Jo Trafford News Today

To answer Trump’s question of whether we are better off than four years ago depends on whom you listen to. Trump’s media has made it clear: We are worse off. According to normal metrics, we are in a better place. And I credit President Biden. But that is almost inconsequential because Trump is perpetrating great […]

I testified in front of the Maine Judiciary Committee in favor of L.D. 780, a law that would amend the Maine State Constitution to enshrine the right to reproductive autonomy. Here is a truth: I am the author of my life. That is most profoundly true with my health care. It is my body, my […]

Focusing on mental health and yellow flag laws is too limited a solution for gun violence. Guns are a problem because they are tools whose designed purpose is to kill. What we should have are procedures for how guns are obtained. Except, the Second Amendment greatly complicates regulating guns. The Founding Fathers put guns in […]

Responses to a guest essay about addressing the divide between Republicans and Democrats. Also: Defending Rudy Giuliani; antidepressants on shirts.

I was in Augusta on June 16 to represent support for L.D. 1619. The Capitol was filled with pro-life conservatives. I wonder how old a child must be for them to end their advocacy. On the national level, Republicans have voted against the child tax credit and affordable child care. Conservative states are getting rid […]

MaineHealth’s decision to close its dedicated clinic earlier this year forces people with symptoms like fatigue and brain fog to educate their primary care providers about the condition.

Readers discuss a growing push by conservative groups to ban certain books. Also: Big Oil and the climate crisis; the balance of nature; shopping at Bergdorf.

Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage is claiming, essentially, that “Janet Mills is teaching Maine kids that people who say ‘MAGA’ are racists!” He is attributing to her brief comments in the Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine’s online diversity teacher training module. Here’s the truth: A significant faction in the Make America […]

When my father was dying, I had a hospital oncologist say he was too busy to talk with me. My brother has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. What support

In considering abortion, conservatives have skewed the focus. They have ignored the kind of life a woman would have to live if she were forced to give birth, especially if she is unwilling or unable to raise a child into adulthood. And, more importantly, children born into such chaos would start life with the cards […]