It’s easy to understand why people feel uncomfortable changing Maine’s drug sentencing laws. Our national drug policy has made sure that we fear illegal drugs and blame them for all sorts of social problems while we ignore the rest of the drug use equation – the environment and the mental health of the people who […]

Maine’s Legislature should pass L.D. 1550, banning the sale of flavored tobacco products. If we were starting with a clean slate, maybe we would give the corporations the benefit of the doubt. We aren’t. There is no reason to doubt that companies are using flavors to target children and other at-risk groups, because they have […]

I am an American Jew who believes Israel has a right to exist, and my heart aches for all the losses on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I do not think any nation has a right to divide its population into the two castes: privileged citizens who belong and disenfranchised others. The willful, rampant […]

During the recent legislative hearing for L.D. 1587, Rep. Scott Landry’s bill to remove the municipal ordinance exemption for the development of nonessential transmission lines, Central Maine Power singled out the town of Caratunk not once, but twice in testimony against the bill. After stating that it’s acceptable to benefit some at the expense of […]

Last year, embarrassed and broken hearted, I abandoned Donald Trump, his astonishing tribe of supplicants and my 50-year-old allegiance with the Republican Part that extends back to my parents and grandparents; I became a Democrat. Perhaps I was hasty. Not because I’ve seen the light and the value and profitability of supplication, but because the […]

I have been reading about the fishing industry’s opposition to offshore wind. From what I read, there’s no alternative plan to a great big, “no.” Nothing is being proposed to offer a model of local control, to counter “foreign energy companies” or to otherwise protect the ecosystem that is already being harmed by rapidly increasing […]

COVID has changed our lives no matter our age, who we are or where we live. Because of its impact we have, again, had to adapt, as humanity always does. It’s been challenging to say the least, with much to worry about, but there have been positives despite the sorrow, isolation, boredom, ongoing questions and […]