Usually, by now, we’re several weeks past the governor’s annual State of the State address, which sums up Maine’s position and outlines the policy agenda the chief executive wants to fulfill during the upcoming legislative session.Gov. John Baldacci has delayed the annual event this year. It has yet to be scheduled; some reports published earlier […]

We couldn’t help feeling frustrated after perusing agendas for public meetings in Lewiston and Auburn tonight.In Lewiston, the city’s strategic planning initiative will convene a discussion on maximizing downtown potential.In Auburn, city councilors will talk about the Great Falls Performing Arts Center and the potential of the downtown.Two separate meetings, two separate discussions about one […]

Tim Geithner, meet Tim Sample.When you two are done gabbing, we’re going ice-fishing, Mr. Treasury Secretary. Then we’re off to Rangeley, where the trails have been groomed nice and smooth, just for you. Better hope your security detail knows how to handle a sled.Maybe we’ll go skiing for an afternoon at Lost Valley, or play […]

Please join the newsroom side of the editorial board – Editorial Page Editor Anthony Ronzio, Managing Editor/days Judy Meyer and Executive Editor Rex Rhoades – in a live, online chat at noon Monday, Feb. 23, on sunjournal.com.If there’s anything you’ve always wanted to ask us, about the news or otherwise, here’s the chance. No registration […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news:• Cheers for the oil man. Don Blanchard, of Blanchard’s Oil in Turner, who relieved his clients of burdensome contracts, which were consummated at a time when petroleum prices peaked. His goodwill will cost him $40,000.Blanchard says he’s just paying it forward – he’s no longer paying premium for […]

Starting today, we invite readers to query, respond to, complain about, or maybe even praise the editorial board though the Web. Just e-mail: [email protected], please join the newsroom side of the board – Editorial Page Editor Anthony Ronzio and Managing Editor/days Judy Meyer – in a live, online chat at noon Monday, Feb. 23, on […]

The irony, of course, is teenagers post pictures of themselves engaging in embarrassing, sometimes illegal behavior on Facebook all the time.So why shouldn’t Auburn police?Three local teens have learned this lesson, as their illicit wandering through the Hilton Garden Inn, as captured by security cameras, was posted on the APD’s Facebook page for all to […]

Of course windmills are dangerous. If one of those turbine blades comes unbolted during a gale, for example, it could boomerang around the whole territory and cause awful carnage.We’re kidding. Maybe if Stephen King were writing a new wind turbine-themed thriller set in rural Maine, that would be his plot. The more possible, yet unproven, […]

Why do lawmakers insist on resurrecting defeated ideas with only minor tweaks, instead of thoughtful alterations that might actually get their bills passed?A 20-cent tax on plastic grocery bags was debated last legislative session. It died. Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, has reintroduced the “bag tax” this session, but expanded it for all retailers and dropped […]

The new committee tackling energy policy in Augusta is misnamed. Tapped as the “Joint Committee on Maine’s Energy Future,” the panel’s real job is fixing Maine’s problematic energy present, especially its household super-dependence on one heating source: oil.When No. 2 heating fuel peaked at $4.80/gallon last year, Maine’s oil-dependency was laid bare. Eighty percent of […]