It stands to reason that people, including politicians, are much more likely to respond to a crisis than a mere problem. A whiff of smoke in the kitchen won’t cause anyone to run screaming from the house, but a wall full of flames almost certainly will. Our political system seems unable to respond to problems […]
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Use kindness to protest bad behavior
Sgt. Chad Staples, who was traveling from California back to his home in North Carolina, checked in to the Best Western in Monahans, Texas, Sunday and was booked into a third-floor room. The former Army Ranger, who grew up in Jay, is paralyzed as a result of a firefight in Iraq in 2007 and is […]
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Basic courtesy to hear from the ‘Friends’
Has all common courtesy left the Otisfield Planning Board? Wednesday’s meeting of that board seems to indicate it has: Abutters of a proposed cell-tower site were not permitted to speak. At all. The Planning Board has no legal obligation to entertain public comment during its regular business meetings. But this wasn’t a regular meeting. This […]
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Turnpike determined to ignore fairness
The Maine Turnpike rate increase saga is winding to a conclusion, as unsatisfactory as it may be. The rate at the New Gloucester toll barrier will likely go up by 50 cents to $2.25, which is slightly less than the $2.50 first proposed. Let’s hear a half-hearted hurrah for that. But the unfairness of the […]
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Questions unanswered in Carlson case
Within an hour of learning he was under investigation for abusing boys, Rev. Robert Carlson placed a telling phone call to his former boss, Penobscot County Sheriff Glenn Ross. He told the sheriff, “because of Sandusky, people would have to take the (charges) against him seriously,” Ross later told an investigator for the Maine State […]
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Stone holding firm on tolls; cool response
Bob Stone has been solid as, well, a rock in advocating for the fee-weary motorists of Lewiston and Auburn in their fight against the inequitable toll costs we pay to travel the Maine Turnpike. We applaud his efforts, knowing that his is a minority voice on the Maine Turnpike Authority board. His commitment to fairness […]
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Colo. shooting shows inequity in health care
There was a brief kerfuffle last week when CBS reported that some of the Aurora shooting victims had no health care insurance and could be bankrupted by medical bills. One young man, who was shot in the eye when gunman James Holmes inexplicably opened fire in a theater full of people, could face $2 million […]
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Auto-hiring of public retirees should end now
Hardly any of us would think twice about accepting a benefit that was perfectly legal and we saw others receiving. So we can’t blame teachers, school administrators, police chiefs and other government workers for seizing the opportunity to retire and keep on collecting a paycheck. Who wouldn’t like to receive a gigantic pay raise while […]
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Cleaning out the inbox. Chemical testing and a life saved
Our hat is off to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe and her colleagues on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee for finally advancing a bill that will better help protect U.S. consumers from toxic chemicals in the products they buy. Cheers to Snowe, a Republican, and to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., for getting out of […]
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More than ABC needed for Maine students to succeed
On Wednesday, Gov. Paul LePage diagrammed his remedial “ABC” plan to improve schools. The plan, as envisioned, will: A) Improve Accountability. B) Borrow Best practices from other states. C) Expand school Choice. If we had an opportunity for multiple choice, we’d select and completely support A and B, but we’d hesitate on C. Improving accountability […]