By Jill Goldthwait Well hello, Ellsworth. Looks like you’re expecting company. Floods of housing is being built all over the city. Single-family homes, apartments and low-income housing, and the scale of most projects is not overwhelming. There are balconies. Patios. There will be landscaping. Best of all? New housing is being designed for people who …
A blast from the past last week was a sentimental journey back to a time when the world made a certain amount of sense. Maine’s distinguished U.S. senator and secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, Bill Cohen, wrote a May 29 piece in the Washington Post about the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump. Of …
Alright, independent voters. You know where you stand. That would be on the outside, looking in. For the millionth time (rounding down) the Maine Legislature killed a bill that would have permitted unenrolled voters to vote in primary elections. It was a modest proposal. Unenrolled voters could show up at the primary, request one party …
Somebody flipped the switch last weekend and the tourists arrived. Never mind the snow on Cadillac Mountain, the brisk winds battering the newborn leaves or the proliferation of wooly hats. People from away are here. A brave little hummingbird buzzed through the daffodils, hoping for just a drop of nectar to keep those teensy wings …
In my May 9 column, I wrote about bonds, citing Rep. Justin Fecteau as the only Republican who has sponsored a bond this session. Wrong. The bond for equipment for career and technical education centers was sponsored by a different Fecteau, Democratic Rep. Ryan Fecteau. Sponsor Ryan Fecteau represents part of Biddeford and is the …
Finally the temperature is rising and Maine is beginning to blossom. It is an exquisite time of year, with tiny baby leaves cautiously unfurling, shoots of green popping up in the garden and, most beautiful of all, flowering trees showing off their ephemeral glory. The temperature is rising in Augusta, too. Statutory adjournment is June …
Recent news about youth in Maine is alarming. A study in the Pediatrics journal of the American Medical Association says Maine is the state with the highest number of children with a mental health disorder such as depression, anxiety or attention deficit disorder. That translates to about 25 percent of our kids, or about six …
It is early in the year, but we might be ready to decide the winner of the annual “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” contest. Hands down, it’s Walmart and its recent request for a tax abatement to the city of Ellsworth. The request seems to be based on Walmart’s assertion that its retail properties …
Snow, rain, freeze. Snow, rain, freeze. That was the weather pattern for the heart of winter this year. Casts on arms were this year’s fashion statement, and stores sold out of “creepers,” the little picky things that go on over your boots to give you a fighting chance at navigating the sidewalks. It took a …
At this point in the legislative session there are 144 bills that have been referred to the Education and Cultural Affairs Committee. A small number of those bills are in the “cultural” terrain of the committee, but the large majority of them are about education. What could be so wrong? Do we really need 144 …
