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Watch your backs, useless people

Poll numbers
Poll numbers

By: JEFF INGLIS | May 16, 2013

Union battles continue

Organized labor
An update on the state employees' union's dispute with the governor, plus union organizers' plans for medical-marijuana workers.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | May 16, 2013

Laptop program change sets schools back 10 years

Learning works
The webinar started with a five-minute effort to ensure the screen-and-audio sharing technology was actually working, punctuated by uncertainty about which representatives of which companies would be making remarks. Not an auspicious start.

By: JEFF INGLIS | May 09, 2013

Legislature wades through hundreds of proposals

From silly to serious
Want to know what your elected officials are mulling over? Here is a subjective selection of bills that piqued our interest.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | May 09, 2013

When silence speaks volumes

Words off the Page
On her deathbed, Terry Tempest Williams's mother left her daughter three shelves of cloth-bound journals. When Williams opened them, hoping to find solace as well as perhaps some insight into her mother's soul, all she found was blank pages.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | May 03, 2013

Dancing? You'll need a license

Papers, Please
Papers, Please

By: SAM PFEIFLE | April 24, 2013

Should companies be able to patent human genes?

Body Politics
Body Politics

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | April 24, 2013

You are the problem, not rich + corporations

Frank Talk
Stop believing that Big Money has a big effect on politicians. That's not the problem with Washington. You are the problem.

By: LANCE TAPLEY | April 24, 2013

North Pond Hermit's secret: meditation?

Mind power
Mind power

By: JEFF INGLIS | April 17, 2013

Moon Signs: April 18-24

Lunar lines
This period of quarter moon to full moon is the best time to take projects and relationships to the next level.

By: SYMBOLINE DAI | April 18, 2013

Death penalty sought for Maine prisoner

Escape-Artist Watch
Escape-Artist Watch

By: LANCE TAPLEY | April 10, 2013

Reworking Pulitzer masterpieces

Classic Remixes
Winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction will serve as fodder for Pulitzer Remix, an online initiative sponsored by the Found Poetry Review journal as part of National Poetry Month.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | April 04, 2013

Story-telling: How to pass (or defeat) a bill

Legislative Logic
Humans haven't advanced much beyond the hunter-gatherer tribe around the campfire. That includes legislators.

By: LANCE TAPLEY | March 27, 2013

Whistleblower returns; Maine a prison-reform model

Prodigal Sons
On Valentine's Day, prisoner Deane Brown, who sounded an alarm that drew international attention to the savagery of solitary confinement and other abuses in the Maine State Prison's "supermax" unit, was returned to the Warren prison after an exile of more than six years.

By: LANCE TAPLEY | March 27, 2013

Chavez dies; will poor be cold?

Fuel Price Watch
Last week, a man whose determination to embarrass the American government extended to helping US citizens when their own government wouldn't died, reportedly suffering a heart attack.

By: JEFF INGLIS | March 13, 2013

Baldacci: watch your left flank

2014 Race
If John Baldacci runs for governor in 2014, he will encounter trouble on his left.

By: LANCE TAPLEY | March 13, 2013

Examining ‘Seneca, Selma, and Stonewall’

Making History
It will be recalled as the most famous line from President Barack Obama's second inaugural address delivered January 21.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | March 06, 2013

Rare: Guard is charged

Prison Assault
Although prisoners and their advocates say rough treatment by guards of inmates — amounting to criminal assault — is not uncommon, Maine State Prison guard Captain David Cutler, 54, of Appleton, is apparently the only officer at the prison since 2005 to be charged with assaulting an inmate — and only the second in at least 20 years.

By: LANCE TAPLEY | March 07, 2013

Brennan takes leading role on school support

Learning for Dollars
Maine's high school graduation rate has improved by five percentage points in four years, the state Department of Education announced earlier this week.

By: DEIRDRE FULTON | February 27, 2013

Ponte’s prison reforms ramp up

Two Years Later
Several weeks after firing Maine State Prison warden Patricia Barnhart and two years after taking over the Department of Corrections, Commissioner Joseph Ponte appears determined to continue — and ramp up — his forceful program of reform.

By: LANCE TAPLEY | February 06, 2013