As the virus sweeps across the globe, the U.S. and my home state of Maine, my anxiety spikes with each devastating report. Nearly 800 Italians die in 24 hours. Overwhelmed hospitals and medical workers without protective gear. Faulty tests, not enough tests; more than 4,000 Americans dead with a predicted 236,000 more to die.
Barbara A. Walsh
Barbara is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has worked for newspapers in Ireland, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida. While working at the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Walsh reported on first-degree killer William Horton Jr. and Massachusetts’ flawed prison-furlough system. The series changed in-state sentencing and furlough laws and won a 1988 Pulitzer Prize. During her career at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Barbara wrote in-depth series on several social issues in Maine. Many of her stories changed laws and earned national, state and regional awards. Barbara is also the author of an adult biography/memoir, August Gale: A Father and Daughter’s Journey into the Storm, and Sammy in the Sky, a children’s book illustrated by Jamie Wyeth. She lives on a lake in Maine with her two daughters, husband and Paco, a rescue dog from Puerto Rico. When she is not writing, taking pictures or walking Paco, she can be found sitting by the lake, comforted by its blue-green waters.
LATEST ARTICLES
Maine ranks 9th in number of children impacted by opioid crisis
Maine will need an estimated $2 billion by 2030 to treat and care for opioid-affected children.
Focusing on Maine’s most innocent victims
Figuring out how to stop babies from being born affected by opioids is one of many objectives for the man hired to put an end to Maine’s drug crisis.
Legislators concur: Number of opiate-dependent babies in Maine must go down
In response to a fall Pine Tree Watch series, Maine Congressional delegation members say they’ll keep fighting to expand funds to pay for prevention, treatment and related services.
From depths of addiction to symbol of hope
Drug-free for three years after battling addictions since age 12, mom and advocate Courtney Allen looks to a healthy future with her sons.
Meant to love and care for special babies
An experienced foster mom refuses to give up on her opiate-exposed infant.
Desperate to change
After losing custody of her first five daughters because of an opiate addiction, a Maine mother battles her illness and the odds to keep her new baby.
Services aim to help women with opiate addictions prevent pregnancy
Nationally, 51 percent of women in the general population have unintended pregnancies, but women with substance-use disorders have much higher rates – nearly 80 percent, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
Piercing cries and a state of crisis
Nearly three drug-affected babies were born each day in Maine from 2013-2017, severely taxing hospitals, the foster care system and other resources.
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