This is going to be good, Dud thought, bringing his new tarp out to the car. There it was on that computer site. How to camp out with just a single tarp. I’ve been looking for something like that for a long time now. Amazing what you can find on the internet. He couldn’t get […]

Editor, There is looming labor shortage coming and many forward thinking businesses have implemented a student cooperative program (co-op) to develop the talents and interests of our current college students hoping they will stay and work in Maine after graduation.  My employer, Texas Instruments, has ramped up its summer co-op program where young technicians from […]

An open letter to Maine’s U.S. Senators and Representatives: I implore you to place on the floor of each house, a resolution stating unequivocally what this country and your legislative body stand for and specifically denouncing hate groups of all stripes.   I further urge you to call for the resignation of Steve Bannon, Sebastian […]

It is in these times that I am reminded of an important quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” We’ve all followed the news coming out of Charlottesville, Virginia, with disbelief. The Charlottesville protests left one anti-racist activist dead after […]

Most Americans would agree that the great achievements, which validated the claim of the American Century, must continue. Most might agree that, if the United States had a formula to produce such achievements, we would not need to invent a new formula unless the original could no longer work. Here is where agreement begins to […]

Many years ago, I overheard a coworker reflecting on parenting. She had 13 children—an astonishing 10 of them adopted. She said that the parent-child relationship was “everything.” She said that if all else failed, parents should focus on maintaining a relationship with their children. As a young mother, I recall thinking that this sounded way […]

Electric bills hide turmoil in the electric industry. Some recent events illustrate the point. The Maine Legislature sustained Gov. LePage’s veto of solar power subsidies. Renewable subsidies are pushing up costs. New transmission lines are raising rates. Major Canadian hydro projects, hoping for U.S. markets, experience runaway costs Policy decisions contribute to hidden increases in […]

Birthdays used to follow a familiar pattern. I’d spend the day riding bikes and getting up to some general shenanigans with friends, and when I got back home there’d be toys and cards stacked on the coffee table like a display at Toys R Us, minus the creepy giraffe. My mother would film my reactions […]

Finally, at around 8 p.m., on Wednesday, Aug. 2, the first session of the 128th Maine Legislature adjoined sine die, Latin for without day, meaning we are done! This was the longest legislative session in Maine’s history, including the last time state government shut down for 17 days back in 1991. We ended the session […]