Here we are in the final days of this legislative session, hammering through a number of controversial bills that are of great importance to the people of Maine. After months of bills slowly trickling through the process, everything finally speeds up as summer quickly approaches.  There are a number of important bills that are still […]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced new guidelines [justice.gov] that will result in a significant increase in the prison population, directing federal prosecutors to seek the toughest penalties possible for nonviolent defendants. Those prisoners will have to be incarcerated somewhere, which is perhaps the reason for the Attorney General’s February memo reversing an Obama-era directive […]

The gap between the people and their government continues to grow. The sense that government exists to serve the people keeps eroding. Many government leaders don’t want a well-informed country, and they are supported by a new artificial media. Last week, Sen. Angus King asked two top national intelligence officials about their conversations with President […]

Maine’s system for providing services to our fellow citizens with intellectual and developmental disabilities and autism is in crisis. Recently, an article in the Journal Tribune (“System in Crisis”) highlighted a history of rate cuts and an unprecedented workforce shortage that threatens the very viability of a system of care that thousands of Mainers with […]

President Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Climate Accord, sent shockwaves not only here at home, but around the world. It represents a monumental failure of common sense in addressing what is becoming the defining issue of our time. Not to mention a complete abdication of American leadership abroad. From ocean warming and acidification, […]

The basic problem with America’s educational system is not that college is too expensive. Nor is the basic problem that public school teachers are underpaid or that educators are poorly trained. The basic problem with America’s educational system today is that far too many children are given the implicit message at home that education is not a […]

This week marks the 50th anniversary of a significant but often overlooked moment in American history. On June 12, 1967 the United States Supreme Court unanimously overturned a lower court decision upholding a Virginia state law that made interracial marriage a crime. The plaintiffs in the case were Richard Loving, who was white, and his […]

Last November, a referendum was passed in Maine that places a 3 percent surcharge on personal incomes over $200,000. Mainers thought that they were doing the right thing for our state by funding education. However, I do not feel they were aware of the devastating impact the 3 percent tax would have on Maine’s future. […]

Facebook founder and billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s Commencement speech at Harvard made a big splash. It was a warm-hearted, encouraging, interesting address, enriched by some endearing personal vignettes. It was also politically progressive to the core: It included the obligatory (for progressives) statement condemning the unfairness of a system that allows him to become mega-rich while others do […]