It’s impossible for me to think about food stamps and not think about my Uncle Buddy – my mom’s brother. He was a gun-owning, motorcycle-riding, construction-working, leave-me-the-hell alone Republican. He worked on my grandmother’s farm high up in the Appalachian mountains of southwest Virginia – raising green peppers, tobacco, beef cattle and horses – and during the season he worked in construction, when there was work to be had.

Once again the media and the political establishment have anointed who they think should be the candidates, explained to the voters why we should just except their established infallibility, and just embrace the inevitable by voting the way they indicate. So again, it's the same old, same old. Two candidates, who the “powers that be” have foisted upon us, to which we are expected to accept without question.

Is the proposed citizen initiative question legal according to the Maine Constitution?

John Williams is an accused cop-killer. The police believe, with a great deal of very credible evidence, that Williams is responsible for the shooting death of Cpl. Eugene Cole, after a confrontation in Norridgewock.

The dysfunction – and frankly, absurdity – in politics today has forced the courts to be the arbiter of last resort on issues that rightly should never come before them.

Three days ago sunny, low 60-degree weather melted the last of the thick layer of ice covering Camp Marlene pond all winter. Migratory ducks — mergansers, golden eye, wood ducks, and mallards — were back scouring shallow shoreline water for water vegetation, insects, and fry.

Maine’s progressives have been selling the benefits of the minimum wage increase using faulty analysis. Don’t buy the hype.

The Grange is now just over 150 years old. On Dec. 4, 1867, sitting around a plain wooden table in Washington, D.C., seven men organized the Grange. They were all men of vision -- had faith in God, their fellow man and the future. Their focus was on agriculture and the principle that life would not exist without farming. From these humble beginnings, a fraternal order known as the Patrons of Husbandry was born.

Andy Torbett, I am mightily concerned about the exaggerated statements in your (April 18 column) “The Plight of Small Town Maine.”

After “finding a public policy problem, invite to the table experienced people with all points of view, truly listen to each other, and find a solution. In the process, always remember we’re dealing with people. It’s not enough to simply change public policy. We have to make sure we have help for the people the policy change leaves behind. That’s the philosophy of the symposium,” said Kandyce Powell, RN.

Americans paid their 2017 federal and state income taxes this week. Filing taxes isn’t a pleasant or easy task, but the lack of action by Democrats in the Legislature will make filing a nightmare next year.

In the last gubernatorial race, I published a series of articles reviewing the candidates for governor entitled “Through the Conservative Prism.” It is my intent to publish one overview of the Republican gubernatorial candidates under the same title. The primary race comes down to two contenders, Garrett Mason and Shawn Moody, in my opinion, and I will explain why.

About a month ago, I installed an extension on my web browser that allowed me to curate out posts on Facebook that contained certain keywords. If a word on my list was contained in a post in any way, it would no longer be displayed.

As a 17-year newsroom veteran, not counting my time writing a weekly column for the Bangor Daily News, I feel pretty confident in my ability to spot “fake” news. But when I read a story this week in the BDN about the Republican candidates for governor and their campaign contributions, I was left checking the URL to make sure that it wasn’t satire.

On a cold and windy day earlier this month, I toured the Pleasant River Bridge with Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner David Bernhardt and Milo Town Manager Damien Pickel. The bridge is now 82 years old, rusted, too narrow and well past its original design life. Together, we saw firsthand how time, the elements and collision damage have taken a severe physical toll on this bridge.

As the legislative session enters its last weeks, Democrats are sitting on their hands, hoping voters won’t notice they have avoided making the tough decisions that affect your families, businesses and wallets.

One afternoon in 1973, legendary country musician Johnny Cash was writing to his 18-year-old daughter, Roseanne, at a table in his tour bus. When he finished, Cash handed Roseanne a song list he titled, “100 Essential Country Songs.” “Here’s your education,” he told her.

Rural Maine, Small Town Maine, and Farm Town Maine, are slowly decaying into their own landscape. The greater sadness is that the factors to their demise are beyond the control of Small Town Maine. No, this is not even the tale of little communities who cannot keep up with the changing times or technologies; but instead, is the story, to often told in Maine, of bureaucratic government’s abuse, corruption, and overreach and the cowardice of those, who should, to curtail it.