The two mortgage giants with country-fried names – Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – hold the note on half the mortgage value of the United States. From 1996 to 2006, Freddie Mac invested $13.6 billion in Maine, backing mortgages for 116,000 new homeowners.Yet size saved neither Fannie nor Freddie from the sucker punches of subprime […]

The work of the state’s wood-to-energy task force is compromised by its chairman’s position as principal of a new wood pellet-furnace company.Les Otten of Greenwood is the task force’s chairman. He is also a director of Maine Energy Systems Inc., which imports European wood pellet furnaces. The Associated Press reports MES has sold more than […]

A review of contracting practices within the Department of Health and Human Services has revealed opportunities for cost savings, and should spur further audits of one of Maine’s most expensive government agencies.The review, by the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, examined one facet of DHHS services: shared-cost, contracted programs ineligible for MaineCare. These […]

On Friday, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean visited Kennedy Park in Lewiston to rally the party faithful for the upcoming election. He spoke of electing Sen. Barack Obama to the White House. He spoke of electing Rep. Tom Allen to the Senate.He spoke from the steps of a dilapidated gazebo, which looks like it hasn’t […]

There’s consternation in Auburn about Walgreens’ plan for revamping the intersection of Center, Union and Turner streets. The problem comes down to man vs. machine.Walgreens is using computer modeling to declare where its new Auburn store should locate, and how the traffic patterns should be changed. Auburn residents are using their day-to-day experience on these […]

There is ample evidence America’s future for wind energy is mainly on the plains, not atop its peaks. If so, projects like TransCanada’s 132-megawatt windfarm in northern Franklin County is perhaps the last of its kind.Maybe it should be.Oilman T. Boone Pickens, whose blood would likely trade for $140/barrel, is repositioning himself as America’s voice […]

In 1991, the granddaughter of IBM executive Thomas Watson, Olive, adopted her long-time partner, Patricia Spado, in Maine. Both women were in their 40s. They claimed their residency at the Watson estate on North Haven.A year later, Spado and Watson’s relationship ended, but the adoption remained. When Olive’s mother died in 2005, Spado tried to […]

Seth Carey is out. Seth Carey is back.Pardon our confusion, but despite protestations to the contrary, it appears little has changed about the campaign for an Oxford County casino over the past months.The public is still promised a plan, a site, an investment groupin short, all of the tangible details for evaluating the casino’s merits […]

“A rough looking young man was a prisoner at the Auburn police court on a charge of vagrancy.He said, ‘Last evening I was passing through this town on the way to Wells Pond where I was going to work in the woods, the shower came up and I got in the barn for shelter and […]

Let’s be clear: If a politician can deliver affordable heating oil, he or she shouldn’t just be re-elected, but made potentate-for-life. In today’s petroleum peril, however, there’s little sense in praying for miracles.Instead, let’s prepare for what we know is coming.Maine government officials say support for a special legislative session about energy is growing. Lawmakers […]