Taking her next step toward an independent campaign for governor this year, state Rep. Barbara Merrill of Appleton has left the Democratic Party on the eve of a new legislative session.Merrill has been following the playbook of former Gov. Angus King in preparing for a possible campaign by publishing a book of her ideas on […]

We sadly add a new name to the list of soldiers with ties to Maine who have fallen in service to the United States in Iraq.Sgt. 1st Class Shawn C. Dostie was killed Dec. 30 by an explosion while on patrol in southern Baghdad.Dostie was a member of the 101st Airborne Division, based in Fort […]

According to a report from the attorney general’s office, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection did not intentionally violate the state’s freedom of access law when it held secret meetings with Rumford Paper and failed to provide public records of the negotiations.The AG recommends that state workers receive more FOA training.Training is a good idea. […]

When Shannon and Paul Beaulieu bought their house in Auburn, they didn’t think the land around them would be developed. They were wrong.When the partners of a new Subaru dealership told the Beaulieus that their property was worth only $50,000, they were wrong, too.Now the odd couple – a young family and a young business […]

There’s trouble in recall land. The troops are demoralized, and the leaders are out of sight.Chalk it up to the holidays or the realization that recalling the majority of the Auburn City Council is not practical, either way the effort is running into difficulty.One of the leading organizers of the recall is out of the […]

New England is being used as a guinea pig for a new profiling program that hopes to spot potential terrorists before they board an airplane.Airports in Portland, Bangor, Boston and Rhode Island have implemented a pilot program that uses specially trained security agents to spot “suspicious” behavior by travelers. Called SPOT – Screening Passengers by […]

Happy New Year.One of the things we’re most happy about is simply leaving 2005 behind. It was, of course, a year of frightful natural disasters. It will be remembered for the tsunami death toll which kept climbing as we entered 2005, Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast, and the earthquake, which is still an unfolding […]

Maine’s anti-discrimination law went into effect Wednesday, and so far the state hasn’t collapsed into a state of immoral decay.The state was the last in New England to outlaw discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation. It was long overdue.It took the political muscle of Gov. Baldacci and a well-organized and well-financed “no” campaign for […]

In the name of reducing the reporting burden placed on industry, the Environmental Protection Agency is considering a rule change that could significantly handicap Maine’s efforts to track and regulate toxic materials.The proposed rule change, which currently is in the comment period, would also choke off the public’s access to information about the hazardous materials […]

Auburn has a problem.No, we don’t mean the property tax revaluation that has so many people in an uproar, although there are plenty of good reasons to question the way it has been handled. And no, we don’t mean the way the city council has continued to support a parking garage despite crowd demands to […]