Prof. Eric Stark’s idea for downtown Lewiston is a good one. Assemble his architecture students (Stark teaches architecture at the University of Maine in Augusta) and have them draft innovative, groundbreaking plans for remaking the city’s signature neighborhood. It makes sense for academic and practical ends. Downtown is ready for redevelopment, and there’s no dearth […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news: • Jeers to further attempts to change Maine’s school consolidation laws. After the vote on Nov. 3 to uphold the legislation, discussion about alterations should have ceased. Yet opponents of consolidation were back before lawmakers this week, advocating to weaken the law. Enough is enough. Consolidation has already […]

Instead of tired partisan canards or paradoxical rhetoric about Maine’s new tax-reform legislation, voters should remember these two things: 1. This reform stabilizes Maine’s tax system, which is too vulnerable to economic volatility. 2. See No. 1. Maine is wallowing in the trough of another boom-and-bust economic cycle, which makes finding wiser and less oppressive […]

“Beware,” Henry David Thoreau once said, “of all enterprises that require new clothes.” There’s nothing pastoral about the Auburn City Council, though, nor Mayor-Elect Richard Gleason’s encouragement of his council colleagues to have pride in their appearance. He’s been asking them to respect the city’s standing dress and meeting conduct codes. This has rankled some […]

Lewiston city councilors will convene a special meeting tonight, in executive session, to discuss two finalists for the city administrator position. Councilors-elect are expected to attend as “listeners.” Here’s the problem: These councilors-elect are not sworn elected officials yet. They remain mere members of the public and, under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, with very […]

David Das deserves credit. In a letter to the Sun Journal, the chairman of the Auburn School Committee apologized for his reprehensible comment about Lewiston and Auburn parents. It was an ugly statement that deserved rebuke. Das has done the right thing by stating his regret. Yet, it’s not enough. Though Das apologized for his […]

Over the weekend, two more deaths in Maine were attributed to the H1N1 virus sweeping through the state. Swine flu has swiftly evolved from faraway fear into problematic pandemic, as schools and workplaces suffer from absence-related shutdowns and interrupted productivity. There’s little Mainers can do except be prepared. This can come through inoculation and preventative […]

The suggestion from Jim Miclon, head of the dispatch center in Oxford County, to use land-line telephones instead of cellular phones to call 911 indicates a major problem for Maine. Prevailing, popular technology is making it more difficult to report, and respond to, emergencies. And we all thought cell phones made our lives easier. “We […]

The saga of Camp Gustin is taking a turn. According to today’s front-page article by Kathryn Skelton, the possible sale of the Sabattus camp is unrelated to the financial predicament of the Pine Tree Council, the Scout’s governing arm in Southern Maine. This revelation comes just days after a group of distressed Scouts in Lewiston […]

One of Maine’s weakest laws is now one of its most useless. Last session, lawmakers addressed Maine’s pitiful statutes regarding teacher disclosure, under which nobody was told if a teacher had their certificate revoked or suspended, or even if that certificate was voluntarily surrendered. Now, the state will tell someone. Not the public, though. A […]