Ever feel like you are perpetually sprinting on a work-and-consume treadmill?It’s a common feeling as our materialistic culture pressures our declining earnings.More Americans are poor today than three decades ago, according to the Maine Center for Economic Policy, as earnings have not kept pace with inflation or the tax burden.And, yet, we live in bigger […]

Legislation that caps medical malpractice awards and limits attorney fees cleared the House 229-196 on March 13. That’s the seventh malpractice “reform” since Republicans took over the House in 1995. They can expect rougher going in the Senate. Meanwhile, the hypocrisy on both sides of the aisle was thick enough to slice.Democrats professed their abiding […]

So apparently, we’re losing the war.At least, that’s what you’d think to judge from the questions being asked in recent news briefings. In the face of setbacks and casualties, more than one reporter has suggested that American war planners somehow botched the job.And, though support for the war is holding steady, the public also seems […]

“Nick’s Law,” signed by the governor Tuesday, grants the Secretary of State authority to suspend the license of anyone who drives more than 30 mph over the posted speed limit and causes an accident that results in a death. No hearing required.Limiting one of our most coveted privileges after a fatal accident is good law.The […]

Banks and insurance companies are profiting by selling our personal information. Often, without expressed permission.Like most states, Maine allows our personal financial information to be sold unless we specifically deny permission. An estimated 95 percent of consumers would like to guard information, but only 5 percent have signed paperwork protecting it.L.D. 661 might provide relief […]

A short time ago, as American soldiers marched toward Baghdad, I received an e-mail from Jim.His name is pretty much all I know about him, although he also told me that he served in Vietnam and lives in Chicago. As near as I could tell, he just wanted to get a few things off his […]

The grudge war against the city of Lewiston is finally over.The city has paid Norm Rousseau enough money – more than enough, actually – for his interest in the Pilsbury Block building.The city can finally move forward with renovation of the public library, annexing the vacant building to create a downtown cultural learning center.For years, […]

It costs about $10,000 for an average bill to pass into law. About 4,000 bills were introduced in the 119th and 120th Legislatures and if each had completed the process, Maine taxpayers would have spent $40 million over the 2-year period. Fortunately, an estimated 70 percent of all bills are killed in committee, so the […]

Emil Landau visited Mountain Valley High School teenagers Wednesday to talk about his own teen years.He spent them on crematory duty at Auschwitz, assigned to put bodies through the furnace. Including the body of his own father.Landau, who also spent time at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald, showed students the numerical tattoo on his left arm, a […]