Bangor Daily News

State Democrats Reject Gop Spending Cap

AUGUSTA - The potential for reaching a bipartisan solution for property tax relief faded Thursday after Democratic leaders said they would refuse to consider a Republican-crafted cap on state spending. The Legislature's Joint Select Committee on Property Tax Relief has deferred votes on government spending caps during meetings this week and probably will not take up the issue until today. Although House Speaker John Richardson, D-Brunswick, told state representatives assigned to the 15-member...

Grief Turns to Focus On Worker Safety Coffee Shop Victim's Family Hopes to Buy Security Devices

CARIBOU - Nobody knew that Erin Sperrey was dying in the restroom of the Tim Hortons coffee shop last Sunday night. Nobody with the possible exception of her alleged killer, co- worker Christopher Shumway, who has been charged with his supervisor's murder.

'Sports Done Right' Delivers Message Umaine Report Outlines Path to Positive Experiences for Student-Athletes

AUGUSTA - A 45-page report that provides a vision of the ideal interscholastic sports program was unveiled Thursday morning at the Augusta Civic Center.

Maine Teen Dies of Flu Complications; Vaccinations Urged

BANGOR - An otherwise healthy Sagadahoc County teenager died from complications of influenza in the week between Christmas and New Year's. According to the latest flu update from the state Bureau of Health, the teen developed flu symptoms Dec. 19 and was hospitalized Dec. 24. Lab tests confirmed influenza as well as a bacterial pneumonia infection that did not respond to antibiotic treatment. State health officials are urging high-risk Mainers to get a flu vaccine if they can. Although flu ca...

Correcting the Record

Marine Researchers Solve Fishy Problem

I don't normally get choked-up over goldfish dying. But I'll admit when a dozen or so tropical fish went belly up at the University of Maine's Aquaculture Research facility, it nearly brought a tear to my eye. The victims were in fact not gold, but bright red, blue-striped angel fish. They represented months of hard work by Soren Hansen and Chad Callan, entrepreneurs and grad students in the university's School of Marine Sciences.

National Semiconductor Layoffs Include 30 Maine Jobs

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - National Semiconductor Corp., which makes analog chips used in cell phones, computers and televisions, said Thursday it is cutting about 550 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global work force, as it copes with an inventory buildup and lower demand. Thirty people out of a 600-person crew were laid off Thursday at National Semiconductor's South Portland design and manufacturing plant, according to spokesman Jeff Weir.

He's Not Ashcroft

Eight months after the dehumanizing pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Americans know that this scandalous work was not that merely of a few rogue and overwhelmed soldiers, and was not made up of a couple of isolated instances. Traced back through Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay to Washington, D.C., the trail to what remains an affront to human rights and a damaging blow to the United States' reputation begins in the Department of Justice and with the office of the president's le...

Providing Safe Harbors

It would be a stretch to blame last month's sinking of a scallop dragger and the death of five of its crewmen off the coast of Massachusetts on federal regulations. However, it often takes a tragedy to prompt change and that's what the loss of the Northern Edge has done. William Hogarth, administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service, said this week that his agency was preparing to change rules that prompt scallop boats to stay at sea in bad weather. This change makes sense and should...

Other Civilian Deaths

Certainly the account of civilian deaths in Iraq in Dud Hendrick's letter, "Report civilian deaths" (BDN, Jan. 4), is alarming and after reading several articles in the journal relating to Iraq, the reader could practically surmise that the Iraqi people were better off before U.S. intervention. However, let us not forget all the facts of civilian deaths in Iraq. There were mass graves at al-Mahawil; the Anfal campaign included the disappearance of many tens of thousands of civilians, includin...

Better Off with Saddam?

"Report civilian deaths" refers to a study that estimates that 100,000 Iraqis have died since the start of the war. Many experts believe this number to be wildly inaccurate due to problems with the sampling and questionable pre-war mortality data that was used by the researchers. A group called Iraq Body Count has been keeping a running total of civilian deaths that is widely regarded as relatively accurate. They estimate between roughly 15,000 and 18,000 civilian deaths, still tragic but [th...

Find Revenue Solution

The editorial, "Tax Relief Politics" (BDN, Dec. 31), and Sens. Dennis Damon and Joe Perry's op-ed, "Responsible tax relief" (BDN, Jan. 1-2), reveal where the governor and the Legislature are leading the people - nowhere. The Tax Relief Committee is now considering Gov. Baldacci's proposals: LD 1 and LD 2. The governor has consistently opposed the Maine Municipal Association's proposition 1A for the state to fund 55 percent of education costs and reduce property taxes "significantly" since it ...

Bring the Troops Home

As a three-year U.S. Army veteran and a longtime high school and middle school teacher, I find the recent deaths of two of our native Maine sons deeply troubling. It is a re-run of the same agony I felt when former students came home in body bags from Vietnam in another decade. It is time to bring the troops home. The late Sen. George Aiken of Vermont, in talking of Vietnam, said, "Let's just say we won and bring 'em home."