Calling consolidation/collaboration talks between Lewiston and Auburn a “marriage” is premature. They’re better described as roommates, sharing a roof because eating together is preferable to starving separately.Marriage, in legal terms, is a binding contract. It creates a new entity, while roommates retain separate identities, united by fiscal necessity. This is right for L-A.Not marriage, though […]

The biggest building in Lewiston has a big committee to mull its fate.A 15-member panel empowered to evaluate the viability of Bates Mill No. 5 has been named by Mayor Laurent Gilbert. It includes entrepreneurs, developers, economic development experts, historians, elected officials, policy analysts – one representative from about every discipline.While there’s little debate that […]

We said we’d be back, and many schools were ready.The response to this newspaper’s second school security audit, conducted May 8, was heartening, and lends proof that many school administrators are considering the safety of students and campuses with seriousness equal to traditional day-to-day budgeting and curriculum decisions.Security is easy to lapse, especially in the […]

Is there a statesman in the House?Is there a state representative or senator who will take the unpopular stance of supporting immediate ethics reform, instead of adjudicating the important issue to another lengthy sentence of study? Is there one lawmaker who realizes that ethics reform isn’t just for the Legislature, but for the people it […]

See you in November.That’s the statement Lewiston City Councilor Normand Rousseau made Tuesday, in storming out of the council’s meeting amidst debate over committee assignments. Rousseau’s march shows progressive action by this council cannot, and will not, occur until after the November election.The issue Tuesday was regarding the appointment of nonregistered voters to the city’s […]

In capitulating to Penn National’s implied threat to scuttle its $131 million racino development in Bangor, lawmakers have set a dangerous precedent regarding the proliferation of gambling in Maine.Legislators on both sides of the aisle eyed additional revenue from Penn National’s successful Hollywood Slots operation to balance the biannual budget, but the gaming corporation – […]

Timothy Bean’s punishment fits his crime.Bean pleaded guilty last week to manslaughter in the death of Megan Ripley, who was shot in her Paris backyard in early December with a bullet from Bean’s muzzle-loader. Bean, hunting in the waning days of the blackpowder season, mistook Ripley for a deer.In return for his plea, Bean was […]

An ideal government wouldn’t need a public records ombudsman.Officials from the sparsest to most sprawling bureaucracies would be blessed with a crystalline understanding of the public information laws. Meetings would never be held in secret, and public record requests would be handled with promptness and courtesy.We aren’t holding our collective breath.Access to public information is […]

“We’re hopeful Mother’s Day has a good effect on everybody,” says Sen. Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, president of the Maine Senate. She refers to the $130 million, or so, divide between her party and Republicans over the state budget, talks on which are grinding to a halt.We share her hope, but not her optimism. The laudable […]

The bridge connecting Lewiston’s Railroad Park and Auburn’s Bonney Park is a path of illustrated profanity and violence.It’s a path traveled by dozens of people every day and it’s an utterly poor reflection of the cities’ image.Lewiston and Auburn have each devoted loads of tax and grant dollars to create and maintain parks along the […]