Maine State Music Theatre celebrated the opening of the 2023 summer season with a gathering at the newly renovated Lemont Hall in downtown Brunswick. During the evening, Curt Dale Clark, MSMT’s artistic director, introduced a surprise performer, Markis Larrivee, MSMT’s audience services manager. Larrivee’s stunning rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” resulted in a prolonged […]

A funny thing happened to the promise made by the COP28 environment conference to “transition” away from fossil fuels. You know, that’s the stuff that makes most of our cars go. It went out the exhaust pipe when it encountered the recent U.S. defense spending bill that will lay out tens of millions for a […]

George Mitchell is 90. After a cancer diagnosis several years ago, he celebrated his latest milestone in August without fanfare or any public notice other than a retrospective interview with State House veteran Don Carrigan. When I spoke to him last week, he emphasized that “I’m feeling better now,” following surgery necessitated by a weakened […]

THE CONVERSATION — The world’s first conference on the abolition of torture drew more than 300 delegates representing over 70 countries and international organizations. It opened with the news that the United Nations General Assembly had passed a resolution condemning torture, along with a personal message from the U.N. secretary general. Amnesty International, the nonprofit human […]

THE CONVERSATION — As the war between Israel and Hamas drags on, many on both sides have taken to social media to gather information and air their outrage. The impulse to do so is understandable: Political activism on social media provides people with an emotional outlet and gives them a sense that they can do […]

Following last week’s fourth – and final – 2024 presidential debate sanctioned by the Republican National Committee, increased attention has turned to the continued presence of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and whether it’s time for both to stand aside in the larger interest of solidifying support behind an alternative […]

The late author Maya Angelou once stated, “When people show you who they are, believe them.” Nowhere is that saying more applicable than the latest rantings of Donald Trump. The former president was asked twice during a Fox News town hall last week if he would rule out any abuse of power as retribution against […]

“The right place at the right time.” I realize that not everyone recognizes Jesus Christ as the Son of God (or even a real person); but for Christians, his birth, ministry, death and triumph over death fit the “right place at the right time” for fulfilling prophecies of the Messiah. Perhaps that is one of […]