Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Obamacare threatens to sink the USS America

    By Rep. Rich Cebra Congresswoman Chellie Pingree has some explaining to do. On March 14, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revealed that the cost of the so-called Obamacare initiative has doubled. Two years ago, when the Affordable Care Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a razor thin margin — with no Republican votes […]

  • Confused?

    Every year when the calendar claims it is spring, we usually have snow on the ground and solid ice covering the lake. Today, the sun is shining and it’s 70 degrees outside, there is almost no snow, and there is some open water in the cove. It’s hardly surprising that we feel a bit confused. […]

  • Running on entropy

    My whole life is falling apart. Okay, that’s probably an exaggeration, but part of my life is falling apart: the automotive part. I’ve had 10 cars since 1982, and I paid a total of $41,500 for all of them, which works out to an average of $4,150 per car. This is astonishing arithmetic, especially in […]

  • A Bad Path to Get to the East-West Highway

    By State Senator Bill Diamond An East-West Highway across northern Maine has been talked about for as long as I can remember, and the issue is before us again in the legislature. I want to be clear up front, today I will not be addressing the issue of whether such a highway is a good […]

  • The crux of the matter

    By Frank Daggett “The cross can stay, but everything else must go,” was the statement made to Casco selectmen. A bolt of lightning blasted a tree on Hacker’s Hill in Casco, instantaneously vaporizing its sap, blowing the top into the sky and sundering the trunk. The top landed in the split at a nearly perfect […]

  • Pugnacious siskins

    At six o’clock this morning, a single goldfinch was huddled on the seed feeder outside our kitchen window, but within a few minutes there were more goldfinches than our two feeders could hold. Many tried to land, falling backward into the air, as those who occupied perches thrust out their beaks to keep them away. […]

  • Ocean Cruise

    At 9:30 in the morning, the ferry terminal is busy with people coming and going. Through the window, we can see bright white and yellow ferries with red trim, tied to the pier. Their names — Island Romance, Maquoit II and Aucocisco — are painted on the transoms. I am here for a birding trip […]

  • Busted: Uprooting Augusta’s Culture of Corruption

    By Representative Rich Cebra When the Republicans captured control of the Maine House and Senate in 2010 for the first time in decades, we got to work quickly. The state confronted major problems that had been ignored or swept under the rug by the Democrats, and the people of Maine were paying the price — […]

  • The East-West Highway

    By State Senator Bill Diamond This week, what seems to be a perennial issue at the State House, came up again — the East-West Highway. This year the bill is LD 1671, “An Act To Provide Funding to the Department of Transportation for a Feasibility Study of an East-West Highway,” and it takes a very […]

  • Urban Green Living

    By Jen Deraspe Life presented me an invitation to winter in California. Yes, it happened and I write you from Culver City. Who knew? Part of the impetus behind my hiatus from Denmark was to see if I could leave my Pleasant Mountain off-the-grid lifestyle and still have her spirit in me, finding a way […]