The Jan. 9 WGAN morning talk show interviewed the new Portland fire chief, Chad Johnston, with respect to the Los Angeles fires disaster. The focus was on how is Portland prepared. His answer, in part, was that fires could be difficult due to the large number of old wooden buildings throughout the city. I’ll add […]

After about a decade of chaotic binge drinking and untreated mental illness, I had my last drop of alcohol on July 4, 2011, my own personal Independence Day. In the 13 years since, I’ve earned a Master of Public Health, met the love of my life, started a family and opened the Courage Center, a […]

In the 1960s, on my way to work, I would stop at the former Forest City Diner for a coffee and donut for just 68 cents. Recently, I bought a small black coffee and a cranberry muffin at a diner in Portland for $9.33, not including tip. I can remember city buses, driving around Monument […]

With the death of President Carter, we mourn the passing of a praiseworthy life. As this sad occasion unfolded, and heartfelt tributes poured in, it also became a celebration of Carter’s essential goodness and how integrity, morality and selfless service can, and should, inform a portrait of true leadership. Following the Nixon years, Carter pledged, […]

While I am not a Maine resident, I am looking to Sen. Susan Collins to remember the Brett Kavanaugh hearings in hearings for Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees. Collins has shown herself to be interested in bipartisanship. After meeting with Kavanaugh, and questioning him regarding Roe v. Wade, she believed his responses. Unfortunately, Collins later reported […]

Statutorily, climate crimes do not yet exist. But, metaphorically, they obviously exist, and chief among them is the continued new production of fossil fuels — the chief cause of climate change. Big Oil is the criminal. Who, then, are the accessories and what makes them such? An accessory before-the-fact of a crime is one who […]

Having worked in the Governor’s Energy Office under two Maine governors — John Baldacci and Paul LePage — who were diametrically opposed to each other on energy policy, I believe elevation of the office to Cabinet level will provide improved consistency and accountability across state programs (“Yes, energy office should be a Cabinet department,” editorial, […]