Please join Sun Journal Editorial Page Editor Anthony Ronzio and political blogger Mike Tipping for a live, online chat at noon Monday, March 30, on sunjournal.com. Tipping blogs about Maine politics at Mainepolitics.net and on Downeast.com’s “The Tipping Point.” They’ll talk about the 2010 gubernatorial race, the State of the State, Gov. John Baldacci’s new […]

Just what is an economic stimulus program, anyway?On Monday, we reported that Maine – through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the stimulus – will receive an additional $5 million for food stamps, the largest single-year increase in program funding in perhaps two decades.This funding has been billed, in part, as an economic stimulus. Except, […]

Sports fandom can be an exercise in irrationality. Just months after blaming their fans for the team’s failure to meet its financial goals, the Lewiston Maineiacs earned cheers from these same fans for announcing that, hey, “we’re just going to stay right here.”By all accounts, the team’s violation of trust should have earned it scorn, […]

The dental landscape in Maine is deeply flawed and demands attention.Across the state, there is one dentist for every 2,100 people. (Or, in terms of teeth, one for every 67,200.) In northern Maine, there is one dentist for every 4,000 people. Lack of access to care affects all dental patients universally; it is not a […]

There’s a reason we have three branches of government and two houses of Congress.The Founding Fathers were men of substance and property, and they wanted to remain that way. They knew history, and they realized that public passions are easily inflamed and manipulated.Put a few buffers between the angry mob and the levers of power, […]

Justice might be blind, but it sees conflicts of interest. Such as Maine’s judiciary controlling funds for indigent defense, which could give an impression that judges may put budgets, not adequate court-appointed representation, first.Maine is different among states in allowing this; most others, according to a new state study, awoke to this conflict and turned […]

Maine’s Public Utility Commission has some tough decisions to make in the coming year if the state is to become energy independent and a viable exporter of energy in decades to come.The PUC’s task to protect ratepayer interests is key, as it tries to review two important, but now competing, proposals that seek similar goals.The […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news:• Cheers to Sen. Susan Collins, who earned accolades this week for casting her 4,000th consecutive vote in the U.S. Senate, a streak which – although not the milestone, which is more than 10,000 – is still impressive.(It’s also a nice political feather, which served her well during her […]

try, try again. But this time, with a different partner.Joint services in Lewiston now have a different direction – east. After unrequited advances for sharing services with Auburn, the top administrators in Lisbon and Lewiston have decided to share code enforcement and assessing departments in the interest of saving some money.It’s little surprise. The manager […]

First, the visceral response to AIG bonuses, as espoused by Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa: These greedy executives should do the honorable thing and commit ritualistic suicide.(Grassley has backtracked from this comment, but it’s out there.)Now, the pragmatic response to AIG bonuses, as espoused by Sen. Olympia Snowe: If Congress had shown any foresight in […]