The city of Auburn has one large problem, a $3.5 million budget deficit, which definitely qualifies as a crisis. And it has another problem, smaller but a problem nonetheless: a household waste recycling program that is ignored by at least three-quarters of the city’s population and needs an injection of cash to update equipment. This […]

For a couple of guys who claim not to be geniuses, college students Matt Bouchard and James Morin are doing pretty well for themselves. Maybe it has something to do with the 500 trips they made to the gym over four years. Bouchard and Morin are graduating from the University of Maine in Orono this […]

While ordinary Americans were muddling through the recession, the people running our two dominant political parties were sparing no expense, particularly on themselves. An examination of spending reports by the Democratic and Republican national committees last week by the Washington Post added to the growing mountain of evidence that the people ruling this country — […]

In 2005, an assuming math whiz working for a Boston investment management company sent a memo to the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington. It was plainly titled: “The World’s Largest Hedge Fund is a Fraud.” The SEC’s response to Harry Markopolos 21-page memo, laying out in exact detail what would later become the Bernie […]

It’s hard to think about a labor shortage at a time of high unemployment, but a variety of forward-thinking people are doing just that. And while it’s good to cut taxes to create a more business-friendly climate in the state, we will find it harder and harder to do so as our population ages and […]

Cheers and congrats to Saddleback Maine for its enormously successful PEAK — Promoting Education and Activity for Kids — pass program. The mountain offered specially discounted PEAK passes — at $49 for the 2009-2010 season — for K-12 students who earned a spot on their school’s honor roll. That’s $250 less than the regular student […]

It’s nice to see a guy get a raise, but the compensation package offered to Maine’s former Public Utilities Commission chairman by a wind developer raises a number of red flags. According to a story Thursday by Naomi Schalit, of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, former PUC Chairman Kurt Adams negotiated a pretty […]

The mayor of Binghamton, New York, is sick and tired of cutting municipal services and raising taxes, and he’s not going to take it anymore. Mayor Matt Ryan says his community is forced to “squabble over crumbs” while millions of dollars of his taxpayers’ money pours into the Pentagon to fuel America’s war efforts in […]

Many people mark September 11, 2001, as the day life in the United States became much more tense and frightening than before. We suddenly became aware of angry people willing to fly jetliners into buildings and others plotting to blow themselves up inside subway tunnels. But people over a certain age will remember another time […]

If a high school student walked up to another kid in the lunch room and slugged him, knocking him off his chair, he’d face an automatic suspension. Maine Workers Compensation Board board member Anthony Monfiletto of Portland should face at least that. The 54-year-old Monfiletto recently pleaded guilty to attacking another patron at the Widowmaker […]