Few people would begrudge veterans their free “government-run” health care. But is the service of delivery people, farmworkers, first responders, utility, health care and food service workers, teachers, truckers, sanitation workers, et al., so much less valuable to our nation that they do not deserve the same benefit? Paul Oppenheim Pownal

Late last year, in December, I talked to an aide to Sen. Susan Collins about a coming national and worldwide calamity. I worked in engineering and health care for 40 years, and over that time I witnessed (and listed for the aide) a number of frightening political and corporate engineering mistakes that were all adding […]

I have heard and read that Brit Hume, a Fox News analyst, and others have suggested that the country go back to work, insisting that old people, who are most likely to die if they contract COVID-19, are willing to sacrifice their lives for their country. It’s so interesting that the likes of people such […]

During this stressful time, I feel grateful for the steady guidance of Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. His news conferences are thoughtful and direct. He doesn’t sugarcoat the information, yet he delivers it in a way that is understandable and compassionate. We are so lucky to have […]

I am retired Navy, with 27 years total service, active and reserve. There is a good chance I will be faced with a layoff soon, so I checked on the unemployment compensation I might expect to receive and was told this because I receive retirement pay: “If you are receiving disability retirement pay or military […]

Has anyone else taken note of just how fast the bottom dropped out of President Trump’s “greatest economy ever”? For the worst part of four years we’ve heard him crow about the unprecedented strength of the economy and stock market his policies and tax cuts gifted us. Now, barely two weeks into nationwide COVID-19-related restrictions […]

How quickly things change in the midst of a real crisis – the worst of which is yet to come – is telling. Our healthcare system and the federal government have been so slow to react to the pandemic because there is no centralized, publicly accountable authority in the system. It is a hodgepodge collection […]

I was impressed with the column “State must do more against virus” and the struggle the writer went through in making his decision to close his business. The writer followed his conscience and closed his business. Others made different choices. It was therefore heartening to read the headline in the Portland Press Herald on Thursday, […]