New Hamsphire is testing a new strategy for collecting tolls.Beginning this weekend, southbound cars won’t have to stop and pay a toll on Interstate 95. Tolls for northbound drivers will double. The change isn’t permanent yet. New Hampshire is taking the new system for a six-week test drive to gauge its consequences.Maine should take a […]

If you can look beyond the hoopla, California’s recall madness makes the strongest case yet for revisiting the Supreme Court’s constitutional equation of money with “speech” – the logic that’s warped our campaign finance rules since the famous 1976 case of Buckley vs. Valeo.Start with the obvious question: Why should a wealthy mischief-maker like Republican […]

Eat vegetables, exercise, get your car inspected. We might not always like it, but it’s the smart thing to do.Maine’s automobile safety inspection program, which is scrutinized in today’s Sun Journal, is part art, part science, and gives many car owners heartburn. The state provides guidelines for mechanics and tries to guarantee that inspections are […]

There is a thin line between healthy challenge and insanity. HEBER SPRINGS, Ark. – We have pulled our speed boat into a cove here at Greers Ferry Lake and cut the engine.The shoreline is not quite a shore at all. It’s a steep stone cliff. My wife, our friends and I guess it to be […]

Jack Cashman brings a “can do” attitude and problem solving skills to the DECD. Several weeks ago, a prominent member of the Biddeford-Saco business community struck up a conversation after a meeting. He asked my reaction to the nomination by Gov. John E. Baldacci of Jack Cashman to head the Department of Economic and Community […]

New York City school administrators begin filtering back to work next week. Students will return next month. And Harvey Milk High will become reality.That’s Harvey Milk as in the openly gay San Francisco politician who was famously murdered in 1978. Milk High, you see, is the nation’s first public school for gay students.The school, which […]

Bangor Daily News, Aug. 20To get a sense of the struggle states have to balance their budgets and stimulate the economy, consider the holes in their budgets. States are expected to cut spending this year another $45 billion to $50 billion, roughly the amount of the president’s tax cut bill this year dedicated to economic […]

Graffiti mars Auburn’s beautiful Riverwalk and the trestle bridge that connects it to Lewiston’s Railroad Park.There is no excuse for the damage to remain.A swastika brands the stone-block retaining wall along the Riverwalk. The wall is attractive and was built with aesthetics in mind. Now it is marred. The city is aware of the issue, […]

NEW YORK – The first thing that crossed my mind when the lights went out on the 22nd floor of my Times Square Hotel last week was, “Klaatu warned us.” OK, it wasn’t the first thing, but it makes for a more interesting lead sentence.Sci-fi film fans will recognize the name Klaatu from the 1951 […]

Representatives from Auburn and the police union are returning to the negotiating table for one more try at a resolution. Good for them.Talks between the two sides have been bound up since the contract with police expired at the end of June.The union says the city’s offer would result in a loss of take-home pay […]