Just before Christmas the U.S. Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed a bill to make sweeping changes to the federal tax code. The changes included reducing tax rates, reducing the number of tax brackets, reducing taxes on small businesses, and a major reduction in the corporate tax rate. The measure was passed mainly by […]

For the past several months, the political rhetoric has swirled in all directions with the aid of the “mainstream media.” Recently, the two primary issues have been the passage of the Trump tax reform plan and the shutdown of the federal government. Let’s examine the tax reform issue first. Across the country since the passage […]

Two longs and a short was our party line phone ring when I was a child. In 1967, the oak-cased phone box was replaced, leaving a raw plaster rectangle on the wall. The party line system created some limitations on privacy of conversations, and made connecting long distance calls quite a chore — it was […]

For better or worse, 2018 is another election season. Maine towns will soon be holding party caucuses and, in June, voters will select their party’s candidates for governor, the Legislature, and the U. S. House and Senate. Typically, these mid-term elections attract little attention and even less participation. However, in November 2017 one in three […]

We are fortunate that the economies statewide and nationally are growing at a very strong rate. However, both the state of Maine and the federal government are faced with the same problem as we begin the New Year, and that is how we control spending. The state must come to grips on how to pay […]

While the Brian Ross’ of the news media are breathlessly issuing “bombshell” announcements devoid of truth regarding the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation momentary findings, there is a steady undercurrent attempting to compare the Watergate era to this Trump obsessed investigation. The mindset seems to be Watergate brought down Nixon, we can do Trump in […]