By Sen. Kimberley Rosen I write to provide an accurate description of my position on a few issues that were raised by a letter published in your last edition [“A very odd Senate endorsement,” Jan. 9]. In it, the writer claims that Bangor City Council member Joe Baldacci’s public comments against Rep. Larry Lockman indicate …
By Rep. Larry Lockman I’m old enough to remember when there were more than 8,000 mill jobs in the Penobscot Valley between Bucksport and Millinocket. I know, because I had one of those jobs, working as an hourly production-line employee in the Passadumkeag stud mill from 1975 to 1992. It was a good-paying job with …
John D. Rockefeller did more than give us Acadia National Park. He and Standard Oil saved our planet from ecological disaster and saved the great whales from extinction better then Spock, Kirk and McCoy ever dreamed of. Rockefeller returned trees to New England and America, though he never planted a single one. Standard Oil stopped …
By Tom Walsh Remember Christmas cards? These seasonal snail-mail greetings have been a fixture of the holiday season since they originated in Victorian England in 1843. Originally created as postcards, they saved time for aristocrats too busy to pen hundreds of personalized letters of holiday good cheer. The first Christmas card is credited to Sir …
By Paul Mills On the evening of April 1, 1940, State Controller William Runnells sustained two self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the chest. Runnells’ nearly successful suicide attempt would punctuate the beginning of the last proceeding in Maine government that sought removal of a high-ranking government official. Though it’s been nearly four score years since this …
By Hugh J. Curran Eugenics, meaning “well born,” is an ideology that believed that one’s behavior is caused by genetics and that certain races have traits and mental abilities that are particular to them. Eugenics has a history stretching back to the late 19th century, supposedly based upon scientific principles. It was founded in 1883 …
By Michael Hall The United States must use its enormous economic power to improve the global environment and to encourage decent lives for the world’s citizens. No hundred-page manifestoes, no Green New Deals, no Paris and Kyoto accords are necessary. Just the need for the rest of the world to access the American marketplace and …
By Hugh Bowden President Donald Trump is a liar. He is a bully. He supports racism and white supremacy. He routinely abuses the power of his office. He obstructs justice. He uses the authority and the global prestige of the presidency to enrich himself and his family, in violation of the United States Constitution. He …
By Todd R. Nelson Locating the family Ur joke. Is it possible, I mused, to pinpoint the source of the familial sense of humor? I launched an expedition upstream of the White Nile. It didn’t take long to find the earliest words and phrases that made my parents laugh, coelescing into a family attitude. Although …
By Roger Bowen The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, whom Donald Trump refers to as “Shifty Schiff,” offered an eloquent summary at the close of its impeachment inquiry on Nov. 21. Schiff summarized what the witnesses reported, namely that Trump violated his oath of office when he sought to bribe the Ukrainian …
By Sherm Hutchins In now my second time serving in the Maine Legislature, I find the issues relating to health care have gotten much more serious. When I first served in the late 1980s our local critical care hospital, Blue Hill Memorial, was struggling. Like many small, rural hospitals it had to merge with a …
By John Ripton As a child in a struggling working family in rural Maine, I learned quickly about corporate responsibility, economic inequality and environmental degradation. The belief that factory employment would provide one’s family with sustainable livelihood proved false for so many of us. Dyes and other toxic chemicals polluted the river, killed fish and …
