For a problem that’s solved, the bar scene around the Oak Park apartments in Lewiston remains unsolvable.About two years ago, the mostly elderly residents of the apartments complained about drunken revelry occurring in the wee hours outside their building, which was between popular nightspots Blue Elephant and Club Adrenaline.Well, popular with patrons anyway. Neither establishment […]

Gov. John Baldacci’s pocket veto of legislation that would have infringed public access to important legislative and municipal information, LD 1878, is a victory for clear, open transparent government in Maine.Introduced as a cost-saving measure, LD 1878 proposed the wholesale shift of legislative rulemaking notices from newspaper publication onto the Internet. An amended version of […]

Peepers are peeping, birds are singing, flowers are blooming and people – good lord, there’s people! – are out walking, running, biking and playing outside. Spring has sprung.And rather quickly, too. It seems only yesterday we were ensconced in winter’s icy grip, and snow was looming in the forecast. If the balmy temperatures of this […]

Knock, knock, it’s the creative economy calling.This economic philosophy came before the Legislature in the form of a pair of young filmmakers pitching a major movie production for Western Maine. They called it, “Tumbledown,” a romantic comedy.A bill authorizing a tax break for the purported $5 million production died in the Senate, however. The filmmakers, […]

This Earth Day, we’d like peace on the planet and goodwill among environmental regulatory agencies.Sometimes, the latter seems more realistic than the former.Maine and many other states are again taking the Environmental Protection Agency to court, this time for failing to comply with a Supreme Court ruling giving the EPA authority over automotive emissions under […]

Political turbulence in Rumford is often comical. Outbursts, clandestine tree-cuttings and improvisational dismissals have traces of farce. This dysfunction, however, stops being funny when it seriously impacts the community.As it now has.Two young Rumford leaders are departing their important positions as victims of or actors in the town’s ceaseless political sniping.Jim Doar, an affable and […]

When you’re with friends or colleagues, do you talk politics and the state of the world?Can we join you?We’d like to sit in with groups of people who meet regularly – think book clubs, Friday morning coffee klatches and other regular social gatherings – and hear what the people of Lewiston-Auburn are thinking when it […]

Sarah Crane was right. So was Charles Bennett.They are the respective student and veteran who disagreed so deeply about treatment of the American flag in Farmington this week. Crane littered the student center floor with Old Glory, to see how walkers would react.Bennett objected, vociferously.Fury has reigned since. On one hand, harsh criticism for Crane […]

When you’re with friends or colleagues, do you talk politics and the state of the world?Can we join you?We’d like to sit in with groups of people who meet regularly – think book clubs, Friday morning coffee klatches and other regular social gatherings – and hear what the people of Lewiston-Auburn are thinking when it […]

Friday’s editorial regarding the state’s increases on alcohol taxes was incorrect in two important regards.The tax increase on wine is based on gallons produced, not bottles. And the overall tax increase on alcohol is based on a brewer’s or vintner’s overall production, not the amount of product distributed within the state of Maine.Therefore, the editorial […]