As a school psychologist who spent 30-plus years working in clinics and public schools with our most behaviorally challenged students, and who spent years training others in de-escalation and nonviolent crisis intervention and restraint, I sincerely hope a bill is never passed that prohibits restraint and seclusion in schools (“Bill would end use of student […]

An article and several opinion letters over the last couple of weeks looked at softening drug and prostitution laws. As far as “harm reduction” (teaching people to use enough to not injure themselves or others) goes, that is a “crock.” I witnessed where this was applied, and strict behavioral requirements ignored — it resulted in […]

I encourage my friends, neighbors, and constituents in Lewiston’s Ward 3 to get out and vote in support of the school budget on May 25 at Longley School. My School Committee colleagues and I worked diligently for nearly two months to create a budget that supports our students and educators. Our budget provides for a […]

It seems as though the Republicans have made unto themselves another golden calf. The last time I saw a similar calf was at the end of the movie, “The Ten Commandments.” When the people presented it, they all danced around what they had constructed. It was at that moment, the earth opened up and they […]

I want to give a big shout-out to the city of Auburn for its cleanup week. We live on a dead end street in East Auburn with 11 houses/camps/trailers on our street, so we have one common place where we put our trash for pick-up on Mondays. With no cleanup last year, we had a […]

The Maine Legislature will soon be considering several bills regarding gun safety. The passage of such laws has been infrequent at best, as many of our representatives from both political parties and occupants of the Blaine House have been reluctant over the years to embrace the cause. Witness the watering down of a fairly strong […]

The lack of adult dental coverage among much of Maine’s workforce contributes to systemic racism. These immigrants and lower income families are worthy of holistic, inclusive health care. As a social worker, I have had clients affected by the lack of dental coverage. One client lost her teeth to devastating abuse in a refugee camp. […]

With the introduction of LD 1639, “An Act To Protect the Health and Welfare of Maine Communities and Reduce Harmful Solid Waste,” the future of construction and demolition debris recycling in Maine has been brought to the forefront, and that future is grim. To focus just on “out-of-state” CDD waste, as LD 1639 does, means […]

Cal Thomas’ column attacking the IRS (“The Infernal Revenue Service,” May 12) reminded me of an excellent May 4 Washington Post editorial by former IRS commissioners who represented both parties and all administrations from Reagan to Obama. There is a real opportunity right now for bi-partisan actions to improve the IRS. Legislation proposed by President […]

The past year living with the COVID-19 pandemic has shown how important access to affordable health care is for all Maine people. Imagine if COVID testing or vaccines were limited to only some of our Maine residents, and others were excluded from these tests and vaccines based on their immigration status. Excluding people from MaineCare […]