A bill currently before the Legislature would raise taxes on Maine beverage consumers by $10 million every year. The proposal ignores serious problems with our recycling system. It’s also contrary to Gov. Janet Mills’ goal not to raise taxes and fees in her first budget. Maine beverage consumers already pay $36.5 million annually in handling […]

I am writing in support of the Falmouth House of Pizza, because they are being kicked out of their premises in the Falmouth Shopping Center. I am amazed that there are no picket lines marching around in the parking lot in Falmouth. Why is there no hue and cry to protest this ouster of a […]

I have ceased to read John Balentine’s opinion pieces because he is an ideologue who doesn’t seem to actually have an “opinion” of his own. But today while flipping through The Forecaster this quote caught my eye: “These Democrats posit unrealistic solutions, such as killing all cows, banning air travel and gas-powered engines, and replacing […]

Early on in life I learned that once you grew up to be an adult, play time was over. No law decreed it so, it just was. As adults we could find time to work for a living, to sire children, or to explore the universe. Everything but play. Just play for the fun of […]

Falmouth is at a watershed moment. Will it keep its small-town rural charm, or allow itself to become an urbanized imitation of neighboring cities? Municipal planning professionals and group-think committees fell captive to constituencies that profit from development. Ignoring traditions and surveys pleading to preserve treasured neighborhoods and town character, in 2016 they imposed a […]

On April 27, Bath Iron Works will christen a huge warship, a destroyer in name and intention. There will be a celebration. Many of us oppose the blessing of this ship. We want jobs in Maine to focus on solving the climate crisis, rather than adding to the Pentagon’s carbon footprint. Our skilled workers can […]

While progressives and moderates battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, the Republican Party has become the walking dead, the life blood sucked out of it by the vain vampire Trump. The only thing that unites the new Republicans, both here in Maine and nationally, is their sheer mean-spiritedness. You want to believe that […]

The Conservation Law Foundation, a respected environmental group based in Boston, is firmly in favor of Central Maine’s Power Co.’s plan to build a 145-mile transmission line through western Maine to bring Canadian hydropower to Massachusetts. According to the CLF website, tapping Hydro-Quebec’s electricity “makes us reliant on big, carbon-emitting Canadian hydropower, undermining the market […]

Since 1973, the ABC television network has broadcast Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” during the Easter/Passover holiday season. The 1956 movie follows Moses, played by the great Charlton Heston, as he leads the Jews away from their Egyptian bondage (at the hands of Ramses, played by the equally great Yul Brynner) and toward the […]

Heartbreak hurts. If we let it. Often a dull ache. In classes, I teach the dark truth: “All is temporary, in flux. We will one day lose everything and everyone we love.” Students stand, fake-bolt out of the room and joke, “now I’m depressed.” Who wants to sit in the reality of loss? Instead we […]