My wife Tina recently wore a T-shirt that reads: “Jane Austen. A glass of wine. And chocolate. Life is good.” I’ll buy that concept. Well, sort of. I’ve never read Jane Austen (my bad), but I plan to read “Emma” soon. And I don’t drink wine or any other form of alcohol. But I’m down […]

Congress is back from its August recess, the weeks-long period away from its always-contentious, mostly unproductive business. The House and the Senate have about a week until the Sep. 30 deadline to pass a federal budget. On Oct. 1, a new fiscal year begins. If lawmakers cannot push through their spending bills, the nation will […]

A good friend of mine named Ann, a woman with absolutely blasting enthusiasm — a woman for whom the glass is not half full but is gushing liquid out of the top and all over the world — asked me if I’d be interested in “going on the road” with her. I would read my […]

Americans have an almost religious faith in numbers. When people believe in statistics, that helps politicians. People keep their faith despite the truth of that old saying, “Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.” Nowhere is that more accurate than in political campaigns. It’s evident now both in Maine and on the national and world scene. […]

Over the past four years, Maine’s system for representing indigent defendants in criminal cases has been in crisis — but since the pandemic and its aftermath, it’s really become two crises. Unfortunately, the agency in charge — the Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services (MCILS) — is only working on the system’s long-term problems, almost […]