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Why Legislature wants Auburn to pay higher taxes

Jun 16, 2013 12:00 am
On May 30th, and without fanfare, state government sent the residents of Lewiston, Auburn and several other cities a message: You should raise more money to support your schools. And if you don't, the state told the cities, we will start penalizing you in 2016-2017 by withdrawing state sup...
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Employment bill creates pointless employer hassles

Jun 15, 2013 12:00 am
We can always count on Augusta to provide us with new ideas. Not all of them, however, are good. Take LD 1157, for example. “An Act To Establish the Fair Chance for Employment Act,” would make it illegal for employers — when advertising for a job opening — to...
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Citizen initiatives give us the power to create change

Jun 14, 2013 12:00 am
On Wednesday, the Senate took up a resolve that would have asked voters to amend the Maine Constitution to prohibit citizen initiatives on hunting and fishing regulations. It failed to garner the necessary two-thirds vote to pass. On Thursday the House took up the same resolve, whic...
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Pulling back the curtain on national security

Jun 12, 2013 12:00 am
President Barack Obama reassured us over the weekend that no one is sitting around listening to all of our telephone conversations. That's good, because that would be the worst job in the world. "Hi, this is Ron at VIP calling to tell you that your car is ready. "Thanks, Ron,...
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Facts show Auburn needs more funding

Jun 09, 2013 12:00 am
Auburn is rarely considered in the same breath with Whitneyville, Northfield, Marshfield and East Machias. But those communities have something in common with Auburn: They all spent less than $8,000 per pupil to educate their children in 2012-2013. Of the 231 school districts in Mai...
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A people’s vote, standing tall and a million miles

Jun 08, 2013 12:00 am
Chip Morrison may well be able to do what no man has done before. He may succeed in getting the controversial question of a Lewiston and Auburn — or Auburn and Lewiston — consolidation before voters. Morrison, president of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, has...
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Republicans must part ways with governor

Jun 06, 2013 12:00 am
With the budget debate in Augusta approaching a climax, it is worth remembering where we started: In January, Gov. Paul LePage proposed raising local taxes to balance the state's budget. He proposed ending the Homestead Property Tax Exemption for those under 65. A clear tax increase...
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Low-income boys at peril in new economy

Jun 05, 2013 12:00 am
Women are now the leading or solo breadwinners in 40 percent of households, according to a study released last week by the Pew Research Center. That sounded like good news — women are succeeding in the workplace and closing the pay gap with men. But, when you look below the su...
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Our leader and his right to free speech

Jun 02, 2013 12:00 am
When Patrick Henry said "Give me liberty or give me death," it was more than a rhetorical flourish. He was urging his fellow Virginians to form a militia and confront British rule, an act that would literally result in liberty or death for the leaders of the American revolution. In ...
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Maine has high rate of boating deaths. Be careful

Jun 01, 2013 12:00 am
Late Thursday night, when temperatures had climbed into the 80s and the air was summer-sticky, Paul and Arlene Duclos and their friends Ron and Lorraine Locke decided to take a little boat ride along the Androscoggin. Each couple brought along their respective family dog, one toy poodle an...
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Shutting the trust out of budget talks

May 29, 2013 12:00 am
Late last week, Gov. Paul LePage issued an order barring all of his cabinet-level executives from testifying before the Appropriations Committee as lawmakers mold and adopt the state budget. Given that Appropriations is under enormous pressure to make major money decisions in the next coup...
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Veterans suffer due to military record keeping

May 26, 2013 12:00 am
Google's mission is ambitious: to organize the world's information and, over the past 15 years, the company has done a pretty good job. On the day before Memorial Day, it is fair to ask why after years of work the U.S. military has failed to develop a unified system to organize the medical...
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Refusing Medicaid deal punishes poor

May 24, 2013 12:00 am
Chuck, your insurance agent, calls. "We're running a special offer on health care insurance — three years for free," he says. "What's the catch?" you ask. "Nothing," he says, "other than that the price will go up in three years." "Hmm," you say. "Three years for ...
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It's time to phase out ethanol gas

May 22, 2013 12:00 am
Say we had a product that consumers hated, that drove up food and gasoline prices and that caused as much or more environmental damage than a similar, less costly product. What would our government do about it? Force us to use more, of course. That's the illogical direction we are h...
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