Dear Paul LePage, I know you’re having a bad week – an “absolute disaster,” as you put it the other night – so I thought I’d try to brighten things up a bit by congratulating you in advance on your new campaign slogan: Paul LePage, Republican for Governor: He’s not playing! I know, I know, […]
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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Nemitz: A mayor to cut ribbons and cash in
It’s Nov. 8, 2012, one year to the day after Hizzoner Foster Harmony’s election as Portland’s first “strong policy” mayor.
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Nemitz: Revolutionary idea triumphs over skeptics
The e-mail landed recently in the inbox of former Maine Gov. Angus King. It came from Jeff Mao, the state’s director of learning technology policy. He wrote to tell King that two old computers from Maine’s school laptop program – an iBook G3 from 2002 and a G4 circa 2006 – had just been “enthusiastically” […]
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Nemitz: Funny lady looks beyond the Blaine House
The Marden’s Lady has an announcement to make. “I’m here to announce my candidacy,” said Karmo Sanders, also known as Birdie Googins, also known as the Marden’s Lady, over coffee this week. Her, ahem, candidacy? “I’m a write-in candidate for queen,” Sanders said, flashing that made-for-TV smile. “I’m the only candidate! And as everybody already […]
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Bill Nemitz:Maine is 16th laziest state? It’s too much work to argue
Maine needs to shake a leg. This not-so-stunning revelation comes to us this week courtesy of Bloomberg’s Businessweek, which compiled data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources to identify the 20 laziest states in the nation. Laziest, the magazine reported, as in “a measure of leisure time spent doing sedentary activities […]
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Bill Nemitz:This sheriff hears a different drummer
One day more than a decade ago, shortly after he’d turned heads throughout Maine’s law enforcement community by publicly coming out in favor of legalized medical marijuana, one of Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion’s senior officers knocked on his office door. “Tell me you’re not going to keep pursuing this,” the officer said pleadingly. “It’s […]
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Well, guys, look who’s on Page 1
The truth is, most Mainers — as they head for the lake or the beach this Father’s Day or open a cold one by the backyard barbecue — can’t begin to grasp the sacrifices these sons, husbands and, yes, fathers are making halfway around the world.
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Afghanistan Notebook: Providing playgrounds for young Afghans
Looking for a way to make life a little better for the Afghan children living near Combat Outpost Dand wa Patan? Charles Carpenter of Scarborough wants to build them a playground. Carpenter, an avid photographer who has spent years traveling through out-of-the-way corners of the world, founded the International Childhood Enrichment Program in 2004. The […]
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Nemitz: Maine cook serves with pride in Afghan hills
COMBAT OUTPOST DAND WA PATAN, Afghanistan – The half-cooked burgers, at least two dozen of them, pop-pop-popped on the hot electric grill. The onions and peppers sizzled somewhere between al dente and saute. The clock indicated 15 minutes, and counting, to chow time. Spatula in hand (flip, flip, flip, flip scrape, scrape flip, flip, flip, […]
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Mainers work to build local alliances in Afghanistan
Talking with Afghan elders is part of fighting the war.