Regarding Fred Blanchard’s letter (“Trolley folly in Brunswick”), does he really believe that other modes of transportation pay for themselves? Public buses like the Brunswick Explorer, along with trains, ferries, airports and roads, are all transportation options provided by governmental entities using our tax dollars. Like libraries or police departments, these services are provided for […]

It seems to me that for-profit colleges have helped all of us. First of all, they meet a need for continuing education and earning degrees later in life that was ignored by most traditional colleges. They have been the trailblazers for the online courses and distance learning programs that traditional colleges are just now discovering. […]

Some of Fred Blanchard’s information about the Brunswick Explorer bus service is incorrect and I have to disagree with his conclusions. The Brunswick Explorer does have three buses, one of which functions as a spare. Coastal Trans, which operates the service, employs at least three full-time bus drivers on the route and offers a fairly […]

Because of the Labor Day holiday on Monday, Sept. 5, the deadline for letters to the editor for next week’s editions of The Forecaster is noon this Friday, Sept. 2. Letters should be emailed to [email protected].

Lately, rumors of a coming economic collapse, something far worse than 2008, have been creeping in around the edges of my life like the stench of something dead in the basement. And like the rotting corpse of something the cat dragged in, I’d like to be rid of it, but I don’t really want to […]

There’s nothing like a little hurricane to separate the men from the boys, the women from the girls, and the level-headed from the crazy. Being a woman who finds little reason to follow the weather (I prefer to open my eyes in the morning and allow mother nature to surprise me), I am often in […]

You’re not smart enough to vote. Based on their rhetoric over the past few weeks, that seems to be what the Maine People’s Alliance and other fringe left-wing groups think of you. They’re pouring a huge amount of money and resources into a campaign to force a people’s veto on recently passed legislation dealing with […]

Edgar Allen Beem complained recently that the rich don’t pay their “fair share” (whatever that is) of taxes. He is simply wrong on the facts. Based on the most recent full-year tax analysis available (2008), IRS data indicates that taxpayers in the top 1 percent of adjusted gross income paid over 38 percent of all […]

As teachers in one of Portland’s most diverse schools, we were alarmed by the article in The Forecaster of Aug. 24 that claimed that “Students tend to flee city’s most diverse schools.” Writer Emily Parkhurst implies that Portland is experiencing “white flight.” Yet the pie charts included in the article clearly show that parents are […]

I was pleased to see several favorable letters regarding Edgar Allen Beem’s column, as they reflected my usual reaction to his ideas and opinion. But alas, when I read “Education for Suckers” I was reminded how easy it is for even articulate and informed columnists to succumb to their biases and their ignorance of factual […]