Once again Maine shows the country why we are ranked dead last in business climate.

Even armed with a multitude of advantages the former Brunswick Naval Air Station possesses, Kestrel Aircraft still couldn’t make the case to locate their new facility here. Now the Maine finger-pointing has begun.

It seems to me that since 2010, when this deal was first announced, we were too busy gloating, high-fiving and slapping ourselves on the back to think we actually had more work to do to seal this deal.

The state of Wisconsin, even in the midst of political turmoil and the recall of their governor, never took their eye off the ball and as a result won the prize.

Now 600 jobs that we desperately needed to boost our economic climate have gone down the drain.

I hope this becomes a teachable moment for those in charge of this debacle. We can ill afford to let these opportunities fall through our fingers again.

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Jim Brown

Edgecomb

Six hundred jobs going to Wisconsin instead of here in Maine.

Well, I guess Gov. LePage has to do more than remove murals offensive to business in order to land jobs.

Who would have thought, you actually have to do more than symbolic gestures.

John V. Boyle

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Portland

Allowing vehicles to idle harmful to health, wallet

It’s something you see almost every day, particularly in winter — an empty car with its motor running, while the driver is shopping, getting the mail, or talking to a neighbor. It may not seem like much, but if you think about it, it really doesn’t make much sense, and it affects other people, too.

First of all, even though we’re almost used to high fuel prices, an idling vehicle gets zero miles per gallon. That means paying more at the pump, and being a little more dependent on foreign oil.

Second: Modern fuel-injected engines (in other words, most vehicles) need only 10 seconds to warm up. After that, you waste more money running the engine than restarting it — and idling an engine also causes twice the wear on internal parts compared to driving at regular speeds.

Finally, idling also causes pollution and is bad for your health and your neighbors’.

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Car exhaust contains nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds particulate matter, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. All of these are spewed into the environment, and none of it is good to breathe, but carbon monoxide is especially harmful because it slows the delivery of oxygen to the body’s organs and tissues.

Exposure to carbon monoxide aggravates heart disease and can cause headaches and visual impairment. Children are especially sensitive to the effects of air pollution because they take in more air than adults.

If you’re concerned about the high price of gas; if you want your car’s engine to last longer; if you care about the quality of the air you breathe and want to protect your health and that of everyone else — please turn off your motor. It’s a simple act of good citizenship that everyone can do.

Don Loprieno

Bristol

Volunteer relished chance to work on Haitian hospital

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I would like to thank the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, which made it possible for me to give back to those in need.

Without the council’s involvement with the group Partners In Health to help build a national teaching hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti, I would not have experienced the inner satisfaction that I did help those who were so greatly in need.

This national teaching hospital will be the state-of-the-art hospital for the entire region. It will service 450 to 500 patients a day, along with providing a medical training center.

I was lucky enough to meet the man who had this magnificent quest to bring free professional medical care to the poorest of the poor. Dr. Paul Edward Farmer is the man with a transcendent purpose: to change humanity.

Somehow I was lucky enough to be there for the dedication of the Mirebalais Hospital and would like to share the story of how it came into being. When Dr. Farmer spoke at the dedication, he spoke in both English and Haitian Creole to the attendees.

He told the crowd about the medical clinic that he had established earlier in Haiti. He also told everyone that he closed the clinic because it wasn’t giving quality care to the patients. That is when he started to think about turning around how medical care was administered.

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He then found himself on the best hospital ship out in the harbor of Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, after the earthquake. At that time it came to him, “Why am I out in the harbor and not in a first-class hospital on land?”

That was the beginning of his quest to build a “world state-of-the-art hospital.”

Scott Berry

Auburn


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