When I was a kid and didn’t know I’d end up a storyteller, I did know that I enjoyed listening to stories from my grandfather and uncles and the authentic characters they knew, characters I got to know and listen to when I visited my colorful relatives. I enjoyed their stories so much that I […]

Lucius Flatley convened a special session of the coffee house philosophers this week to discuss the flatulent information on Social Security that has recently been polluting the national air. Because the group had discussed Social Security just a few weeks ago, he apologized for “harping on the subject.” But with the first meaningful proposal for […]

In the first two parts of its series on the state bail system, which has run in this newspaper, the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting demonstrated how bail commissioners are usually lacking in legal training, and sometimes unaware of a defendant’s history when setting bail. In the third part of the four-part series, running […]

We were all down at the Stop-n-Talk the other morning, drinking coffee and talking about the weather, how warm it’s been some mornings and if anyone knew if it had anything to do with Al Gore and global warming. No one did. After we’d exhausted the weather-related stuff and the mail still hadn’t been sorted […]

In a recent, well-attended press conference, the congressional Republican leadership offered a revolutionary plan: They propose to abandon the war on drugs. They said this plan will guarantee the right to bear arms, prevent any kind of abortion whatsoever, provide a full tax exemption for people making over $500,000 a year and outlaw same-sex marriages […]

Public employee unions have been much in the news lately, but regardless of where one’s sympathy lies, the fault is not all on one side. There is plenty of blame for everyone. Unions have at times been grasping; legislators have at times whored for votes. The election cycle encourages irresponsibility. Unlike a factory strike, neither […]

Newspapers like the one you’re reading right now have been around for a long time. We’ve had newspapers in Maine from the early 1700s on. In those early days, Maine produced journalistic legends like Seba Smith and Charles Farrar Browne, who honed their “media” skills at a time when honing was something people mostly did […]

The budget debate in Wisconsin has garnered national attention for the rhetoric, rallies and tactics employed by opponents of work place reform. It has gotten ugly in Wisconsin and it looks like the spectacle is headed here. I support anyone’s right to rally and advocate for their positions. We are all Americans and, thanks to […]