Category Archives: Home

We Can Do Better!

  by guest blogger Monica Hooper  There’s something afoot that Mainers should know about. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is proposing a complete repeal and replacement of the Chapter 7 Rules and Regulations for Captive Wildlife. These new laws will provide for an in-depth classification of species in 3 categories of what cannot […]

A Sham in Augusta

  Being a public official is not always easy. One of the most difficult parts of the job (and here I can speak from a brief experience some years ago) is that accountability to the public is mandatory. You have to do it whether you like it or not, and often you don’t like it. […]

Memorial Day 2016

  What follows are six views of war, courage, remembrance and the burden of sacrifice throughout our country’s history, almost to the present age.    1.  “We were absolutely, literally starved. I do solemnly declare that I did not put a single morsel of victuals into my mouth for over four days and as many […]

The Power of Presence

Woody Allen once said that 95% of life is showing up. Like all humor, that comment has a basis in fact.   Two cases in point occurred recently, proving that those who show up have a much greater impact than those who don’t. As a result of a great deal of public support – i.e. people […]

Patriots Day

As this is being written, Patriots’ Day 2016 has been recently observed. The holiday has nothing to do with the football team of the same name, but considering how little some people learn about its origin, it might as well, and would not be out of place in our spectator sports culture. For others, it […]

A Lesson Learned

  I always thought that accidents on the road happened to the other guy. That all changed in February 1999. At the time, I was a resident of another state, and I was returning home after running a brief errand. As I approached an intersection with the green light in my favor, I was thinking […]

A Lesson In Perseverance

One of the ongoing issues we face in Maine also applies to New Hampshire and probably other places as well, and that’s the undermining of democracy when it comes to who decides how wildlife will be managed. The most recent, egregious example is occurring right next door in The Granite State. It will probably sound […]

Through The Back Door Part Two

A recent column by George Smith in his Bangor Daily News blog reported on LD 1593 which has been unanimously voted OTP (Ought To Pass) by the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee. The same legislation was also the subject of the most recent column on this blog. http://loprieno.bangordailynews.com/2016/03/05/home/through-the-back-door/ The headline of Smith’s piece was: Legislature […]

Through The Back Door

The other day – March 1st – LD 1593 was the subject of a hearing before the legislative committee which oversees Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. (MDIFW) The bill was entitled “An Act To Establish a Contingency Wildlife Management Plan” and it was sponsored by Representative Robert Duchesne, a member of the same […]

Who is Asking What of Whom and Why

Last week, a column was posted on this blog  documenting the fact that the vast majority of Mainers who don’t hunt -approximately 87% -have been excluded from the steering committee of the Big Game Management Plan being created by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW), even though they also provide part of the […]