As students began arriving in large numbers Tuesday, administrators said they were looking into reports of off-campus gatherings that violated Bates’ pandemic-control rules.
Steve Collins
Columnist
Steve Collins became an opinion columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News in April of 2025. A journalist since 1987, Steve has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine and served as the State House reporter for the Sun Journal since 2016. The Maine Press Association named him Maine's Journalist of the Year in 2022. Among his other awards are the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2016 Ethics in Journalism Award, the I.F. Stone Whistle-Blower Award in 2015 and the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. Steve is a founder and board president of Youth Journalism International, a charity that teaches students around the globe about news writing, media literacy and issues of the day. His wife, Jackie Majerus, serves as its executive director. Born in Massachusetts, he grew up in a military family that took him to Norway, Ohio and Virginia, where he earned a degree in history from the University of Virginia. He and Jackie live in Auburn. They have two adult children, two collies and not enough time.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, Politics
Sara Gideon pushes health care, broadband to boost rural Maine
Regional hospital executives tell Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate their ideas for reforming health care.
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, Schools & Education
Testing finds no COVID-19 at Bates as students begin return to campus
With student testing slated to start Sunday, more than 500 employees have so far been checked without a single positive result.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, Politics
Fake newspaper touts its stories in social media ads aim to bolster Jared Golden, other congressional Democrats
Deceptive news site has spent at least $50K this year advertising its stories to help the Maine congressman win reelection.
Posted inMaine, Politics
Susan Collins’ Postal Service overhaul in 2006 becomes a hot issue on the campaign trail
Democrats who backed her bill at the time are attacking her for it today as Maine’s U.S. Senate race gets ever hotter.
Posted inFranklin, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine
Growing pains on Maine’s many lakes
From mooring disputes to Jet Skis, the state’s great ponds are seeing an uptick in disputes related to ever more use.
Posted inMaine, Nation / World, Politics
Susan Collins, Angus King stick up for US Postal Service
Collins said she disagrees with President Trump’s effort to prevent emergency funding for the nation’s mail service.
Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine, Politics
Susan Collins calls on U.S. Senate to pass pandemic-relief measures
During a campaign swing through Auburn, Maine’s senior U.S. senator said she seeks more COVID-19 relief. Hours later, the Senate adjourned without any votes until Sept. 8.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Schools & Education
RSU 16 backs plans to have students return to school two days a week
The district’s hybrid plan divides students into two groups, each with three days of remote learning and two days in class.
Posted inbPlus, Maine
Someone in Maine gunned down the last wild passenger pigeon
Though a captured bird remained alive in a zoo for another decade, nobody ever saw another wild passenger pigeon after a hunter shot one out of the sky in Bar Harbor in 1904.