The tactical maneuvering over the state’s liquor contract took an interesting turn Monday when Democrats proposed incorporating the hospital debt into their proposal. This mirrors a goal first proposed by Gov. Paul LePage and shows that the governor’s insistence on paying the hospitals is gaining traction with the public. But while questions have been raised […]
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Government can’t force guns on these people
Until last week, Byron was best known to the outside world for Coos Canyon and gold panning in the Swift River. Then two out of three selectmen voted to place a symbolic article on the town warrant requiring all 58 households to own a gun. We say symbolic because, as one selectman told the Sun Journal, […]
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Maine should revisit law for virtual schools
After three years, Massachusetts’ first virtual school will close this summer, calling into question the wisdom of Maine’s approach to operating virtual charter schools. The Greenfield School Committee voted to close Massachusetts Virtual Academy last week in the face of a new state law requiring the school to be overseen by the state. The virtual […]
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Here’s the real danger of ‘Agenda 21’
If your fear of the future is: a bleak, cold world where the ruling elite force healthy people to walk on treadmills to produce electricity while the elderly and disabled are strapped to conveyor belts and incinerated, or an overheated, arid planet where healthy people wear masks to avoid breathing polluted air as factories in […]
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Democrats’ liquor proposal a 2004 retread
If you think Gov. John Baldacci negotiated a bad deal for Maine’s liquor business in 2004, then you will recognize the Democratic leadership’s plan for the next 10 years as more of the same. The similarities are eerie, and the Democrats’ legislation looks as if it was drafted by the current contract holder, a Massachusetts […]
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Gun facts get tangled on the Web
We find it both fascinating and disturbing when we run across questionable information that has worked its way up to gospel truth. Saturday, we ran a letter to the editor from a reader claiming 192,000 women used a firearm to defend themselves against a sexual assault “last year” according to “the federal report.” This number […]
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CMMC uniformity, naming a storm, and a ‘tail’ of survival
Thursday was the end of a three-month pilot program to test uniformly colored uniforms at Central Maine Medical Center. The program was launched Dec. 1 to test patient response to same-colored uniforms on 250 nurses and certified nursing assistants to better identify — by visually separating — these workers from the collage of other health […]
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Hold your seat, the apocalypse now under way
To hear President Barack Obama tell it, we should begin feeling something like the apocalypse today. Sorry, Mr. President, but most of us have already shrugged our shoulders. We have become so accustomed to near-misses, last-minute deals and cans being kicked down the road that we don’t get very excited anymore. You say the restrooms […]
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Let’s stop bickering over county’s costs
The city of Lewiston has kicked off a round of tit-for-tat between itself and the county’s rural towns that, in the end, nobody will win. It started when Lewiston bargained down the price of dispatching services by arguing it provides its own dispatching with Auburn and shouldn’t have to contribute to a system it doesn’t […]
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A history of open access to permits
Last week, as debate swirled in the House regarding emergency legislation to temporarily conceal the personal identifying information printed on concealed handgun permits, there were a lot of questions about why the 112th Legislature defined these permits as public records way back when. A lot of questions, but no answers. So, in our effort to […]