Bates College student government and others decry decision to call police over anti-Israel graffiti as ‘a censure of student voices.’
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 inAndroscoggin County, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, River Valley
Androscoggin River upgrade delayed for at least a year
Rep. Ralph Tucker, a Brunswick Democrat, called it “a great idea” to put off consideration of the proposal in part because he would like to see upstream towns and industries included in the discussion about what ought to be done.
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Schools & Education
Bates to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all students
The college said Tuesday it won’t allow students to return in the fall unless they are vaccinated.
Posted inAndroscoggin County, Schools & Education
RSU 16 faces loss in state aid due to increase in home schooling
Officials say the district could lose almost $1 million over two years because 74 students left the district’s rolls to be home-schooled, at least until the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Anti-Israel graffiti at Bates College sparks state investigation
Slogans were written in chalk on the side of at least one building on the Lewiston campus.
Posted inAndroscoggin County, Nation / World
Minot native faces federal charges in connection with U.S. Capitol siege
Mitch Simon, 30, charged with joining the insurgents who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 in bid to stop Joe Biden’s succession to the presidency.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Schools & Education
Several hundred students gather at Bates to call for defunding campus security
The students pleaded with Bates College to transform its Campus Safety Department.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Bates students seek ‘to defund and disarm’ campus security officers
A Friday rally aims to push college administrators to go further than this week’s decision to take away the batons carried by otherwise unarmed security personnel.
Posted inAndroscoggin County, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, Oxford Hills
Upgrading the Androscoggin River under a new bill sparks debate, pushback from businesses
The bill would upgrade some sections of the Androscoggin River to a Class B, adding additional water protections for what was once one of the most polluted rivers in America. Environmentalists and recreationalists support the idea. Businesses that use it as a way to get rid of waste do not.
Posted inFranklin, Maine, Oxford Hills
Creation of a Maine Forest Advisory Board draws sharp comments from both sides
A bill to form a Maine Forest Advisory Board stirs diverse views as Legislature weighs the idea.