“Death spiral” is a catchy phrase, but an uninspiring descriptor of Maine’s individual health insurance market.The spiral starts when health insurance, either through the market or government regulation, becomes too expensive. People drop coverage, become sick, and then decide to buy insurance again. Since they’re sick, coverage costs insurers a mint. These costs are recovered […]

Long after they’re gone, we can say we knew them when.They’re our boys, these Lewiston Maineiacs, who came here from around the United States and Canada to play some real hockey. They lived with us, entertained us and energized us, and turned the crashing of the boards inside the Androscoggin Bank Colisee into cacophony as […]

Rudy Giuliani is supposed to be the candidate of authenticity, the tough-talking former New York City mayor who sticks to his beliefs no matter what. But he is repeating a line that is so flagrantly insincere, it makes any of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s canned talking points seem free and natural by comparison.Giuliani claims he “hates […]

Tuesday’s editorial, “Board decision puts Richard’s defense at rest,” incorrectly stated Michael Richard’s plea. Richard pleaded no contest and was found guilty. It was an editing error.

Convicted sex offenders, wherever they reside, are burdened with a stigma unlike any other in American criminal justice – their names, and faces, made available online for easy perusal, identification, and often snap judgments.Two on Maine’s list were executed by a disturbed Canadian teenager last year. Stephen Marshall had a vendetta against sex offenders, and […]

The defense of Michael Richard should now rest.Richard is the former Mexico and Rumford police officer whose certification to enforce the laws of Maine was, in rapid fashion, revoked by the Maine Criminal Justice Academy Board of Trustees last week. Town officials, however, asked the board for leniency, and called him “a real benefit for […]

So far, the “historic” hearings on the Androscoggin River have been, well, a history lesson.Environmentalists blame paper mills for polluting the Androscoggin.Paper mills point to other pollution sources as chief contributors to the problem.Gulf Island Dam is either a non-factor, or culprit, for awful odors that can ruin a fine summer’s paddle.Millworkers fight for their […]

As a newspaper, we cannot comment on LD 1878 – which proposes to end publishing government notices – without pointing out our obvious conflict of interest: notices are a newspaper revenue source paid by taxpayers.LD 1878 was introduced to move paid legal notices out of daily newspapers and post them free online.Rep. Terry Hayes, D-Buckfield, […]

The Androscoggin County Commissioners’ blockade of Sheriff Guy Desjardins has moved past the point of spectacle and has entered the realm of farce.During its meeting on Wednesday, the chairman of the commission, Elmer Berry, angrily threatened to eject Desjardins and accused the sheriff of fomenting a “media spectacle” with pleas to discuss personnel issues.Berry should […]

Let’s go back to the videotape.“I hope we’re not being duped,” is the last word spoken in an online menagerie of clips from “Fox and Friends,” the morning talk show that broadcast a juvenile satire of the ham incident at Lewiston Middle School as truth. “I’m not making this up, I checked out on Web […]