Steve Collins

Columnist

Steve Collins became an opinion columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News in April of 2025. A journalist since 1987, Steve has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine and served as the State House reporter for the Sun Journal since 2016. The Maine Press Association named him Maine's Journalist of the Year in 2022. Among his other awards are the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2016 Ethics in Journalism Award, the I.F. Stone Whistle-Blower Award in 2015 and the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. Steve is a founder and board president of Youth Journalism International, a charity that teaches students around the globe about news writing, media literacy and issues of the day. His wife, Jackie Majerus, serves as its executive director. Born in Massachusetts, he grew up in a military family that took him to Norway, Ohio and Virginia, where he earned a degree in history from the University of Virginia. He and Jackie live in Auburn. They have two adult children, two collies and not enough time.

Maine, Politics

Former Gov. Paul LePage really did move to Florida

by Steve Collins January 3, 2020January 4, 2020

The two-term Republican governor registered to vote in Ormond Beach, where he bought a house in 2018 while in office.

Business, Elections, Maine, Politics

Former Google exec now running for Senate in Maine decries company’s ‘greed, corruption’

by Steve Collins January 2, 2020January 2, 2020

Democrat Ross LaJeunesse of Biddeford says the company didn’t live up to its motto: Don’t be evil.

Books, Lewiston-Auburn

New book brings more attention to Lewiston’s Somali community

by Steve Collins January 1, 2020January 2, 2020

Cynthia Anderson’s “Home Now” offers a portrait of a city coping with an influx of immigrants and discovering in the process a path to a brighter future.

Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, Nation & World, Politics

Leeds man fires back after Donald Trump calls him an ‘animal’

by Steve Collins December 30, 2019December 30, 2019

Richard Fochtmann, called an “animal” by Trump on Twitter, said Monday he considers the president a bully, a racist and a would-be dictator.

Maine, New England, News

In search of Thoreau’s elusive Mount Katahdin map

by Steve Collins December 29, 2019December 28, 2019

A retired University of Maine Farmington administrator continues searching despite being uncertain whether the ‘diagram’ even exists.

Maine

Baldacci spaghetti fundraiser aims to help Auburn scam victim, 95

by Steve Collins December 26, 2019December 27, 2019

The supper to benefit Barbara Hinckley will be held at 5 p.m. Jan. 8 at Auburn Middle School.

Elections, Maine, Nation & World, Politics

Trump backs re-election of Sen. Collins

by Steve Collins December 24, 2019December 25, 2019

In a tweet Monday, he says he agrees 100% that she is needed to ensure Republicans keep control of the Senate next year.

Maine, Nation & World, News

Angus King says Saudis need ‘more transparent and complete justice’ for Khashoggi murder

by Steve Collins December 23, 2019December 23, 2019

Maine’s junior senator is not content with Saudi Arabia’s secret trial and conviction of eight unidentified men for the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate.