Beyond the front page
Stephen Betts is associate editor of The Herald Gazette.
Additional Column Posts (1 - 20 of 46) Next Page
-
In response to attack ad
By Stephen Betts - Nov 01Political campaigns tend to get nastier the closer you get to Election Day. This has been the case since the founding of our country more than 200 ...
Bureaucracy also good for a few laughs
By Stephen Betts - Jan 28There are times when government bureaucracy can be frustrating and sometimes it can be just plain comedic. The city of Rockland has been trying ...
LePage Incorporated?
By Stephen Betts - Jan 15Paul LePage must be under the impression that when he received 38 percent of the vote on Nov. 2 that he became owner of Maine State Government. S...
Spirit of love at Christmas
By Stephen Betts - Dec 16This will be the most bittersweet of all Christmases. This will be my family's first holiday season without Nancy, who had one of the gentlest ...
Is $359 per week too much?
By Stephen Betts - Dec 03The median household income in Knox County in 2008 was $46,419. That means the total income of people living in half the homes earned less than ...
Honor veterans with alternatives to war
By Stephen Betts - Nov 14Another Veterans Day has passed and with it came the statements from politicians honoring the service of our brave fighting men and women. In a ...
The erosion of rights
By Stephen Betts - Oct 30There has been a dramatic shift over the past decade on the expectation of privacy. Since a group of terrorists used box cutters to bring down ...
Public service and party politics
By Stephen Betts - Oct 17One thing can be said for the Maine Republican Party — it does not learn from its mistakes. In 1992, a little-known Democrat Chellie Pingree ...
Lazy
By Stephen Betts - Oct 02The greatest cause of our health care crisis is on display every morning as I go to work. As I travel along Broadway, there are school buses ...
Shopping and family values
By Stephen Betts - Sep 19Whenever you talk about the good old days, many people will scoff at you and say that it only seemed good because of selective memory where the ...
The never ending secrecy battle
By Stephen Betts - Mar 04The state's Freedom of Access law is 52 years old yet it remains under constant attack from government officials at all levels. Two examples of ...
No more Whoopie
By Stephen Betts - Jan 21Not only do some politicians — mostly Republicans — want to repeal the federal law that extends health care coverage but now some local politicians...
Want a good entry level job?
By Stephen Betts - Jan 06A person could strain his neck trying to keep up with the contradictory statements of the new administration in Augusta. Gov. Paul LePage has ...
Start the revolution, comrades
By Stephen Betts - Dec 11The conspiracy has been exposed. Members of the local Tea Party have uncovered the long-hidden plan of a group, let's just call them comrades, ...
Rockland politics enter an interesting time
By Stephen Betts - Nov 20Politics in Rockland is interesting again. The recount scheduled for Monday evening, Nov. 22 in Rockland could alter the makeup of the City ...
The historic wave
By Stephen Betts - Nov 06The Midcoast was one of the few exceptions to what may be remembered as the Republican tsunami of 2010. Democratic state Reps. Edward Mazurek of ...
The final stretch
By Stephen Betts - Oct 22Many people have already voted (314 in Rockland to be exact, as of noon, Friday, Oct. 22) but for the majority of us, Election Day is a little ...
Five hours, 16 minutes and nine seconds
By Stephen Betts - Oct 09The legs still ache but the exhilaration of completing my first marathon remains. I have been running for 16 years but only in the past five ...
Counting down to Election Day
By Stephen Betts - Sep 25Voting for local elections begins by Oct. 4 as absentee ballots become available. And in a little more than five weeks we will know the outcome of ...
That pesky free speech
By Stephen Betts - Sep 11The Regional School Unit 13 board is in the midst of some of the most sweeping changes to local schools in generations. Less than two years ago, ...
