I’m 32, and I haven’t worked a “real” (full-time) job since I was 23 and finished my two-year commitment with Teach for America. Since 2013, I’ve piecemealed together part-time jobs that include private tutor, substitute teacher, fitness instructor, story time program leader and freelance writer. For my generation, this trajectory isn’t unusual: 45% of all […]
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.
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
View from Away: Nanoplastics are dangerous — and they are in your ‘pure’ bottled water
Is anyone really surprised to learn that bottled drinking water is loaded with tiny bits of plastic? The bottles are, after all, plastic. So are the caps. It stands to reason that microscopic bits of the stuff get into the water inside during bottling or packaging, or while sitting in storage. A 2018 study found […]
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Posted inEditorials, Opinion
Our View: Poverty, not parents, is the reason students are missing school
Families are getting help from local schools. What they really need are the resources to get by.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Why are companies refusing to fully embrace flexible work?
On a September day in 1994, 32,000 AT&T employees telecommuted from home in an alternative work experiment widely heralded as the wave of the future. Almost 30 years later, in June, AT&T ordered 60,000 managers working remotely to return to the office, forcing 9,000 of them who do not live within commuting distance of AT&T’s […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: The Supreme Court has 6 options for keeping Trump on the ballot. All of them are flawed
I recently surmised that in considering former President Donald Trump’s eligibility to run for office under the 14th Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court will seek a national solution that applies to all 50 states. That dictates a reversal of the Colorado Supreme Court’s disqualification of Trump for engaging in insurrection, on grounds that preclude other […]
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
View from Away: Another test for Speaker Mike Johnson. Will he keep the government open?
Once again, the federal government faces a shutdown of important services — only this time there are two precipices from which the nation will plunge if Congress doesn’t act. Under a complex short-term spending measure adopted in November, funding for some departments will run out on Jan. 19 while for other departments the deadline is […]
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
Our View: It’s time to pick the president by national popular vote
The Electoral College process is the only one we’ve ever known. That’s not a good reason to stay with it.
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
Our View: Build roadways that are safe for everyone
Telling people to pay attention and drive slowly isn’t working.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Resolutions aren’t the key to a happier new year. Here’s where to start
We tend to look to the new year as a new beginning, as an opportunity for a fresh start. Aspiring for something different, something better, we devise resolutions in hopes of making ourselves healthier, more productive, more successful … but really, the end goal is to be happier: to feel satisfied rather than wanting at […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: In a stressful world, let’s work on managing our anger in 2024
There is a lot to be angry about. Our political systems are dysfunctional and rife with hateful rhetoric. Headlines about multiple wars abroad are competing for our attention, while at home, we are fighting ideological wars for our basic rights or to protect our communities. A devastating pandemic is grinding through a fourth year. A […]