Why is Gov. Paul LePage treating the Department of Education like a version of SimCity? The state’s governing body on education is not a game for a person to build, craft and control a simulated environment to suit the imagination. It’s a billion-dollar policy and funding engine responsible for licensing teachers and delivering education to […]
Our View
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Joint investigation necessary to restore public trust
There is a curious and unexplained condition that sometimes occurs naturally inside the walls of the State House. Let’s call it Politix Importunus. It is a condition afflicting elected officials who come to believe political shuckin’ and jivin’ for position is more important than the issue over which they battle. Happens every day. Right now, […]
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Move to curb known EBT fraud is long overdue
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services issued a new rule this week limiting the number of times a person can automatically receive replacement Electronic Benefits Transfer cards. It’s the end of endless replacement benefits. Excellent. This is what the current administration calls a common-sense reform to monitoring state-issued welfare cards — cards that […]
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Taking the lead on lead paint
We’d like to shake Mayor Bob Macdonald’s hand. After a story was published in the Sun Journal last weekend containing alarming statistics on the Twin Cities’ lead paint problem and the negative, long-lasting effects on children, the Lewiston mayor on Tuesday said he would convene a new health committee around the issue next week. “One thing […]
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The politics and consternation of consolidation
On Monday, the Auburn City Council is scheduled to consider a resolve to bar city staff from cooperating with the duly-elected Lewiston-Auburn Charter Commission. Wrong. The charter commission’s work is nearly complete, with an early plan already drafted. For nearly two years, commissioners have worked with city staff, businesses, community and social service groups, elected […]
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Action heroes and everyday heroes among us
On Thursday afternoon, around 3 p.m., Frank McCutcheon Jr. transformed from pilot to hero. Moments later, Carlos Portillo made a similar journey from boater to hero. While flying over the Androscoggin River with a visitor from California, McCutcheon noticed a man struggling in what appeared to be a sinking paddleboat near Gulf Island. No one […]
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Editorial: Too few voters deciding too many consequences
In a city of 25,000 registered voters, 740 people turned out Tuesday to vote on Lewiston’s proposed $69 million school budget. That’s 2.8 percent of those eligible to vote. Just pause a moment and think about that figure. While higher than the number of voters in the past four years, statistically it represents 1 in […]
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Make wearing a bike helmet a ‘no-brainer’
On the cover of Thursday’s Sun Journal were two photos from Wednesday’s National Bike to School Day action. In one image, Kya Robitaille and her brother Max were seen riding along with mom, Angela, on their way to Geiger Elementary School. Smiles all around. In the other, 11-year-old student Damon Holm was hunkered down on […]
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Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in the doghouse
It’s ruff when no good deed goes unpunished. That would certainly be the case with the governor’s recent adoption of a dog from the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston. Wanting to replace his beloved Baxter, a Jack Russell terrier who died recently, Paul LePage stopped by the GAHS on Tuesday after his family spotted […]
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When parents go to jail, kids are stuck in prison
The average Maine high school student-to-teacher ratio is 1:12. So, too, is the rate of Maine children who have a parent who served time in jail. One in a dozen. That’s shocking, and terribly sad. Early this week, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released its report on the emotional and financial toll children pay when […]