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.
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 inMaine, 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.
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
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 inMaine
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 inMaine, 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.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
A Bates College senior from Kabul helps save her family from the Taliban
Two sisters in America found Americans in Afghanistan to evacuate their parents and younger siblings.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Schools and Education
A near-normal Bates College welcomes a supersized new class
The Class of 2025, which arrived this week, hopes for an academic year that isn’t disrupted much by the pandemic.
Posted inHealth, Lewiston-Auburn, Maine
A longtime nurse in Lewiston vows to quit her job rather than get the shot
Defying expert advice, Annette Roy said she won’t get vaccinated as ordered because it is too dangerous to inject “a poison into my arm.”
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Maine
Distressed families sue Lewiston cremation firm accused of mishandling remains
A half dozen Mainers filed suit Friday against Affordable Cremation Solution, a business shut down in June by state regulators who say they found unrefrigerated bodies stacked in its basement.
Posted inElections, Maine, Politics
Oakland ‘average Joe’ state lawmaker vows to beat former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin in primary
Calling himself ‘an average Joe,’ Mike Perkins, a Republican state representative from Oakland said he’ll wind up as his party’s choice to take on Jared Golden next year.