POLAND — Regional School Unit 16 officials are pushing to drop mandatory masking beginning next Wednesday. The Board of Directors plans a special meeting Monday to consider adopting new masking guidelines that would make face coverings optional. The move follows a state decision to drop its recommendation in favor of universal masking starting March 9. […]
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 inAndroscoggin County, Schools & Education
RSU 16 likely to drop mask mandate this month
School board will consider soon whether to make face coverings optional starting March 15
advertisement
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Alpo Martinez was killed over a minor traffic incident, police say
A New York City tabloid said authorities blame the death of the former Lewiston man on a road rage grudge.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, Maine Crime
New York police make arrest in murder of former Lewiston resident Alpo Martinez
A New York City man, 27, already in custody, was charged late Sunday with the Halloween slaying of the convicted murderer and drug dealer, who moved to Lewiston and lived quietly under a federal witness protection program for five years.
Posted inAndroscoggin County, Maine
William Ladd of Minot was once hailed as America’s ‘Apostle of Peace’
The former 19th century sea captain’s writing and lectures helped spur the creation of the American Peace Society and, ultimately, the United Nations.
Posted inMaine
A Mainer watches ‘chaos and panic’ from his window in Ukraine’s capital
Explosions, sirens and military vehicles turn once-peaceful Kyiv into ‘a real problem,’ says a Belfast native who has lived there since 2020.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Auburn woman watches in horror as war unfolds in her native Ukraine
Olga Dolgicer says Ukrainians will resist the Russian invasion and urges Western nations to offer aid but not troops.
Posted inMaine, Politics
Congressional candidate tried to save injured snowmobilers in Maine woods
Bangor’s Garret Swazey, who hit the trails to gather signatures for his election paperwork, wound up at a ‘horrible’ scene where one man died and another was badly hurt
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine, Nation / World
Ukraine invasion unsettling and perhaps ‘very bloody,’ Bates College professor says
James G. Richter, an expert on U.S. and Russian foreign policy, questions Putin and praises Biden as war heats up
Posted inBusiness, Lewiston-Auburn
Great Falls Forum: Battling conspiracy theories is all about listening
Bates College professor Stephanie Kelley-Romano said when people feel left out and disempowered, “they are going to look for some sort of explanation.”