As a parent of three children in the city’s public schools, I want to publicly apologize to the educators and staff of South Portland School District. It is beyond maddening that our district is facing another large budget shortfall requiring cutting more than 70 positions from schools. As a taxpayer, it feels that there has […]

Each time I read about another deportation from the United States, my heart breaks a bit more. Each time, I’m reminded that the repercussions of deportation will remain with families for generations to come. For at least three generations in my own family, it’s been this way. My maternal grandparents, Charles Purinton and Flora Silva […]

I flew into Portland last week and carried my bags to the parking garage, where I couldn’t get the elevator to work. I climbed to the second floor and found that, at age 78 — and with two bags — I didn’t want to climb any more. I was out of breath and looking for […]

In her Feb. 24  letter, Valerie Dornan offers that the National Health Service in the U.K., despite chronic underfunding, often outperforms the U.S. system. A Commonwealth Fund study, comparing the two, showed that the U.K. comes out ahead by most measures. The NHS is an example of socialized medicine. The facilities are owned and operated by the […]

While reading the March 15 letter to the editor “Trump has America on a success path,” I thought I was reading a letter from Donald J. Trump himself. It was so full of gushing praise, plus comparisons to actual successful past presidents like Roosevelt, Eisenhower, even Abe Lincoln! It was so similar to what we’ve […]

Robert Mueller was a lifelong public servant. He was a Marine Corps officer in the Vietnam War, during which he was wounded. He became a federal prosecutor, covering organized crime, terrorism and public corruption. He was a conservative Republican, nominated by President George W. Bush to direct the Federal Bureau of Investigation and took office just a […]

Don’t be fooled by ICE and Border Patrol agents claiming they need to hide their identities. No other law enforcement agency is allowed to conceal identity while exercising power over people’s lives. ICE agents don’t want us to identify them in order to keep us from holding them accountable.  Accountability is not a threat, it’s […]

Most of us swipe or tap a credit card every day without thinking about what happens behind the scenes. But as a small business owner, I rely on the back end of that system every day. When a customer pays with a card, the payment moves through a network that verifies the charge, protects against fraud […]