Last week, I read a front-page headline in The Times Record indicating that there is an urgent need to increase the amount of funding for public defenders. The Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services, or MCILS, is asking to double the funding for legal services to criminal defendants who cannot afford their own attorneys. Josh […]
opinion
Posted inTimes Record Opinion
Christine Flowers: Student loan forgiveness shifts money to wealthy
My roots are blue. Not the political blue of the current climate. Blue-collar blue. My maternal grandfather had a third-grade education and spent almost three decades picking up trash for the city of Philadelphia. Neither of my four grandparents went to college, and only one of them finished high school. My mother was the first […]
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Posted inOp-eds, Opinion
Commentary: Lawyers are to be blamed for lack of access to justice in Maine
It’s not that attorneys don’t want to represent low-income clients – it’s that we’ve made it impossible for each other to do so.
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
Our View: Half-baked tax relief plan needed more time
In attempting to eliminate older Mainers’ property tax burden, we’ve created a burden of a different kind.
Posted inMaine Voices, Op-eds, Opinion
Maine Voices: Ukrainian refugee experience echoes my forebears’ journey
My family were given no choice but to leave Poland during World War I. Like legions of Polish refugees at the time, they eventually built good lives for themselves in Portland.
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
Another View: Fauci waged war on foolish refusals of facts. He’s earned America’s heartfelt thanks.
The nation’s leading infectious disease expert is retiring in December. His mistakes were small compared to his successes.
Posted inTimes Record Opinion
The Conversation: Some refugees stay in temporary status indefinitely — how they still manage to create homes and communities
More than 6.5 million Ukrainian war refugees are now scattered across Europe and North America, most with temporary emergency residency allowing them to stay in host countries for one to three years. But roughly half a year into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war looks unlikely to end soon. Ukrainians may be unable to return to their home […]
Posted inOp-eds, Opinion
Commentary: Biden’s debt cancellation won’t end the student loan crisis
Congressional action is still needed to reform the way the government funds higher education.
Posted inOp-eds, Opinion
Jim Fossel: Beware the bond-funded Maine job initiative
Both voters and politicians act as if bonds are piles of free money flowing from rainbows. Would that it were the case.
Posted inOp-eds, Opinion
Maine Observer: Why I keep coming back to a town in Oxford County
Year in, year out, I take a sentimental journey to and throughout Rumford, where I once was surrounded by family.