What ever happened to making a quick trip to the store for a few items? Remember that kind of shopping? You’d get in your car, drive to the store, park, go in and grab a cart, go up and down the aisles getting what you needed, get in the checkout line, read the salacious headlines […]

Thanksgiving this year arrives just as a debate over the size of the state’s social safety net is heating up in Augusta, and as that safety net itself is showing signs of fray. Gov. Paul LePage has long made welfare reform a central part of his administration, calling for more diligence in the preventing and […]

Last week, the gambling industry in Maine suffered a sound – and telling – defeat at the polls. It can be dangerous to assign motives to statewide voters as a whole. Some opponents of the Lewiston casino offered in Question 3, for instance, objected on moral grounds, while others simply believed a casino was a […]

Fifty years ago, at the old house on Chute Road, it was almost Thanksgiving. It was also hunting season, which took priority over holidays. If there was deer meat (we never called it venison) in the freezer, Thanksgiving dinner would be served around noon. If there was no deer yet, Father would have gone hunting […]

This week the coffee klatch took up a question that has some impact on every American – the U.S. Post Office. Stirred by reports of impending financial doom, Congress seems to be reacting in standard congressional mode. Everyone seems full of criticism; few have suggestions. The liberals feel that the Nation and the New York […]

This week the coffee klatch took up a question that has some impact on every American – the U.S. Post Office. Stirred by reports of impending financial doom, Congress seems to be reacting in standard congressional mode. Everyone seems full of criticism; few have suggestions. The liberals feel that the Nation and the New York […]

Thomas Jefferson, American hero of profound thought (as well as an early supporter of interracial relations) said, “An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.” If he was correct, the United States is in trouble. The American citizenry has a serious case of unenlightenment. And many are not only unenlightened, but […]

Thomas Jefferson, American hero of profound thought (as well as an early supporter of interracial relations) said, “An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.” If he was correct, the United States is in trouble. The American citizenry has a serious case of unenlightenment. And many are not only unenlightened, but […]

In Flanders Fields In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now […]

Question 1: People’s Veto “Do you want to reject the section of Chapter 399 of the Public Laws of 2011 that requires new voters to register to vote at least two business days prior to an election?” Maine’s election laws have helped the state lead the way in voter turnout, and there is simply not […]