Six months ago, I wrote an article for The Maine Campus calling for the Netanyahu administration in Israel to exercise restraint in its response to the Oct. 7 attack by the Hamas organization that rules the Gaza Strip. In my piece, I declare that “It is the responsibility of President Biden and Congress, who have unceasingly supported Israel for decades both financially and politically, to intervene and prevent Israel from imposing a reign of terror upon Gaza.” Unfortunately, they have failed to meet the moment. 

According to numbers published by Qatari news agency Al Jazeera, Israel’s offensive has now resulted in the deaths of over 33,000 Palestinians, with that figure likely being thousands too few given the difficulty of reporting accurate health data from an active warzone. With Israel chiefly targeting civilian infrastructure, most of those killed are women and children. Only weeks ago, the World Health Organization traveled to Gaza and found that one of the last major hospital complexes in Gaza, Al-Shifa, was destroyed by Israeli shelling. Most of Gaza’s universities, including its oldest, the Islamic University of Gaza, have been permanently reduced to rubble by artillery and even planned demolition. Almost all of Gaza’s roughly 2.4 million residents now face imminent starvation. 

It’s time we identify Israel’s war for what it is: genocide. This is not a war with Hamas; this is a war on Palestine itself. Israel’s campaign has long ago forgotten its purported mission of freeing its nationals held hostage by Hamas and neutralizing their rivals’ military capabilities. Its only purpose is to subvert the sovereignty of the Palestinian people and prevent them from enjoying the rights they deserve as an independent nation. The government of Netanyahu has made it clear to the world that they have no compassion and no remorse for the lives that they have ended. The catastrophe will only get worse from here. 

Israel has been arduously planning its coup de grace: a ground invasion of Rafah. With most of Gaza already under Israeli occupation, and with other major cities such as Khan Yunis and Gaza City having seen most of their facilities demolished by half a year of warfare, the majority of the Gazan population has sheltered in the city of Rafah along the closed Egyptian border. A ground invasion into Rafah would bring most of Gaza’s population directly into the conflict zone, where Israeli and Hamas soldiers would be fighting in close quarters through dense civilian infrastructure housing millions of starving, often wounded refugees. The potential for unmitigated disaster is huge, yet our leaders in the United States have done little to prevent it from transpiring. 

We must hold the Biden administration accountable for its complicity in the wanton slaughter until they choose to do their part to stop it. President Biden has had countless opportunities to slow or stop the violence but has refused to do so. Be it his well-documented ideological commitment to Zionism or what the New Republic called his “unique indifference to Palestinian suffering,” Biden has not used his capabilities as the world’s most powerful person to stop this actively worsening genocide. 

It is unlikely that the U.S. alone would be able to prevent Israel from continuing to fight its war on Palestine. Netanyahu’s cabinet is stacked with extremists, including Itamar Ben-Gvir, the icon of vehement anti-Arab racism in Israel who demanded a “crushing attack” on Iran after the drone strike exchange of this prior week. These elements and others in the Israeli Defense Forces are undeterred by the claims by international aid groups that the attack on Rafah could cause tens of thousands of more deaths, which comes as no surprise given their apathy towards the endless civilian carnage caused by the Gaza campaign.

But the U.S. has plenty of tools it could use to help sway Israeli decision-makers: for one, it could choose to withhold the billions of dollars in military aid it has appropriated for use to Israel, which typically manifests in the form of fighter jets and large munitions. These weapons are being used for one sole purpose: to kill and maim Gazan civilians. With Hamas using civilian infrastructure to house its operations, this often results in more collateral damage than it does in the deaths of the targeted militants. Without these weapons, it will be difficult for Israel to continue shelling Gaza at its current pace. Further, Biden could threaten to strip Israel of its entire decade’s worth of appropriations granted to it by the U.S. Congress, totaling $33 billion over the next ten years. So far, the administration has refused to use any of its boundless leverage over Israel, and until they do so, the United States is responsible by association for every crime committed by the Netanyahu regime. 

How many more civilians must die before something changes? How many more doctors, teachers and aid workers must die? How many more children must be orphaned? How much more must Gaza suffer?

The United States must use its unrivaled might and power to force an immediate end to the active genocide of the Palestinian people. Until then, it will be remembered as a willing actor in the crime of the century.

On Thursday, L.D. 1975 was rejected by the Maine Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee in its original form, with the legislators opting to instead approve a task force to study the issue further before providing further recommendations. L.D. 1975 initially proposed a decriminalization of drugs for personal use and the establishment of a recovery center in each of the state’s 16 counties. The bill was modified beforehand to be palatable for a broader swath of legislators, with decriminalization being changed to instead only raising the threshold for felony drug possession and the amount of potential recovery centers being reduced. Now, the actual changes to the law have been dropped entirely in favor of the task force proposal. 

This bill would have significantly improved public health outcomes in Maine, and its replacement by a much-weakened version of the bill will only lead to a stagnation of recovery efforts. The loss of this opportunity to improve our approach towards drug dependency in this state is an unfortunate development that will only further mire structural reform and community recovery efforts in procedural limbo. It will do little except increase the perception, both within the recovery community and with the general public, that the state’s politicians are still not serious about resolving the drug crisis. 

Rob Glover, a professor in the Political Science department who has published research about Mainers’ attitudes towards drug decriminalization and will be leading a work group to Portugal in May to study their implementation of such programs, said that the diverse proponents of drug decriminalization efforts are united by a “shared, strongly-held sentiment among advocates that punitive approaches to drug policy (arrest, prosecution, penalties, and incarceration) have failed.” The central idea behind decriminalization in practice is that “Alternative approaches would operate from the principle that personal use or possession of a substance should be an opportunity to identify support that can be provided for a person who uses drugs—why they’re using, how and whether their use might be problematic, the potential risks to themselves and others, and what a pathway to support or recovery might look like if it’s needed and if they’re ready.”

Certainly, it makes some sense to be sheepish about decriminalization. Heroin, fentanyl and other such drugs are dangerous substances that have a serious effect on individuals and their communities. But Glover noted that “Most decriminalization policies establish thresholds. They do not stop drug enforcement completely.” If a person is caught with an amount that surpasses this threshold, Glover said, “you would still face criminal consequences,” and more so if that individual was “involved in trafficking or selling larger quantities of illicit substances.”

Maine would not be the first place to adopt decriminalization policies. Most famously, Portugal had done so at the outset of this century. While Portugal’s program has seen remarkable success in some quadrants, namely decreasing the amount of drug overdoses, it has ran into significant stumbling blocks recently despite the improvements; recession-era budget cuts have rendered the program difficult to properly assess, with police officers unwilling to usher addicts into treatment and recovery centers closing due to lack of funding. The policy was also adopted by voters in Oregon in 2020, although this effort failed and had been aborted by 2024 due to incoherent implementation. Oregon has now re-introduced misdemeanor penalties for drug possession. Glover finds that, in order for what he calls “public health-oriented programs” to be most effective, they must be “adequately funded and supported” and “center the voices of those with lived experience and conceptualize this as a public health crisis of the highest order, similar to the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s.”

As for Mainers themselves, research has revealed a surprising amount of openness towards the policy, in a state that tends to lean towards tradition. A study, which was conducted three years ago by Glover and Dr. Karyn Sporer, documented shifting attitudes towards drug policies across the board: 80% of respondents backed recovery-oriented programs such as medically-assisted withdrawal and recovery community centers, while another 74% backed drug decriminalization on a personal level. 

Crucially, while the study did expose some partisan divides (Democrats being broadly more supportive of a rehabilitative approach and the use safe injection sites), the greatest indicator of one’s attitudes towards decriminalization appears to be whether that person had personal experiences with illicit drug dependency, be it their own or that of someone they know. Glover believes that, at least for Mainers, “as more folks are personally impacted by substance use disorder or overdose, their attitudes are shifting away from a strictly punitive approach.”

Still, as proven by the defeat of the decriminalization bill in the legislature earlier this week, a majority of legislators still have not realized the benefits of such a program. While Glover “respect[s] anyone who serves in Maine state government,” believing that they do “extraordinarily challenging work for inadequate pay and appreciation” and “are working hard to do right by the people of Maine,” he is disappointed with the outcome of the legislative process. He finds that the establishment of a task force fails to recognize “the urgency and severity of the opioid crisis [and] the fact that there’s already plenty of evidence to suggest that centering our approach on public health interventions yields positive results.” Glover calls the limited input allocated to those in the recovery community, be they drug users themselves or public health advocates, “particularly disheartening,” as the task force will be less equipped to acknowledge their lived experiences.

The reduction of L.D. 1975 from a bill that would take an immediate and affirmative approach towards reducing the impact of the drug crisis into one that only establishes a task force to study potential outcomes is a misguided attempt at caution that will only prolong the arduous road to seriously reducing the amount of drug deaths in Maine. Mainers deserve to know that there’s a path forward to alleviating this crisis, and we hope that in its next session the legislature will give a second look at further decriminalization efforts.

Tomorrow, the voters of the Orono municipality will head to the polls to determine their preferences on several issues: first, their selection in the primary elections for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations; second, their choice in the three open seats for Orono Town Council; and finally, and perhaps most consequentially for future generations of UMaine students, whether or not Orono should shift its municipal election dates to November. 

Currently, Orono’s elections were held in mid-March, during (or, as of a 2023 rules change, just before) UMaine’s Spring Break. With such a low percentage of students remaining on-campus or in Orono itself during this period, this restricted student turnout and effectively disenfranchised the student body. 

Indeed, turnout in Orono municipal elections has shown a worrying trend in its consistently low percentage over the past five years. While 2021, 2022, and 2023 elections all saw roughly 7% turnout, the 2020 municipal races featured a 5% turnout—just one-twentieth of all Orono residents. In 2019, only 3% of Orono voters arrived at the polls. The year before, a breathtakingly low 2% of Orono voters showed up. While turnout has grown to about 7% in the previous three years, this disappointingly low number is still indicative of major barriers that prevent Orono students from fully exercising their suffrage. While a 2023 initiative by the Orono Town Council aligned municipal election dates with the presidential primary, the election date remaining in March does not bode well for future turnout in Orono. November elections, comparatively, have consistently seen much higher turnout. Maine had a 35.8% turnout for its youth voters in the 2022 midterm elections, one of the highest rates in the entire country and indicative of a strong culture of lifelong political engagement in New England. 

Municipal elections have a considerable influence on students’ quality of life. Town policies in Orono can deeply affect a broad range of issues that impact students, from housing prices to town walkability to new retail locations that serve students and improve community bonds. Local elections are the best opportunity for residents of a municipality to make their thoughts on the town’s future heard. Still, such a paltry turnout means that these election results cannot possibly be representative of the general will of the Orono populace. 

With an uncompetitive primary in the presidential race featuring two unpopular candidates all but certain to win their respective nominations, turnout will likely remain relatively low despite the best efforts of organizing groups such as Orono Voices for Democracy. This, however, is not an election students should choose to ignore. Student voters in Orono should support the proposed change to Article 1 and take a greater role in asserting their right to affect change where they live.

Polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at 59 Main Street.

For the first time ever next season, fans of women’s ice hockey will have to pay to attend a game at the Alfond Arena. While the home crowds at men’s ice hockey games are so intense that Providence College was reportedly playing to piped-in crowd noise during their recent practices ahead of their two-game series in Orono that took place last weekend, women’s ice hockey has been entirely free to the public since its certification as an NCAA team during the 1997-1998 season. That this development comes after a quarter-century of Division I women’s ice hockey at UMaine reflects broader disparities in the treatment of men and women’s sports in Orono and beyond. 

The successful season of Maine men’s ice hockey has already been much-discussed, with head coach Ben Barr having been awarded a remarkably high $425,000 (and incrementally increasing) salary that will see him placed as the State of Maine’s highest-paid public employee. Maine’s rebound to the top of the Hockey East rankings has been rousing, and you’d be hard-pressed to find any avid fan of Black Bear sports who hasn’t waited outside the Alfond at least once this year. But men’s ice hockey has never seen these same hurdles in terms of achieving high audience attendance numbers. While the team is seeing its most promising season in many years, with UMaine men’s hockey tickets selling out for the first time in at least a decade, their comparative lack of success in the past few years did little to decline their attendance rates.

In 2021-2022, when Black Bear men’s hockey went 7-22-4 (.273), they saw an average attendance rate of 68%. The average attendance of women’s hockey, which went 15-19-1 (.429), was 4.1%. In 2022-2023, when men’s hockey went 15-16-5 (.486), the average attendance was 70.7%. Women’s hockey, which went 15-18-2 (.429), saw a marginal increase to 4.7% attendance—30th of NCAA’s 41 Division I teams. Even when women’s teams are better than the men’s teams or witness equal success, their games see lackluster attendance by UMaine students and the general public. 

The disparity in Maine’s hockey programs reflects a longstanding nationwide pattern of undervaluing women’s sports compared to men’s sports. Women players in the WNBA receive only 50% of the league’s incremental revenue (meaning money earned above the league’s target revenue goals), while men’s basketball players receive 50% of all revenue, regardless of how it is earned by the league. Similar stories are seen throughout college and professional sports, with the American women’s soccer team that had been dominant for several years successfully reaching a settlement with the United States Soccer Federation over their unequal compensation agreement. 

That is not to say that women’s sports are undervalued everywhere, or that there is no evident positive trend in the right direction. Iowa basketball player Caitlin Clark has become a genuine phenom, with her fantastic play (that last week broke the NCAA all-time scoring record for women’s basketball) seeing Iowa sports continually shatter in-person attendance records for the entire league. Television viewership has also been bolstered by Clark’s performance, with just short of 4 million viewers tuning in on Feb. 3. 

That said, Clark is a superstar who hails from a preexisting athletic powerhouse school, one that produced the winningest NCAA men’s wrestling program in history and supplied two first-round draft picks in the last NFL draft alone. Maine will never see the same financial support or huge enrollment as Iowa, nor will it likely ever capture a record-shattering titan like Clark, but it shouldn’t need to. Anyone who has attended a women’s hockey game can tell you that those games reached the same pitched heights as the men’s games and are just as suitable for displays of school pride. 

UMaine alumni are renowned for their feverish devotion to this university’s men’s hockey teams. We should extend that same enthusiasm to their women’s team counterparts.

In the latest meeting of the University of Maine System (UMS) Board of Trustees held on Jan. 29, concerns were brought over the budget shortfalls that have plagued the university since the pandemic. The continued budget woes have resulted in some students being concerned about another potential rise in tuition ahead of the upcoming fiscal year. 

Concerns that UMS may raise tuition are well-founded, as this would only be an additional escalation in a worrying trend over the past several years. Tuition for in-state students was raised in the last fiscal year by 3% across the university system, along with room-and-board, student fees and out-of-state rates at variable and dependent rates on campus. Tuition had been raised by 2.5% two years before in 2021, meaning that tuition has been raised by 5.5% since the outset of the decade and looks set to continue to rise until at least 2028 when internal administrative estimates believe the enrollment crisis will alleviate. While UMS claims that the actions taken to raise tuition are only taken as a last resort, this is hard to believe, given their willingness to do so in the past. 

Maine already has the lowest bachelor’s degree attainment rate in the Northeast, being several percentage points beneath any other state in New England or the Mid-Atlantic. Additionally, Maine is the most rural state in the Northeast and has the lowest average household income, both of which are socioeconomic markers correlated with lower college enrollment for in-state students. The reliance of UMS on raising tuition as a method of solving budget shortfalls will only continue to heighten the barriers to low-income students.

UMS’s budget problems are also, to some extent, self-perpetuating. Chancellor Dannel Malloy and other university figureheads have pointed to the Maine Free College Scholarship, which enables recently graduated students to pursue two years of tuition-free community college, as a major factor for decreased enrollment in the UMS. However, if tuition is raised at UMaine and its partner universities, then those students who were already considering community college will only be pushed further in that direction, exacerbating the persistent enrollment crisis. 

Beyond the obvious pitfalls that come with increasing the cost of attendance for students, our tuition has also been misused by the UMS administration for political purposes. As noted in a piece by Opinion contributor Meredyth Waters, the UMS has, since 2016, kept on its payroll a lobbyist who has consistently rallied legislators to oppose student priorities, including protections for student employees of the university. If students pay tens of thousands of dollars annually to attend the university, there is no reason for the administration to utilize our tuition in a manner that is not conducive to an improved student experience. If they intend to justify another tuition increase, UMS representatives should fight for better protections for student workers attempting to earn back some of the exorbitant amounts they are paying the university.

Finally, the efforts by the Biden Administration to reduce the student loan burden at federally-funded public universities have been frustrated by conservative elements in the judicial system, with the Supreme Court ruling that the Biden Administration lacked the legal basis to cancel loan debt. Further, they ruled that those debt-bearing students who brought the case lacked standing to do so. As political efforts to forgive student loan debt lie dead in the water, student debt holders lack any obvious relief on the horizon. In line with the other New England states, UMaine has some of the highest net costs for any state public flagships. It would be insensitive and callous for the university to continue to raise the cost of attendance with these factors in mind. 

The budget woes that have affected UMS are manifold and complex, between UMaine Orono’s continued enrollment struggles and the striking collapse of UMaine Farmington’s marquee liberal arts programs, but raising the already-steep tuition is not the answer to them.

Despite being a flagship state university, the University of Maine is sorely lacking in the disability accommodations required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Physical access for those with disabilities is anemic at all levels of the university: in housing, in the classrooms and the dining halls.

The dining hall is a cornerstone of the undergraduate student living experience, yet this experience is not entirely equitable for those struggling with disabilities. Since the Sodexo takeover, the day’s menu at each dining hall has been displayed on small, highly-placed screens. These items are often listed in a font much too small, even for those without disabilities, and are practically useless for students who do. The dining hall issues were exacerbated by the closure of the Wells complex, which was long considered the most physically accessible dining hall for disabled students. With Wells shuttered and the reopening date being continually pushed back, students have little choice but to visit the considerably less accessible York and Hilltop dining centers. This is an especially pronounced problem for those living in the Oak and Hancock section of campus due to the distance between that area and York and Hilltop.

Additionally, several residence halls are sorely lacking in accommodation for disabled residents. At least three halls—Cumberland, Androscoggin and Gannett—do not have wheelchair-accessible elevators, with insufficient space for a wheelchair-using student to adequately rotate their equipment, while both Aroostook and Kennebec are lacking ramps for those using wheelchairs or crutches. Students in these two dorms are forced to use a steep set of granite stairs, rendering the simple task of even entering a dorm a Herculean task for disabled first-year students. Formerly, Student Accessibility Services had a van that shuttled disabled students around campus, but this program has been discontinued for several years. The lack of accommodations may potentially make students feel pressured to seek off-campus housing, which is not subject to the same regulations as those at the university and may expose disabled students to a whole new host of problems.

The inequities extend to the classroom as well. Some academic buildings, such as South Stevens Hall, lack elevators entirely. A disabled student hoping to attend a class on the second floor of South Stevens Hall will simply be unable to take that course. For those students who are not prevented from taking their classes by negligence and design flaws, the University does offer peer note-taking services to students who are less able to take notes while class is in session. However, these students are first forced to rely on auditory note-taking services for a semester before being permitted to use peer note-taking services. The University’s motivation in doing so is evident: saving money. Auditory note-taking requires no additional monetary input from the University, but student note-takers are paid between $50 and $100 in bookstore credits for their services. These unnecessary barriers to an adequate education can considerably disrupt a student’s academic schedule.

SAS, which has been described as tough to access, requires excessive documentation for those with longstanding disabilities (requiring them to be published within the last two years). Students who do not have documents this recent must turn to the overly long waitlists that are typical of the broken American healthcare system.

If the administration of UMaine is serious about the welfare of its students, concerted efforts are required to make the campus more accessible for its disabled students by improving physical access to classrooms, dormitories, and dining halls and allocating more funding to accessibility services.

I work as one of the two Music Directors at WMEB, the University of Maine’s student-run radio station located in Room 164 of the Memorial Union. In my role, I work with promoters to recommend albums and songs to our roster of nearly forty currently active DJs. The staff seeks to cultivate a distinct sound for the station; we try to promote independent and alternative artists almost exclusively. For a Music Director, that means listening to potentially dozens of less-than-mainstream releases in a month.

Ever since 2021, before I had even graduated high school, I’ve made an effort to listen to at least 100 albums per year. This year, I doubled that number, reaching exactly 200 just before the year’s conclusion.

Below, I picked out 15 of my favorites to discuss (listed in alphabetical order), and further below that are 60 additional favorites that I strongly recommend. Beneath, you can find a Spotify playlist featuring a track from each of these records, and a link to WMEB on streaming.

ANOHNI and the Johnsons – My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross

After an eventful thirteen year hiatus for ANOHNI and her variable backing band the Johnsons, the band returned with their fifth studio album “My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross,” the cover of which is graced by the tender smile of activist Marsha P. Johnson. The music contained on this record is an expression of that same tenderness; most of the tracks eschew complex compositions or production quirks, consisting mainly of restrained bluesy instrumentation from her backing band. Instead, it is Anohni’s achingly passionate soul-styled vocals and pointed lyricism that carries these songs. Indeed, the main role of the band here is to accompany her vocals, most poignantly on the fourth track “Can’t,” which crescendos into a magnificent two-minute outro of passionate emotional catharsis. While Anohni ruminates on heavy topics, including death in “Sliver of Ice” (inspired by the death of her friend Lou Reed), existential panic on the mournful and samba-accented “Why Am I Alive Now?” and hateful dehumanization on “Scapegoat,” the record never once feels bitter or dreary. Instead, the album feels like a reflection of humanity itself, in all its wonder and brutality.

bar italia – Tracey Denim

A washed-out tapestry of heavily-treated vocals, slurry guitars and punchy Madchester rhythms, “Tracey Denim” marks the official arrival of London-based indie rock group bar italia to the mainstream of indie music, if there is such a thing. The band released their first few albums around the outset of the pandemic, charged by hype arising from their association with underground favorite Dean Blunt.

On “Tracey Denim,” their third record, bar italia wears their influences on their sleeve. Sometimes it’s a bit Life Without Buildings, sometimes a bit Bends-era Radiohead and often quite Cure-esque, all with the general atmosphere of early trip-hop and a shoegaze-y reliance on bottomless reverb. But don’t mistake their grimy take on jangle pop for another landfill-ready 90s nostalgia product. Their obsession with replicating the sounds of bands prior does not detract from their ability to build layered compositions with catchy hooks (“Nurse!,” “Missus Morality,” “Clark” and “maddington” being standouts in this regard), and the revolving door of vocalists keeps the album from feeling too much like a one-trick pony—although Nina Cristante is usually the most interesting singer of the three, and thankfully the one who appears the most often.

bar italia released another album, “The Twits,” later in 2023.

billy woods and Kenny Segal – Maps

In a year where rap music’s mainstream has stalled both creatively and commercially, the genre’s underground has flourished, aided by its detachment from whatever is going on up top. Admittedly, I have never been a huge fan of billy woods’ previous works; while his intricate lyricism is always impressive, his reliance on an atmosphere that I find oppressively dark kept them from meriting more than respectful admiration on my end. Kenny Segal’s production on “Maps,” however, provides woods with some of his most lively beats yet without compromising his lyrical integrity. Mellow piano-driven tracks such as “Rapper Weed” and “The Layover” are well-balanced by the paranoid harder-edged songs more typical of woods’ discography so far, like “Year Zero,” which features Danny Brown, and the dark, droning “Hangman.” “FaceTime,” one of the finest tracks of the whole year, features neo-soul artist Samuel T. Herring, is a simply revelatory slice of jazz rap. woods’ trademark lyrical skillfulness and Segal’s pleasing production choices combine to make “Maps” a great record highly deserving of repeated and dedicated listening.

Black Country, New Road – Live at Bush Hall

Last year, Black Country, New Road—a standard bearer for the ‘Windmill Scene’ of the eponymous Brixton venue’s artsy post-punk misfits—released “Ants From Up There,” a masterful album that quickly cemented itself not only as one of my personal favorites, but as one of the decade’s definitive indie albums. A week prior, Isaac Wood, the vocalist for the band and one of its many songwriters, announced his departure from the group, citing mental health turmoil and a desire to be away from the spotlight. After some brief internal reorganization, the other members of BCNR marched on and wrote a whole suite of new tracks intended solely for live performance, released this year as “Live at Bush Hall.”

Listening to some of the slower moments, you get the feeling that it was Wood keeping the band from indulging their classical training too much. Certain moments are compositionally complex, but lack the emotional weight that Wood’s delivery provided. You also get the feeling that some of these songs would have benefitted from a studio rendering, as the more explosive moments sound less dynamic than they did on either of the first two records. Still, the painfully sincere displays of emotion that made their second record so fantastic have not disappeared entirely with Isaac’s departure: “Up Song,” “Across the Pond Friend” and “The Wrong Trousers” all hit those same poignant peaks heard on “Ants From Up There.”

“Live at Bush Hall” is, ultimately, a record displaying the band in a moment of transition. It is a monumental task for any band to both recreate an essentially perfect record while sustaining the loss of its beating heart. The fact that the band succeeded even partially at recapturing some of that magic is reason for praise.

Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

While Caroline Polachek, who originally gained attention as the singer behind indie rock band Chairlift, has never been considered a hyperpop artist by genre purists, her albums (including 2019’s “Pang”) have clearly taken from many of the same sonic inspirations as her PC Music contemporaries. And much like her peers, Polachek has chosen to adapt to the splintered post-hyperpop landscape by embracing musical diversity. “Desire, I Want To Turn Into You” sees Polachek explore tropical Afrobeats (“Bunny is a Rider”), flamenco pop (“Sunset”), Celtic folk (“Blood and Butter”), frantic sprechgesang interludes (“Welcome to My Island”) and choral music (“Billions”) that compliment her usual glitchy art pop, with gorgeous results. Indeed, Polachek’s willingness to let experimentation color her dominant pop sensibilities and keen ability to bridge the mainstream with the indie scene has allowed her to enforce her reputation as the era’s most interesting popstar.

Geese – 3D Country

I didn’t much care for Geese when they debuted in 2021 with “Projector.” Besides the groovy single “Low Era,” I found them to be mediocre two-bit imitators of bands which performed their danceable post-punk act decades ago, and to better results. With “3D Country,” however, Geese proved me wholly wrong. The songs, which mainly take inspiration from country rock (with touches of glam, prog, and punk throughout the record), are much leaner and catchier, with each seeming to have its own distinct identity within the tracklist. On tracks like “Cowboy Nudes” and “Mysterious Love,” Geese exude playfulness, a trait which has been lacking from the sometimes self-serious 2020s post-punk revival. They even manage to come off as sincere on songs like “I See Myself,” despite the Brooklynites’ rustic turn being a somewhat obvious put-on. Vocalist Cameron Winter can seemingly bend his voice into whatever timbre he feels like, pulling off the delicate balancing act of delivering knowingly-quirky vocals without ever being too obnoxious or overbearing. With “3D Country,” Geese have achieved one of the decade’s most promising transformations yet.

Home Is Where – the whaler

“the whaler,” the second album by emo band Home Is Where, is one of contrasts. Vocalist Brandon MacDonald oscillates between abrasive screaming and more typical emo vocals. The blown-out rockers (“skin meadow”) are always balanced with more contemplative moments of introspection; the slow piano-driven interlude “9/12” follows hardcore screamer “everyday feels like 9/11.” Even the album cover, which depicts a rotting cartoon whale suspended on telephone lines, is a pleasant shade of pink.

Home Is Where prove adept at developing their particular blend of folk, hardcore, and alternative country. Certain songs are clearly inspired by Neutral Milk Hotel, with MacDonald sometimes lifting Jeff Mangum’s trademark twang (“lily pad pupils”) and several tracks incorporating singing saws and dusty harmonicas. Despite the blissful guitar tones and an earnest, cutting vocal performance by MacDonald, “the whaler” maintains a raw edge that underlines its place as one of the most vital records released this year.

JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown – SCARING THE HOES

“SCARING THE HOES” sees two abstract hip hop powerhouses, JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown, unite for a record that blends JPEGMAFIA’s trademark irreverent attitude and Brown’s maniacal energy, resulting in one of the most chaotic and engaging listens of the decade so far. “SCARING THE HOES” seems to do it all, from interpolating Kanye’s “Get ‘Em High” (the title track) and sampling a chipmunk version of Kelis’ “Milkshake” (“Fentanyl Tester”) to turning a gospel session into a pure heater (“God Loves You”), all with perhaps the most infectious energy of any record this year. While the album may not reinvent the wheel, its blisteringly high-powered fun and marquee collaboration between two of hip hop’s finest is enough to render “SCARING THE HOES” a must-listen LP of 2023.

McKinley Dixon – Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?

Despite clocking in at a brisk 29 minutes, McKinley Dixon manages to make a remarkable impression with his new album “Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?,” a record partially inspired by the works of author Toni Morrison. Lyrically, the album traverses conscious territory, with an introspective Dixon reflecting on the criminal justice system, the violence inherent to growing up in the urban environments of this country, and the premature death of his friend Tyler. Dixon has a clear gift for combining his literary proclivities with a grounded, impactful delivery. However, this album’s greatest strength lies in its sonic palette, combining lush baroque instrumentation (not unlike that from Little Simz’s 2021 album “Sometimes I Might Be Introvert”) with incredibly crisp production and a strong melodic core. “Run, Run, Run” is an absolute revelation of a song, the platonic ideal of a jazz rap cut and probably my personal favorite for the finest song released this year. “Sun, I Rise” and “Dedicated to Tar Feather” are also stunning displays of songcraft, with the latter including a feature from experimental folk artist Anjimile (who also released a great album, “The King,” this year).

Discovering McKinley Dixon and this record was one of the highlights of my decade so far, and if there’s any justice in the world, “Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?” will have earned a spot in the hip-hop pantheon.

Mitski – The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We

What hasn’t been said about Mitski, the immensely talented singer-songwriter whose brand is practically synonymous with “sad girl indie” despite her own clear discomfort with being pigeonholed by such a facile label?

The intense attention her unexpected success garnered, and her emergence as a reluctant generational icon, led Mitski to withdraw almost entirely from the public eye. Some even anticipated a retirement announcement; the artist herself admitted to strongly considering stepping away from music permanently. By the time she felt ready to return, COVID-19 had irrevocably changed the zeitgeist: she released “Laurel Hell” in early 2022, but the more pop-oriented record fell short of the expectations of many. Indeed, that album seemed to tread water stylistically despite interesting ideas presented, and again rumors of a retirement emerged.

Mitski, however, returned unexpectedly early, and her new album appeared to be a conscious effort to move away from the spacious synthpop of that record and return to somewhere approaching her comfort zone. “The Land…” is her most focused and concise effort since 2016’s “Puberty 2,” returning to the more restrained and melancholic composition of her first few records. As always, Mitski uses brevity to her advantage. The short length of most tracks, none of which surpass four minutes, compliments her austere compositions and introspective lyricism.

Don’t take her sonic reconsolidation as an admission of defeat: “The Land…” still traverses new ground for Mitski, incorporating traditional country influences and embracing strings as an integral instrument in her songwriting toolbox. “Heaven,” the third track, is maybe the most clear distillation of this sound, the type of song that you could imagine Glen Campbell’s titular Wichita Lineman hear crackling in over a shortwave radio. The mournful ballad “My Love Mine All Mine” would become a monster TikTok hit, surpassing in listens even indie rock staples like “Francis Forever” and “First Love/Late Spring.”

“The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We” is a fantastic record that has reasserted Mitski’s position in the canon of this generation’s definitive singer-songwriters.

Otay:onii – Dream Hacker (夢之駭客)

I was first introduced to the work of Lane Shi Otayonii (performing as Otay:onii) in 2021, when her album “Míng Míng (冥冥)” was released. That album from Otay:onii, who frequently globetrots for visual art exhibitions and also performs in the band Elizabeth Colour Wheel, became one of my favorites of the entire year for its masterful manipulation of soundscapes and texture. Her new album, titled “夢之駭客,” meaning Dream Hacker, is another triumph by the Chinese-American artist.

Otay:onii exists beyond the confines of what most would call “pop,” but at no point does she lose sight of melodic sensibilities. Her music defies easy categorization, although some have tried—’post-industrial,’ ‘electroacoustic,’ or simply ‘experimental.’ None are entirely capable of capturing the disparate musical ground covered in “Dream Hacker”’s runtime. “Overlap” features dramatic gothic synth strikes, while “W.C.” sounds like a radio hit from hell. “You Do/Rub” is split down the middle between ethereal folk and dense, layered drones. The metallic synths ache and creak; guitars and heavily processed vocals spasm over drums that pulse and shake as though they could shatter. Otay:onii displays impressive dexterity as a vocalist, wailing over some tracks but only cooing over others.

With this record, Otay:onii continues her streak as one of the most exciting experimental artists in music. “Dream Hacker” may be inaccessible and at times uninviting, but it is never once uninteresting.

Slauson Malone 1 – EXCELSIOR

“EXCELSIOR” is the second full-length record by Jasper Marsalis (performing as Slauson Malone 1), the son of jazz artist Wynton Marsalis. “EXCELSIOR” is a truly experimental sound collage, an ambitious forty minute compilation of disparate sound that pans between dissonant noise and hauntingly delicate melodies with surprising agility. Marsalis flits between textures and tempos at will, often in the middle of a track, resulting in the tracks themselves often appearing fractured even though its (exceptionally well-designed) soundscape remains consistent throughout; its lack of easily playlist-able songs demands the album be digested in one sitting every time. Under another artist, this record could have been a catastrophe, but the grounded vision of the Slauson Malone 1 project ensures that the album never gets too far ahead of itself. “EXCELSIOR” is one long-waking dream, frustratingly opaque but rewardingly serene when it finally unfurls.

Sufjan Stevens – Javelin

“In the future there will be a terrible cost, for all that we’ve left undone.” This maxim is delivered late in the runtime of Sufjan Stevens’ new record “Javelin,” during his eight-minute opus “Shit Talk,” but it serves as the thesis statement of the entire album. While it’s not appropriate to speculate on the intricacies of Sufjan Stevens’ personal life, especially given his general revulsion to celebrity status, there’s no escaping that “Javelin” is a breakup record. On “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?,” Stevens laments the seeming unachievability of unconditional love, while “So You Are Tired” sees him confounded over the reasons for his relationship’s demise. Stevens navigates these topics with his usual poetic deftness, and any one of these tracks could rival those of “Carrie and Lowell,” the consensus choice for his lyrical peak. But it’s impossible to listen to “Javelin,” and impossible to write this review, without acknowledging its tragic real-world circumstances: on the day “Javelin” released, Stevens shared on his Instagram profile that the record was dedicated to his partner Evans Richardson IV, who had died earlier in the year at the age of 43 and who Stevens described as “one of those rare and beautiful ones you find only once in a lifetime—precious, impeccable, and absolutely exceptional in every way.”

Putting aside the lyrical context, the album sounds like a culmination of Stevens’ illustrious career up to this point. At various moments, “Javelin” recalls the glistening electronics of “The Age of Adz” (magnificent opener “Goodbye Evergreen”), the intensely-personal autumnal folk of “Seven Swans” and “Carrie and Lowell” (“My Red Little Fox”), the lush and intricate chamber pop of “Illinois” and “Songs for Christmas” (“A Running Start”) and his most recent obsession, ambient inflections (the last minutes of “Shit Talk”). “Javelin” also stakes claim to its own distinct identity, with perhaps the heaviest reliance on backing vocals on a Sufjan project yet.

“Javelin” is far from Stevens’ most experimental outing. It’s not his most dynamic, nor is it the catchiest. However, it will stand on its own in his discography as one of his most beautiful and heartfelt, another wonderful present from one of the greatest singer-songwriters alive. We are incredibly lucky to have Sufjan Stevens.

Underscores – wallsocket

On “wallsocket,” a concept album about three young women in a rural Michigan hamlet of the same name, 23 year-old musician Underscores orchestrates a major coup in managing to justify her sound’s immediately-evident quirkiness. The album has all the energy to match the teenaged mania of its characters, but “wallsocket” successfully avoids seeming as though it’s weird merely for its own sake. While Underscores has never been a doctrinaire devotee of any particular genre, this record sees her at her most diverse yet, pulling variously from 2000s electroclash (“Locals (Girls like us)”), bitpop (“Old money bitch”), country (“Geez louise”), shoegaze (“Uncanny long arms”) and indie rock (“Johnny jonny jonny”), with recurrent audio samples sprinkled throughout like hip hop producer tags. The ridiculous fun of the music clashes with the disturbing and misanthropic lyrical content of many of the songs, with the resulting tension being a thread that defines much of the record.

That “wallsocket” can deal with topics like pedophilic grooming, stalking and class resentment, and still come off as nothing too serious, is a testament to Underscores’ remarkable prowess as a songwriter.

yeule – softscars

A portrait of alienation, self-hatred, and depersonalization, “softscars” by the Singaporean-British artist Yeule is reminiscent of the themes explored in media like Serial Experiments Lain and Radiohead’s “OK Computer,” observing the melting lines between reality and the digital world we all find ourselves increasingly enmeshed in—distrust of, but complete reliance on, technology. yeule revels in the maladaptive escapism of the internet, asking on one song “Don’t you feel so pure, when you don’t have a body anymore?” Their vocals sound as though they are cybernetically enhanced, cut-up and pitch-shifted (the choruses of “4ui12” and “cyber meat”) or modulated into lilting melodies (“sulky baby”).

Still, there is an unmistakably human essence to the album, mirroring the thematic content of an uncertain boundary between the digital landscape and our own. The intense compression of the production gives the record a feeling of overwhelming warmth, especially on acoustic tracks like the piano interlude “fish in the pool” and the climactic, guitar-driven closer “aphex twin flame.” Even with the processed sonic palette, the riffs are vast and swirling, as if the alternative rock radio hits of the late 90s and early 2000s were crushed under a thousand layers of digital file compression. yeule’s soft yet tortured vocals are deeply affecting when their actual self penetrates through the digital mystification, such as their verse on “inferno.”

The ability of “softscars” to frame both ethereal beauty and visceral pain as complementary to one another has earned it a status as one of the definitive artistic statements of 2023.

As I mentioned before, I also recommend these 60 albums from this year:

100 gecs – 10,000 gecs; Hyperpop

Aesop Rock – Integrated Tech Solutions; Abstract hip hop

Amaarae – Fountain Baby; Alternative R&B

Ana Frango Eletrico – Me chama de gato que eu sou sua; Funk, Brazilian pop

Andy Shauf – Norm; Singer-songwriter

Anjimile – The King; Art pop, experimental folk

Arlo Parks – My Soft Machine; Bedroom pop

asia menor – Enola Gay; Post-punk

betcover!! – 馬 (Uma); Art rock, jazz rock

Blur – The Ballad of Darren; Alternative rock, chamber pop

Buck Meek – Haunted Mountain; Alternative country, indie folk

Corinne Bailey Rae – Black Rainbows; Psychedelic soul, jazz fusion, indie rock

Cory Hanson – Western Cum; Alternative country

Cherry Glazerr – I Don’t Want You Anymore; Alternative rock

Danny Brown – Quaranta; Abstract hip hop

Eartheater – Powders; Art pop, folktronica

feeble little horse – Girl with Fish; Indie rock, noise pop

Frog – GROG; Indie rock

Genesis Owusu – STRUGGLER; Post-punk, neo-soul

George Clanton – Ooh Rap I Ya; Chillwave, baggy

Grian Chatten – Chaos for the Fly; Chamber pop

HMLTD – The Worm; Progressive pop, Windmill Scene

Jane Remover – Census Designated; Shoegaze

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Weathervanes; Alternative country

Jeff Rosenstock – HELLMODE; Power pop, indie rock

Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!; Disco, funk

Jungstotter – One Star; Chamber pop

Kali Uchis – Red Moon in Venus; Contemporary R&B, neo-soul

Kelela – Raven; Alternative R&B

KNOWER – KNOWER FOREVER; Synth funk

Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd; Chamber pop, singer-songwriter

Laufey – Bewitched; Traditional pop, chamber pop

Le Cri du Caire – Le Cri du Caire; Arabic orchestral

Lil Yachty – Let’s Start Here; Psychedelic rock

Me oh myriorama – Iris; Experimental hip hop, glitch pop

MIKE – Burning Desire; Abstract hip hop

Mon Laferte – Autopoiética; Latin alternative

Model/Actriz – Dogsbody; Noise rock, dance-punk

Nicole Dollanganger – Married in Mount Airy; Slowcore, dream pop, indie folk

Nourished By Time – Erotic Probiotic 2; Alternative R&B, UK street soul

Ratboys – The Window; Indie rock, alternative country

Róisín Murphy – Hit Parade; Deep house, art pop

PinkPantheress – Heaven knows; Alternative R&B, liquid drum & bass

P.J. Harvey – I Inside the Old Year Dying; Art rock, indie folk

Sampha – Lahai; Alternative R&B, UK bass

Sincere Engineer – Cheap Grills; pop punk, emo

Slow Pulp – Yard; Indie rock

SPELLLING – SPELLLING & The Mystery School; Progressive pop, chamber pop

Spiritual Cramp – Spiritual Cramp; Garage rock revival

Strange Ranger – Pure Music; Indie rock

Squid – O Monolith; Art rock, Windmill Scene

Titanic – Vidrio; Post-minimalism

Troye Sivan – Something To Give Each Other; Alternative pop, dance pop

Wednesday – Rat Saw God; Alternative country, indie rock

WITCH – Zango; Zamrock, psychedelic rock

Yaeji – With a Hammer; Glitch pop, indietronica

Yo La Tengo – This Stupid World; Post-rock

Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy; Neo-psychedelia, gospel

youra – (1); Jazz fusion

Yves Tumor – Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds); Art pop, noise pop

Besides albums, I also listened to a few dozen EPs. Ten of my favorites are:

8485 – Personal Protocol; Liquid drum & bass

bl4ck m4rket c4rt – Today I Laid Down; Slowcore, space rock revival

Daneshevskaya – Long Is the Tunnel; Chamber pop

Dev Lemons – Delusional; Indie pop

hemlocke springs – going…going…GONE!; Dance pop, indietronica

Maruja – Knocknarea; Art rock, jazz rock

New Jeans – Get Up; K-pop, dance pop

Opus Kink – My Eyes, Brother!; Art punk, Windmill Scene

Phuyu y la Fantasma – El pacífico albergará nuestros huesos; Chamber folk, dream pop

YUKIKA – Time-Lapse; K-pop, city pop

Haden Buzzell is Music Director for WMEB 91.9 FM. His show, “Oronoise,” airs Saturdays from 5-7 p.m, resuming on Jan. 21. For inquiries, he can be contacted at haden.md.wmeb@gmail.com.

You can listen to WMEB by tuning your radio to 91.9, or by finding them online at https://umaine.edu/wmeb/listen-now-2/

For updates on WMEB, follow them on Instagram @wmeb919.

Today, Mainers will vote on eight ballot questions, hoping to settle contentious issues such as foreign involvement in state elections and public ownership of electrical utility services. But it’s not only Mainers who are heading to the polls.

Voters in Kentucky and Mississippi will participate in closely watched races that will determine the occupant of their gubernatorial offices in 2024 and beyond. Meanwhile, voters in Virginia will select new members of their state legislature, while those in Ohio will choose a path for their state on marijuana restrictions, among many other races across the country.

Kentucky

The marquee race of the 2023 cycle is the Kentucky gubernatorial election, where incumbent Governor Andy Beshear (D) seeks to keep incumbent Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) at bay. While Kentucky is often viewed as an archetypal home of American conservatism, and indeed voted for Donald Trump by an overwhelming margin in 2020, the state has a long tradition of electing Democratic governors under certain circumstances: Andy Beshear’s father, Steve, had served as a two-term governor in his own right.

The younger Beshear came to power in 2019, defeating the unpopular incumbent Governor Matt Bevin (R) on issues of education and social spending as well as Bevin’s own personal unpopularity. He has carved out a moderately liberal path for Kentucky, seeking to focus mainly on local matters and avoiding contentious national issues. His even keel and effective response to disasters that have struck Kentucky in recent years have allowed Beshear to become one of the nation’s most popular governors.

However, Kentucky is still a staunchly conservative state. Cameron, a protege and supposed successor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), has challenged Beshear’s rule and hopes to use the state’s partisan lean to his advantage. Cameron is notable for being the first Black person elected to a statewide office in Kentucky and would be the state’s first African-American governor. He has sought to portray Beshear as no different from national Democrats, campaigning on red meat issues such as transgender youth athletes and restrictions on abortion in the state in the wake of the Dobbs decision (Kentucky voters narrowly rejected a ballot question that would have entirely extinguished the right to an abortion in 2022). Beshear has campaigned mostly on his incumbency and the successes of his administration. In his few negative ad campaigns, he has sought to cast Cameron as a culture war radical.

Polling has thus far indicated a substantial lead for the incumbent, although Cameron has gained ground in recent weeks and tightened the race considerably. Beating Kentucky’s conservative leanings requires exceptional campaign prowess, but if there’s any one Democrat who could do so, it’s Andy Beshear.

Mississippi

Residents of Mississippi will choose whether to reelect Governor Tate Reeves (R). Reeves is considered an embattled incumbent, having been caught in an extensive corruption scandal relating to mismanagement of the state’s welfare funds. Additionally, under his leadership, the Jackson, Mississippi water crisis peaked. Residents of overwhelmingly-Black Jackson were forced to boil water for several months in 2022, as flooding had rendered the outdated water treatment plant inoperable and contaminated, undrinkable dark water spewed out of pipes. The crisis sparked a nationwide debate about the maintenance of such facilities in areas where persons of color make up the majority of the population.

Brandon Presley (D) hopes to harness anger with Reeves’ governance and transform it into the first Democratic victory in Mississippi since 1999. Presley, who shares a surname with a vastly more famous cousin, has broken with the national party on many occasions. For example, Presley (who serves as an electrical utilities commissioner in the state’s northern end), supports abortion restrictions and is devoted to preserving gun rights in the state.

As with Kentucky, Democrats hope to again skirt the state’s partisan lean and deliver an unexpected victory against an unpopular incumbent. Presley’s chances of victory are quite slim, however, despite the family name and national media hype. Elections in Mississippi are intensely polarized upon racial lines, and Black turnout is usually lesser during off-year elections. Jim Hood, another conservative Democrat with statewide name recognition and impeccable credentials, was himself defeated by Reeves in 2019. The incumbent governor will likely be elected to a second term despite voter dissatisfaction. Still, discount Presley at your own peril: he has run an energetic campaign, visiting every county of the state and keeping the race close in some polling. The fact that Presley is perceived as having a shot at victory, however small, is a testament to his appeal.

State legislative elections

Republicans notched a major win two years ago this week in Virginia, when Glenn Youngkin won the gubernatorial election, and Republicans won a majority in the lower house of the Virginia legislature, the House of Delegates. The victories were a dearly-needed morale boost following their loss of the presidential election and the Senate the previous year and served as a rebuke of the economy and foreign policy of President Biden’s inaugural year. However, things have changed almost three years into the Biden administration. The Dobbs decision pulled moderate independents, who are plentiful in the D.C., Richmond, and Hampton Roads metropolitan areas, away from the right and back towards the Democratic column nationwide. The Virginia legislative races will be 2023’s best barometer of where they stand currently, as Biden remains underwater in approval ratings amid a divisive foreign conflict.

While the Virginia Senate is quite firmly expected to elect a Democratic majority, as they had done in 2021, the House of Delegates is something of a tossup, perhaps one with a Democratic tilt. One of the races that will decide control of this chamber is that of the 82nd district, containing Petersburg, where abortion rights have factored as a prominent factor in the campaign. Kimberly Pope Adams (D) has run on opposing Governor Youngkin’s efforts to curtail abortion rights for the first fifteen weeks, while her opponent Kim Taylor (R), the incumbent, has supported the governor’s proposals. The district is one of several that backed both Biden in 2020 and Youngkin in 2021. Elsewhere, there is the race in the 30th district, where Rob Banse (D), a retired Episcopal priest, faces local politician Geary Higgins (R) in a competitive Northern Virginia district just beyond the Democratic strongholds of Alexandria and Fairfax. Higgins had previously offered support to “Stop the Steal” rallies that sought to overturn the 2020 election, and his hardline conservative views have undermined his considerable administrative credentials.

One of the more bizarre races is in the 57th district in the Richmond suburbs, where pornographic material of Democratic nominee Susanna Gibson and her husband was discovered online. The revelations upended the race and emboldened Republicans, who proceeded to throw away much of this newfound advantage by launching mailers containing sexually explicit imagery to households in the district. While Biden won the 57th with a five-point margin, today, the district is a pure tossup.

While New Jersey’s legislature will undoubtedly retain its Democratic majority tonight, the race in the 3rd legislative district has still attracted nationwide attention. Incumbent senator Ed Durr (R), who in 2021 prevailed over then-Senate President Steve Sweeney (D) in what was considered a monumental upset, is facing a stiff challenge from state assemblyman John J. Burzichelli (D). Durr, a former truck driver who spent practically nothing on his first-ever race, has adopted strongly conservative positions upon taking office. Burzichelli, aided by massive external investment from Sweeney’s vengeance-seeking political machine, has sought to portray Durr as an abortion extremist out of step with the needs of his district (Durr supports a six-week legislative ban). Durr is a bare favorite, if only due to the district’s partisan lean (Trump +2.7), although Burzichelli is thought to inspire support owing to his lifelong loyalty to the region.

Portland, Maine mayoral race

The incumbent mayor of Maine’s largest city, Kate Snyder, has opted not to seek reelection after serving a single term. She was elected in 2019 as a moderate, pro-business Democrat (though the elections are officially nonpartisan), defeating progressive mayor Ethan Strimling and moderate attorney Spencer Thibodeau after a round of instant-runoff voting. Snyder governed as she campaigned, sometimes clashing with the city’s substantial progressive presence but mostly taking on a low-key role in city leadership.

The chief contenders in the race to succeed Snyder are all current city councilors. Leading the pack is Mark Dion, a moderate whose extensive public service career (previously having served as a state senator and law enforcement official) gives him a prominent profile bolstered by Snyder’s endorsement. There is Pious Ali, an immigrant from Ghana who has run a left-wing campaign backed by progressives, including former mayor Strimling. Andrew Zarro, a coffee shop owner by trade, has also run a viable campaign focused on easing the costly burdens of living and running a small business in the city. Former city councilor Justin Costa and political neophyte Dylan Pugh are also running.

The major issue in this election has been, overwhelmingly, the dual escalating homelessness and cost-of-living crisis in Portland over the past decade. Dion has advocated accelerating and reforming zoning processes to make the city more attractive for developers, while Ali recommends restricting Airbnb rentals and instituting rent control policies. Zarro has campaigned on building transitional housing services for the homeless. The election does not have a clear favorite, and the race may go to several rounds of ranked-choice voting.

Aurora, Colorado mayoral race

In Aurora, Colorado, a populous Denver suburb, Mayor Mike Coffman (R) faces a heightened challenge from City Councilor Juan Marcano (D). As with many municipal races in the past decade, this race has hinged on crime prevention and responses. Coffman, a Republican and former six-term U.S. Representative, has run the city with a ‘law and order’ approach to issues of homelessness and crime, pushing through a ban on urban camping. Marcano is a progressive Democrat and former member of the Democratic Socialists of America, running on increasing access to affordable housing and reducing racial bias in the Aurora police force, who were found responsible in 2019 for the death of Elijah McClain.

Houston, Texas mayoral race

The two leading candidates in the open race to become mayor of the nation’s fourth-most populous city are Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D), who has served in the House for nearly three decades, and State Senator John Whitmire (D). Jackson Lee has run hard on her national partisan credentials, while Whitmire has taken a relatively conservative tack, drawing on his close allegiance with public sector law enforcement unions in the city. The field is crowded, featuring 17 candidates overall, but Jackson Lee and Whitmire are considered inevitable runoff contenders (if neither notches an outright majority). Current polling suggests a marginal edge for Whitmire in the first round and a larger edge in a potential runoff.

Indianapolis, Indiana mayoral race

In this major Midwestern city, wealthy businessman Jefferson Shreve (R) has challenged incumbent mayor Joe Hogsett (D). Hogsett, who led the city throughout COVID and the racial justice protests of 2020, has been criticized from the right for doing too little to reduce crime in the city. To this end, Shreve has taken unexpectedly restrictive stances on gun control, mirroring those of his Democratic opponent. Shreve’s deep pockets have kept him competitive even as the single public poll suggests a not-insignificant Hogsett lead. While a rare blue bastion in a safely Republican state, Indianapolis has been liable to elect moderate Republicans in prior races, and a Shreve victory would present Republicans with a blueprint to win in cities that they have long since written off.

Allegheny County Executive

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, home to Pittsburgh, is faced with a pitched battle between two competing urban visions. Sara Innamorato (D), a rising star on the left backed by Senator Bernie Sanders and the city’s powerful union presence, aims to address quality-of-life and cost-of-living issues. She faces an idiosyncratic opponent in Joe Rockey (R), a banker who has avoided culture war issues and appears interested mostly in improving economic conditions within the county and recurring national issues such as crime and homelessness. Rockey has refused to be associated with former president Donald Trump, instead picking up an endorsement from Forward Party founder and former presidential contender Andrew Yang. Allegheny County is strongly Democratic in most races, but Rockey hopes to exploit what he perceives as independent dissatisfaction with progressive programs.

Ohio ballot questions

In Ohio, voters will determine whether to codify full contraceptive rights in the state constitution (Issue 1) and whether to legalize marijuana for recreational usage (Issue 2). While the state has taken a more conservative bent in recent years, polling suggests that a broad swath of Ohio voters will back both initiatives.

In Maine, polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Students attending UMaine can register to vote same-day at their nearest polling station, whether or not their permanent residence is in Maine. This applies to both on- and off-campus students.

On the UMaine campus, voting will be held at the Collins Center for the Arts. If you are not yet registered to vote in Maine, you can bring your MaineCard or another valid form of photo identification alongside a piece of mail displaying your address in order to register.

The latest escalations in the Israel-Palestine conflict have shocked the world in their immediacy and brutality. Certainly, the attacks on Israeli citizens perpetrated by Hamas are horrific actions of unbelievable cruelty and cannot be excused under any circumstances.

Israel has the full right to defend its citizens and to seek revenge against Hamas to the fullest extent that does not harm the citizens of Palestine. However, at no point can we allow these rights to infringe upon the right that Palestinians have to occupy their ancestral homeland. We must acknowledge that this situation is a monster partly of Israel’s creation, and the regime of Benjamin Netanyahu must be tempered in its response. Hamas may have started this conflict, but it will be on Israel to end it.

The stated goal of groups such as Hamas is to initiate the destruction of Israel, which has occupied Palestinian land for several generations now. However, the expulsion of Palestinians from their territory is not some relic of history consigned to the distant past. Nearly the entire nakba (the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” which has been adopted as the term for this process) took place within living memory, and many Palestinians still carry the deeds to their homes from Ottoman times.

Even more recently, Israeli settlements have encroached upon territory that had been designated as Palestinian by international agreements. The remainder of the Palestinian rump state is not even permitted to be physically contiguous. It is split between the West Bank, governed by the legitimate Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and the Gaza Strip, governed by the militant group Hamas.

Gaza is surrounded by hostile regimes (Israel and Egypt) on all sides, and the freedoms of its people are strictly circumscribed by the whims of the Israeli government. The strip is one of the poorest areas in the world, with no practical opportunities for economic growth and remarkably negative health outcomes. Gaza has existed as, essentially, an open-air concentration camp for nearly two decades.

Now, it has become apparent that the Israeli government will stop at nothing to enact revenge on Hamas. Since the first Hamas attack last week, Israeli munitions have killed over 2,000 Palestinian civilians, according to a figure published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Reports have emerged that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have deployed white phosphorus shells, a chemical weapon that burns so intensely that it can cause fatal burn wounds after mere seconds of exposure.

One of the only hospitals in the zone, the Shifa complex, is under constant barrage and overflowing with dead and wounded. The IDF has initiated a complete blockade of Gaza, cutting off their electricity and access to basic human needs such as food and water. Further, the United Nations has claimed that over one million Gazans have been displaced in just the past week. They are suffering endlessly for crimes that they did not commit. With Hamas being pushed back out of southern Israel, the pain of Israeli civilians has mostly ceased, but the promise of incoming operations by Israeli troops means that the pain of Gazans will only increase, and for much longer at that.

Israel’s recent demand that the entirety of the Gazan north, containing over one million people, be evacuated within one day before the IDF begins operations is outrageously unrealistic. By issuing such a proclamation, Israel has begun the justification for their imminent campaign of obliteration. While this campaign may manifest necessarily as a traditional full-fledged war of annihilation, it has been made incredibly clear that Israel does not intend to tolerate the existence of a Palestinian state any longer.

The Israeli campaign seeks to humiliate and subjugate Palestinians in Gaza as permanently as possible. The rhetoric pushed by Netanyahu and Likud is exterminatory by design; if the nation wishes to crush the terrorist threat, it will have little choice but to occupy and eventually annex the Gaza Strip. If the PLO gets drawn into the war, Israel will likely invade the West Bank as well. To get a sense of the Israeli terms for the cessation of this conflict, this is a quote from Major General Ghassan Alian: “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water. There will only be destruction. You wanted hell; you will get hell.” Make no mistake: the “ground operation,” if conducted, will manifest as a concerted effort to erase Palestinian statehood forever.

The revelations that the Israeli government had advance knowledge of the attacks, which they chose to ignore, presents a concerning possibility. We must not discount the prospect that Netanyahu, under attack from within his own country and more detested than ever (for myriad reasons, most crucially his totalitarian attempt at judicial reform), willingly chose to disregard the warnings of Egypt and others in order to enhance his volatile position as prime minister. These facts could also mean that knowing that attacks on Israelis would enable the IDF to invade Gaza and potentially the West Bank if the PLO gets drawn into the war, the Netanyahu government ignored these warnings to further its political goals. Even if this is not the case, the sheer scale of the surprise attack represents a cataclysmic failure of Israeli intelligence and should result in his removal as prime minister regardless.

The power discrepancy between Israel and Palestine remains a major source of concern from a humanitarian perspective. Hamas is simply the largest of many Palestinian armed resistance groups, with control over a small strip of land smaller than Rhode Island yet containing over two million people (roughly 40% of whom are under 15). Israel is an advanced, high-income state that has perpetuated a prolonged campaign of systematic ethnic cleansing for more than three-quarters of a century.

Israelis have endured unimaginable horrors in the past week, but we cannot pretend that their militarized regime is somehow the victim of this conflict. That is not to say that Hamas is the victim, either. On both ends, the costs of this conflict will be inflicted primarily on the civilians of Palestine, more so than any other actor in this war.

It is the responsibility of President Biden and Congress, who have unceasingly supported Israel for decades both financially and politically, to intervene and prevent Israel from imposing a reign of terror upon Gaza. They must continue their current work to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged people of Palestine, and military aid must end if the crimes committed against the civilian population of Gaza continue.

Further, the United States must be willing to guarantee the resumption of statehood and sovereignty for Palestinians at the conclusion of this brutal conflict. Anything less would be a disgusting dereliction of its responsibility as a superpower and as a supposed defender of liberty in the world.

Israel has the right to protect its civilians. It does not have the right to inflict harm upon those of other nations.