldest business.
Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn
Farmers’ Almanac looks ahead to ‘Greatest Show on Earth’
Lewiston-based almanac eyes total eclipse next spring — and colder weather, too.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, Nation / World, Politics
President Biden reaches out to Jared Golden during speech in Auburn
Though the Lewiston Democrat has often been a thorn in Biden’s side, the president offered only kind words for the Maine lawmaker on Friday.
Posted inMaine, Politics
Our live updates from Biden’s visit to Maine
5:54 p.m. BRUNSWICK — Air Force One has taken off from the Brunswick Executive Airport to take President Biden to Delaware. He is set to land in Dover and then head to Rehoboth Beach. As the plane prepared for takeoff, a group of protesters on motorcycles drove down Orion Street chanting “(expletive) Joe Biden.” — […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Uncategorized
Other presidents who visited before or after serving in the White House
1878 and 1879 – U.S. Rep. James Garfield campaigns for Republicans in Lewiston. 1914 – Former President Theodore Roosevelt speaks at a rally at Lewiston City Hall. 1916 – Roosevelt campaigns in Lewiston for the Republican ticket. 1920 – Massachusetts Gov. Calvin Coolidge comes to Bates College in Lewiston to receive an honorary degree. 1920 […]
Posted inAndroscoggin County, Business, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, Nation / World, News, Politics
Biden will be first sitting president to visit Auburn since 1912
When Biden speaks at Auburn Manufacturing on Friday, he will be only the fifth president to visit the Twin Cities while in office.
Posted inbPlus
A doctor from Auburn died at Custer’s side at Little Big Horn
George Edwin Lord, educated in Auburn, became an Army surgeon after the Civil War and met a grisly fate.
Posted inbPlus
Excerpts from George Lord’s letters to Annie Hooper in 1874
“I am fading away on board a Missouri river boat and one of the poorest specimens at that. . . . It is so hot in this cabin that it is very hard to make any exertion, but I can’t let this Sunday go by without writing you.” “We were very happy together, Annie, and […]