Auburn residents should be concerned with the City Council’s penchant for suspending its meeting rules. And they should be downright angry that important and controversial decisions could be made without public input. The council has met 29 times this year and has voted 31 times to suspend its rules of procedure. While Robert’s Rules of […]
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Republicans now denouncing their own good idea
You are 28 years old and you are doing pretty well. So well, in fact, that a new snowmobile has been calling to you from the dealer’s showroom. You could squeeze the payments into your budget for the next three years. Or you could buy health care insurance. You’re never sick, right? And a new […]
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Anti-smoking campaign needs graphic kick-start
In the dramatic opening scene of the 2005 movie “Lord of War,” actor Nicolas Cage is standing in a sea of military shell casings. The movie is loosely based upon the life of Viktor Bout, an arms smuggler known as the “Merchant of Death.” “There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation,” says Cage. […]
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Short takes on the week’s news
Cheers to all the volunteers working this week to put together food baskets and holiday dinners to help our struggling communities celebrate next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, including The Dawg House restaurant in Lewiston, which is offering a free meal Thursday, and the Western Maine Labor Council, which is distributing more than 40 baskets stuffed with […]
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The public has no stomach for cutting the deficit
If newly empowered Republicans in Congress intend, as they say, to do the “will of the people,” you will see large federal deficits from now to eternity. That’s because the public has no “will,” at least not on this topic. A hot-off-the-press Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that while we all favor cutting the […]
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Man up, air travelers
Speaking of shared sacrifice, tens of thousands of Americans have put their lives on the line in the war on terror. Many of them have spent days under broiling sun in deserts and nights on freezing mountain tops. They have been shot at and bombed, and several thousand have died, while many more have been […]
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Primary system biggest problem for independents
“Who Stole Election Day?” the Wall Street Journal asked in an opinion-page headline Wednesday. And hey, look: Lewiston, Maine, was right there in the first sentence of an opinion column written by oh-so-nearly-elected-governor Eliot Cutler, who cites the story of a local woman who voted early and later wished she hadn’t. While the headline was […]
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Fed workers need to share in economic sacrifice
It is painfully apparent that the average American family has lost economic ground over the past ten years. Even those fortunate enough not to have lost their jobs or homes are likely earning less, after inflation, than they did in 2001. Between 2007 and 2009 alone, the inflation-adjusted income of the median U.S. household fell […]
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Somali group doing good and changing lives
We applaud the work being done by the Somali Bantu Youth Association to channel the energies of boys and young men in the right direction. A story Sunday explained how the two-year-old group became concerned that some immigrant youths were smoking, getting into fights and dropping out of school. It is hard for any of […]
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Of Maine and the Civil War
One hundred forty seven years ago this week, President Abraham Lincoln stood at Gettysburg and delivered a brief address to dedicate the National Soldiers’ Cemetery there. That day — Nov. 19 — has since become known as Dedication Day, a day of remembrance of the soldiers who fought at Gettysburg over three days in July […]