One of the biggest and most impactful actions taken by Gov. Janet Mills and the Legislature this year was the $10 million increase in funding for the Maine State Grant program. This one action may well be that gateway for thousands of Mainers to enroll in, and complete, their post-secondary degree.

A more sustainable planet, thriving economy, and stronger communities are just a few votes away from becoming a reality. We urge Maine’s entire federal delegation to support the Build Back Better Act alongside the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework. We have the power to truly transform our nation with these pivotal bills.

The minute-to-minute news feed, often jammed with messages from above, can spin the head of even the most devoted news junkie. Many of those messages miss the mark. Some badly.

After last week’s House vote that saw all but one Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), and no Republicans vote for the Women’s Health and Protection Act, a bill that would establish a federal right to an abortion, the party that once claimed to stand for “the little guy” — the littlest being the unborn baby — has now hit the trifecta.

Those who ban and burn books seek to ban and burn the courage it takes to grapple with that which might leave you challenged, unsettled or changed. They fight for ignorance. So, it’s easy to see why they consider books dangerous.

If we don’t find the national political leadership to do something about our steady decline and defend ourselves, as in warfare (because war is what it is, though it is being fought with different weapons), we are at risk of oblivion. Will we follow the path of other nations that no longer exist or have become shadows of their former selves?

You can understand the blow to France’s arms industry and pride in having such a huge submarine contract so publicly ripped up. But defense needs should be the No. 1 consideration.

The president, and Vice President Kamala Harris, came into office promising to reverse what they rightly called Trump’s “unrelenting assault on our values and our history as a nation of immigrants.” Attacking and rounding up asylum seekers — and dumping them back into a crisis-wracked country that the U.S. government has otherwise deemed unable to accept any influx of deportees — not only belies that promise. It will ensure the pattern of destructive, narrowly self-serving U.S. policies in Haiti will continue.