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.

Despite having reached out to him numerous times over the past 16 months, Rep. Bruce Poliquin has failed to represent me in Washington, D.C. I will be supporting Lucas St.Clair to take his seat.

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.

Al Larson’s April 7 letter to the editor (in the Bangor Daily News) makes it sound like the woods are full of hunters using AR-15s with magazines that hold a large amount of ammunition.

We’d like Dover-Foxcroft pet owners to take a moment and look at the world through their dog’s eyes. Eating, sleeping and playing take up most of their day. The one job they do have, at least in their minds, is protecting their turf and their family.

In February 2017, Marco Toninelli boarded a red-eye special plane at Orio al Serio International Airport in Milan, Italy. Landing at Newark Airport in New Jersey, Marco picked up the car he rented ahead of time, and drove three-and-a-half hours through the night, to his pre-booked hotel room in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

In 2015 Stephen and Rita Shiman of Saco received a phone call that no grandparent would ever want to experience. The caller claimed to be their grandson, who said he had been arrested after being involved in a car accident in Georgia. The caller told the Shimans not to tell anyone and directed them to immediately contact his public defender, who demanded $1,250 for their grandson’s bail.

As we wrap up this legislative session, I am making our elderly a top priority. Unfortunately, they are not a priority for Democrats.

Well, the legal battles over ranked-choice voting have already gotten absurdly messy and confusing, and the system hasn't even been used in an actual election yet.

Two weeks ago, I made an offer to all the candidates running for governor: Send me a big idea explained in 50 words or less, and I’ll share it with the world as written and without comment.

“I’m stuck in the ‘60s,” Eileen said, explaining her choice of music on her iPod and car radio. Lots of Beach Boys, Four Seasons, Motown, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and so on. Now and then — almost as if the iPod is weary of hearing the same tunes — the song rotation plays Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie,” Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music,” or Jimmy Soul’s “If You Wanna Be Happy” — some wonderful ‘60s songs that, to my ears, never grow stale.

I recently spent a morning at SeDoMoCha visiting elementary classrooms. I observed children being nurtured by exceptional teachers and learning in an emotional safe environment. I thought to myself how could anyone harm these innocent children, yet all we have to do is watch the news.

Very soon, if not already, citizens of Dexter, Garland, and Ripley will receive a letter requesting donations to support the continued work of the Dexter Public Health Association. The Dexter Public Health Association nurses have been serving those needing help free of charge, since the 1930s.

Roseanne Barr is back again, this time with a reboot of her iconic, eponymous television show “Roseanne.” It is 2018, so everything that has ever held any kind of cultural significance is being rebooted in a desperate attempt to cash in on the ever growing nostalgia industry.

If I had been advising the students who organized and led the March for Our Lives protests around Maine, I would have told them to keep the program short.

In November of 2017, 59 percent of Maine voters approved Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. We understood that our vote would extend health care coverage to tens of thousands of low-income Mainers.

During my career, I’ve been an educator and a businessman who focused on workforce development for one of Maine’s largest companies. I feel the need to weigh in on the issue of proficiency-based education -- an issue that’s extremely important to me.

Do you remember the 1999 movie "Field of Dreams" starring Kevin Costner? The film was based on W.P. Kinsella's novel, "Shoeless Joe," published in 1982. I bought "Shoeless Joe" off a drug store book rack on a hunch. Never a staunch baseball fan, unfamiliar with Mr. Kinsella's writing, something told me, "This is a good book."