This month, a brief, ambitious and many would say calamitous experiment came to an end: Oregon rolled back Measure 110, its policy decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. Rather than handing out small fines with a nudge towards treatment, the police are once again giving misdemeanors to people who are found with […]
Ben Bragdon
Staff Writer
Ben Bragdon is managing editor of the Sun Journal. Prior to that, he was deputy managing editor for news at the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel. Ben was previously editorial page editor for those newspapers and Central Maine Sunday for more than 10 years. Before that, he was managing editor for weekly newspapers at Current Publishing in Westbrook. He began his career as a reporter at the Piscataquis Observer in Dover-Foxcroft and editor at the Moosehead Messenger in Greenville. He has a bachelor’s degree in history from Boston University.
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Posted inArts & Entertainment, Maine
Maine preservation group lists Fayette’s Starling Hall among most endangered places
Starling Hall is the oldest building in Maine to have been built as a Grange Hall.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Social media age limits are too little too late
Australia’s government wants to ban children up to age 16 from social media, and is spending millions of dollars to figure out how. I’m willing to wager it won’t take long for tech-savvy teens who grew up on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to figure out how to log back on. The promised regulation, currently sparse […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: The first lyme disease vaccine failed. It’s time to try again
Nearly half a million Americans received an unpleasant surprise this summer, according to insurance billing data: a new diagnosis of Lyme disease. Those numbers could shrink if scientists succeed in developing a vaccine for the tick-borne illness. Low consumer demand scuppered a previous vaccine in the 1990s, but the situation is very different now. Cases […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: ‘Why do I have to hide, Mommy?’ My kindergartener’s first lockdown drill
I send my 6-year-old son to kindergarten wearing an AirTag. I take pictures of him every day in the school drop-off line to remember his outfit. I avoid buying light-up sneakers. I subconsciously stay away from bright colors. I’ve memorized the shape of his birthmark and every single scar on his little body. I do […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: National Voter Registration Day is more important than ever
Each election, millions of Americans miss out on the opportunity to cast their votes because they are not registered. Some may have moved; others may not realize they need to update their voter registration, while others missed the deadline. In polling, thousands of non-voters consistently cite registration issues as their reason for not participating in […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Why aren’t we talking about America’s retirement crisis?
Nearly half of older Americans have no retirement savings and must rely solely on Social Security in old age.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Adults can also embrace a ‘back to school’ attitude
Going back to my days as a schoolboy, the close of summer has always felt to me like a time of beginning. We tend not to think of the incoming autumn this way. Already, we’re nostalgic for the vacation we just took. If we’re headed for school, there’s a certain bemoaning that occurs. There will […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Disaster preparedness must be front and center in the presidential campaign
Thirty-two years ago, a tropical storm wandered over an area of superheated water and exploded into a monster Category 5 hurricane with 174 mph winds. Compact and powerful, Hurricane Andrew slammed into south Florida, obliterating houses and leaving 65 people dead. In the days that followed, our response to the disaster was a textbook case […]