This week’s edition!
Franco Center announces Christmas program schedule
Joëlle Morris
This season’s performance calendar at the Franco-American Heritage Center is an unusually busy one. In fact, the month of December alone will feature seven Christmas concerts in a three-week span, beginning on Saturday, December 1 with a performance by local singers Just Us Entertainers.
“This is going to be a very busy place for three weeks,” said Franco Center executive director Louis Morin, who noted that with one exception, a concert by the Boston String Quartet on December 20, all of these Christmas shows will feature mostly local artists who live within a half-hour drive. “We’re blessed here in Maine with a wealth of musical and artistic talent, and we’ll be showcasing some of the best of it this holiday season.”
Morin also said that, during a season in which people are spending more on heating oil, not to mention Christmas gifts, the Franco Center is mindful that ticket prices should remain low. In the hope that patrons will be able to attend more than one holiday concert, no ticket to any show between now and Christmas will cost more than $20 – and most of them will be less than that.
Maine Music Society presents “A Heritage Christmas”
Singers perform as the Androscoggin Chorale.
The Maine Music Society is excited to share the joy of the holidays with you as they present “A Heritage Christmas” on December 8, 9 and 15.
This year’s performance of A Heritage Christmas will join the voices of the Androscoggin Chorale with those of the Lewiston High School Chamber Choir under the direction of Darren Avery. Each choir will perform works of its choosing and then the choirs will combine to celebrate music of this holiday season.
Favorites of the season will include Carol of the Bells, Ding Dong Merrily on High, and many more. Aided by the talented Bridget Convey, accompanist, the Chamber Choir and Chorale will conclude the concert with the incredible Hodie! by Z. Randall Stroope. To complete the concert, Maestro Corrie will invite the audience once again to sing several traditional Christmas carols with the combined choirs.
Museum LA to host Old Fashioned Holiday Celebration
Do you remember sitting on Santa’s lap at B. Peck’s department store and “fishing” for a special toy? Well, Museum L-A plans to bring some of Peck’s holiday traditions back to life for its Old Fashioned Holiday Celebration on Saturday, December 8 from noon to 4 p.m.
The event will feature Santa and the “fish pond,” as well as the Great Falls Railroad Club, who will help recreate the model train that was a staple of Peck’s annual Christmas display. A “Guess Who?” wall of photographs from the 1940s through the 1970s will feature generations of local youngsters visiting Santa at Pecks.
Opponents question Casella operations in Maine communities
This is the third in a series on Casella Waste, which is seeking a 30-year contract with the City of Lewiston to take over the city’s recycling transfer station, build a single-stream recycling facility and lease land at Lewiston’s River Road landfill. The contract would allow Casella to process 90 million pounds of “mixed recyclable” waste a year.
The first and second parts were published last week. See them at www.TwinCityTimes.com. Click on the Digital Edition, then click on the Archive button at top right to see the November 15 Digital Edition.
By Hillary Lister
and Dan Gregoire
As Massachusetts and New Hampshire tightened their waste laws, respectively banning the dumping and burning of Construction and Demolition Debris (CDD), Casella Waste sought more locations to send waste from these states.
Governor Baldacci’s administration received major donations from Casella for the 2006 election, and Maine’s waste regulations were significantly weakened, while subsidies for dumping and burning CDD in Maine were greatly expanded.
“Survivorman” to participate in Lewiston Auburn Film Festival
Les Stroud, known better to television audiences around the world as “Survivorman” for his show by the same name, joined the board of directors of the Lewiston Auburn Film Festival (LAFF) Monday to announce his involvement in the LAFF2013.
“I’m thrilled to be coming in to participate in this year’s festival,” said Stroud via Skype from Las Vegas, joining the media and others in attendance. “I’m looking forward to meeting everybody and seeing the film.”
The latest incarnation of the festival will be held April 4-7, 2013 in various venues throughout Lewiston and Auburn. It is the third year for the event, which attracted 1,200 people from more than a dozen states in its second year.
Collins: Congress and President must work to avert the Fiscal Cliff
By U.S. Senator Susan Collins
(R-Maine)
Now that the elections are behind us, it is time for the campaigning to stop and the governing to begin. One of the most pressing issues that Congress and the President must address immediately is the approaching “fiscal cliff,” the combination of deep, indiscriminate spending cuts and huge tax increases set to take effect in January.
Time is running short. That is why I am deeply disappointed that the Majority Leader has decided to recess for the entire week at Thanksgiving. Americans want us to be working to find a responsible way to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”
Our national debt now tops $16 trillion dollars, and it threatens our future prosperity. With each American’s share of the debt totaling more than $50,000, it is imperative that we act soon to get our nation’s fiscal house in order and avoid the economic calamity that is spreading through Europe.
Enough is Enough: Putting differences aside to make L-A a leader in Maine
By Robert E. Macdonald
Mayor of Lewiston
I ran for mayor focused on welfare reform. Being retired and not being—nor will I ever be—politically correct, I was aggravated at our local tax rate. But having a governor who was not afraid to speak his mind and what I thought (obviously in error) was a Republican Legislature of the same ilk, I felt pretty confident change was around the corner.
It was not what I had imagined: the Democrats regaining both the House and the Senate in Augusta. I felt as though I had run into a brick wall. Instead of giving up, I took two steps back and saw the possibility of Lewiston-Auburn going from the state’s redheaded stepchild to a power to be reckoned with—a leader, not a follower.
Issues upcoming in the next few months will focus on paying our hospitals the millions they are owed, welfare reform, schools and public transportation between Lewiston and other parts of our state.
World-renowned Somali rapper to appear at Bates
K’Naan, the Somalian-born rap artist whose single “Wavin’ Flag” was an international sensation, will perform at Bates College on Saturday, December 1 at 9 p.m. The event will take place in the Gray Athletic Building at 130 Central Avenue. Tickets are $30 and are available at www.batestickets.com.
“Maine Piglet Book” details waste, abuse of taxpayers’ dollars
The Maine Heritage Policy Center has released the “2012 Maine Piglet Book,” detailing hundreds of millions of dollars of wasteful government spending. A new version of a similar publication released in 2009, the 2012 Piglet Book highlights government’s big-spending habits, as well areas where leaders can save taxpayers big money.
The Maine Turnpike Authority, the Maine State Housing Authority, “Welfare for Politicians” and stipends given to UMaine employees are just a few of the examples of excessive government spending highlighted in the 2012 Maine Piglet Book. The Piglet Book reports that the University of Maine alone handed out more than $10 million in “stipends” in 2011, while the “clean elections” program has expended than $23 million over the life of the program, landing several participants in jail.
The Piglet Book also highlights the dramatic growth in government salaries in the last decade. In 1997, just 53 state employees took home more than $100,000 in compensation. That number jumped to an all-time high of 435 in 2009, before settling at 344 in 2011.
