Iranian students have been engaging this week in Round Two of their street-level struggle for reform. Round One took place last June, when young people protested the fixed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In his first year in office, Barack Obama has visited more foreign countries than any other president. He's touched ground in 16 countries, easily outpacing Bill Clinton (three) and George W. Bush (11). It's an itinerary befitting a "citizen of the world."

Anthony McKinney got a life sentence for running down the street.

The suburban Chicago street down which he ran, on Sept. 15, 1978, took him near the spot where security guard Donald Lundahl had earlier been shot to death. Police, still on the scene investigating, arrested McKinney, 18, who said he was running from gang bangers. With no physical evidence linking him to the crime, they ended up letting him go.

Does the U.S. Constitution stand for anything in an era of government excess? Can that founding document, which is supposed to restrain the power and reach of a centralized federal government, slow down the juggernaut of czars, health insurance overhaul and anything else this administration and Congress wish to do that is not in the Constitution?

I recall that September day like it was yesterday — the explosion so stunning, so memorable. It wasn't 9/11/01, it was 9/29/08 — a moment when a rare blast of populist democracy briefly singed the economic terrorists who hold the Capitol hostage.

The Republican Party has no national leaders. Its standing with voters is at an all-time low. It battens itself on an ideological purity that turns off the center and can't appeal to an increasingly suburban and diverse electorate. If it is not fated to go the way of the Federalists or the Whigs, it is certainly a spent force.

With another Election Day upon us, Mainers will head to the polls to vote on a couple of issues never go away: taxes. The most notable proposal is the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Following closely behind is a referendum to slash the excise tax in Maine on new and hybrid vehicles.

The rhetoric on both sides is compelling. The pro-TABOR camp, again claiming that restraining the growth in spending is the best approach to manage government services, is taking a second stab at using the citizen initiative process to pass spending caps.

An open letter to African-American women:

It's about the need to be beautiful, I know.

As goals go, that one is neither extraordinary nor gender-specific. But it's different for women, isn't it? A man's sense of self worth is seldom endangered by crow's feet. On him people will say they convey "character." On a woman, they convey wear.

Does anyone in Washington tell the truth? Why should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid be believed when he promises states can "opt-out" of a public option on health care? This isn't like opting-out of sex education class. Individuals won't be able to avoid the consequences of national health care once the government puts the insurance companies out of business, because there will be no other choice than the government program.

Hopefully, one year from now, voters will again be asked to consider expanding casino gaming in Maine.

As spokesperson for Black Bear Entertainment, the new group proposing a resort casino in Oxford County, I want to offer an overview of the project and our hopes for the next 12 months. I am not going to fill this page with gaming industry statistics. I will, however, tell you about Black Bear Entertainment and why this group represents the best chance for success, where others have failed. It begins with a well-written bill and a superb group of Maine businesspeople.

Out from behind the masks they come. The true identities of the trick or treaters are now being revealed.

Just as our Halloween mysteries are being solved, so soon will be the outcomes of this year's historic referenda. In the just over 100 years the petition-initiated voting process has been available in Maine, at no time there been this many at once: marriage, marijuana, mergers of school districts, car taxes and TABOR II. (Plus a transportation bond issue and a constitutional amendment.)

As a former police officer, I've experienced my share of challenges. But nothing compares to the trials I've endured in recent years battling life-threatening illnesses, including cancer and diabetes. As a result, I have come to appreciate, in a very personal way, how precious good health is, and how important good health care and modern medical advances are to saving lives and helping ensure a good quality of life for people like myself who face serious health issues.

"Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

'Till it's gone" — Joni Mitchell, "Big Yellow Taxi"

The Roman Catholic Church, in general, and Bishop Richard Malone, in particular, have been verbally abused, vilified, and denounced during the Question 1 campaign.

What terrible thing have they done? They have asserted that marriage is an institution established and based upon the principle of a union of one man and one woman, and that such an institution is essential to a healthy society and should be defended and maintained.

A monumental move was made this week to advance shared service delivery in Lewiston and Auburn. The decision to put city planning, zoning, and permitting systems on the same information technology backbone sets the stage for significant efficiencies.

Planning and permitting has, for years, supported each other and covered tasks on either riverbank as workloads have demanded. The working relationships among the staff have advanced collaborations that have often gone unnoticed.

For hours, the fear was the boy would be found smashed to jelly somewhere, so my first emotion upon learning 6-year-old Falcon Heene was actually safe in his family's Fort Collins, Colo., attic, was relief.

When authorities said two days later the whole story of a boy trapped in a balloon floating away was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by a family hoping to land a reality TV show, I suppose my second emotion was the anger anyone feels at having their chain yanked.

Short-term thinking on energy is going to cause some long-term problems

Ask Paul Edmonds, vice president of National Semiconductor in South Portland. In August, he wrote in the Portland Press Herald, "An inefficient regulatory system and lack of long-term energy strategy are conspiring against Maine citizens and businesses."

I was intrigued. So I called him. He told me, "High electricity costs are a threat to manufacturing competitiveness in Maine."

I am an attorney who has advised and represented Maine school units from Kittery to Fort Kent since 1975 and former chairman of the Maine Council of School Board attorneys. I respectfully urge my fellow Mainers to support repeal of the current, gravely flawed school consolidation law. Vote yes on Question 3 so we can leave it to the wisdom of Maine people at the local level to devise the best uses of limited resources to educate their children.

Public sentiment is strong on both sides of arguments related to LD 1020, the "Act to End Discrimination in Civil Marriage and Affirm Religious Freedom" in Maine and the upcoming referendum that would overturn that law. This is unsurprising because this issue evokes emotional responses, and emotions often influence how we vote.

Question 3 asks Maine voters whether they want to repeal the school district consolidation laws passed in 2007. These reforms are reorganizing school districts in Maine, streamlining the delivery of services and reducing the overall tax burden required to fund school administration.

We strongly urge the public to vote "no" on Question 3.

We are gathered here today in sympathy with our brother, Rush Limbaugh.

"That's just the way it is. Some things will never change ..." (Bruce Hornsby song lyric)

The Washington Post headline sounds as if a comedy writer, or someone fluent in George Orwell's "Newspeak" wrote it: "Record-High Deficit May Dash Big Plans," it said.

I don't get it.

I know that's the simplistic refrain of every 10-year-old, but I'm 33 and I mean it: I just don't get it.

Specifically, I don't get why Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine — or any Republican senator, for that matter — is attracting so much attention.

If only the laws of the universe didn't make it impossible to conjure something out of nothing. In a magical world free of such encumbrances, Democrats would be spared the bother of hiding the inevitable costs of ObamaCare.