How sad it is that few Americans have heard of Bob Graham, who died Tuesday at 87, because this guy was truly a profile in courage when we needed it most. And how sad it was, at a pivot point in our history, that few of his fellow Senate Democrats heeded his prescient words […]

For those too young to fully remember the OJ Simpson trial, it was a television spectacle with all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster. Sex and violence, interracial relationships and marriage, infidelity, alcoholism, sexual deviancy and a host of lurid details that titillated and fascinated the public. Stories covering the trial became daily tidbits, as […]

THE CONVERSATION — The European Parliament adopted its Pact on Migration and Asylum on April 10, 2024, clearing a major hurdle on its way to becoming European Union law. The package of regulations and directives seeks to update E.U. policies on migrants and refugees. The pact is a legacy of the 2015 migration crisis when E.U. countries saw more than 1 […]

THE CONVERSATION — The U.S. government moved closer to banning the video social media app TikTok after the House of Representatives attached the measure to an emergency spending bill on Apr. 17, 2024. The House voted on each of the four components of the bill, and the one affecting TikTok passed 360-58 on Apr. 20, 2024. The packaging is likely […]

A marvel of modern politics occurs when a U.S. senator, age 78, urges a U.S. Supreme Court justice, age 69, to step down because she is too old. The senator’s worry is that, like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the jurist will stay on the bench too long, die in office, and allow a Republican president […]

Anybody out there have a problem with people who constantly expect to be rescued? Who are absolutely dead certain they’re entitled to be rescued? I’m not talking about those of us who occasionally appreciate having firepersons save us from our burning homes, or having physicians rescue us from dying of an unpronounceable disease or having […]

This is the 500th piece I’ve written for the “Just a Little Old” column. When I began the column, I explained the inspiration for the title. Twenty years ago I was at a wedding in Oregon. My 2-year-old granddaughter Emma looked at me and said, “Dee, you’re old!” I pointed to my father, then in […]

What is gleaning? It falls into that broad category of words that you kind of know that conjure indistinct images of vaguely familiar activities like, say, glamping, galivanting, larping or loitering. Yes, perhaps you’d know it if you saw it. Or perhaps not. Really, it’s a simple idea betrayed by an overly abstract word, quite […]

One thing is sure about Joe Brennan, who died last week at age 89 — he was like no other Maine politician, before or since. Brennan was the first governor from Portland (1979-87) since Percival Baxter nearly 60 years earlier, his temperamental opposite — a working class scrapper vs. Baxter’s polished, upper-crust style. Governors from […]