Susan Gendron, commissioner of the Maine Department of Education, is asking school superintendents for advice on repealing costly mandates, without harming the quality or delivery of education in the classroom.One idea we’re sure Gendron will hear is to forgo district consolidation, a bone of contention since introduced. Though some regions have embraced the new school […]

Talk about same-sex marriage in Maine tends to rush toward the conclusion: whether they should be legal. The recent announcement of a clergy coalition to draw attention to it – the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry in Maine – has renewed this debate, and drawn the usual opposition.This fundamental debate, though, can obscure […]

Sarah Palin is neither gone, nor forgotten.The governor of Alaska was the recent topic of the Great Falls Forum at the Lewiston Public Library. Stephanie Kelley-Romano, an associate professor of rhetoric at Bates College, waxed wildly about the GOP’s fascinating vice presidential candidate. “This woman interests me, to say the least,” Kelley-Romano says.She professed herself […]

Does energy policy get you charged? Are you humming over power lines near your property? Would discussion of electromagnetic fields make you electrified? Do grids make you grin, groan?Monday night, Nov. 24, is for you.At 6 p.m., the Maine Public Utilities Commission is holding a public witness hearing at Lewiston City Hall on the Maine […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news:• First, cheers to the Mountain Valley and Winthrop football teams as they go for championships today. We’re rooting for you.• Jeers to racist idiocy. From signs in Standish to nooses on Mount Desert Island, the election of Sen. Barack Obama as president has encouraged small minds to make […]

Good government isn’t cheap.Cheap government isn’t good.These phrases should resonate with members of the 124th Maine Legislature, who will negotiate maybe the most challenging fiscal environment facing this state’s government in nearly two decades.On Wednesday, Gov. John Baldacci announced an $80 million spending curtailment, the second this year, to offset the dramatic reductions in revenues […]

Efforts by the governor, attorney general, Democratic Party officials and others to unseat wayward Androscoggin County Commissioner Helen Poulin have reached a stalemate. So far, this group has opined that she’s vacated her seat, and scheduled a caucus to select a replacement.But this coalition hasn’t actually made Poulin leave the commission – and she knows […]

We may disagree with Bruce Cook’s inspiration, but we admire his thinking. He is maybe the first public official in Western Maine to suggest a proactive approach to wind turbine construction, instead of scrambling after the fact.As more and more turbine projects sprout across the Western mountains, towns and villages should address their construction before […]

Something feels amiss with how Maine chooses its attorney general, but it’s hard to put a finger on what.The process is sound, the candidates are usually well-qualified and the group of electors – the Legislature – ordinarily possess good judgment. (That’s why they were elected in the first place.)Yet something still just feels wrong. Like […]

Government task forces have the sex appeal of cinder blocks.And as task forces go, Gov. John Baldacci’s creation to study ocean-based energy is the standard mashup of high-ranking bureaucrats, outside experts, wonks and some business interests.They’ll meet for months and hash a detailed report that will be read, mostly, by high-ranking bureaucrats, outside experts, wonks […]