The philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand has gained new currency among conservatives, libertarians and tea party believers for her unshakable belief in laissez-faire capitalism. “Government ‘help’ to business,” she wrote, “is just as disastrous as government persecution. The only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.” Rand, […]
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Stop-smoking programs pay quick dividends
We’ve always known that smoking cessation programs pay their way, but the benefits were always thought to come slowly and over time. Still, employers, insurers and government agencies have all pushed cessation as a way to eventually save money. But a new study says there is only one thing wrong about this assumption: The savings […]
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Correction: Adams, Jefferson overseas
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were architects of the Declaration of Independence, but were overseas when the Constitution was drafted in 1787. The information was incorrect in a Sunday editorial on Page C7.
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Founders began the first national health-care plan
As Republican presidential aspirants Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney slug it out in South Carolina, it’s worth remembering that they have been in lock step on at least one issue: the individual insurance mandate in the 2010 health care reform bill. They were both for it before they were against it. Romney was governor of […]
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LePage right to quickly close ethics loophole
Cheers to Gov. Paul LePage and his quick-acting legal counsel, Dan Billings, in announcing they will propose legislation in the current session to close a loophole in Maine’s ethics laws to provide greater government transparency. The loophole, which shields high-level state officials from mandatory reporting of state payments to their employers and/or organizations run by […]
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Driving home the risks of teen drinking parties
Rumford Police Chief Stacy Carter recently told a Sun Journal reporter that some parents still consider drinking parties a rite of passage for young people. We wonder how many still think so after the early Saturday morning accident that killed two young people and injured two others. Rebecca Mason, a 16-year-old sophomore at Oxford Hills […]
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LePage should stick to the facts, not political ploys
Gov. Paul LePage has shown a disconcerting tendency recently to either mishear, misinterpret or misquote important information he has been told by federal officials. In the long run, the mistakes will hurt the governor’s credibility or, worse, could lead legislators to enact budgets based upon bad information. In mid-December, LePage told a crowd at Mt. […]
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Bates Mill No. 5, copper thefts and metering health
Here’s a look at what several in our online community had to say about recent letters to the editor and stories in the news. Regarding our Sunday story about Lewiston city officials’ Saturday morning tour of the hulking and vacant Bates Mill No. 5, there didn’t seem to be much support among elected officials or […]
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A little Berra redundancy for this farce
It’s a clear case, as Yogi Berra once said, of deja vu all over again. Of course, Berra’s quip was his proud observation of repeated back-to-back home runs by Yankee greats Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. There’s no pride in experiencing deja vu all over again when it comes to Maine lawmakers not reporting state […]
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A look back at the week’s news
Cheers to Maine Attorney General William Schneider and his staff. Schneider told us when he took office that he was determined to crack down on those who are defrauding the state’s Department of Health and Human Services by cheating or otherwise exploiting the system. He called it a top priority and he has kept his […]