Last week’s story by Emily Parkhurst about the use of therapeutic restraints on students in schools throughout southern Maine asked several key questions. Among them: • Are school staffers properly trained and certified to safely restrain students using potentially life-threatening physical holds? • How often are these dangerous restraints employed? • Which school employees are […]

Last week, the National Organization for Marriage, the anti-gay marriage group that helped repeal Maine’s marriage equity law, held a rally in Augusta where Charla Bansley, Maine director of Concerned Women for America, made an inflammatory statement that must not go unchallenged. “We must understand that the enemy will never accept defeat in their effort […]

I’m often asked if I work in the summer. When I say yes, the next question is, “So what do you do?” One of my summer assignments is to prepare reports for the state about the district’s suspension rate, graduation rate and the dropout rate. When I began as Portland’s superintendent a year ago, I […]

Now is not the time to be thinking about a new South Portland City Hall. There are more pressing priorities for city capital expenditures, especially given the current economic conditions: • The high school renovation issue has worked its way to the top of the priority list. I now believe we need to focus on this […]

Most are aware that Paul LePage faced a turning point in his life. At 11, his misfortune closely mirrors words of a poem, “The Fighter”: “I fight a battle every day, Against discouragement and fear, Some foe stands always in my way, The path ahead is never clear.” The poem tells of a man’s struggle […]

I always had within me a deep sense of gratitude having the Falmouth Flyer at my doorstep. It has proved to me that our town fathers have not cast aside the elderly and other citizens. In these days of economic and other distress, the Town Council continues to value its older citizens as much as […]

Tony Payne has taken the right approach with his recent “eating crow” response. I encourage all Falmouth town councilors to be as open, honest, sincere and mindful of public service as Tony. There are some tough decisions that need to be made. These economic times challenge us all. The personal and business decisions I have […]

Clam dip sounds about as appealing to me as lobster roe in toasted marshmallows. While I grieve Edgar Allen Beem’s loss of access to his favorite brand (“The Universal Notebook: Heluva good excuse to be a conservative”), a conservative would notice that people lost their livelihoods in the bargain. Beem is clearly no conservative. Why […]

Police execute a search warrant at the house of Alexander Cody McPhee, 21, on Gambo Road and find the stolen merchandise,