This blog will focus on a broad range of topics, from the role of government to energy, healthcare, education and the economy. I hope it inspires readers to make positive changes and get involved in the affairs of their communities.
Cathy Newell, past president of the Exchange, was there for the Grand Opening.
The Bethel Area District Exchange, a nonprofit organization that supports a food pantry that helps people in crisis, celebrated a Grand Re-opening today in a new location.
The Exchange takes donated clothing and resells it to raise money to provide folks who are in trouble with food. This organization, and its many volunteers, do inspiring work.
A few months ago, then Exchange President Cathy Newell told me that the organization needed to find a new home or it would not be able to continue its mission.
Bethel Park, a housing complex managed by Stanford Management, had a vacant space that was a near perfect fit. At Stanford, we decided it would be a great public-private partnership to put the space to work for the community and are donating the location to the Exchange.
The Protect Maine Votes/Yes on 1 campaign has released its first television ad of the campaign.
The ad does a great job of explaining why the issue of same-day voter registration is so important. But the campaign needs our help to get the ad on the air. I hope you’ll check it out, consider helping if you can and share it with all of your friends.
Voting rights are worth fighting for. Vote Yes on 1 on November 8th.
Former Marine Resources Commissioner Norman Olsen offered a peek inside the inner workings of the LePage administration yesterday when he abruptly resigned his position.
In a lengthy public statement, Olsen laid out a stinging indictment of the governor and his unwillingness to stand up to special interests, support his rhetoric with action and manage state government. Olsen went so far as to predict that the administration would cover up a report that would be unflattering to the department and some members of the fishing industry.
But there was one piece of information, if true, that demonstrates a dangerous vindictiveness on the part of the governor and an economic short-sightedness that could hurt Maine’s chances for economic recovery.
According to Olsen, LePage ordered: “No further collaboration with the City of Portland to develop measures to return our groundfish boats to Maine, despite the work already done to secure the support of visiting Commerce Department officials. Portland was against him, he said, and we will not work with that city. Rather than work with Portland, he said, we’ll build a new port somewhere.”
Another disturbing national trend has come to Maine — efforts to keep people from voting. Gov. LePage and his allies in the Legislature are moving our state in the wrong direction on voting. We should be making it easier for people to participate, not harder.
I hope you’ll check out my post on Huffington Post.
Thirty-four years ago, Maine decided to take a road less traveled.
The state banned billboards, removing more than 4,800 signs from highways.
It was a tough decision, but it has helped to cement Maine’s identity as a place that takes environmental stewardship seriously.
Here’s my take on Huffington Post:
I can still remember my dad explaining to me that Maine didn’t junk up our driving experience with ugly signs. There was too much to look at that was beautiful and the signs were clutter. I notice it now every time I’m on the road somewhere else that Maine is different without the signs.
I was proud of that difference when I was 10, and I’m proud of it now.
I hope you’ll check out this op-ed on the subject that I wrote for the Brunswick Times Record: http://tinyurl.com/6avumpe
Take a minute to look at the recommendations that came out of last weeks women in the economy task force sponsored by the Wall Street Journal. I was one of 150 women who were invited to take part in the working group. My focus was government improvement.
1. Mentors and Sponsors: Develop more industry wide and company-specific programs for both mentorship and sponsorship. Tie sponsorship goals to pay or career advancement. Such programs should include succession planning and “co-mentoring,” which allows advice to flow from junior to senior levels. Involve men and women.
2. Leadership Wisdom Portal: Create a nationwide portal for insights and advice on leadership for women, pooling the resources of multiple media companies. Include formal career advice and discussion of the “unwritten rules” of being a woman in the workplace. Take better advantage of social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
3. Women on Boards: Get more women on the boards of companies by having the SEC require all listed companies to set and disclose their own goals for adding women to their board, and then explain their progress in their SEC report. Goals should include training programs for women interested in board membership.
The high stakes game of chicken that’s going on in Washington is hurting our country.
Short-term continuing resolutions are no way to run government. Every few weeks, we find ourselves waiting to see if we can kick the dented can down the road just a little further.
With half the current fiscal year already over, Republicans and Democrats should stop wasting so much time and effort and pass a CR for the rest of the year, and then get busy on the real work of the next budget. The Bangor Daily has it right. http://tinyurl.com/6ah6szd
The arguments have done little to solve long-running political arguments, but have done a lot to create uncertainty. Everywhere you go, people want to know about their Social Security check, about whether their taxes will be due or processed, about whether our men and women in uniform will get paid and about a long list of other critical government services.
It’s no way to run a government or a country. But there’s no worry for Congress. Members paychecks aren’t on the line.
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