Clem Bechard is an inspiration. On a recent trip to Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, where a three-day battle in 1863 changed the course of the Civil War, Bechard searched out a granite monument commemorating the courage and tenacity of the 20th Maine Regiment. In the sloping woods on the back side of Little […]

What happened in Dallas at 8:58 Thursday night was unspeakable. Five officers shot dead and seven wounded on the job. Shot because they were doing their jobs. And, from all reports, doing their jobs well. They were on site at a protest but hands off, allowing those gathered to exercise their constitutional right to peaceably […]

Imagine, if you can, what it might have been like to wake up in this country on July 3, 1776. The colonies had been at war with the Crown for more than a year. Colonists were living in turmoil, chafing under English rule. Dozens of battles had already taken place up and down the Eastern […]

If you didn’t get a chance to roll or stroll down Canal Street in Lewiston Thursday, you missed something good. It was a glimpse of the future, a glimpse of the possible. As part of the third Build Maine Conference held in Lewiston in as many years, the street was converted to a single travel […]

Guns. There are few topics more hotly debated in this country, from our constitutional right to bear arms to the wrongs committed by some while bearing those arms. The overwhelming majority of gun owners are responsible, careful and law-abiding people. The criminal actions of the active minority are fueling the debate, pitting our rights against […]

On Tuesday school budgets will be decided. Registrars of probate will be elected. Boards of selectmen will be established. Municipal spending on special projects, such as a new fire station in Peru, will be decided. The town of Paris will decide whether to keep its police department or contract with the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office […]

At the RSU 9 budget meeting in Farmington Wednesday night, School Board member Nancy Porter passed a beautifully hand-written note to two women sitting in the front row asking them to hold their questions on the proposed budget until after the first two articles were presented. This was a district-wide budget vote on $32 million […]

There is a curious and unexplained condition that sometimes occurs naturally inside the walls of the State House. Let’s call it Politix Importunus. It is a condition afflicting elected officials who come to believe political shuckin’ and jivin’ for position is more important than the issue over which they battle. Happens every day. Right now, […]

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services issued a new rule this week limiting the number of times a person can automatically receive replacement Electronic Benefits Transfer cards.  It’s the end of endless replacement benefits. Excellent. This is what the current administration calls a common-sense reform to monitoring state-issued welfare cards — cards that […]