Wish the Maine Board of Environmental Protection luck. It needs it.The nine-member citizen panel convenes this morning in Augusta, for the first of its two-part deliberations about paper mill wastewater discharges into the Androscoggin River. The Verso mill, in Jay, is the primary target of environmental groups, chiefly the Natural Resources Council of Maine and […]

Regis Lepage is an ex-baker with a load of bread. This is not why he was spared jail time for possession and distribution of child pornography, despite the howls of critics.Time behind bars, while satisfactory for the moral outrage stemming from Lepage’s horrible deeds, would have neither served justice, nor the community. Letting him work […]

It’s appropriate Barry Bonds arrives in Los Angeles this week on his morose tour toward baseball immortality, as the slugger’s uninspired chase of Hank Aaron – Bond’s tally of 754 homers is one shy of Hammerin’ Hank – is being scripted like a Hollywood production.Bonds and his handlers know breaking baseball’s sacred milestone away from […]

So, only one economic development official from Maine, Windham’s Keith Luke, attends a recent, massive retailing convention in Boston. Meanwhile, a convention speaker tells an audience how Maine’s legislative landscape is a concern for retailers.Ouch.It’s little wonder solicited comments from a smattering of retail developers about Maine elicited aging adjectives clipped straight from tourism promotions […]

Stavros Mendros, a Lewiston city councilor, is accused of improperly using his power as a notary public to certify petition circulators in a citizen initiative campaign.Mendros is expected to answer these charges in August.The charges loom over another initiative Mendros spearheads – to delay November’s vote on legislative term limits until 2008. It’s intent is […]

The recent troubles among neighbors inside an Auburn apartment block shouldn’t be easily dismissed as a sad, but isolated action, perpetrated by a misguided few. This kind of militant, group intimidation of a Muslim couple should instead be regarded as a fearful episode in cultural relations within the Twin Cities.It indicates discrimination is growing ironically […]

“Yeah, but how’s it going to look?” is a great question before repainting the den, but a feeble interjection when evaluating alternative energy projects, with which looks should be irrelevant.Emphasis on “should be.”Yet homeowners who adopt new energy technologies, and companies that emerge to develop them, are still faced with barrages of criticism and complaints […]

Do it, governor.Equivocating over a special legislative session on tax reform and spending relief – our preferred term for this convoluted process – is emboldening forces wishing to rip this issue from your hands and put it before voters.The next Taxpayer Bill of Rights initiative – christened the “son of TABOR” by some – is […]

Fines and judgments have failed to persuade Peter Drown, who owns multiple Rottweilers and American Staffordshire (pit bull) terriers, to better control his brood. His record of bad animal behavior and insistence against acknowledging liability shows a disconnect with reality.Normal dogs don’t haul off and slaughter livestock, as Drown’s dogs did. They don’t paralyze the […]

Long before “quality places,” before “green” evolved from colorful adjective into lifestyle descriptor, before “eco-tourism” became buzzword, one man traveled by canoe to explore the Maine Woods.“Why should not we…have our national preserves, where no villages need be destroyed, in which the bear and panther … may still exist, and not be ‘civilized’ off the […]