Homelessness in the United States surged by a record 12% between January 2022 and January 2023, according to a new report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the world’s wealthiest nation, how does this happen, and what can be done to remedy it? The primary reason people are homeless is straightforward: They […]
Op-Eds
Opinion columns from the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Douglas Rooks: What’s next for Maine after climate change ends winter as we know it
It’s difficult to convince societies and nations to make radical changes. The danger is that whatever response we mount now will be too late.
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Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: COVID-19, RSV and flu cases have risen. Should you be concerned?
With the new year, three upper respiratory viruses have begun to spread among Americans. COVID-19, seasonal influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, have all been infecting people and making them sick. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been doing what it does well, which is the tracking of these viruses. So where […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Haley’s voters will haunt Trump until November
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley lost the New Hampshire primary to Donald Trump by double digits Tuesday. It’s hard to foresee Haley competing more aggressively, or with better results, in any state in the near future. She hasn’t yet quit the field, but it appears to have quit her. Still, exit polls, along with […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Tom Waddell: Christians are standing up for true religious freedom
Christian nationalists are bent on destroying our democratic republic.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: The gig economy sucked in millennials like me. Will we ever get out?
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 […]
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Commentary: Expanding the child tax credit makes economic sense
The cost of not lowering child poverty is extreme.
Posted inOp-Eds, Opinion
Maine Compass: We can’t rely on historic context for contemporary gun laws
The Second Amendment isn’t the problem.
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
Douglas Rooks: Union revival no longer a pipe dream
Joe Biden set out to be the most pro-labor president in memory, and succeeded. He became the first president to join a picket line during the epic United Auto Workers strike against the “big three” automakers that the unions won — game, set and match. Donald Trump spoke at a non-union auto parts plant in […]