Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Small World: Securing secrets or selling scores?

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist President Trump has revoked the security clearance of John Brennan, career spy, former advisor to President Obama, and ex-director of the CIA. If anyone knows where all the bodies are buried, it is most assuredly he. But what’s the real story of U.S. government secrets and access to what Washington […]

  • Cebra From Augusta: Maine Clean Elections are really not so clean after all

    By Rich Cebra State Representative (R-Naples) In 1996, the people of Maine voted to create what has become known as the “Maine Clean Election Act (MCEA)” election funding system.  It allows candidates who collect a certain number of five-dollar checks, depending on the office they are seeking, to have their election campaigns funded by taxpayer […]

  • Earth Notes: Mercy for Humanity

    By Sally Chappell 1968 was a volatile year, notable for the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Less notable was the founding of the Club of Rome and the publication of The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich (Anne Ehrlich was the co-author but uncredited). The first Club of Rome meeting led […]

  • Small World: Time for a Tune-up

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Our country, most critics agree — and there are few commentators who are not critics — suffers from weak and uncertain leadership. We are riven, they say, by uncompromising and conflicting ideologies, by a steep chasm separating the rich from the poor, and by a refusal on all competing sides […]

  • On My Corner: A loaded question asked

    By Bob Casimiro I received another “loaded question” while holding my “Secure Our Border” sign at Pondicherry Square last week. The previous week’s question was: “Have you traveled overseas?” (“Loaded question for sure,” July 12, 2018). This time a male driver asked me: “Where are your parents from?” Who am I — the “Answer Man?” […]

  • Earth Notes: Where are we going?

    By Alice Darlington So much has changed in the last 30 years and at such a rapid pace, that I wonder where we are going as humans, Homo sapiens. Is the technology we are continually inventing and incorporating into our lives changing us into a species more machine-like than human? What will we be like […]

  • Earth Notes: Experiencing the ‘Breeding Bird Atlas’

    By Mary Jewett In June, Jean Preis told you about the Maine Breeding Bird Atlas project. For those of you who didn’t read her piece, or forgot the information, here is a brief rundown. The Atlas is a five-year project to update our knowledge about birds that are breeding in Maine. A similar project was […]

  • Small World: Good, bad, fake and rejected news

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist After weeks of ignoring the problem while a woodchuck nibbled away at my freshly emerging vegetables, I armed a Have-A-Heart trap with peanut butter, carrots and parsley and set it out. The result: two squirrels and a skunk captured, along with another skunk pacing and fuming about in sympathy. All […]

  • On My Corner

    By Bob Casimiro One day last week as I was holding my “Secure Our Border” sign at the red light at Pondicherry Square, a lady lowered her window and asked: “Have you traveled overseas?” A loaded question, for sure. I answered, “Yes” as the light turned green and she sped off. I would have told […]

  • Earth Notes: The Perils of Climate Change

    By Peter Bollen “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has,” — Margaret Mead In 1970, after serving in the military, I was a newly enrolled freshman in college. A new course was introduced in the curriculum — Environmental Science. I […]