“We have been moving very, very fast on several fronts simultaneously, and what we are doing has the potential to significantly contribute to the employment and economic activity in the River Valley.”– Scott Christiansen, Feb. 2004 Times have changed.Christiansen, the current guru of the Rumford-based Fractionation Development Center, spoke these words during his tenure as […]

The stack probably exists.We tried to find it, after Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told us about it. It’s the dusty pile of aging task force, blue ribbon commission, and panel reports from the past two-and-a-half decades that have recommended voluntary consolidation of Maine’s top-heavy school administration system.Cumulatively, these reports have consumed a remarkable amount […]

After decades of abuse and neglect, Maine’s rivers have been targeted by a coalition of environmental advocates and lawmakers for a $25 million economic development bond. Sen. Peggy Rotundo is the lead sponsor of the bond in the Legislature.She is also the Senate chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee. (As sponsor, Rotundo said she must […]

The tired refrain of domestic violence homicide in Maine is playing again.Last week, a 37-year-old from Waterville named Richard Reynolds drove to where his estranged wife, Rhonda Reynolds-Wakefield, was staying in Fairfield. She had reportedly spoken the address aloud during a recent court hearing.Richard Reynolds allegedly brought a handgun tucked into a sweatshirt and shot […]

“The value of a sentiment,” the long-dead British playwright John Galsworthy reportedly wrote, “is the amount of sacrifice you’re prepared to make for it.”Peter Drown Jr. is the victim of sentiment. His 37-year-old brother, Mark, died suddenly last July, leaving the elder Drown brother to care for his canines: two pit bulls, Kira and Nova, […]

The tiny American flag flutters vainly from its precarious perch, tied to a crumpled and dingy bouquet; a second dilapidated bouquet points skyward, whipped by the wind over the Androscoggin River and the whoosh of speeding traffic on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial BridgeThe memorial to Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Deputy David Rancourt needs work.Rancourt died unexpectedly […]

Considered alone, a sacrifice bunt means little. In the context of the entire baseball game, though, one sacrifice could mean winning or losing.A coalition headed by the Maine Municipal Association, the Maine Education Association, and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce is pushing its tax relief proposal to the Legislature, a plan this unlikely band […]

Maine’s economic health depends on the weather.This sentiment, delivered Thursday in Auburn by noted University of Southern Maine economist Charlie Colgan, is no bombshell. It caused nary a ripple through the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce audience to which Colgan spoke. It’s actually pretty obvious.Doesn’t make the fact any less striking, however.Few people are more […]

The jubilation in Fatima Haidara’s voice is as clear as her telephone connection from Nairobi, Kenya, to her brother’s cellular phone in Lewiston. Her brother, Mohamed, owns a Somalian store on Lisbon Street.“Yes, we are very happy,” she says about conflict in her native land. Backed by Ethiopian forces, the two-year-old Somalian transitional government has […]

Rep. Glenn Cummings, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, had the unenviable task recently of deciding committee placements for the 123rd Maine Legislature. Some of his choices rankled representatives, and led to postulation the Portland Democrat pushed partisan politics to pack panels with his preferences.Rep. Abby Holman, R-Fayette, a former forestry lobbyist and […]