I was working on several items closer to home but events in Ukraine overtook me. Last week was one of…
Maine’s Legislative Council voted unanimously on March 3 to change its requirement that legislators and staff wear masks inside the…
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Maine Department of Education (DOE) will drop its statewide recommendation…
One day I’m reading an internal memo commissioned by the Democratic Party to provide advice to dealing with Covid policy.…
Maine’s General Fund revenue forecast will increase by approximately $411.6 million following a March 1 meeting of the Revenue Forecasting…
On February 28, Gov. Janet Mills signed a proclamation expressing solidarity with the people of Ukraine and called on the…
Russian soldiers flooded into Ukraine Thursday under orders from President Vladimir Putin, threatening to obliterate a peace that has existed…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement and Business convened on February 22 to hold a public hearing…
The Maine Legislature convened on February 23 to debate several pieces of legislation, including a bill that would ban the…
One of the basic functions of government is to right wrongs. When all else fails, we resort to the legal…
The Maine Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee held a public hearing February 22 on LD 1959, a bill presented…
Emil Westerlund recently left the University of Maine’s (UMaine) men’s ice hockey team because he did not want to receive…
At a “ladies night” fundraiser in Toronto in 2013, an up-and-coming politician was asked which nation’s administration he admired most…
Antitrust is a hot topic in Washington lately. The pervasive reach of big technology companies into our personal lives and…
At least nine Maine hospitals are not complying with a federal price transparency rule, according to the findings of a…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Housing held a public hearing on February 14 concerning LD 1673, a bill…
On February 15, Gov. Janet Mills released her supplemental budget proposal, which includes $850 million in proposed spending and provides…
On February 2nd, the 2022 Walk-for-Vets kicked off in Augusta. People are walking 2.2 miles in 22 states for a 22 day-long…
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban recently announced his latest, ground-breaking innovation, and it’s one that should catch the attention of Americans.…
The New York Times Style Section’s Modern Love column on February 13 was entitled “What Is Black Love Today” and described as…
A new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supposedly shows that wearing a face mask in public…
During her annual State of the State address, Gov. Janet Mills announced her intention to return $411 million of the…
The following is Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ State of the State Address as prepared for delivery on February 10, 2022:…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Health and Human Services (HHS) convened on February 9 to hold public hearings on two…
The dominoes are falling. In just the last month, public leaders of numerous (though not all) European countries, the nation of Israel,…
Central Maine Power provides electricity about 80% of residential customers in Maine, including my house. Factors that influence electricity consumption include the size of…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Marine Resources (MAR) met on February 8 to discuss two bills intended to help the…
The Portland City Council voted unanimously on February 7 to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in the city.…
On February 7, Gov. Janet Mills unveiled an $8 million proposal intended to strengthen Maine’s child welfare system that will…
In late January, Gov. Janet Mills announced her administration has partnered with The Rockefeller Foundation to launch a pilot program…
It takes incredible arrogance for lawmakers and bureaucrats to assume they know what’s best for us. But that quality—arrogance—is precisely what we’ve seen since the start of the pandemic.
The Maine Legislature will vote on a bill this session intended to protect the rights of student-athletes to profit from…
We’re into year three of the COVID-19 pandemic. From mask mandates to vaccine passports, government restrictions on our liberties remain…
On February 2, Gov. Janet Mills unveiled draft legislation intended to reform oversight of Maine’s private utility companies. Included in…
On January 27, Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer formally announced his intention to resign at the end of the current term…
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is updating the processes it uses to track and respond to…
It wasn’t long ago that “normal” schooling meant public school, understood as some variation on the theme of classes punctuated…
The Legislative Council met on January 27 and considered after-deadline bill requests to be introduced during the Maine Legislature’s ongoing…
Maine’s truancy rate tripled between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years, increasing from just under 5% to just under 15%.…
Members of the Maine Legislature’s House of Representatives failed to override Gov. Janet Mills’ veto on Wednesday of a bill…
Maine Gov. Janet Mills will deliver the State of the State address on February 10. She will not release her…
Can we do anything lawful and legitimate to “protect, defend, and preserve” America as we know it? I don’t know…
Last week, Democrats brought to the Senate floor The Freedom to Vote Act and The John Lewis Voting Rights Act.…
Maine’s unemployment rate decreased slightly to 4.7% in December 2021, according to a release issued Tuesday by the Maine Department…
On Saturday, newly minted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, declared an end to mask mandates in the state’s public…
On Wednesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided new research showing that, during the recent Delta…
A preliminary estimate of drug-related deaths indicates 636 people died in Maine as a result of drug overdoses in 2021,…
The Maine Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Housing voted not to move LD 555, a bill that would have given…
On January 13, the Supreme Court blocked enforcement of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS)…
On January 12, while driving, I listened to the Maine CDC’s weekly COVID-19 briefing conducted by Maine DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew and…
Last week, the US Census Bureau released its “New Vintage 2021 Population Estimates” for the United States and surrounding territories.…
On January 12, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) and the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced…
St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston has implemented a policy allowing employees who test positive for COVID-19 to come to work…
The Maine Legislature’s Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee held a public hearing Wednesday on LD 327, a Republican-sponsored bill intended…
The optimistic scenario goes like this. America shakes off what remains of the pandemic in the coming months without the…
The January 11 special election for House District 27, which includes parts of Scarborough and Gorham, ended in victory for…
In the Washington Post on December 18, three retired generals wrote that they are concerned about the military staging a coup in…
On January 10, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a joint temporary action…
On January 7, Gov. Janet Mills vetoed LD 151, a bill that would have allowed farmworkers to collectively bargain in…
The NCAA on Thursday released its new COVID-19 guidance for winter sports, and the guidance contains some important news. As…
On January 1, Maine’s minimum wage increased to $12.75 per hour. The increase is the result of a law passed…
Yesterday, the first legislative day of the second session of the 130th Legislature, majority Democrats moved to return to remote…
Last year on January 6, I took the day off to go skiing with my son. We got up early…
The second session of the 130th Maine Legislature began on January 5, with both the Senate and House of Representatives…
It’s 2022 but you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s still 2020—especially if you have children enrolled in K-12 district schooling.…
The Portland City Council voted to repeal the city’s declaration of emergency and implement an indoor mask mandate at its…
On December 30, the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Maine Department of Education (DOE) announced…
The Mills administration has announced no plans to provide at-home COVID-19 rapid tests for Maine residents, but at-home tests may…
On December 30 Gov. Janet Mills’ administration announced Maine’s Department of Marine Resources (DMR) has been granted intervenor status in…
The Commission to Increase Housing Opportunities in Maine by Studying Zoning and Land Use Restrictions recently submitted its final report…
Every holiday season, Senator Rand Paul honors the fictional Seinfeld holiday “Festivus,” an annual airing of grievances, with a report…
In its December 1st editorial, “Some serious crimes still go unreported,” the Press Herald writes that recently released crime statistics…
The number of students enrolled in Maine public schools grew in the 2021-2022 school year from the 2020-2021 school year,…
Elon Musk made a bold claim on Twitter on Tuesday. The Tesla founder said he would “pay more taxes than…
The current Portland City Charter Commission is worse than the 2009-10 one. The last one was prompted by widespread dissatisfaction…
Eight Maine hospitals will host federal ambulance teams, which will assist the state’s emergency medical services (EMS) workers with non-emergency…
The Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) and the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) on December 14 released the…
Federal appeals courts recently issued two decisions impacting federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements mandated by President Joe Biden earlier this year.…
According to a schedule released on December 17, the 130th Maine Legislature will hold only two in-person sessions when it…
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has a theory about why Americans are paying higher prices these days at the…
For the month of November, Maine’s unemployment rate remained at 4.8%, a number that has largely been unchanged since February.…
On December 16, a Maine judge denied a preliminary injunction that would have stopped Question 1, the November ballot initiative…
The most widely-used metrics of consumer price inflation are hitting their highest levels in decades, with the Consumer Price Index…
When the 130th Maine Legislature reconvenes for its second session in January 2022, it will debate the state’s next supplemental…
In March 2021, Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill into law requiring the Legislative Council to study the best method…
Less than one week after announcing she was activating up to 75 members of the National Guard to serve in…
“Attacks on me are, quite frankly, attacks on science,” said Anthony Fauci to widespread ridicule or approval, depending upon which…
Earlier this year, schools around the country received more than a hundred billion dollars from the federal government—American taxpayers, in…
Gov. Janet Mills appeared at a December 8 press conference held by the Maine Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Carson v. Makin, a case involving religious freedom and what…
At the Appropriation and Financial Affairs (AFA) Committee meeting on December 7, Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) Commissioner…
Governments around the world took drastic measures in 2020 in hopes of slowing the spread of COVID-19, in many cases…
In late November, the Revenue Forecasting Committee (RFC), a branch of the Maine Legislature’s Office of Fiscal and Program Review,…
On December 1, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), in partnership with the Maine Department of Education,…
My son recently underwent what was once a common rite of passage: his first job. He now balances the demands…
President Joe Biden once bizarrely remarked on the 2020 campaign trail, “Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore.” It shows.…
The Commission to Create a Plan to Incorporate the Probate Court into the Judicial Branch held its final meeting on…
Last month, inflation in the US reached 6.2%, the highest year-over-year increase in more than three decades. Measured via the Bureau…
Maine’s rate of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes is currently the highest in the nation according to data provided by…
Abraham Lincoln once famously said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government…