It was reported recently that two Texas law enforcement officers were murdered as they responded to a domestic situation. In fact, the highest number of officers killed in the line of duty at the hands of another were responding to calls reporting a domestic dispute. In this era of defunding or even eliminating police forces, […]

American voters have faced accessibility issues throughout the country’s history, but in the face of the pandemic a new obstacle has come into play: our health and safety. The youngest and most diverse group of voters in America – young people ages 18-29 – has the potential to incite incredible change and power if they […]

Last month, Sen. Susan Collins helped pass the Great American Outdoors Act, a significant, although rare, piece of pro-environmental legislation in the Age of Trump. The bill includes permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Act and directs money to address the National Park Service’s maintenance backlog. Sen. Collins is rightly touting that good […]

The CARES Act provides an extra $600 per week in federal unemployment benefits for workers furloughed or laid off because of the pandemic. This benefit expires on July 31, representing a loss of income (averaging about 60 percent, depending on the state one lives in) that affects mainly women, especially women of color, and the […]

Most or many of your readers are surely unfamiliar with the results of the 1968 Kerner Commission Report on racial inequality. This came after a year of social unrest and protest against institutional and governmental systemic racism in the United States, and following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I suggest we all go […]

Medical decisions should be made between patients and their doctors. Employers should have nothing to do with it. Yet, a July 8 Supreme Court ruling has allowed employers to push their own religious agenda in the workplace by denying employees coverage for birth control. Now, more than 75,000 people are at risk of losing access […]

When I was in high school, I used Planned Parenthood’s health care services because they were affordable. I needed birth control and they were effective, inexpensive and they made me feel comfortable. As a person with an anxiety disorder, I dread doctor’s office visits. Planned Parenthood’s health center environment and staff were welcoming and supportive […]

A recent editorial in the Press Herald cogently summed up the urgent need for action to effectively deal with the climate catastrophe that is bearing down on us all. (“‘Alarm bells’ continue to ring on climate” June 25.) In this clarion call for a societal shift away from the use of fossil fuels that is […]

As a former kindergarten teacher, I emphasized the value of respecting others, kindness and truth-telling. Name-calling and bullying were not tolerated or consequences would follow. However, our current president daily models to our nation’s children the exact opposite. He routinely uses bullying, name-calling, exaggerations, half-truths and lies in his tweets, rallies and news conferences. President […]