When we think of workers on Labor Day, who comes to mind? Chances are, it’s not the millions of older workers still toiling in our nation’s home care and nursing facilities, cleaning our office buildings, hustling around carrying boxes in big corporate warehouses, driving long-haul trucks or sweating in the fields to produce our food. […]
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
Our View: Back to school, back to making education more of a priority
We’re doing a good amount for Maine schools. To solve the most pernicious problems, however, we have to do more.
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Posted inEditorials, Opinion
View from Away: Biden’s EPA is needlessly delaying smog standards until after the election
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider dozens of actions taken by the Trump administration. One of the most important on that list was the last-minute decision in December 2020 to keep in place outdated health standards for smog. But now, instead of moving to strengthen […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Lisa Jarvis: Five key questions about Medicare’s new drug pricing
After months of speculation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (known as CMS) has finally released the list of medicines that will be subject to the agency’s new price-negotiating powers. The list should give the public hope that — assuming legal challenges from drugmakers are defeated — the program could yield significant savings and […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Lisa Jarvis: Brain-to-text technology is about more than Musk
Two new studies published simultaneously in the journal Nature document a leap forward in the race to teach computers to translate brain signals into text. It’s an exciting development in a field that is attracting millions in investment, including to Elon Musk’s brain-implant company, Neuralink Corp. But to turn these discoveries into viable commercial products, […]
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
View from Away: Vladimir Putin is no Bond villain. Supporting him is morally repulsive
The Embraer Legacy 600 jet that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in Russia’s Tver region last week carried Yevgeny Prigozhin, the warlord and oligarch who headed up the Wagner Group of mercenaries and who in June defied Vladimir Putin’s orders to sign a contract placing his troops under Defense Ministry command. British and American […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Lisa Jarvis: Women are drinking more alcohol and it’s killing them
New data show that more U.S. women are dying from alcohol than ever before. Public health authorities need to adopt more effective strategies to help women realize when their drinking is a problem. Considering the many marketing messages pushing a “rosé all day” lifestyle, that campaign will be an uphill battle. But exposing the dangers […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: States should give rural families school choice
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will call a special legislative session this fall in hopes of joining a national trend toward expanding families’ K-12 options via school choice policies. Opponents claim that school choice will “destroy” rural school districts, but the available evidence says otherwise. Over the last 15 years, students in rural Texas have suffered […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: The March on Washington was more than a dream
Sixty years ago, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream turned the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom into a near-religious revival. King’s speech remains so emotionally powerful that we remember little else about that historic march and rally. That’s a shame, because the demonstration was so much more than a dream; it was […]
Posted inEditorials, Opinion
Our View: Rural police coverage needs better coordination
State police are pulling back on patrols in rural counties, putting pressure on local and county officials and leaving communities in the lurch.