My earliest memory of the Maine Statehouse is a sixth-grade field trip, crowding into the office of Gov. John Reed sometime in the mid-1960s. I’m not sure if that initial visit stoked my fascination with Maine politics and especially the Legislature, but it may have helped. So decades later, I’m starting a column that will […]
Portland Forecaster
City-wide news from The Forecaster.
Posted inCoastal Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Northern Forecaster, Portland Forecaster, Southern Forecaster, The Forecaster
The Universal Notebook: LePage’s tax plan is DOA
During his first term, Gov. Paul LePage got many of his ideas from the ultraconservative American Legislative Exchange Council and Maine Heritage Policy Center. In his second term, his tax plan comes from an unexpected source: the Maine Democratic Party. The plan is to cut the income tax and broaden the sales tax. That’s the […]
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Posted inCoastal Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Northern Forecaster, Portland Forecaster, Southern Forecaster, The Forecaster
Abby's Road: The 12th football speaks
I am the 9.16 percent. I am the Edward Snowden of the pigskin community. I am the 12th football. This is my first public statement. Jan. 18, 2015, started like any other Sunday between preseason and postseason. I awoke in my gunmetal cage to the sounds of Vince Wilfork tap-dancing. The man can shuffle-hop-step like […]
Posted inCoastal Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Northern Forecaster, Portland Forecaster, Southern Forecaster, The Forecaster
Letter: Beem wrong about Obama, oil, Keystone XL
In his latest blather about the Keystone XL pipeline, Edgar Allen Beem blames Republicans for “standing in the way of transportation infrastructure improvements.” Please Mr. Beem, name them. Later in the column Beem says that paying $2.20 a gallon does not even cover the cost of highway maintenance. So Republicans block highway maintenance, but then […]
Posted inPortland Forecaster, The Forecaster
Portland WinterFest takes off
Snowboarder Zander Stearns, 24, of Old Orchard Beach, glides across a C box Friday during the Portland WinterFest Rail Jam. The city closed an eastbound, one-block stretch of Spring Street to accommodate the terrain park, which included a steep pile of snow and three rail features. It was built during an eight-hour span by employees […]
Posted inPortland Forecaster, The Forecaster
Why and how behind Portland's new storm-water fee
PORTLAND — The Portland City Council this week approved new storm-water fees, signing off on a measure that was once controversial, but over years of deliberation become an accepted inevitability. Christopher O’Neil, a government liaison for the Portland Community Chamber of Commerce, perhaps said it best when he addressed the council at its Jan. 21 meeting: […]
Posted inCoastal Journal, Northern Forecaster, Portland Forecaster, Southern Forecaster, The Forecaster
LePage wants to replace Maine secretary of state with lieutenant governor
AUGUSTA — Republican Gov. Paul LePage wants to get rid of the secretary of state position and replace it with a lieutenant governor. The duties of the secretary of state, from running elections to licensing drivers, would come under the lieutenant governor, who would also be first in the line of succession to replace the […]
Posted inPortland Forecaster, Southern Forecaster, The Forecaster
South Portland schools see dramatic increase in homeless students
SOUTH PORTLAND — The number of homeless students in city schools has doubled in the past two years to 102, a figure that is unprecedented in South Portland history. “I am worried,” Assistant Superintendent of Schools Kathy Germani said. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan enacted the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Amended and reissued through the years, […]
Posted inCoastal Journal, Northern Forecaster, Portland Forecaster, Southern Forecaster, The Forecaster
Mussel weakness: Massive decline in Casco Bay poses questions about once-thriving population
BRUNSWICK — It used to be common to lift up thick mats of seaweed on the shores of Casco Bay and uncover thousands of dark blue mussels nestled among the rocks. But over the last few years, people who harvest and work to conserve the mollusk say areas that used to be full of thriving mussel […]
Posted inPortland Forecaster, The Forecaster
Portland fire lawsuits mount against Noyes Street landlord
PORTLAND — The owner of a building at 20-24 Noyes St. now faces almost $11 million in wrongful death claims from a Nov. 1, 2014, fire that killed six people. The cause of the fire on Jan. 21 was determined to be accidental. Gregory Nisbet, who has owned the multi-unit building since 2003, is now […]