Gov. LePage’s proposal to cut funding to assisted living facilities such as ours, as reported last week by The Forecaster’s Amy Anderson, is a penny-wise, pound-foolish plan. The Chebeague Island Commons, like almost 160 similar providers in Maine, offers care to elders who can no longer live in their own homes. A portion of our […]

If you have followed the Republican presidential primary debates, the congressional budget debacles, the war of words waged nightly between Fox News and MSNBC, the editorials in local, state, and national publications, the letters to the editor and online comments engendered by local newspaper reports, the demonstrations pro and con on President Obama’s progressive agenda […]

Gov. Paul LePage’s recent Department of Health and Human Services budget speaks to the failure of his administration to create jobs and implement a catalyst for economic recovery. But most importantly, the governor uses this budget just as he did in January 2011 to play Maine people against each other. This tactic seeks to blame […]

Last month, Portland’s major daily newspaper, The Portland Press Herald, reviewed its top stories of the year. Many of them were negative stories about Gov. Paul LePage (his remarks about the NAACP, his removal of the mural from the walls of the state Department of Labor, etc.). In the same month, the paper ran one […]

I will concede one point of Mark Verrill’s sickening Dec. 22 letter regarding the “celebration of gay, lesbian, and transsexual lifestyles” at Greely High School: having a Christmas tree in the school isn’t completely obscene, as long as all other beliefs are equally represented. That is where my tolerance of intolerance ends. I do not […]

I wish to take up the call from a Dec. 22 letter and express my opinions to School Administrative District 51 about Ally Week, the event that reportedly “celebrated” gay, lesbian and transgendered lifestyles. I asked my daughter (a freshman) about it. She reported that they had “dot day,” when you could choose to wear […]

As 2011 comes to a close, The Forecaster is saying goodbye to one of its most prolific writers, Randy Billings. Randy has been at the newspaper for about five years. He started as our news assistant, compiling calendar entries, School Notebook news and People & Business items. When he became our reporter in South Portland […]

As much as I am in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement when it comes to addressing the social and economic inequities brought on by greedy corporate speculators and their congressional enablers, I have a hard time figuring out just what is being accomplished by camping out in public parks. I know the Occupiers […]

People have been telling me I’m a pessimist for years. They may be right. Just my luck. What made me suspicious was where my head went when my son came home from his first semester at college. He did very well academically, made friends, managed his money pretty well, and became a valued member of […]

To paraphrase Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “How do we “thank you? Let me count the ways”: For the many, many food donations from so many businesses and organizations. For all of you that supported these efforts, we are extremely grateful. For the many monetary donations, the donations of toys and gifts we were able to share with families […]