As California continues to burn, the state’s firefighters have spent day after day in the searing heat and ferocious wind, hiking toward the flames, cutting fire lines and protecting homes. It’s grueling, heroic work that saves lives and prevents more devastation. And sometimes, it’s done by prison inmates. Among the thousands of federal, state and […]
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.
Our View: Fewer inmates will relieve pressure on jails
A legislative committee looking at jail funding should focus on initiatives that lowers the jail population.
Commentary: How we treat old chimpanzees — and what that says about us
The National Institutes of Health announced last week that it will be breaking its promise to move 44 chimpanzees currently being held in a biomedical facility in New Mexico to Chimp Haven, a sanctuary in Louisiana. Francis Collins, the head of NIH, said a review panel had determined that these chimpanzees are either too old […]
View from Away: Facebook hands its microphone to lying politicians, Twitter takes it away
There is a big between not censoring candidates’ remarks and handing them a bullhorn to amplify untruths across the electorate, which is what Facebook is doing.
Commentary: With the impeachment vote official, the heat shifts from Schiff back to Trump
An anonymous whistleblower’s complaint about President Trump’s July 25 phone call with new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy teed up two questions for lawmakers in September: What exactly did Trump do, and how bad was it? It has taken weeks, but now the House may be able to focus its attention, and the public’s, on just […]
View from Away: President Trump is right to mark the death al-Baghdadi as a victory
One mark of how far we have fallen into the politics of division is the blowback the White House has experienced after the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Now let’s first stipulate that no one on this side of civilized society would seriously argue the world was a better place with al-Baghdadi in it. He […]
Commentary: Facebook’s political ad exemption policy is a danger to our democracy
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump ran an ad on Facebook with discredited allegations about former Vice President Joe Biden’s relationship with Ukraine. Despite requests from Biden’s campaign to take down the ad, Facebook refused, stating the ad didn’t violate its policies on political advertising. Facebook’s new policy exempts politicians’ political ads from third-party fact-checkers. […]
Our View: Pedestrians should get our attention every day
Halloween has a lesson or two about making roads more safe for everyone.
Our View: Americans deserve full story on Trump’s actions
The information the public has so far is damning, and a full, unobstructed impeachment inquiry is necessary to find out the rest.
Our View: Don’t let children be forgotten victims of domestic violence
The long-term affects of witnessing abuse are clear and must be addressed.