By David Sarasohn,Newhouse News Service Under pressure from a conservative Congress, guided by an administration shaped by high rollers and high brackets, the Internal Revenue Service is pursuing a bold new strategy in tax enforcement:Don’t follow the money.And don’t tell anybody about it.According to this year’s report from the IRS taxpayer advocate, Nina Olson, the […]

The Festival de Joie has succumbed to the same problem that plagues too many organizations.They become dependent on a leader and a corps of volunteers who are difficult to replace. When Lewiston Mayor Lionel Guay announced last year that he would end his run as chairman of the three-day festival, we had hoped that there […]

Defense lawyers have a difficult job.In our combative legal system, they are required to make the strongest, best case possible for their clients, even if they are guilty. The confrontation between the prosecution and defense is supposed to produce justice.For Brandon Thongsavanh, that means two trials for the same murder, two convictions and two 58-year […]

The American College of Emergency Physicians gives Maine a good grade – and a high ranking – in its national study of emergency medicine.According to the yearlong national study, Maine received a B-minus for the emergency care available, placing it in eighth place overall.Only California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Michigan and […]

To say that the man named to lead the state’s beleaguered Department of Environmental Protection has an all-American political resume would be no exaggeration.David Littell, who has been nominated to replace Dawn Gallagher who resigned amid controversy, graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School, served in the Navy Reserve and has more than a decade […]

Players have run more than $60 million through Bangor’s new Hollywood Slots in just two months.Of that, $23,000 was apparently stolen by a man with a serious gambling addiction before making its way into the gambling machines. At least that’s the story John Ethridge, 40, of Trenton, is telling.According to a story in the Ellsworth […]

Hope Haven mission in Lewiston deserves whatever help it can get. So do other Mainers struggling to pay for heating oil.Why, then, does the idea that the help is coming from Venezuela bother us? Because it does.Gov. John Baldacci has shown a strong commitment to providing heating assistance to Mainers who need it. With the […]

Refusing to let its senior population fall through the cracks, Maine has spent $3.6 million so far to make sure people are able to get their prescription drugs despite glitches in Medicare Part D.The feds, while thankful for the help, aren’t offering to reimburse Maine – and a handful of other states that are doing […]

Speaker of the House John Richardson would like to exact a price from politicians who desert their party after an election. When the political whims of a single lawmaker can throw the organization of the State House into the wind, it’s easy to understand why.In this short legislative session, the defection of former Democratic state […]

State Rep. Tom Saviello has removed himself from the Natural Resources Committee in the Legislature and asked the ethics commission to decide whether he has a conflict of interest.Calls for Saviello to be removed from the committee, which writes and oversees laws and regulations that directly affect his job as International Paper’s environmental manager, are […]