The time is upon us to kick up our heels a bit and celebrate a century of business in downtown Biddeford. In the days leading up to our week of festivities, which have been in the works for some time now, the excitement is mounting. Starting Tuesday, Reilly’s Bakery will be hosting a myriad of […]

Wells’ new approach to Town Meeting has encouraged voters to take a scattershot approach to budget cutting. By a relatively narrow margin on June 8, voters unexpectedly rejected $5.54 million budgeted for salaries. Until this year, such Town Meeting decisions were made on a motion from the floor, with an opportunity for explanations and debate. […]

Disagreements over Biddeford Municipal Airport have been going on for years. More than 20 years ago, the city rejected ambitious plans for a second runway. More recently voters turned down a proposal to shut down the airport. It’s not hard to read the voters’ intent: Keep the airport as a base for small aircraft. It […]

Intellectual property lawyers are always on patrol, policing publications and the Internet for copyright and trademark violations. Now and then they go too far, overlooking the fact that they can’t protect their clients from news reporting, criticism, instruction and parody. Lawyers representing the National Pork Board showed no familiarity with this concept when they confronted […]

Congress and the administration are often described as failing to address America’s problems, and the war in Afghanistan and the leak in the Gulf are leading the list of problems in search of solutions. But the president and Congress appear ready to take a major step toward addressing the causes of the U.S. economic crisis. […]

Recently, I was appointed to serve on the Maine Legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Health Care Reform Opportunities and Implementation, a bipartisan group of legislators charged with examining the new national health care reform and preparing our state for implementation. Expanding access to quality and affordable health care was and will continue to be a […]

This weekend, organizers for the La Kermesse are hosting its 28th annual festival in Biddeford, to be held at the Biddeford Ice Arena and Expo Center. For the first year since the festival’s inception, St. Louis Field on West Street won’t be teaming with the area’s Franco-American populace celebrating their heritage. Instead, a much pared-down […]

Thumbs up to the Regional School Unit 21 Board of Directors for their decision to retain the previously approved school calendar for 2010-11, which sets the first student days in late August. Though the board was right to weigh the valid concerns of seasonal business owners who would like to keep their teen employees a […]

Last month, Treasury Department Chief Economist Alan Krueger released a sobering statistic: Due to the financial crisis, U.S. household net wealth fell by approximately $17 trillion between 2007 and 2009. Seventeen trillion dollars: That’s nearly $150,000 per household. American people lost homes, pensions, savings, and jobs. The assets and livelihoods of working families became gambling […]

Discomfort with school district consolidation is on the rise in Arundel, thanks to a controversial decision by the board of Regional School Unit 21. The town’s educational system was once an uncomplicated arrangement based on just one school and tuition arrangements for older students. Now that Maine’s school district consolidation law has joined Arundel with […]