By claiming USAID is a criminal organization and attempting to dismantle it, Elon Musk ignores the health needs of the world’s poorest children. I am a retired Maine pediatric surgeon and have worked in Rwanda for the past decade (three months/year), and I know that USAID programs make a difference. Medical training programs had been […]

The new presidential administration’s actions are clearly violating the basic principles of Americanism: The right to criticize, the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest and the right to independent thought. I am reminded of Maine Sen. Margaret Chase Smith’s speech to the U.S. Senate on June 1, 1950. This was Sen. Smith’s […]

This January, contributions began to Maine’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) law, the 13th such law to be adopted in the U.S., with applications for leave beginning in May 2026. The program’s breadth is exciting: All workers in the state of Maine who made at least $7,000 in the previous year will be […]

One of my favorite columnists is Willem Lange, who writes a column called “A Yankee Notebook” for the Valley News in New Hampshire. Willem is an old Yankee, a hunter, a fisherman, a storyteller, an observer of history and events, and a wise man. In a Feb. 5 column titled “Common sense drowns under a […]

Maine legislators and the governor are grossly underpaid, which they argue makes it hard to attract good candidates to run for election. So last year, the Legislature voted to raise legislators’ pay by 61%, which will cost the state more than $1.5 million this year. They also are entitled to annual cost-of-living raises. Direct service […]

Like others, I am horrified by the outcome of the presidential election and the subsequent actions of the new administration. I’m shocked to see workers fired, programs canceled, immigrants hunted like animals. Meanwhile I keep getting emails from Democrats requesting money for their next campaign to flip the Senate. Much as I would like to […]