The Maine Debate
THE MAINE DEBATE
Walmart and Welfare 101
on Dec. 19, 2011, at 5:04 p.m.
It was, Christine Rousselle believed, a front-row seat to observe Maine’s welfare system in action. In an opinion piece in the College Conservative blog, the Providence College student recounted witnessing all manner of abuse of the social safety net while working the last two summers as a cashier at the ...
THE MAINE DEBATE
Is a ‘New Deal’ for college loan debt needed?
on Dec. 12, 2011, at 6:02 p.m.
Some of the first demands from the Occupy Wall Street protesters were for forgiving student loan debt. For many observers, it seemed to come from left field. Decrying the greed and impunity with which Wall Street banks helped create the recession was expected; but college loan debt? The focus on ...
THE MAINE DEBATE
‘Occupy’ movement’s moment
on Nov. 28, 2011, at 5:47 p.m.
The impending winter and diminishing patience of municipal officials from New York and Oakland to Portland and Bangor are conspiring to evict the Occupy Wall Street protesters from public parks as November turns to December. Whether the protesters are able to successfully assert their First Amendment rights to assemble or ...
THE MAINE DEBATE
Supercommittee succeeded in finding targets
on Nov. 21, 2011, at 6:50 p.m.
The congressional supercommittee’s superfailure at crafting a deficit reduction plan is inexcusable. But despite the committee’s inability to come up with a bipartisan solution, its work was not a complete waste of time and effort. The collapse of compromise came as each party clung to their strongholds, if the rhetoric ...
EDITORIALS
Weighing gender in school reform is tricky
on Nov. 14, 2011, at 5:57 p.m.
Parents with both male and female offspring don’t get their brains in a knot over the nature versus nurture question. It’s not parents that make boys want to start a pillow fight in the cozy reading nook the girls have set up in the classroom loft. It’s not society that ...
EDITORIALS
Vote, predict and project
on Nov. 07, 2011, at 5:47 p.m.
Statistics and history are lined up against you. Maine’s off-year elections — no statewide or national candidates are on the ballot — generally don’t drive people to the polls. Turnout, if past off-year elections are any indication, could be as low as 25 percent of the electorate. Prove the pundits ...
EDITORIALS
Making condoms more ubiquitous than Cokes
on Oct. 31, 2011, at 4:49 p.m.
The world’s population reached 7 billion Monday. That figure has great implications for those of us alive today and those who will be living at the end of this century. Though the consensus among international policy analysts is that population growth threatens the world on many fronts, not all agree ...
EDITORIALS
Iraq’s Conclusion
on Oct. 25, 2011, at 4:14 p.m.
As 2011 winds down, so does the United States’ eight-year military involvement in Iraq. President Obama has pledged to bring all U.S. troops home by Christmas, which prompts reflection, including why most Americans and Congress supported such a dubious foreign policy endeavor. Of course, that majority support turned to majority ...
Bonding Building in Maine
on Oct. 17, 2011, at 4:34 p.m.
The closing of two Lowe’s stores in Maine is yet another sign of the poor housing construction and renovation markets, both nationally and here in Maine. The implications of fewer houses being built or renovated are serious for our economy, impacting the many trades jobs including general contractors, carpenters, foundation ...
THE MAINE DEBATE
Whose God should be worshiped in the White House?
on Oct. 10, 2011, at 6:16 p.m.
No Mormon has ever won the White House. Nor has a Muslim, Buddhist, Jehovah’s Witness or Jew. John Kennedy was the first Catholic to win the White House when he was elected in 1960, but no one of that faith has been president since then. All of which suggests there ...
THE MAINE DEBATE
Obama: Is he revived or should he be reviled?
on Sept. 26, 2011, at 1:50 p.m.
Nearly a year before voters will decide whether to return him to the White House, few Americans are giving President Barack Obama their resounding affirmation and approval. His administration had the potential to be transformative in the way that Franklin Roosevelt’s and Ronald Reagan’s presidencies changed how people thought about ...
THE MAINE DEBATE
The tax man has a new target: millionaires
on Sept. 19, 2011, at 6:16 p.m.
The Obama administration believes it has finally found the income threshold at which it is politically safe to raise taxes. If you earn $1 million or more each year, you’re in the tax man’s cross hairs. Of course, if you earn $1 million or more, you’re also a member of ...
THE MAINE DEBATE
More education paths
on Sept. 12, 2011, at 5:07 p.m.
Gov. Paul LePage asserted last week that thousands of jobs in Maine are going unfilled because potential workers lack skills. Some of that is hyperbole and an over-simplification of the complex dynamics of the labor market. But some of that assessment is accurate, and it points to a problem inherent ...
THE MAINE DEBATE
Can Maine’s college system be streamlined?
on Aug. 29, 2011, at 4:47 p.m.
This week, some 32,000 students arrive at state college and university campuses to begin or further their education. Another 18,000 students begin classes at the state’s community colleges. These 50,000 young men and women — and increasingly, older men and women — are investing in their future, yet all Mainers ...
EDITORIALS
10 years later: time to retire the Patriot Act?
on Aug. 22, 2011, at 6:50 p.m.
The approaching tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., will launch a host of recollections and reassessments. The violence exacted on unsuspecting Americans that day — actually, over the course of just a few hours — has led to profound changes in ...
EDITORIALS
The messenger’s role is changing; what are the rules?
on Aug. 01, 2011, at 7:04 p.m.
Imagine someone zapped from the past — let’s say from 1971 — into today’s world. Explaining new technology would take hours: personal computers, laptops, tablets, cell phones, smart phones, cable and satellite TV, DVDs, DVRs and GPS. And then there’s Internet: websites, email, Facebook, Twitter. Because of those changes, people ...
EDITORIALS
Is Norway shooter’s war on Islam isolated?
on July 25, 2011, at 6:35 p.m.
Commentators often look at the violent act of a deranged person and see some greater societal ill where there may be, in fact, only insanity. From the Kennedy assassination to the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, we see bigger forces at work and try to distill them into something we ...
EDITORIALS
How much security do traveling Americans need?
on July 18, 2011, at 6:30 p.m.
It’s summer, the peak of the travel year. Americans are boarding planes (and trains and automobiles), bound for vacations in the U.S. and abroad. The now-familiar airport routine is rarely questioned: put your keys, phone, watch and belt in the plastic bucket, slip off your shoes and, in some places, ...
EDITORIALS
Land for Maine’s Future Fund empties; time to replenish it?
on July 11, 2011, at 8:22 p.m.
Mainers have overwhelmingly supported bond issues over the last 25 years to purchase land for public access. Yet despite this broad-based support, the notion of government buying land to stop it from being developed makes free-market advocates see red (pun intended). This week, join us at The Maine Debate (below) ...
EDITORIALS
Is It Time to Tax?
on July 04, 2011, at 7:13 p.m.
A staggeringly high federal budget deficit. An anemic economic recovery from the worst recession in 75 years. Two — or is it three? — wars. Government spending as the only antidote to an economy teetering on the edge may have made sense two years ago, but now, the red ink ...
Glenburn art teacher killed in Friday morning collision in Bangor
Harvard student asked to leave bar for ‘bad behavior,’ not drunkenness
LePage blasts teachers union for endorsing same-sex marriage question
Reporting crime
A people’s revolt in Bar Harbor
Old Town football coach steps down
Perakslis helps UMaine beat Albany; Binghamton next in America East tournament
Orono baseball shuts out archrival Old Town for ninth straight victory
Stony Brook knocks out UMaine to win America East tournament
Aroostook businessman expands company out of home with hit mobile app 7 Little Words
Former CEO of MaineToday Media Richard Connor sued over $250,000 in loans
Small idea launches major project in Hampden
Diversity predicts export success, MIT professor tells Maine audience
New, old methods combine to deter scrap metal thefts in Aroostook
Gary Allan talks with the BDN leading up to Bangor concert
Out of the ashes, Central Street’s garden grows
Mid Coast Actor’s Studio provides new forum for classic plays
Signs lead artist to opportunity
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