Who are we, and what do we want? Those are the questions on the mind of every candidate, campaign staffer, political analyst and pollster as we approach the one-year mark before the next election. The answers are many. We care about health care. The economy. We care about the “direction” of the country. We worry …
If you were thinking of taking refuge from the crowds in Bar Harbor by slipping off into Acadia National Park, think again. On Aug. 29, David Bernhardt, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, issued a “secretarial order” which “simplifies and unifies regulation of electric bicycles (e-bikes) on federal lands” managed by his department. The order …
In a one-day legislative session, the Legislature laid three bonds to rest but passed the biggest one. The $105-million transportation bond was the lone winner. Governor Janet Mills pared down her overall bond request from $239 million to $163 million and broke it into four pieces, as Republicans requested. A fat lot of good it …
We’ve reached Labor Day, the end of our all-too-brief summer. It may come with a sigh of relief for the maxed-out hospitality industry, but those of us who favor flip flops and morning dips, days on the lake or evenings on the porch are not all that keen on the arrival of fall. At one …
One of the sins of omission of the last legislative session is coming home to haunt us. The Legislature adjourned on time, which is good, but only managed to do so by leaving a substantial stack of work undone. Hundreds of bills were carried over to the second year of the 129th Legislature and among …
Mid-August, Hancock County is hip-deep in tourists. Bar Harbor is the center of the tourist universe, the town that every other town says they do not want to be, yet many towns are considering efforts that mimic, in type if not in volume, Bar Harbor’s tourist-based economy. On the Maine coast, tourism is the low-hanging …
With an abundance of candidates already in the 2020 elections, voters will need a way to winnow the field. Objective criteria for candidate selection are sorely lacking. It tends to be more about who’s telegenic and entertaining than it is about who will lead this complex, troubled country to higher ground. In the field of …
In the recent heat waves even the tourists were listless, sticking close to shore and shade. Not a creature was stirring unless it was to creep to the nearest ice cream shop. Yet a little zephyr of local political news blew through, lifting the leaves for a moment. It might be 15 months away, but …
The empire strikes back! That would be the Maine coast lobster empire. Emerging federal regulations to reduce endangered right whale mortality have been threatening the fishery for over a year, and anxious fishing communities have finally gotten the attention of Maine’s elected officials. Last Sunday, lobstermen, their friends and families gathered on the pier in …
People! We are trying to have summer here. The candidates for various federal offices are besieging us with requests for money, but we are not feeling it. We are thinking about chilling out, not chipping in. There is irony in the fact that candidates are asking for money as a way to combat money in …
Fourth of July! Bar Harbor! Yay! Parade, right? Then to the ballfield for lobster and hot dogs. The sun is out, the heat is cranking and by afternoon we all screamed for ice cream. Let’s hear it for the scoopers! If you went to CJ’s for a cone you were one of 1,768 sweltering visitors …
Can it really be the Fourth of July? The long, cold, wet spring gave way so precipitously to sunshine and warmth that we hardly had a chance to realize summer was upon us until it was. Legislators have decamped to wherever home is, adjourning in the wee hours of June 20. Some of the …
