As I tried to stay cool during our recent hot weather, I couldn’t help thinking about climate change. We didn’t break any heat records in Portland, but it was close.  Due to our warming planet, these higher temperatures will continue. Reuters has put together a climate monitor that shows we’re already well above historic norms. […]

Today’s U.S. Supreme Court has nine justices, and the suggestion to increase its size seems drastic. But this is not a new idea. The Court’s size has already changed seven times. Nothing in the Constitution says it should have nine members. In fact, courts of appeals in the country base their size on the population […]

Hydropower continues to play a central role in the daily lives of many small towns across Maine. For over a century, hydropower facilities have provided steady work for families, especially in rural communities where jobs are harder to find. These facilities support families’ careers and keep paychecks close to home. As assistant business manager of […]

The Declaration of Independence, ratified on July 4, 1776, has some nice words. “All men are created equal, that they are endowed … with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and “whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the […]

For many years I worked in Germany. Over the years, I developed a strange ability. I could meet someone in Germany and know almost instantly whether they had grown up in the East or the West. I never understood how. I kept asking my friends why. They just smiled. One February night, with the temperature […]

My husband and I  have had two close encounters with Barry Manilow, who played his final Portland concert on July 3. On a book tour, we were having lunch in Los Angeles with a Penguin representative who had been sent to see us through our first media interviews. Manilow was at a table close by […]