Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention, says informing youngsters of vaccine benefits could lead them to prod wary parents to get vaccinated.
Steve Collins
Columnist
Steve Collins became an opinion columnist for the Maine Trust for Local News in April of 2025. A journalist since 1987, Steve has worked for daily newspapers in New York, Connecticut and Maine and served as the State House reporter for the Sun Journal since 2016. The Maine Press Association named him Maine's Journalist of the Year in 2022. Among his other awards are the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2016 Ethics in Journalism Award, the I.F. Stone Whistle-Blower Award in 2015 and the Bob Wallack Community Journalism Award from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. Steve is a founder and board president of Youth Journalism International, a charity that teaches students around the globe about news writing, media literacy and issues of the day. His wife, Jackie Majerus, serves as its executive director. Born in Massachusetts, he grew up in a military family that took him to Norway, Ohio and Virginia, where he earned a degree in history from the University of Virginia. He and Jackie live in Auburn. They have two adult children, two collies and not enough time.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, News, Schools and Education
Bates College selected for initiative to increase enrollment of low-income students and undocumented immigrants
A foundation will match up to $50 million to help those unable to afford a liberal arts education.
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Lewiston cremation business owner offered a chance to regain funeral license — someday
State oversight panel proposed a deal that would keep Ken Kincer out of the business for at least a decade.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Local & State, News
9/11 proved a ‘huge turning point’ for a Lewiston minister
Exposed to the ‘frailty of the world’ by the attack, a New Jersey ‘theater kid’ discovered a bigger world outside her small town and a desire to make a positive difference.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Auburn’s Leroy Walker apologizes for racist comments
City leaders say they’ll form new diversity committee to tackle racial issues in Auburn.
Posted inLocal & State
After councilor’s racist remarks, Auburn officials denounce critics of naming bridge for Black former mayor
City leaders have been largely silent about call by nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group for Leroy Walker to resign following racially-charged comments about Jenkins’ skin color.
Posted inLocal & State, News, Schools and Education
Bates College beefs up defenses to combat COVID-19
The Lewiston campus adds more testing, extends masking requirement as it aims to keep its semester on track.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Local & State
Racist comments from Auburn city councilor tarnish agreement to name footbridge after John Jenkins
Leroy Walker said that alleged looting by “dark-colored people” in the South reflects badly on John Jenkins, former mayor of both Lewiston and Auburn who died last year.
Posted inLocal & State
In wake of Texas law, abortion again becomes a hot topic in Maine
Pro-choice politicians decry Supreme Court’s refusal to block the highly restrictive new law.
Posted inLocal & State, News
Lewiston cremation service owner issues apology to families
An attorney says Affordable Cremation Solutions owner Ken Kincer man was in the grips of substance abuse.