On Friday, Lisa Ronan and her family got a little closer to justice when Gov. Paul LePage signed a bill making it a crime to drive a large commercial vehicle while on methadone. Ronan, who lives in Gray, was widowed in 2009 when her 44-year-old husband, Shannon Ronan, was killed just before Christmas. A UPS […]
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Finally, Maine has a chance to breathe freely
We all despise government regulation. Until, that is, we have to listen to the neighbor’s barking dog. Or live in the shadow of his too-tall wall. Or downwind of his smoky wood stove. Which has long been Maine’s position beneath prevailing winds that sweep across America’s industrial heartland and then dump toxins in our waterways […]
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Injury doesn’t bode well for fireworks law
Talk about blowing up in your face. Three days after Gov. Paul LePage signed a bill making fireworks legal in Maine beginning in 2012, a boy was seriously injured by fireworks in coastal Georgetown. “The father was lighting off the fireworks on a back porch when one seemingly misfired and exploded,” according to a sheriff’s […]
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EMA official cleared; county should move on
The strange case of Scott Parker, Oxford County’s embattled Emergency Management Agency director, got a little stranger last week when it was revealed county officials have been sitting on a legal opinion clearing Parker of wrongdoing. The case has been wrapped in mystery since May when Parker was suspended for allegedly misusing E-911 database information. […]
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Celebrating in a nation of independence
The rigorous debate in the Continental Congress that culminated in the declaration of this nation was not instant news around the world, or even around the colonies. No phone calls. No emails. And definitely no tweets. After the signed Declaration of Independence was printed on the afternoon of July 4, 1776 and copies packed up […]
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Attracted to job growth in health care
Given a choice of several career options, more Maine high school seniors are interested in pursuing nursing or work in the health care field than any other occupation. According to a Friday report of MyCollegeOptions.org, which surveys the nation’s students on a variety of topics and then aggregates the information, 10.3 percent of students in […]
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A look back at the week’s news
On Thursday evening, an 11-foot-long section of the fallen World Trade Center arrived in Auburn, escorted to the city’s Central Fire Station by firefighters, police and citizens. In a compelling demonstration of respect, hundreds of people lined the streets and more were at the station when the steel was unloaded. The section of tower will […]
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College shopping? Check new lists of tuition costs
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education released new and startling lists of public and private college tuition costs. At the top of the College Affordability and Transparency List of four-year private schools? Bates College here in Lewiston. Cost per academic year: $51,300. At the top of the tuition list for four-year public schools is […]
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Being a concerned citizen is not a crime
On May 12, Emily Good was arrested and charged with obstructing governmental administration. On that evening, Good, who lives in Rochester, N.Y., saw flashing blue lights outside her home and went outside to see what was going on. At the edge of her lawn, police had stopped a motorist, had handcuffed him and were asking […]
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Supreme Court tips the scales for wealthy politicians
It takes money to have a voice in elections. With its ruling on Arizona’s Clean Election public campaign finance system Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court guaranteed that the person with access to the most money will always have the loudest voice. Voting 5-4, the court sided with plaintiff — a PAC for Arizona Free Enterprise […]