“Question 1,” the just-released documentary about the 2009 referendum that repealed same-sex marriage in Maine, contains a lot of surprises. Two stand out. The first is that the New York City-based filmmakers Joe Fox and James Nubile were allowed in with their cameras by both sides – giving the documentarians, and now us, a strikingly […]
Bill Nemitz
Bill Nemitz has worked as a journalist in Maine since 1977, when he became a reporter for the Morning Sentinel in Waterville after graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
He moved to Portland in 1983, working first as a reporter for the Evening Express and later as a city editor and assistant managing editor/sports for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram. He began writing his column in 1995. While focusing on Maine people and issues, his work has taken him three times to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan, where he was embedded with members of the Maine Army National Guard and the Army Reserve; to Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the 1998 referendum on the Good Friday Peace Accord; to Manhattan for the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks; to the Gulf Coast for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; and to Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. Nemitz is a past president of the Maine Press Association and for many years taught journalism part-time at St. Joseph's College of Maine in Standish. He also served for eight years, including three as chairman, on the board of trustees for the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland. In 2004, the Maine Press Association named Nemitz Maine Journalist of the Year for his reporting on the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion in Iraq. In 2007, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the New England Newspaper Association. In 2015, Nemitz was inducted into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame. Nemitz lives in Buxton with his wife, Andrea. They have five children and four grandchildren.
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Bill Nemitz: Glaringly absent from racino ads: Slots
I’ve got a question for the marketing gurus now filling the airwaves with ads asking — no, make that pleading — for us to vote “yes” on the racinos proposed in Biddeford and Washington County: When do we get to see the Beautiful People? Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against Joe Goudreau and […]
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Posted inNews
Bill Nemitz: Cutting the fat? Signs point to ‘Not yet’
So you think you’ve heard every idea under the sun for shrinking the cost of Maine’s state government?
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Bill Nemitz: Overheated or reheated? Fraud claims leave us cold
Correction: A portion of this column, asserting that same-day voter registration in Maine would prevent voters whose names were inadvertently dropped from the voting rolls from casting a ballot on Election Day, has been removed. Under the repeal legislation, those voters would be permitted to complete provisional ballots. In a perfect world, Secretary of […]
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Bill Nemitz: Worst-road contest entries multiply, but funding hits a bump
When it launched its first-ever “Worst Road in Maine” contest in 2010, the Maine Better Transportation Association got about 60 entries.
And this time around?
Posted inNews
Bill Nemitz: Imagine, first day on the job … in handcuffs
She’s got the Republican nomination. And if all goes well for Susan Rossignol come November, she will carry the new title of Westbrook city clerk. Then would come the truly hard part: The way things stand, Rossignol would be subject to arrest the moment she arrived at work. “I can’t see where the city can […]
Posted inOpinion
Bill Nemitz: The smoke has yet to clear
Our lives have come to include invasive searches at airports, fear of white powder, and war.
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Bill Nemitz: Maine redistricting drama sinks to absurdist levels
Everyone expected it to be the summer’s hottest political drama. But as of this week, the tortured meanderings of the Congressional Reapportionment Commission have descended into theater of the absurd. Consider this account from Michael Friedman, the chairman and lone independent on the 15-member commission, of what transpired prior to Tuesday’s three-hour public hearing on […]
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Bill Nemitz: Pssst! Wanna buy a bridge?
Theirs was the first state in the union to start a lottery, way back in 1964, so we could be forgiven for thinking our neighbors in New Hampshire are once again trying to pull a fast one. But they’re not. They really do have a bridge to sell. That’s right, bargain hunters. For the low, […]
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Bill Nemitz: Mainer is giving back, one $10,000 check at a time
The letter, which comes with the promise of a check for $10,000, begins thusly: “I have recently developed a charitable program specifically designed to benefit municipalities such as yours … Due to the present economic conditions, I feel it might be an appropriate time to institute this program.” Who, in this era of “grab hold […]