Maine’s new state budget includes $2.7 billion more in spending than the previous two-year budget. This is a 16 percent hike in spending, a growth rate of more than three times the rate of inflation. Somehow, in this explosion of spending, this budget neglects to pay for the most fundamental of things that state government is supposed to take care of -- our roads and bridges.

My last column was about the immigrant Ulster Scots. Now, I’d like to introduce you to Scottish immigrants who didn’t come voluntarily.  

In general, Maine citizens need a better understanding of how government works, and more involvement in choosing and monitoring their elected officials. Limiting by law the number of terms one person can serve consecutive and/or total terms in office (aka term limits) has the opposite effect on citizens. As such, I oppose mandatory term limits for our elected officials.

One of the greatest gifts Maine could receive this holiday season is full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund to be included in the fiscal year 2020 federal budget.

I will begin this annual tradition of mine by acknowledging a failure of my final prediction of 2019. In last year's column, I told you that this year I would simply do a top 10 list, as the number of required predictions was getting unwieldy.

President Donald Trump has earned his impeachment. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have an obligation to give it to him.

With Thanksgiving 2019 behind us, retailers’ obligatory Christmas promotions have pushed away the last remnants of turkey, pie, gherkins and Pilgrims. From now through December 26 -- the day after Christmas -- we will see and hear Christmas promotions of all kinds -- including music promos.

I am writing a winter update to our community about The Commons as we wrap up an eventful year and have made some important changes in our structure. We now have both a program and marketing director, Jeremy Loguercio, and a development director, Tara Smith. We are also pursuing a position for volunteer director.

Many genealogists in Maine have Scottish and/or Irish ancestors in their family trees.

Lawmakers want your money, and they never stop wanting your money. At any given opportunity, they will dream up new ways of identifying it, taking it from you, and then using it. When they can't get it, they just take it from you anyway by spending money they don't have and covering it with debt.

Off-year elections -- even high profile contests -- aren’t always reliable predictors of things to come. But election results in Kentucky, Louisiana and Virginia confirm a lesson that we learned in Maine in 2017: The No. 1 issue in the mind of voters is health care.

My Catholic nun elementary school teachers were disciplinarians. Without question, they were the toughest formal education teachers. Although I spent only four years in Catholic school, plus time in Catechism school, I have fond memories of the nuns I encountered. More to the point, I am grateful for the nuns' life lessons.

The first quarter or trimester of the school year has come and gone, and the autumn has clearly given way to the winter. Clocks have been turned back, the daylight hours have become shorter, and people across Maine and New England are preparing for what is sure to be an impressive season of snow and cold.

In a Nov. 4 BDN OpEd, Bloomberg columnist Noah Smith asserts that the 1950s are greatly overrated and those of us who harbor ”wistful” recollections of that era are engaging in “rose-tinted sentimentality.” Smith either wasn’t living in the 1950s, or, if he was, certainly wasn’t living in rural or small-town America. Some of his points are historical fact, that pollution was a problem and there was a lack of equal economic opportunity for minorities.

Freddie Gruber was a great drum teacher. If you have a great teacher in your life, no matter the subject taught, then Freddie Gruber won’t be a total stranger.

In the last column I discussed tips for locating the surnames of female ancestors. This can often be a difficult and long task.

For years, following politics in the United States has felt -- at least to me -- like trying to take a refreshing sip of water out of a high pressure fire hose. In other words, overwhelming, painful, and ultimately unsatisfying.

Ben Grant, the former chair of the Maine Democratic Party, is running for state representative for House District 41 in Portland. Grant, an attorney and PTO board member among other things, is trying a novel approach to fundraising for his race.