On March 17 the Maine Legislature met to take up legislation crafted to prepare the state for combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.

My two children attend elementary school in East Millinocket, and when we received word that we would be remote learning for the remainder of the school year because of COVID-19, I was worried. I was not thinking about my kids, who have devices and good internet access. I was thinking about the 40 to 50 percent of students in our local high school and elementary school that did not have dependable access to online learning materials. For some of those students who could “access” the internet, they did so on a parent’s cellphone.

Tuesday afternoon I learned the unfortunate news that former Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and former commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development John Richardson had passed away as the result of a heart attack. I had the great fortune to know John, though interestingly enough we first encountered one another well before we met in person.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week caught up with public opinion and common sense when it ruled that it is illegal to fire a person for being gay or transgender. The ruling was ground shaking and a major expansion of civil rights protections for LGBTQ people living in states without non-discrimination protections in state law.

It is only natural for people in the midst of a deeply emotional event to lash out at what they see as the cause of their grief and anger. Understandably, this reaction often overreaches and leads to calls for drastic measures that will not solve the problem in the long term.

We cannot allow science and public health to become just another part of the culture wars. Wearing a mask in public as COVID-19 continues to kill thousands of Americans is about helping to protect our friends, family and neighbors. It’s not virtue signally, and it’s not the same as wearing a Planned Parenthood t-shirt or a MAGA red hat.

More jobs in the factories of Maine. More opportunities for Maine’s commercial fishermen. That’s the good news President Donald Trump brought to Bangor on Friday as he celebrated a dramatic expansion of swab production for COVID-19 testing in Guilford and signed a proclamation reopening the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts area to commercial fishing.

As anti-racism protests grow across the country and coronavirus continues to spread, a presidential visit to Maine on Friday feels misplaced. Worse, it has the potential to spread dangerous violence -- and the deadly virus -- to rural Maine while taking precious financial resources away from local and state agencies that need them to serve their citizens. President Donald Trump is headed to Guilford anyway. Here is our message to our president. You should not be coming here. Not now. 

It can be quite hard to talk about the issues circulating around the death of George Floyd, as well as the protests that death sparked, without everyone tuning you out. Depending on not only what you are saying, but who you are, people can discount what you say before you utter a single word.

Our nation is torn asunder by systemic racism, police brutality and the protests they have ignited. Another black man is dead, under the knee of a police officer. George Floyd’s name is added to a long list black people killed because of the color of their skin.

Sadly, there is a dark, underground river of bad faith that has come to the surface in public discourse, and it has made its way to Maine, where neighbors and friends are getting played, writes guest columnist Joel Clement

If polls are to be believed, Joe Biden is currently enjoying a small but statistically significant lead over President Donald Trump in head-to-head matchups for the White House. Of course, polling isn't terribly predictive and has had some very high profile failures in the last decade, not the least of which was the last presidential election.

It’s weird to have a statewide election in July. Right now, though, there are lots of things that are weird, and at least for registered Maine voters, the July election is as easy as ordering from Amazon -- maybe easier if you’re still trying to find toilet paper or hand sanitizer online.

The current administration was warned of the potential pandemic exactly like we are experiencing now. This pandemic has been predicted for years by the health professionals in this country and around the world including the World Health Organization (WHO). 

As the pandemic has unfolded, we have seen plenty from the executive branch. Gov. Janet Mills has exercised her emergency powers to undertake countless actions. Statewide closures and rural reopenings capture most of the headlines, but she has issued 40 executive orders since March 18.

As you research you will likely come upon situations that, for want of a better word, will trigger what I call the “ick” or “yuck” factor -- that is, things done commonly in the past found unacceptable, questionable or downright creepy today. Here are some examples.

On Tuesday, the Mills administration announced that gyms, fitness centers and (for some reason) nail salons would not be able to open up on June 1, as had been the plan, but would instead need to wait longer before they could reopen their indoor facilities to customers. The reason? Science, of course.

The state’s economy has fallen off the edge of a cliff. The only question is how far the fall will be.