The long-awaited, $1 billion American Rescue Plan package submitted by Gov. Janet Mills to the Legislature has something for just about everyone. Mills would pump $50 million into fishing, farming and forest products. She’d replenish the depleted unemployment insurance fund by $80 million. Another $80 million would “jumpstart innovation,” though we could use some details. […]

Progressives in all parties should unite Douglas Rooks strikes a lively and timely chord in his column on May 6 (The Maine Idea: “Fusion voting challenges political parties to deliver”). Fusion, he argues, makes it possible for a minor party to team up with a major party at election time. Their combined votes and voting […]

In three decades in the news business, most of them spent covering government and politics, I’ve been to more than my share of press conferences. They’re part of the gig when you’re a reporter. And you just kind of learn to make your peace with them. Some of them are informative. Most are self-serving and […]

With the first COVID-19 vaccine now authorized for adolescents, ages 12 and up, a big question looms: Will students be required to get the vaccine before returning to their classrooms in the fall? As a professor of education policy and law and a former attorney for school districts, I regularly think about this sort of […]

Decades ago my sister Maureen often used to call the Republican Party “The Stupid Party.” Today, the Party of Lincoln – the Party of Reagan – is again proving her right. Instead of concentrating on retaking the House next year and regaining control of the Senate, the GOP is looking backwards and engaging in intra-party […]

Police academies provide little training in the kinds of skills necessary to meet officers’ growing public service role, according to my research. Highly publicized cases of police violence – such as the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri – often raise questions about police training, […]

Children love learning, and it’s undeniable that great ideas and principles shared at a young age can impact the path of a child for a lifetime. A coloring book I had as a child about America’s national parks instilled a desire to visit all of our country’s parks – a goal still in process – […]