“Hi, excuse me, are you a registered voter in Maine? You are? Well, could I stop you for a second? I’m circulating a petition for…”We’ve all heard the spiel. They echo inside the lobbies of our voting places, on the periphery of our favorite summertime events and in our shopping plazas around Christmas – fast-talking […]

The federal government makes college financial aid assistance far too complex. Parents are unable to easily navigate the forms. Too few – about 10 percent at Lewiston High School, for example – high school seniors file the critical FAFSA document, and skip a golden opportunity to receive low-interest loans, scholarships and grants.It’s their fault.Educators and […]

How does this long saga end?No, we’re not talking about “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” you crazy Muggle. We’re referring to the contentious issue of low-level flights in Western Maine, which, quite unlike the last Potter novel from J. K. Rowling, had its conclusion released to the world earlier this month.It came when the […]

You know what stops dangerous drivers?Blaring blue lights and screaming sirens, the traditional hallmarks of Maine State Police vehicles. Even the mere presence of a police cruiser – those cerulean Turnpike sentinels – can deter reckless driving, and all they must do is park by the highway’s side.But a license plate?A state trooper recently was […]

This nod was overdue.Just a quick move of the head, given by the Lewiston City Council toward the community advocates comprising the Visible Community, whose unshaken support for a small public park in the city’s Maple Street neighborhood was finally acknowledged, and validated, by the council.The council agreed to purchase a small parcel on Knox […]

When a stocky 260-pound suspect needs an attitude change, police should carry few other weapons than a Taser.Lewiston police now have them, joining Auburn. Farmington has Tasers, soon will Jay. Many police agencies in Maine have the devices, enough to prompt the Maine Chiefs of Police Association and the Maine Criminal Justice Academy to investigate […]

The $915,732 in clean election funds allocated to Barbara Merrill’s campaign for Maine governor in 2006 was well spent. She fought a spirited race, resonated with citizens and earned more than one-fifth of their votes.Late in the campaign, as a hard-charging Merrill blitzkrieged the airwaves with paid announcements (including a 30-minute made-for-TV special), the independent […]

Pity poor Joe P. Dehetre.The Turner man is one of the 49 Mainers to have run afoul of Tina’s Law, which imposes a three-year license suspension on motorists deemed habitual offenders, the definition of which is having 10 convictions for moving violations within a five-year period.Dehetre admits his driving record is miserable (he’s 23 years […]

An excerpt from a recent letter to the editor the Sun Journal declined to publish:“I have just received a letter from DHS stating my boyfriend was not longer covered under Mainecare, to me that’s not fair…because Americans treat the smelly Somolians [sic] like good [sic], give them everything free, including cars…the Somolians have been in […]

Words are more than letters. They are illustrative instruments, obfuscating objects, paintbrushes of policy and pap. Some are as serious as a sepulcher, others lighter than lint.Once entering the dictionary, however, they become benchmarks of our society’s development. For words, entree into the dictionary represents an ascension from the purgatory of slang into linguistic paradise, […]