State of Maine

• New year brings glimmer of hope for better days

  January 8, 2021 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  “There just might be something in the air that feels, dare we say it, hopeful,” writes Columnist Jill Goldthwait this week.

  “Sunrise is three minutes later than on the Dec. 21 solstice, but sunset is 14 minutes later, giving us a net gain of 11 minutes of daylight. Speaking of daylight, we are in no way done with COVID, but vaccines? Daylight. The disease is rampant all over the country and it will be a while before we can begin to relax precautions, but there is a glimmer of hope that we are headed toward better days. In the meantime, we know how to do this, right?”

• Real or imagined, foreign interlopers no match for alert Mainers

  December 11, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  Busted! Once again, the coast of Maine has been the entry point for foreign intrigue, and once again the threat has been exposed. Years ago, it was German spies in a U-boat landing on the coast near Hancock Point in November of 1944. Their undoing? They trudged up the Hancock peninsula wearing “street clothes and …

• Saluting Hancock County’s public service stalwarts

  October 30, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  In this last, pre-election edition, opining on election races is verboten. At a time when few are thinking about anything else, that necessitates some head-scratching. What is a writer to do? Extol the glories of the autumn foliage? Offer some Thanksgiving recipes? Lament the absence of marshmallow Peeps this Halloween? We can do better than …

• Depressing 2020 election cycle enters the home stretch … maybe

  October 23, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  We are nearing the end of one of the more depressing election cycles in U.S. history, and we cannot say with certainty that on Nov. 3, or just a few days thereafter, we will have been put out of our misery. A zillion people have voted already, so any last-minute push is of questionable value. …

• Local races provide a bastion of sanity this election season

  October 16, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  The soul-destroying clash of presidential politics this election year is enough to put anyone off. There is some solace in turning to local elections, where there is still decency and common sense to be found. There are eight House districts that include at least one Hancock County town. In three the incumbents were term-limited, leaving …

• Golden takes the high road in refreshing change of pace

  September 25, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  Let’s daydream together about an election where the candidates talk about why they are running in real terms, not platitudes. Where they don’t even mention their opponents but simply lay out their plans for how they would serve in the office they are seeking. Where they tell us why they think they are qualified for …

• Parallel universes on display in first Senate debate

  September 18, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  The four candidates for Maine’s U.S. Senate election held their first debate last Friday night. There were two major party candidates, incumbent Sen. Susan Collins and challenger Sara Gideon, current Speaker of the Maine House. There were two independents, Lisa Savage and Max Linn. And there were two separate universes. Sen. Collins and Speaker Gideon …

• Husbandgate beneath the dignity of both Senate candidates

  September 11, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  The U.S. senators representing the state of Maine have been a distinguished bunch. Many have had outsized impact given the relative lack of political influence of their home state. Margaret Chase Smith was perhaps the most emblematic with her “Declaration of Conscience,” but through the last decades Maine has been served by senators nationally recognized …

• How to do your civic duty during this unusual election season

  September 4, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  Most years around Labor Day it is only the politics-obsessed who are paying close attention to a November election. This is not most years. This year we are thinking not only about who to vote for but how we will vote. There will still be the option of showing up at the polls on Nov. …

• We need more female leaders

  August 28, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  Mount Desert Island Hospital is holding its annual meeting next week. There are sure to be the usual reports, updates and expressions of pride in a competent staff, but MDIH has something special to celebrate this year. Chief Operating Officer Chrissi Maguire is taking the reins as CEO from retiring president Art Blank and Patricia …

• Partisan poison from Washington has made its way north

  August 21, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  With stacks of unfinished bills still in the system, Maine’s 129th Legislature has decided to make like Congress and do nothing. Democratic leadership made a bid to reconvene in mid-July, but that requires bipartisan cooperation. That’s a quantity in short supply. Both sides want a short session, but to Democrats that means working quickly to …

• Lots of trial and error as states go it alone

  August 14, 2020 by Jill Goldthwait on Columnists, Opinion, State of Maine

  State and local governments are in a world of financial hurt. When the pandemic started back in late winter, the priority was preventing the spread of disease and saving lives. It wasn’t long before other elements of the Great Debate crept in. How do we save the economy, on which lives also depend? That was …