Maine’s leaders have never suggested arresting and criminally charging people who test positive for COVID-19 and locking them up in jail. Why is this? Could it be that no physicians, epidemiologists, or public health experts have recommended criminalizing COVID-19 as a way to address the pandemic? Can one imagine Maine’s Department of Public Safety saying […]

I’m writing in response to Robert Reed’s letter (“Reject Lewiston school budget, overspending,” May 7). As a former city councilor, he knows the kind of overspending going on in all of the city departments. Overspending has been an ignored subject for years. Public Works does not need over $1 million worth of vehicles and equipment […]

More than 230,000 Maine workers have no access to a retirement savings program through their employer, and working households in Maine average only $3,000 in retirement savings, according to information compiled by Maine’s Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli. One in three Mainers age 65 and older rely on Social Security as their only source of […]

Will Maine join the 22 states which prohibit corporate contributions to political campaigns, including those in federal election campaigns? Maine’s motto, “Dirigo,” translates from the Latin meaning “I direct” or “I lead.” Maine has and continues to lead the United States: its ranked-choice voting bill received 52% of the vote in 2016, the first naval […]

The Maine State Legislature has set the first public hearings on the national popular vote bills (LD 1330 and LD 1384) for Tuesday, May 11. Now is the time to submit testimony, which can be done online, with no need for driving to Augusta. The details of how this interstate compact would work are found […]

There was a time when politics had its place. It was a glorious time when Democrat and Republican family members could have a civil (more or less) debate without cancelling each other out. It was a time when you could watch a ball game without some player or advertisement preaching to you about some issue. […]

So Sen. Susan Collins is “most bipartisan” (Sun Journal, May 3). Pardon if I am underwhelmed. Given today’s Republican Party, composed of semi-lunatic Trumpites and anti-government apologists for the owning classes typified by the obstructionist McConnell, it ain’t hard to appear reasonable, even if your bipartisanship consists mostly of wondering why President Biden won’t just […]

Thanks to Richard Grandmaison for correcting the misperception that Lewiston is the third largest city in Maine. Lewiston has been the second largest city in Maine since at least the early 1900s despite a long list of obstacles that have seemed aimed at limiting its size and influence: namely, a statewide blindness to its strengths […]

At a time when more people are out of work and struggling, it seems our elected officials at both the School Committee and City Council have decided to double down with larger tax increases, more programs, and jobs that this city simply cannot afford. As a past member of the City Council and past member […]

Rep. Sheila Lyman’s guest column (“Seeking information and drawing our own conclusions is freedom,” May 2) is chock full of the most sophomoric thinking and absurd rationalizations imaginable. It is hard to believe that her notions could pass for informed thought. As I am sure she knows, children need to demonstrate proof of inoculations (a […]