All posts tagged "Commentary"
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Halsey Frank: Shame has been getting a bad name
Shame used to be a relatively simple thing. You did something wrong. You...
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Empowerment, exit and entrepreneurship will continue to transform education
Over the past two years of social and economic disruption, U.S. education has...
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Opinion: NECEC provides once-in-a-generation training opportunities for trades
There are a lot of benefits to the New England Clean Energy Connect...
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Halsey Frank: The CDC and trying to make sense of firearms homicides
On May 14, 18-year-old Payton Gendron traveled more than 200 miles from his...
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Opinion: Let’s save Maine’s lobster industry from death by regulation
If you’ve ever been to the state of Oregon – home of the...
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Biden just single-handedly made the gas crisis worse
Americans are already struggling under the weight of crippling inflation, from skyrocketing gas...
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Halsey Frank: Thoughts on voting rights
It wasn’t long ago that Democrats were claiming that the For the People Act,...
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No increase in flight cancellations after CDC mask mandate lifted, data show
It’s been two week since a federal court threw out the CDC’s transport...
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The FDA uses new authority to close off last remaining legal option for vapers who like flavors
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving fast to close off what...
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Halsey Frank: Maine’s new, not-so-good Samaritan law
Harm reductionists praise Maine’s new Good Samaritan law. I’m not sure it’s deserved. I will...
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Why energy prices are projected to increase 50% in 2022—after doubling last year
Sometimes I have to remind myself how good we Americans have it because—let’s...
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Maine becomes the third state to end single-family-only zoning
Maine is embracing new California-style laws aimed at reducing restrictions on new housing....
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Remote learning correlated with greater K-12 learning loss, study finds
A new study recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)...
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Halsey Frank: Making sense of Judge Mizelle’s mask mandate ruling
On April 18, Florida federal Judge Kathryn Mizelle invalidated the Centers for Disease Control and...
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Why the feds are clinging to their mask mandate
Bureaucrats cling to power. It’s their institutional predisposition. So it was no surprise...
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Drop the useless mask mandates and leave us alone
The last couple of years have been a revelation when it comes to...
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Halsey Frank: Taking on more than Portland can handle
Last week, while driving toward the peninsula on Outer Congress Street around Craigie...
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Final version of local zoning, affordable housing bill leaves much to be desired
Last week, LD 2003, a bill sponsored by Speaker Ryan Fecteau to reform...
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State government-controlled healthcare system would raise costs, jeopardize access to quality care
Mainers deserve access to high-quality health care with an affordable price tag. Following...
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New study provides yet more evidence that COVID lockdowns didn’t work
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, even alarmist government officials like Dr. Anthony...
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Halsey Frank: Governing in Portland is no picnic in the park
The trend of people quitting Portland government (councilors Nicholas Mavodones, Jill Duson, Spencer...
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Opinion: Runaway spending defies Maine values
Tax Day is a fitting day to revisit where our tax-and-spend ways have...
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COVID stimulus checks worsened inflation
Inflation has surged across much of the developed world in the past year...
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The environmental downside of electric vehicles
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), an electric vehicle requires six times...
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What if discretion is our recourse?
(If you read my column “Have We No Recourse?”, this column is intended...
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Fentanyl now the leading cause of death for adults ages 18 to 45
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data now show fentanyl overdose...
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Halsey Frank: Tempest in a teapot, or in this case, a South Portland coffee shop
How can we end the cycle of recrimination from which we are suffering...
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‘Inflation tax’ will cost families this many thousands this year, Bloomberg analysis warns
Another day, another alarming inflation metric. We just got the numbers for the...
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Halsey Frank: Regressive justice
It’s hard to decide who is worse, actor Jussie Smollett, who faked a...
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‘Equity’ and ‘social justice’ at Maine’s public universities
Over the last year, frequent communications from University of Maine System leaders Chancellor...
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Why are Maine lawmakers letting special interests nickel-and-dime us on vehicle inspections?
Mandatory motor vehicle inspections already cost Mainers $14 million and countless hours of...
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The Biden administration is ignoring how its policies will worsen inflation. Again.
Despite inflation running at a 40-year high, the Biden administration is pushing ahead...
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Opinion: Flavored tobacco ban bill bad for Maine’s public health
As a physician – one who has dedicated his career to treating lung...
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Sweden—once mocked for its COVID strategy—now has one of the lowest COVID mortality rates in Europe
Early in the coronavirus pandemic, I asked a simple question. Could Sweden’s laissez-faire...
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Halsey Frank: In support of qualified immunity
In December of 1994, a United States Capitol Police Officer shot and killed Marcelino Corniel...
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How Wilson’s ‘living’ Constitution and ‘apolitical’ civil service class undermines our rights
President Woodrow Wilson wanted a professional bureaucracy that was apolitical. The theory sounded...
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Biden’s dishonest attempt to pin inflation on Putin
Ten months ago, Jeremy Siegel issued a dire warning about the trajectory of...
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WANTED: Stronger leadership on the world stage
Weakness is a contagion. Years in the future, when the historians are done...
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Halsey Frank: Jurors gone wild
Ghislane Maxwell’s attorneys say that three jurors concealed their experience of sexual abuse....
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The CDC changed its COVID risk formula. The results are stunning
On Feb. 25, the CDC made its expected announcement that it was updating...
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Halsey Frank: Zelensky for President
I was working on several items closer to home but events in Ukraine...
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The CDC discovers actual public health, just in time
One day I’m reading an internal memo commissioned by the Democratic Party to...
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Ukraine grants citizens the right to bear arms—hours before Putin’s invasion
Russian soldiers flooded into Ukraine Thursday under orders from President Vladimir Putin, threatening...
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Halsey Frank: Palin trial problematic
One of the basic functions of government is to right wrongs. When all...
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Justin Trudeau said he admired China’s dictatorship. Canadians should have believed him
At a “ladies night” fundraiser in Toronto in 2013, an up-and-coming politician was...
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Congress must pump the brakes on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act
Antitrust is a hot topic in Washington lately. The pervasive reach of big...
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Opinion: Walk 2.2 miles in their shoes
On February 2nd, the 2022 Walk-for-Vets kicked off in Augusta. People are walking 2.2 miles...
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Could Mark Cuban’s plan to disrupt Big Pharma actually work?
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban recently announced his latest, ground-breaking innovation, and it’s one...
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Halsey Frank: NYT strikes blow against love
The New York Times Style Section’s Modern Love column on February 13 was...
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That study of face masks does not show what the CDC claims
A new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supposedly shows...
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Decisions on masking schoolchildren belong to parents
The dominoes are falling. In just the last month, public leaders of numerous (though...
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Halsey Frank: Power corrodes trust, absolutely
Central Maine Power provides electricity about 80% of residential customers in Maine, including my house. Factors that...
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European nations are dismantling the COVID state before our eyes. Will the US follow?
It takes incredible arrogance for lawmakers and bureaucrats to assume they know what's...
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‘Lockdowns had little to no effect on COVID mortality’: New Johns Hopkins study
We’re into year three of the COVID-19 pandemic. From mask mandates to vaccine...
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Halsey Frank: Supreme politicization
On January 27, Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer formally announced his intention to resign...
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Have we no recourse?
Can we do anything lawful and legitimate to “protect, defend, and preserve” America...
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Halsey Frank: A Senate divided needs to listen to each other
Last week, Democrats brought to the Senate floor The Freedom to Vote Act...
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Citing debunked CDC research, Virginia school districts vow to defy Youngkin on mask mandates
On Saturday, newly minted Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, declared an end...
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Halsey Frank: Inconsistency and overreaction – the hobgoblins of our COVID response
On January 12, while driving, I listened to the Maine CDC’s weekly COVID-19 briefing conducted...
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New York, California, and Illinois saw historic population drops in 2021
Last week, the US Census Bureau released its “New Vintage 2021 Population Estimates”...
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America’s huge pile of national debt makes combating inflation more difficult
The optimistic scenario goes like this. America shakes off what remains of the...
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Halsey Frank: WaPo and its generals need to get a grip
In the Washington Post on December 18, three retired generals wrote that they are concerned...
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Athletes who had COVID will be considered ‘fully vaccinated,’ NCAA says in new guidelines
The NCAA on Thursday released its new COVID-19 guidance for winter sports, and...
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Opinion: The legislature should get back to work like the rest of Maine
Yesterday, the first legislative day of the second session of the 130th Legislature,...
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It’s 2022, but many schools are reverting to 2020’s COVID playbook
It’s 2022 but you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s still 2020—especially if you...
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Rand Paul exposes eight insane ways the feds wasted our money in 2021
Every holiday season, Senator Rand Paul honors the fictional Seinfeld holiday “Festivus,” an...
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Halsey Frank: Cherry-picking crime statistics
In its December 1st editorial, “Some serious crimes still go unreported,” the Press...
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‘Freeloading’ Elon Musk to pay largest federal tax bill in history, an estimated $8.3 billion
Elon Musk made a bold claim on Twitter on Tuesday. The Tesla founder...
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Halsey Frank: New Portland Charter Commission worse than the last
The current Portland City Charter Commission is worse than the 2009-10 one. The...
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Biden’s stimulus bill subsidized meat producers. Now, the White House blames ‘corporate greed’ for high meat prices.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has a theory about why Americans are...
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Inflation will cost the average household an astounding amount in 2021, Ivy League analysis finds
The most widely-used metrics of consumer price inflation are hitting their highest levels...
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The author who warned us against blindly trusting ‘the Science’
“Attacks on me are, quite frankly, attacks on science,” said Anthony Fauci to...
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School districts are using their COVID-19 relief money on vape detectors, tennis courts
Earlier this year, schools around the country received more than a hundred billion...
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47,000 more people died of this disease in 2020 due to lockdowns, World Health Organization reports
Governments around the world took drastic measures in 2020 in hopes of slowing...
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New revenue surplus should prompt real tax reform
In late November, the Revenue Forecasting Committee (RFC), a branch of the Maine...
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Shortage of adult workers makes teens employable again
My son recently underwent what was once a common rite of passage: his...
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They said inflation would be ‘transitory.’ The data say something different.
President Joe Biden once bizarrely remarked on the 2020 campaign trail, “Milton Friedman...
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Who’s really to blame for inflation?
Last month, inflation in the US reached 6.2%, the highest year-over-year increase in...
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No gasoline without ‘COVID papers’? It’s already happening in some parts of the world
It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s fake on the internet these...
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Push to ban flavored tobacco products undermines public health
On November 9, the Portland City Council’s Safety Committee voted to approve a...
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One of AOC’s worst Green New Deal ideas is included in Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ plan
The fate of President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar social spending agenda, the “Build Back Better”...
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Voters are done with COVID-19 and pandemic-powered officials
Politicians have been on a high over the last year-plus, wielding extraordinary power...
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Federal court temporarily halts Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for employers
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on November 6 granted...
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Stunning new study undercuts the case for vaccine mandates
With President Biden’s federal vaccine mandate and local government employment mandates looming, the...
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Ten percent of workers affected by Gov. Mills’ mandate have left covered facilities since July
A recent analysis of the data in Maine CDC’s Health Care Worker COVID-19...
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Hampden voters right to reject $4.5 million bond to establish municipal-owned broadband network
This past election day, Mainers faced two contentious statewide ballot questions, but many...
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The Mills administration’s reliance on (political) science
Reports across Maine over the last month have detailed the several healthcare facilities forced...
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Sorry, Washington Post, but parents do have every right to shape their kids’ curriculum
We shouldn’t be too surprised that the ongoing exodus from public schools is...
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If less vaping means more smoking, that won’t be a public health victory
Cigarette sales in the United States rose last year for the first time in two...
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Lockdowns coincided with record-breaking drug overdose fatalities, new CDC data show
The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic will go down in American history...
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Supreme Court should protect nonprofit journalists from discrimination
Should government officials be allowed to choose which journalists report on them? Most...
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Opinion: Retroactively stopping approved public projects is dangerous policy
It is now less than a month before voters will go to the...
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Opinion: Don’t let CMP confuse you – Question 1 is about the corridor
For years, my son has leased land from Christian Camps in Jackman to...
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Cities lead the way in (another) massive fall exodus from US public schools
Many parents pulled their children out of school last year for homeschooling and...
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Stanford epidemiologist says COVID vaccination is primarily a matter of personal health, not public health
As one-size-fits-all COVID vaccine mandates sweep government, academia, and corporate America, new data...
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New school choice project highlights need for more educational options in Maine
A new publication from Maine Policy Institute shows which municipalities in Maine allow...
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What is an ‘advocacy journalist’ and why was the Maine CDC restricting access to its briefings?
That darn First Amendment. This week, The Maine Wire learned that the Maine...
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Want school choice? Here’s where to live in Maine to get it
Today, Maine Policy Institute released a new analysis on the scope of educational...
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Education secretary touts mask study—gets rebuked by senior author of the study
On Monday, US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona touted new academic research to show...