Monthly Archives: October 2017

Read past this headline, or you may not understand what’s really going on

“Report: Majority Of Portland Residents Can’t Afford Average Rent, Median Home Prices” “There’s a growing gap between Republicans and Democrats on helping needy” Read those two headlines. Now, what is your first impression? Probably that Portland is on the verge of mass homelessness and that one political party doesn’t want to help needy individuals. Back […]

Government consolidation starts with two letters — L-A

Think two letters can create a major political debate? How about “L-A”? Beyond the casinos, MaineCare expansion, more than $100 million in new debt, and a technocratic constitutional amendment all appearing on the statewide November ballot, Maine’s municipalities have put their own questions to voters. In Portland, rent control and super-NIMBYism are up for debate […]

Antiquated regulations can nudge workers in wrong direction

You win some, you lose some. This week, the men of the United States national soccer team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. They had one job: Don’t lose their final qualifying match. But they did, to Trinidad and Tobago, a country with a population approximately equal to the state of Maine. So […]

I’ve got all the answers. Now what was the question?

42. That’s a Deep Thought. Well, more specifically, it is the result given by a supercomputer called “Deep Thought” as the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything” in the famous book, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” by Douglas Adams. That strange and esoteric response led Deep Thought to explain […]