BETHEL — The Bethel United Methodist Church will hold its annual Valentine’s Day tea party from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14. Pastor Carol Stevens, who has been involved with the Valentine’s Day tea party for the past four years, said Monday afternoon that the women of the church provide the food and tea. […]
tea party
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Talks to end shutdown stall as McConnell urges Collins-brokered option
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans and Democrats hit an impasse Sunday over spending in their last-ditch struggle to avoid an economy-jarring default in just four days and end a partial government shutdown that’s entering its third week. After inconclusive talks between President Barack Obama and House Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority […]
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Posted inOp-Eds
James Lysen: Keeping people healthy is the best solution
Recent letters and guest columns in the Sun Journal have raised issues concerning the recent failure of Maine to expand MaineCare, and attempts to obstruct the Affordable Care Act — the law of the land — that I would like to address. MaineCare expansion was favored by strong majorities in both the Maine Senate and […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Froma Harrop: GOP ruled by tea party extremists
Fans of representative democracy know that there are ways to advocate one’s beliefs short of threatening and delivering harm to the larger society. It used to be that one could blame the parade of manufactured crises not on the whole Republican Party but on its unruly tea party faction. That’s becoming less and less so […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Still shut down: Obama, GOP try to negotiate way out of impasse without appearing to negotiate
WASHINGTON (AP) — With time running short, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner accelerated efforts Friday to prevent the U.S. Treasury from default and end a partial government shutdown that stretched into an 11th day. The latest impacts: New aircraft grounded, military chaplains silenced and a crab harvest jeopardized in the Bering Sea. […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Washington gridlock stems from GOP’s civil war
We’re used to brinkmanship in Washington resulting from conflict between Democrats and Republicans. But this shutdown is different. It’s a fight between Republicans and Republicans — or, more specifically, Republicans and the Tea Party. In 1995 and 1996, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., proudly led Republicans into their shutdown fight with President Bill […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
First shutdown in 17 years: Senate and House rejected each other’s plans as deadline neared
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in nearly two decades, the federal government staggered into a partial shutdown Monday at midnight after congressional Republicans stubbornly demanded changes in the nation’s health care law as the price for essential federal funding and President Barack Obama and Democrats adamantly refused. As Congress gridlocked, Obama said a […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Strategy by Sens. Cruz, Lee to starve ‘Obamacare’ of money infuriates some fellow Republicans
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ted Cruz and Mike Lee stand as the Senate’s dynamic duo for conservatives, crusading against President Barack Obama’s health care law while infuriating many congressional Republicans with a tactic they consider futile, self-serving and detrimental to the party’s political hopes in 2014. Cruz, the Texan who’s been anything but a wait-your-turn freshman, […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Republicans at odds as ‘Obamacare’ showdown nears
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans struggled to tamp down a family feud Thursday as they approached a politically charged showdown with the White House that combines the threat of a government shutdown, a possible first-ever federal default and the GOP’s bid to repeal the nation’s three-year-old health care law. One day after conceding that the […]
Posted inOur View
We must not abandon Common Core
We tried setting education standards locally. Didn’t work. We tried having each state adopt and apply its own standards. But results varied wildly from state to state, leaving millions of children with inadequate educations. Finally, U.S. governors, educators and corporate leaders put their heads together and decided that children, to be successful adults and competitive […]