Bangor Daily News

Irregularities Multiply in Culture Audit Part 2: Agencies Lacking in 'Financial Control'

AUGUSTA - The second part of an audit of Maine's cultural agencies, which will be released in several weeks, has uncovered the inappropriate use of significantly more funds - public and private - than the $4,000 previously reported. In addition, the findings could have legal ramifications, according to state controller Ed Karass. Speaking to the Legislature's Appropriations Committee on Thursday, Karass and Commissioner Rebecca Wyke of the state's Department of Administrative and Financial Se...

1 Murder Charge Dismissed Atwood Still a Suspect in Girlfriend's Death

SKOWHEGAN - The state has dropped one of two murder charges against Shannon Atwood, 37, of Canaan, who has been accused of killing his estranged wife, Shirley Moon-Atwood, 35, and his girlfriend Cheryl Murdoch, 37, in 2006. Count 1, the murder charge involving Moon-Atwood, was dismissed Thursday. Although detectives discovered Murdoch's body in August 2006, Moon-Atwood's body has never been found. She last was seen in March 2006.

Bep Reversal Lets Downeast Lng Revise Plan

AUGUSTA - A proposal for a liquefied natural gas facility in Robbinston is off the table again, but only temporarily, according to the developer. Officials with Downeast LNG got their wish Thursday when the Maine Board of Environmental Protection reversed course and agreed to allow the company to withdraw its application for a large LNG facility on Passamaquoddy Bay.

A Troubling Trend Recent Homicides Highlight Growing Link in Maine Between Drugs and Violence

In January, three men reportedly stabbed another man to death at a gas station after a cocaine deal went bad. In July, an alleged dispute over drug money prompted a man to shoot an acquaintance multiple times in the head and dump the body in a ditch.

Bep Overturns Decision On Couple's Pier

The Board of Environmental Protection voted Thursday to allow a couple to build a pier off their property just north of Winter Harbor. Staff at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection had rejected the request from David and Valerie Hoffman to build a 75- foot pier, ramp and float on property they own in Myrick Cove. In the denial, DEP staff cited the pier's impact on aesthetics as well as wetlands.

Iraq Funding Gambit

Leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives are correct in bringing the Iraq war back into the spotlight. What remains to be seen is whether the congressional debate over funding the war will become a replay of this summer's political theater, which ended with no change in direction or strategy, or whether lawmakers can agree on a necessary change of course. The House proposal was passed Wednesday night by 218 to 203, with four Republicans joining 214 Democrats to vote in favor of it. Fiftee...

After the Vetoes

Now that President Bush has lectured Congress about fiscal discipline, his next lesson could be on hypocrisy. This is, after all, the president who has turned a large budget surplus into an even bigger deficit and who signed nearly two dozen funding bills that exceeded his spending limits when Republicans controlled Congress. More problematic than President Bush finding his veto pen, however, is his administration's failure to address the largest reasons for growing economic unease in America...

Disrespect to Vets

To those who chose to turn their backs on the Vets for Peace in the parade on Monday: Veterans Day is a day of respect for all of our veterans, regardless of their political ideology or personal opinions. The men and women who belong to Vets for Peace put on a uniform and put their lives on the line for this country just like every other veteran in that parade. The fact that they now have the courage to make their convictions known should be commended, not condemned, no matter what your polit...

Down-Size the Military

Professor Binnendjik wants to up-size the State Department, "Military grows as civilians diminish" (BDN, Nov. 8). That's fine. But the bigger problem is down-sizing the military. With more than a million men and women on active duty, 24 carrier battle groups to sail the seas, 700 major bases around the world, thousands of nukes and planes to drop them, and much more, we've built a huge over-kill capacity for any conceivable 21st-century security challenge. The excessive billions - approaching...

No-Trust Government

Now the FBI wants to be back on college campuses, snooping around and making dossiers on "likely terrorist suspects" who might be lurking in the halls of academia. As if the people who did 9/11 weren't known to them beforehand - and look at all the good that did. If you substitute the word "terrorist" for "communist" you have the same fear-mongering and "cracking down" and "security concerns" (and maybe even the same suspects!) of the last 60 years by all the right wing organizations on the p...

What Democracy Is

How heartily I agree with the editorial "Peddling Democracy" (BDN, Nov. 7). It's a true exposition of what democracy really is and always has been - a movement from within and desired by the people concerned going back to the ancient Greeks. Bush-Cheney et al engaging the military to force-feed it as seen in Iraq only leads to disaster.

Stop Mob Rule

I am against all forms of state-sanctioned gambling because of the proven and disproportionate negative effects they have on poor and minority communities. It is simply bad public policy to use gambling proceeds to circumvent normal channels for raising money for public goods like adequate education, health care, economic growth or civic centers. Were only our stomachs strong enough to elect public servants who would deal with these common needs using the powers and offices to which we elect ...