I ran into a series of interesting items last week that I thought I would share with you.

Top of my list was a piece in The Atlantic magazine that claims our national prison population is decreasing, despite the “tough on crime” promises from Republicans and Democrats seeking your votes. Oh, yes, the crime rate is decreasing, too.

Now, that does not mean that terrible criminals are no longer doing unspeakable things to innocent victims. Of course, there are bad guys out there, even in Maine. But there are fewer of them. Why?

Once upon a time, I read an academic paper by an econometrician claiming most crimes are committed by males aged 15 to 35. If you check the national birth rate statistics, you will see they have fallen dramatically over the last few years. Crime rates are getting lower, too. Why? It stands to reason that if we have fewer young males entering the criminal years, we will have fewer knuckleheads entering the criminal job market and that means fewer inmates going into the state and national slammers. And that is good news. On the local level, do lower birth rates mean we are seeing fewer children entering our schools? Does this mean we will soon have to figure out how and where we will educate them? And how will we pay for their education? Will we, perish the thought, have to think about regional consolidation?

Add that topic to the list of things we face but would rather not think about or talk about, like climate change and rising sea levels. All of these uncomfortable topics will, sooner or later, demand our attention. And these topics will not be solved by Democrats or Republicans yelling at us and each other. The solutions must be the job of the grownups, no matter their age.

Now that I have ruined your day, I note that Time magazine has named Heather Cox Richardson, a Boston College professor of history (and a proud neighbor from Round Pond) as one of the most influential voices of 2025. Her daily comments on Facebook and Substack attract millions of followers. Good for her, and good for her readers, too.

Did you see the Register story about the new nature preserve? I urge you to check it out. Boothbay Region Land Trust calls it Autumn View. I know some folks oppose the BRLT conservation efforts as a burden on the taxpayers arguing they remove taxable land from the tax rolls. I seem to remember BRLT voluntarily donates the equivalent of property taxes back to our local communities. And do you know the public is invited to visit and enjoy the preserves, at no charge?

Full disclosure: I proudly served on the BRLT board for about 10 years. I became involved with that body at the behest of my late bride, a proud East Boothbay native. She complained that many of the wild spaces she used to roam with her childhood pals are now filled with signs that say "no trespassing" or "private."

A week or so ago, we made the New York Times, again. In a long and detailed piece, under the headline “Slurping towards Nirvana on the Maine Oyster Trail, Danielle Dowling wrote about the joys of sampling one of our local seafood delights. She praised oysters found at Wiscasset’s Jolie Rogers Raw Bar and Edgecomb’s Glidden Point Oyster Farm. She also discovered Maine is “much less lovely in a driving rain.” Yes, Grasshopper, Lord Lobster is not the only local seafood worth bragging about. And, for our tourist friends, Red’s Eats is not the only good place to eat in Wiscasset.

The political internet sites are heating up as fervent MAGA types complain, no that word is too soft, they are screaming, over the attorney general’s claim that there is no dirty laundry, none at all they say, hidden in the secret FBI Jeffery Epstein files. More later.

I note that POTUS and his bride flew to Texas to express the nation’s sorrow at the tragic loss of life in the hill country flooding events. Good for them. President George W. Bush got a bushel of bad press for his failure to stop in New Orleans during 2015’s Hurricane Katrina. Bush 43 also got hammered for the questionable performance of his FEMA chief, Michael Brown, who quickly exited the stage. The current occupant of the White House brushed away questions from victims questioning flood warnings.

FYI, his FEMA chief didn’t bother to go to Texas, and the Homeland Security secretary waited three days to authorize a FEMA response to the tragedy. And, for the record, FEMA itself is on the POTUS chopping block. He said emergency disaster relief functions should be handled by the state and local governments. Should it?