LONDON — If confirmed as secretary of state, Mike Pompeo will arrive at a department that has been battered by proposed budget cuts, hollowed out by resignations and vacancies, and neutered by President Trump’s impulsive and personal decision-making style. But Pompeo’s most immediate challenge will not be rebuilding the department and restoring morale; it will […]
Op-Eds
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
The disgraceful treatment of Gina Haspel
President Donald Trump’s pick for CIA director is about to experience a good Borking. No one doubts her professionalism, and she’s been endorsed by Obama intelligence officials. Yet Gina Haspel’s long career at the agency, including extensive work undercover in the field, is getting blotted out by her reported involvement in the CIA’s black-site interrogation […]
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Lewiston should create safer crosswalks
Last October the small fishing village of Isafjorour, Iceland, painted a pedestrian crosswalk illusion on a narrow street. To approaching drivers, the crosswalks look like a set of above-ground barrier-bars capable of tearing up the vehicle’s undercarriage, so the motorist automatically slows down. This creative zebra crossing has had such a positive impact on local […]
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We must put an end to childhood lead poisoning
This year marks 40 years since the use of lead paint was banned from consumer use in this country. The federal government banned lead paint in 1978 because the dangers of exposure to lead were too great to ignore. But in 40 years, Maine has made shamefully slow progress in protecting residents’ children from lead […]
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Stand against anti-Semitic, homophobic rhetoric, always
And here we are again, back to the same question. What to do about Louis Farrakhan? The leader of the Nation of Islam has, for years, been a toxic fount of anti-Semitic and homophobic rhetoric. “These false Jews,” he preached in 2006, “promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the […]
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Marc Morano book disputes claims of climate change doomsday
Since the beginning of recorded history there have been end-of-the-world predictions. In recent years we have had radio preachers, politicians and scientists declare with certainty that the world would soon end, either because of our decadent lifestyle, or because of “global warming,” now known as “climate change.” Responses to these Chicken Little declarations have ranged […]
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Republicans need to scrap 'ploys' and return to persuading voters
My first reaction to Lewiston Mayor Shane Bouchard’s recent “informational” letter to new voters was: “Doesn’t this guy have anything better to do?” My second reaction was: “Not if he’s a Republican.” Voter “fraud” has become something of an obsession with the GOP. Despite overwhelming empirical evidence that it rarely occurs, Republicans have initiated all […]
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School quality and teacher pay
You likely don’t think of West Virginia as the Mother of Trends. More likely, you think of Jed Clampett shooting a hole in the ground and seeing crude oil bubble up. That black gold was his family’s ticket to the Golden State to become the Beverly Hillbillies. But after a nine-day strike by the state’s […]
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A constant state of change
The more things change, the more they stay the same wrote, French novelist Alphonse Karr in 1849. Some 120 years later, the innocence of 1950s Ellsworth was long ago and far away as I drove to classes at George Washington University, past the smoldering ruins of neighborhoods along New York Avenue. Martin Luther King and […]
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Trump must be prepared for meeting with Kim
WASHINGTON — With the nomination and likely confirmation of Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, President Trump will soon have a trusted adviser who can prepare him for his upcoming summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Pompeo’s first job is to make sure Trump understands one thing going into those talks: North Korea […]