Who made Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, the nation’s classification czar? By running the nation’s foremost newspaper, Keller gets to decide which secrets of the U.S. government are maintained and which aren’t – and his default position is to expose them all.This amounts to an extraordinary accretion of public power […]

We question why Livermore Falls’ town officials – elected and appointed – seem so determined to punish taxpayers.It’s a confounding position for public officials to take, considering they are representatives of the public to serve at the wish and will of the people. Officials in Livermore Falls appear unable to comprehend that structure.At June’s annual […]

Candidate: Green Independent Pat LaMarche for governorTV ad: “I’m Pat LaMarche”Length: 30 secondsProducer: Message Strategy Group, North YarmouthMarket: Statewide before the June 13 primary. The ad could return later in the campaign.Announcer: The candidate narrates most of the ad, followed by a male announcer who reads the tag line.Visuals: The ad begins with LaMarche talking […]

We thought when a Joint Services Commission issued a report calling on Lewiston and Auburn to consolidate government services there would be a flurry of activity.Then, we feared, over the long haul, the effort might lose momentum.Boy, were we wrong.No flurry. No momentum. If this were a horse race, the nag dropped dead at the […]

You’ve probably seen the desk sign before: “Your failure to plan doesn’t constitute our crisis.”That’s the message Maine needs to send to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which recently ruled that Maine consumers should pay an additional $300 million over the next four years to some of the nation’s largest power companies.Then, on Wednesday, the […]

Grief is an inadequate word to describe the emotion now strangling the friends and families of Lewiston High School students Nick Babcock, Shannon Fortier and Teisha Loesberg, and of pilot Charlie Weir.There truly is no word forceful enough, descriptive enough, encompassing enough to define what is an utter tragedy.The teens and their pilot died Thursday […]

First the wind-up, then the pitch. Gov. John Baldacci began laying the groundwork Monday for another effort to suspend the laws of supply and demand.He ceremonially signed two bills sponsored by Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, designed to move the state closer to a higher minimum wage for a category of workers loosely termed personal […]

Independent John Michael of Auburn is seeking election to the office of governor of Maine.He would not make a suitable governor, and we do not support his candidacy.However, we do support the reality that missing a deadline by seconds can be understood, even accepted.On Friday, Michael dashed into the office of the Maine Commission on […]

The town of Norway has completed a forensic audit into its books, an audit that has identified as much as $100,000 missing from the public’s pocket.There are three copies of that audit. Norway Police Chief Rob Federico has a copy, as does the town’s attorney and the District Attorney’s Office. The document is, according to […]

By the time the new Medicare Part D prescription plan was 10 days old, Maine had spent $3.6 million to fill more than 68,000 prescriptions for elderly and disabled patients who were shut out of the new plan because of computer and paperwork errors. At the time, which was the second week in January, the […]