In a Legislature bitterly divided by partisanship, the last place to expect a compromise is in the area of abortion. Somehow, however, legislators were able to craft a deal on fetal homicide legislation that satisfies both sides.After a bout of name-calling and finger-pointing, the Legislature on Monday OK’d a bill that would stiffen the penalties […]

Despite almost four years of effort and billions of dollars spent, the greatest threat to U.S. security remains a porous and troubling border.Long lines and intense security screenings for everyday people have done little to improve the situation. Illegal immigration along the southern border with Mexico hasn’t slowed, even with self-appointed, civilian border guards roaming […]

As the cities of Lewiston and Auburn continue along their increasingly successful path of economic development, the natural consequence will be increased traffic in the adjoining downtowns.Sitting in traffic can be frustrating, but knowing local traffic patterns are clogging up because the cities are becoming more attractive to business takes the sting out of the […]

Fifty years ago, Peck’s ruled Main Street, and Lisbon Street was lined from end to end with shops. L-A wasn’t a retail backwater then, and it can’t afford to be one today. Yet, in recent years, we wondered whether we were moving in that direction.The city of Auburn decisively answered that question this week, announcing […]

Auburn City Councilor Kelly Matzen is correct when he says that a change in state law has forced the city to shift property taxes away from homeowners.As part of L.D. 1, the Homestead Exemption was increased to $13,000, but the state only agreed to repay localities half that amount. Taxes get moved from those state […]

The new state budget is a mess, and there is little time to do anything about it before the Legislature adjourns any day now.Gov. John Baldacci, ever in a hurry, must take a good part of the blame.Baldacci and his majority Democratic Party, which narrowly controls both houses of the Legislature, got the budget they […]

Call it a sign of the times. Once unobtrusive oddities, mainstays along Route 1 and Maine’s other tourist highways, are running into a new sense of propriety that threatens some of the charming kitsch that makes the state attractive to out-of-staters and locals alike.Take, for example, The Hot Dog Lady: one Kit Schultze who has […]

Legislation that would have exempted the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments from property taxes will be carried over until next year.Until then, Auburn will be forced to continue its strange tax dance with AVCOG.AVCOG has never paid property taxes in Auburn, where it owns a 10,000-square-foot building on Manley Road. Until 1997, the quasi-governmental agency […]

The Legislature is set to adjourn Wednesday, and the frantic activity surrounding attempts to renegotiate the state’s two-year budget has pushed most everything else to the side.Lawmakers, however, shouldn’t get out of Augusta without passing a bond package to put on the November ballot. The state has many substantial needs that shouldn’t be put off […]

Can one little girl change the world?It certainly seemed possible in 1982 and 1983 when Samantha Smith of Manchester wrote a letter to the leader of the Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov, and he wrote back.Smith, who was a fifth-grader at the time, asked Andropov if his country planned to launch a war against the United […]