Ben Bragdon

Kennebec Journal/Morning Sentinel

Latest

Published
July 18, 2023

Our View: Maine makes headway on housing, but crisis still grows

State efforts to build more affordable housing will take time. We can’t allow Mainers to suffer in the meantime.
Published
July 18, 2023

Our View: Maine makes headway on housing, but crisis still grows

State efforts to build more affordable housing will take time. We can’t allow Mainers to suffer in the meantime.
Published
July 17, 2023

Commentary: There are many ways to live an American life

“Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!” so declared Senator Daniel Webster in ending his famous 1830 reply in the U.S. Senate to South Carolina Sen. Robert Hayne’s angry defense of slavery and of a state’s right to nullify federal law. Leading up to the Civil War in 1861, Southerners loved an America […]
Published
July 16, 2023

Our View: Justices put integrity of Supreme Court at risk

If the Court won’t police itself, Congress must do it for them.
Published
July 15, 2023

Commentary: What can make a difference between life and death during a heat wave

Weather forecasts have gotten quite good over the years, but their temperatures aren’t always spot on — and the result when they underplay extremes can be lethal. Even a 1-degree difference in a forecast’s accuracy can be the difference between life and death, our research shows. As economists, we have studied how people use forecasts […]
Published
July 14, 2023

Commentary: Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling offers a less divisive way to deal with inequities

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent affirmative action ruling should not be treated as a racial companion of last year’s reversal of long-standing reproductive rights. The court’s ruling related to programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina preserves a foundational principle, whereas the Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, destroyed a foundational […]
Published
July 11, 2023

Stephen L. Carter: Social media rebuff shows Biden overstepped on COVID misinformation

Picture a Republican administration “engaging” with social media companies to “recommend” that they delete or slow the spread of posts discussing voter suppression. Why? Because the White House’s experts have “debunked” most of the claims, and the rest, even if not “provably false,” nevertheless are “dubious.” Imagine that some of the “requests” are as specific […]
Published
July 10, 2023

View from Away: US surgeon general takes aim at the toll inflicted by loneliness and isolation

The “nation’s doctor” is on a campaign to combat what he calls an epidemic of loneliness and isolation taking its toll on roughly half the people in the United States. His call to action to “mend the social fabric of our nation” deserves broad support, from government, professionals and institutions — and from each of […]
Published
July 10, 2023

James Stavridis: US military’s recruiting woes are a national-security crisis

America’s armed services are failing to meet their recruiting goals, with the Army in particular suffering the worst shortfalls in five decades. There are many reasons behind this, but one is very surprising: veterans themselves. Recent reporting and anecdotal evidence indicate the likelihood that children of service members will sign up, or be urged to […]
Published
July 10, 2023

Commentary: Ignoring the humanity of migrants won’t fix migration problems

For five days, “Breaking News” alerts hit my phone repeatedly with updates on the search for a missing submersible on its way to the Titanic. The search for the five-passenger vessel began only days after an overloaded migrant vessel capsized carrying some 750 desperate people bound for Greece. The migrants aboard came from Pakistan, Egypt, […]