Widespread protestations have been heard from Maine about the federal designation of Atlantic salmon as an endangered species and the inclusion of the Androscoggin, Penobscot and Kennebec river watersheds as areas where it is now protected.While there is broad support for restoring Atlantic salmon to sustainable levels, there is an equally broad consensus that a […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news:• Cheers to President Barack Obama, for doing what needed to be done: He swatted the fly. A buzzing housefly was aggravating the president during a television interview earlier this week, so he smushed it.Anyway, this action earned Obama rebuke from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who […]

Well, the good news is Maine isn’t alone. On Thursday, several U.S. senators were tsk-tsking the Obama administration for failing to address the gap in federal highway funding, the Highway Trust Fund, which runs on gasoline tax receipts and needs some $7 billion to stay solvent.By comparison, the $3 billion Maine needs for transportation projects […]

There are some things government – i.e. taxpayers – should pay for. Accessible and available polling places is one.In this regard, city councilors in Auburn did right by rejecting a proposal to consolidate voting at the Auburn Mall in lieu of locations in the city’s five wards. While this would have saved money – about […]

In this withering economy, Monday’s announcement by TD Banknorth was welcome news. The bank is opening a new $16 million call center at the Auburn Mall and promising to create 250 new jobs in the process, which would put the center’s peak at 500.Auburn and state officials worked hard to bring this deal to fruition, […]

The Farmington Board of Selectmen’s decision to prohibit political activity on public property, ostensibly to silence one aggressive petition-gatherer, would be perfectly justifiable if not for its pesky noncompliance with the whole Constitution thing.There’s the rub. What sounds good for the people – allowing public concerts to occur without interruption – runs counter to a […]

Bank of America – which argued it is so vital to America’s future, it couldn’t be allowed to falter – has forced another mega-corporation to fail.Celotex, which has a plant in Lisbon Falls, was forced to liquidate after Bank of America refused to accept a corporate restructuring plan, which included the resignation of Celotex CEO […]

Inadequate oversight. Poor management. Galloping costs. Maine’s home health care industry is vulnerable to fraud and abuse because no one seems to be accounting for the tens of millions of dollars spent for non-medical services for an unknown percentage of Maine’s elderly and disabled. Decent Home Care Inc., a Lewiston-based home health care agency, received […]