This January, contributions began to Maine’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) law, the 13th such law to be adopted in the U.S., with applications for leave beginning in May 2026. The program’s breadth is exciting: All workers in the state of Maine who made at least $7,000 in the previous year will be […]

One of my favorite columnists is Willem Lange, who writes a column called “A Yankee Notebook” for the Valley News in New Hampshire. Willem is an old Yankee, a hunter, a fisherman, a storyteller, an observer of history and events, and a wise man. In a Feb. 5 column titled “Common sense drowns under a […]

Maine legislators and the governor are grossly underpaid, which they argue makes it hard to attract good candidates to run for election. So last year, the Legislature voted to raise legislators’ pay by 61%, which will cost the state more than $1.5 million this year. They also are entitled to annual cost-of-living raises. Direct service […]

Like others, I am horrified by the outcome of the presidential election and the subsequent actions of the new administration. I’m shocked to see workers fired, programs canceled, immigrants hunted like animals. Meanwhile I keep getting emails from Democrats requesting money for their next campaign to flip the Senate. Much as I would like to […]

Along with many citizens, I am deeply worried, to put it mildly, about the direction of our country under the Trump presidency. I recommend reading the book “How Democracies Die,” by Levitsky and Ziblatt. The book outlines several countries, over various times in history, where a democracy changed into a dictatorship. The premise of the […]

“I received assurances.” That is what Sen. Susan Collins said she received from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. regarding development of vaccines. That is what she said Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh gave her, regarding not overturning Roe v. Wade. Is the senator naive or does she think we don’t remember? In the first place, we […]

On Sunday afternoon, Feb. 2, I attended the Portland Symphony Orchestra Discovery Concert, “Beethoven Lives Upstairs.” This production has always been a fan favorite of my family, and I had been wanting to attend one the PSO’s kids concerts in the Discovery Concert series for quite some time. Everything about the concert was terrific. It […]

The Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine began the new semester with a new protest on campus: a pro-Palestinian “encampment.” Fifty students slept in tents to protest the college’s investments in companies that support Israel. With the temperatures hovering around 10 degrees, these rebellious neophytes earned my respect. But, isn’t that what separates Mainers from […]