Medicare remains a good deal for most seniors. Despite a record 17.5 percent increase in premiums announced Sept. 3 by the Bush administration, monthly Medicare costs are a bargain compared to what many people must pay for private health insurance.What’s more troubling is the Medicare cost trend line. In the past five years, Medicare premiums […]

Speeding is a fact of life on Maine’s highways. It’s also a fact of death.Excessive speed has been identified as one of the biggest factors in fatal automobile crashes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 30 percent of highway fatalities involved excessive speed.On Aug. 29 and Sept. 5, the Sun Journal published the […]

Los Angeles Times, Sept. 8 Six U.S. soldiers were killed, two Italian aid workers were kidnapped and warplanes bombed a Sunni enclave in Falluja, a city mostly off-limits to coalition troops. It was just another day in the war Tuesday, except for the numbers. By this morning, Iraq time, the Associated Press count of casualties […]

Voters in Auburn and in SAD 17 have an important choice to make Tuesday – whether to capitalize on available state funding and build new elementary schools.In both cases, the answer is yes. Voters should approve the proposals for these new schools in Auburn and Paris.Earlier this month, this page questioned the high costs of […]

First lady Laura Bush is a strong advocate for her husband. She showed her oratorical skills during the Republican National Convention.She avoided the shrill attacks and presented a a message of hope, optimism and accomplishment. While this page has certainly disagreed with President Bush on many of his specific policy positions – including some of […]

There was an almost immediate backlash this spring when the University of Maine System announced plans to reorganize.On Tuesday, a committee from the system’s board of trustees approved several significant revisions in the plan, after the outcry that had emanated from some students, faculty members, lawmakers and others. The final draft will be released Friday […]

Ralph Nader belongs on the presidential ballot in Maine.Many Democrats are upset because Republicans openly – and effectively – worked to win Nader his place among the others running for president, hoping he would siphon enough votes away from Democratic candidate John Kerry to push Maine into the win column for President Bush.Those efforts prompted […]

Congress returns to work this week with a long to-do list and only a short amount of time before members leave Washington for the campaign trail.Buried in deliberations around a bloated and wasteful corporate tax bill is an opportunity for real progress on public health and the regulation of tobacco.Language attached to the Senate version […]

Maine’s two congressmen – Tom Allen and Mike Michaud – are working to fix one of the biggest shortcomings in the Medicare prescription drug benefit passed last year.The deeply flawed bill was rammed through a reluctant Congress by the Republican leadership, who worked with the Bush administration to conceal the true cost of the program, […]

President Bush delivered an impressive speech on the last night of the Republican Convention.He talked about resolve, about protecting the country and about repairing the damage done by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.But he talked about the country as if the months and years since Sept. 11 had never happened.Violence in Iraq continues unabated. […]