Maine has a lot of official stuff. There’s an official state bird (chickadee), an official state floral emblem (pine cone and tassel), an official state dessert (blueberry pie) and, um, an official state dirt. I’m not making that up. In 1999, the Legislature designated something called Chesuncook as the official state soil, because, according to […]

Most people have no clue what’s going on in the public schools we financially support. And it’s tough to find the truth. Thankfully, if you really want to know what’s going on in our public schools, you can ask a recently retired teacher. They have no skin in the game. My sister, as a recently […]

LBGTQ Pride month. Fifty years since Stonewall. Three years since 49 killed in Florida at the Pulse gay bar. Two weeks since four died in Detroit in anti-gay murders. So amid happy parades, rainbow flags, and “how far we’ve come,” more work calls out for us to see people as people. What needs doing for […]

This month, more than 500 Portland Public Schools students graduated from our three high schools. We’ll hold another ceremony June 27 for approximately 100 Portland Adult Education students receiving their high school diplomas or passing a high school equivalency test. I am so proud of our more than 600 graduates. I am also extremely proud […]

At the June 13 South Portland City Council meeting, rules were suspended; an item not on the published agenda was considered: Should South Portland send its money to Portland to help Portland, or should that money remain in the city of South Portland? We can argue all day long over the merits of the root […]

Thought experiment: After seven games, Team A wins the World Series. Some fans reject this. Why? A’s wins were 1-0. B’s wins were 10-0. Therefore, B wins the Series 30-4. This is an absurdity. Each game is a separate contest. However, this idea doesn’t sit well with many in the way we elect presidents: 51 […]

I would like to take the opportunity to thank The Forecaster for its excellent coverage of the Falmouth Town Council race. In a world that sometimes seems has gone crazy, it was a pleasant distraction to watch the craziness here at home. Thank you for bringing that to us. The only way this could get […]

From April 30-June 5, I spent most of my time flat on my back in hospital and rehab beds, most of that time with a feeding tube in my nose to bypass the inflamed pancreas that laid me low. It’s been a miserable experience, but lots of people suffer far more for far longer so […]

According to a poll I haven’t bothered to conduct, Maine now has the least popular leader of its university system of any state. In late May, the University of Maine System Board of Trustees voted to hire former Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy as its new chancellor, a title that evokes images of aristocrats sporting spiked […]

After three decades in the teaching profession, my sister recently resigned from her position as a public middle school English teacher. She’s had enough of “teaching to the test.” She’s had enough of dealing with undisciplined students and their equally uncaring parents. She’s had enough of her administrators not allowing her to teach as she […]