Late last week the Maine Legislature, for a change, did something that I am very happy about. They took action to reform Maine's broken initiative and referendum process.

Health care. Homeless shelters. The military. In school. At work. The Trump administration is further escalating its attack on transgender people, including in situations when people are their most vulnerable.

Six years ago, Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen published, “The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Businesses.” They describe their book as “about technology...and how humans interact with, implement, adapt to and exploit technologies..now and in the future....”

President Donald Trump is the oldest person ever elected to a first term as president. He was 70 years old when he was inaugurated (a year older than Ronald Reagan), is 72 years old today, and will be 74 on Election Day of 2020. Were he to win, he will be 78 years old when he leaves office.

Earlier this week, Gov. Janet Mills announced her intention to create a 10-year strategic economic development plan for the state. It’s a good idea -- if it doesn’t fall victim to politics and the great divide between rural and urban areas.

These days we seem to have never-ending election cycles. Do you know your ancestors’ political leanings? Genealogists may assume their family was always Republican or Democrat. This isn’t true. These parties came into being at the advent of the Civil War. Republicans favored the fight for the Union. Democrats, also known at the time as Copperheads, opposed the war. There were entire areas in Maine where Republican draft officers didn’t dare go.

I listened this week to a “Team Never Quit” podcast interview with American swimmer Dara Torres, a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Mrs. Torres’s interviewers are three retired US Navy SEALS.

In this column, I've been writing an awful lot about what the new administration of Gov. Janet Mills and her allies in the Legislature have been doing.

No one can say for certain whether the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court is willing to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed the right of women to receive an abortion. But Republicans in Alabama and Georgia and liberals on the court itself seem to think it’s a real possibility.

Logger and Maine Senate President Troy Jackson recently introduced LD 1459, a bill that would, for the first time in history, give Maine contract loggers the legal right to collectively bargain for fair compensation. This bill is being introduced as rising demand for shipping supplies might revitalize production.

Just about a year ago, The Commons at Central Hall reopened after a 10-year hiatus from public view. It had been a public hall and served as town offices. Class plays were held here. They even had minstrel shows here. And they played basketball here for 75 years.

To park on the street I turned my car steering wheel right and felt a new chest pain. “Heart," was my first instinct. But, since I have never had heart problems, I considered other possibilities like indigestion.

Friday, May 10 was “Gun Day” at the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. On this day, the committee held public hearings on 11 firearm-related bills. Ten of the bills sought to restrict Second Amendment rights while one bill would expand them.

It is pretty hard to find someone more sympathetic to the plight of teachers than me. My wife has worked for years as a teacher in kindergarten through second grade.

It’s a good bet that Maine is going to join the growing list of states that allow gambling on sports. I don’t like gambling. It’s too hard to make money to give it away to someone else for a few minutes of excitement.

There’s a lawsuit in the courts now regarding whether it’s legal to ask a person’s citizenship status in the upcoming U.S. Census. Historically, the question of whether a resident was an “alien,” naturalized, or when they came to this country has been asked in censuses back to the first one in 1790. But in today’s political climate it’s much trickier than it was in prior years.

North Turner Union Presbyterian Church (NTUPC), a mile-and-a-half east of where I live at Camp Marlene, is set on a raised plot of land beside a two-lane country road. The 125-year-old white clapboard steepled church building looks similar to hundreds of white clapboard churches throughout Maine, especially rural Maine.

Like the rest of America, I spent last weekend at a movie theater with two of my kids, watching the latest Marvel movie, “Avengers: Endgame.”