Editorials

GUEST EDITORIAL: The challenge for Kasich and the rest

To the surprise of a lot of Americans, Donald Trump proved that the low road leads to the front door of the White House. John Kasich is betting the high road gets you there, too.

GUEST EDITORIAL: Don’t roll back U.S. auto emissions standards

Scott Pruitt, director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has a lot on his mind these days. Even with questions swirling about the ethics of his $50-a-night condo in otherwise pricey D.C., and his taxpayer-funded first-class flights, he has managed to carve out a few minutes to roll back emissions standards. The man is a climate change-denying machine.

GUEST EDITORIAL: ‘Rosanne’ shows appeal of Trump

The return of the hit TV sitcom “Roseanne” couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s an opportunity for many Americans to be introduced to the working class.

In the show, Roseanne Conner (Roseanne Barr) is a Trump supporter. She’s got a bad knee but can’t get treatment because her insurance won’t cover it. Her husband, Dan, played again by John Goodman, wears a sleep apnea device and does drywall work for a living, though he should probably be retired.

The Conners represent a typical Midwestern blue-collar family. But it could be many blue-collar families everywhere.

They’ve already made a difference

GUEST EDITORIAL

Approximately 2,500 people in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, joined more than 1 million people across the nation in the “March For Our Lives” rallies held March 24 in support of gun law reform.

We were impressed with the turnout and the courage and eloquence of the many students, including from York High School, who spoke from the heart, urging state and federal legislators to take action to reduce mass shootings in schools and other public places.

GUEST EDITORIAL: DEQ should get its own house in order

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality last week invoked the power given it by the Legislature to hold mining companies and executives accountable when the state and its citizens are left holding the bag.

Hecla Mining Co. in 2001 appointed its current president, Phillips Baker Jr., as a director of the firm, despite the fact that he was an executive at the failed Pegasus Gold, which left several large-scale environmental messes behind in Montana when it declared bankruptcy in 1998.

GUEST EDITORIAL: The Fed just sent Congress a message

The Federal Reserve announced an increase in its benchmark interest rate last Wednesday, from 1.5 percent to 1.75 percent, the highest level since the Great Recession began in 2008. The first such hike of new Fed chairman Jerome H. Powell’s tenure, it was expected and represented continuity with the plans and policies of his predecessor Janet H. Yellen. Under Mr. Powell, it appears, the central bank expects continued strong growth and feels it can keep unwinding the super-low interest rates and other crisis measures adopted a decade ago.

Launching another cabinet secretary? Look to DeVos first

GUEST EDITORIAL

With all the talk in Washington about President Donald Trump looking for people in his cabinet to boot because they don’t, in his opinion, make the cut, we offer one name that rises to the top among a cornucopia of cabinet secretaries worthy of the sack: Betsy DeVos, U.S. secretary of education.

There is a long and growing list of Trump cabinet secretaries who are either so incompetent or so venal and unethical, that it would be hard for us to pick which should be the first to go, as if Trump would seek advice from the media he so vehemently loathes.

ANALYSIS: North Korean visit shows China still has role to play

News Analysis

SEOUL, South Korea — No matter who was on the private train that pulled into Beijing from Pyongyang overnight, one thing is clear: China still plays a major role in efforts to end North Korea’s nuclear program.

ANALYSIS: GOP in control, but Dems’ budget priorities are winning

WASHINGTON — Under President Barack Obama and a GOP-controlled Congress, Capitol Hill Democrats had to scratch and claw for months to get tiny increases for domestic programs — or just hold them level.

The $1.3 trillion government-wide funding bill signed by President Donald Trump on Friday gave them almost everything they wanted.

Big fights in 2016 over $1.1 billion emergency funding to battle the Zika virus or $170 million to deal with Flint, Michigan’s leadpoisoned water look pretty silly in retrospect.

GUEST EDITORIAL: Trump’s death penalty for drug dealers isn’t a real solution to nation’s drug crisis

President Donald Trump made a mockery of the nation's deadly opioid epidemic Monday in New Hampshire when he turned what was supposed to be a policy announcement about new steps to ease addictions into a political rally, complete with chants and gratuitous insults to Democrats.

The opioid crisis, which kills more than one Mainer and 115 Americans a day, needs a serious, consistent and evidence-based response. Trump has again proven he is unable to deliver that.