“Be still and know that I am God.” — Psalms 46:10 It’s an admonition some of us struggle to obey. Indeed, some of God’s self-appointed spokespersons seem to find it especially difficult. Thus, before the first raindrop fell, the first palm tree bowed, or the first transformer blew, they came out to tell us what […]
Op-Eds
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Take action to reform the debt ceiling
By Maya MacGuineas Special to The Washington Post As has happened more than 100 times before, Congress just raised the debt ceiling, the legal amount our government can borrow. In the past, this act has occurred smoothly, and on many occasions, it has been used productively to spur fiscal efforts from budget deals to process […]
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Rules to keep Maine families safe and healthy
Lead poisoning can cause serious health issues and affect physical and mental development in young children. These can include learning disabilities, lower intelligence, language delays and behavior and hearing problems. Between 2009 and 2014, 467 children were identified as suffering from lead poisoning in Maine, with 97 of those children from the Lewiston-Auburn area. There […]
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Turn off the television, Mr. President
Donald Trump is the first president in U.S. history to have been baited into undermining his own negotiating position by negative TV coverage. Less than 12 hours after Attorney General Jeff Sessions explained that the administration is ending DACA — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — because it’s unconstitutional, Trump tweeted that he might revive […]
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On taxes and immigration: look to Hungary
BUDAPEST — Congress has returned to Washington after another unearned vacation and faces at least two immediate challenges, in addition to the familiar ritual of raising the debt ceiling. President Trump has called the indecipherable U.S. tax code “self-destructive.” He has also decided to end the Obama-era program that allows “undocumented” immigrants who came to […]
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Today, government needs to be more than a passive observer
NEW YORK — Seeing the devastating effects of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and of wildfires out West, one cannot help but think about the crucial role that government plays in our lives. But while we accept, even celebrate, the role of government in the wake of such disasters, we are largely blind to the need […]
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Nothing to see here, say climate deniers
Katia and Jose? Seriously? As if it were not bad enough that Houston is still drying out from Hurricane Harvey and South Florida is hunkered down in the face of Hurricane Irma, last week found the newly formed hurricanes Katia and Jose, respectively spinning in the Gulf of Mexico and whirling west across the Atlantic. […]
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Don’t downsize the U.S. government
By Albert Hunt Bloomberg View The Republican vow to significantly reduce the size of government is a pipe dream, Larry Summers says, because of not liberal policy aspirations but structural economic realities. At a lunch on Wednesday, Summers, a former Treasury secretary and a leading Democratic economic-policy thinker, explained the substantive as well as political […]
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Children's safety merits thorough review
The primary formative years for brain development occur from birth through age 3, and what happens during these early years matters well into adulthood. Since brains are built from the bottom up, quality and safe early learning experiences ensure children have a solid foundation upon which to build as they become the leaders of tomorrow. […]
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L-A merger would make better use of limited resources
In 2004, the elected mayors of Lewiston and Auburn created a citizen commission to examine the services provided by the governments of Lewiston and Auburn, with the charge to examine what municipal services could be joined or consolidated. The mayors were acutely aware that the two city governments were duplicating services and wasting a lot […]