Articles by Renee Ordway
RENEE ORDWAY
The perils of posting on Facebook
Keep your clothes on and keep pictures of your big ol’ fish to yourself. So might be the advice this week from a former successful high school football coach and an alleged salmon poacher who both chose to share something they perhaps shouldn’t have with all their Facebook friends. Apparently ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Tougher bail might not have averted Lake tragedy
Type your name into an online search engine and chances are you’ll see an offer from a company or 10 claiming to have lots of information about you for anyone willing to fork over a mere $19.99. Your address, your phone numbers, your closest relatives and the towns and organizations ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Girl’s tragic death a lesson in the dangers of teen driving
Valerie Morin would have been 28 years old this year. The boy who was driving the car in which she died 12 years ago is now a man of 29. I don’t know where he is today or what he is doing, but I know where he was and what ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Topless trial provides real entertainment
By Renee Ordway on Dec. 30, 2011, at 12:47 p.m.
For nearly three weeks I’ve been following the news stories on the arson trial of Raymond Bellavance Jr., the fellow charged with taking a can of gasoline and a match to the one and only topless coffee shop in Vassalboro a couple of years back. It’s getting colder and darker ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Other people’s Christmas traditions
One must be cautious when messing with tradition because things have a way of going askew. For nearly her whole life, our 18-year-old daughter has been the diligent and fussy keeper of family traditions, deeply offended if a certain food dish is omitted from the Christmas Eve buffet, or if ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Consider these MaineCare recipients as state looks at changes
Am I the only one anticipating a baby boom? Right or wrong, and of course it’s wrong, if childless adults in their 20s and 30s are faced with losing their MaineCare or having a baby in order to keep that health care — which will they choose? It’s just one ...
RENEE ORDWAY
News can spread a little too fast on Facebook
There are some great advantages to this techno-filled world of instant communication that we live in. Embarking on a road trip in nasty weather? Check out Facebook. “I’m headed out Route 15 to Dover. Anyone know the condition of the road, especially Charleston Hill?” Chances are nearly 100 percent that ...
RENEE ORDWAY
A Black Friday lesson to remember
I woke up for a Black Friday deal once. It was two years ago and my 16-year-old daughter thought it would be fun. God skipped over me when handing out the savvy and enthusiastic shopping genes, but since I gave birth to a girl who got both, I decided to ...
RENEE ORDWAY
A teaching moment in a new economy
When my daughter was a first-grader at Bangor’s Fourteenth Street School, she declared with all the certainty that a 6-year-old could muster that her life’s plan and her career path were set. She was to be a kindergarten teacher at Bangor’s smallest neighborhood school and buy a fine home in ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Maine ballot full of gambling proposals is sign of poor economy
For the moment, at least, the bulldozers, front-end loaders and dump trucks rumbling across work sites in Oxford and Bangor are welcome sights, representing desperately needed work for Maine people. And on paper, at least, the elegant resort and entertainment complex proposed in Biddeford — and the Oxford Highland Resort, ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Take a map to the City Forest
The Rolland F. Perry City Forest and I have what you might call a complicated relationship. It just may be my very favorite place in the city, yet on more than one occasion I have become confused within its boundaries and cursed its limited signage. Some appeared to have scoffed ...
RENEE ORDWAY
The agenda behind Bangor woman’s ‘meet and greet’ with council candidates
By Renee Ordway on Oct. 07, 2011, at 6:30 p.m.
Pauline Civiello of Bangor certainly didn’t violate any laws when she decided to place limits on which City Council candidates could participate in her “meet and greet” session last weekend. She’s a private citizen. She paid to rent the conference room at Husson University where the event was held. Of ...
RENEE ORDWAY
The pangs of seeing a daughter off to college
OK. I’ll just say it. I cried all the way from our driveway in Bangor to the University of Maine at Farmington a few weeks ago when we dropped off our daughter for her freshman year of college. I had not anticipated it. I am not an easy weeper. I ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Be angry at the welfare cheats, but have compassion for those who are hungry
Most of us certainly know what it is to feel hungry. The growl of an empty stomach can be distracting. Many of us may feel it because a busy schedule and poor planning have resulted in the loss of a lunch hour or perhaps breakfast. It is a temporary ache ...
LePage leads in fight against domestic violence
By Renee Ordway on Sept. 09, 2011, at 7:12 p.m.
It was good to hear Gov. Paul LePage step up to the plate this week and speak out against domestic violence, not only as the governor, but as a man, a businessman and as a victim. His position of authority combined with his empathy and very personal experience should go ...
New trial unlikely to change outcome for convicted killer Jeffrey Cookson
Since Jeffrey Cookson is back gracing our morning newspaper, still claiming that he was unjustly convicted of killing a young Dexter woman and the toddler she was baby-sitting, I thought it might be relevant to revisit a few points from his 2001 trial. Cookson, now 47, was convicted of the ...
RENEE ORDWAY
An open letter to Bangor’s police chief
Dear Mr. Gastia, I saw you Thursday night at the kickoff party for the American Folk Festival. Since I had left you two phone messages earlier in the day that you had chosen not to return, I assumed you were not interested in speaking with me. It was a casual ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Dog park effort part of growing national trend
I once had a T-shirt that read, “The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.” I was 15 years old. It was my dark, sarcastic period. Nonetheless, there have been times in the 33 years since I purchased that snarky shirt that I have hearkened back to ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Naturalist Markowsky died on her own terms
Judy Kellogg Markowsky surely loved a dead tree. She was a naturalist, of course, and a librarian for a time, but most important of all, Judy was a teacher. Give her a good dead and rotting tree, a handful of kids or even one clueless adult, and the teaching commenced. ...
RENEE ORDWAY
Foul language at concert offensive but not surprising
By Renee Ordway on Aug. 05, 2011, at 5:39 p.m.
Pssttt. Come closer. I’ve got a secret: I have tender ears. So had I been in the parking lot of Shaw’s Supermarket on Main Street in Bangor last Sunday and had a child with me, I most likely would have been quite offended had I heard over a very loudspeaker ...
Rosa Scarcelli suing stepfather for not firing her mother
Man shot in Hermon home invasion arrested for second time Friday, released Tuesday
Bangor police looking for Florida firefighter
Scarborough boy, 11, rocking open mike nights at Lewiston restaurant
What’s more important — presidential or party preference?
Toilet-papering spree in Bangor neighborhoods a result of high school swimmers’ success
No. 8 Houlton stuns No. 1 Orono, will face Stearns in semifinal
Cianbro has 150 job openings
Gambling board approves Maine’s first casino: Hollywood Slots becomes Hollywood Casino Bangor
Maple syrup producers concerned about mild winter
Maine inspires chefs and foodies nationwide
Photos of Mainers who served in Vietnam War needed for national center
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