Hayden Thomas: The importance of eradicating violent and nonviolent labels for criminal acts

Columns & Analysis

Published
November 24, 2021

Hayden Thomas: The importance of eradicating violent and nonviolent labels for criminal acts

By addressing only part of the prison population and excluding violent crimes in prison reforms, an unfair divide is being created. In order to fix the system, all of the components need to be fully addressed. Ultimately, how we classify violent crime needs to be reevaluated and addressed as a necessary step in prison reform.
Published
November 24, 2021

Amy Hodge: Providing full mental health services for prisoners cannot wait

As we can see prisons all around Maine — and everywhere for that matter — need to offer programs to better serve the mental health needs of those in prison, so people have a better chance of staying out when they are released. It has been proven time and time again that when those who are incarcerated have programs to help better themselves, they have a lower probability of recidivism.
Published
November 24, 2021

Luka Baskett: Federal policies on marijuana cause more harm than good

Because of the rhetoric surrounding the "War on Drugs," drug policing efforts are focused on communities of color. This focal point leads to disparate convictions, which then falsely confirms the racial stereotypes that people of color are more likely to use drugs or commit crimes.
Published
November 24, 2021

Covy Dufort: Pro-lifers shouldn’t be pro-death

We may feel that someone should die for the crimes they committed, but that does not mean we should kill. As we value the life of embryos, we must consider how other innocent lives are taken every year and reconsider the true cost of the death penalty.
Published
November 22, 2021

President Biden is breaking his promise to block drilling on public lands

The fact that the Biden administration has largely encouraged, rather than curbed, fossil fuel development on public lands is surprising, environmental lawyers and policy experts say, because this is one area where the White House has unique leverage.

Published
November 21, 2021

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Are we not entertained?

We — media, voters and lawmakers alike — do not seem to really get it. We obsess on questions — Will Biden’s slumping approval rating hinder his re-election? Is Vice President Harris feeling slighted? Can Liz Cheney keep her seat? — that feel like normal, that feel like 1987 or 2005 and, thus, that feel disconnected from the urgency of this strange and critical moment in our history. We need to stop treating this like it’s normal. Normal is the last thing it is.
Published
November 21, 2021

Cal Thomas: Swindled again

Welcome to "shovel-ready 2.0" and another swindle that has just been perpetrated on us in the name of "infrastructure." Swindle means "to obtain by fraud or deceit." The administration and congressional Democrats claim the bill will cost us nothing. That's because they have used accounting gimmicks and rely on money they hope will come in through tax increases. Won't that cost something?
Published
November 21, 2021

Rich Lowry: Harris v. Buttigieg would be the GOP’s dream primary

As it happens, they exemplify the contemporary Democratic Party's electoral deficiencies, while bringing their own flagrant personal political weaknesses to the equation.
Published
November 21, 2021

Froma Harrop: Food inflation is a turkey of an issue

As for the price of turkeys, who's panicking, other than certain media desperate for a hot headline during the mid-November doldrums? No need to panic. Black Friday is right around the corner, and as national obsessions go, shoppers-gone-wild are hard to beat.
Published
November 21, 2021

Oliver North and David Goetsch: Are you better off today than you were 10 months ago?

The latest theme of the Biden presidency is "Build Back Better." But those of us who are paying already inflated prices for gasoline, bread, milk, eggs, butter, heat for our homes and other essentials know things are not as they should be. Americans who go to grocery stores only to find bare shelves, while hundreds of fully-laden cargo ships sit unloaded in ports, know things aren't better.

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