Proposed federal cuts to health care and clean air programs, in the Congress’ reconciliation bill, are unacceptable. As a retired scientist and engineer at the Maine Bureau of Air Quality, I know the critical importance of clean air programs and quality and affordable health care coverage. The bill, as it is written now, will cut […]

The planned June 14 military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army raises many doubts about its actual purpose. By being on President Trump’s birthday, it will certainly be spun as a personal tribute to him — at great expense — an estimated $25 million to $45 million, not counting projected pavement […]

No one should have their land taken by the state without consultation or agreement, yet that’s precisely what the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act has allowed to happen on Wabanaki land for the past 45 years, without the tribes having any say. This month, the Maine State Legislature has a chance to change that […]

It is universally acknowledged that the so-called “big, beautiful bill” imposes massive pain on low and middle income people, while transferring billions to the most wealthy. It will be particularly painful for rural states such as our own. Less visible are two small, ugly, and radically anti-democratic provisions buried in the bill: one restricts federal […]

In your May 22 article on the Republican budget bill, which passed the House by one vote, you state that Sen. Susan Collins and other Senate Republicans “have expressed concern about the health care cuts” in the bill. Collins has, for 28 years, been “concerned” about everything. Enough already. According to the Congressional Budget Office, […]

In response to the June 6 letter concerning the Second Amendment (“Wrong to suggest electorate would take up arms“), when that was passed in the late 18th century, it took maybe a minute to a minute and a half to reload a musket. The cyclical rate of fire for an M-16 is 700 to 900 […]