Must scientists refrain from faith in higher power?

President Obama's nomination of Dr. Francis S. Collins to head the National Institutes of Health is an excellent choice, but it troubles some secularists who believe science should proceed unrestrained by any higher principles than what can be achieved in a laboratory.

Students will share words, images as part of civics lesson

It is the last place where you'd expect to find a school that teaches about civic rights — and has links to Philadelphia's National Constitution Center.

But after driving an hour from central Kabul, over potholed roads jammed with trucks, cars, motorbikes and carts, and then maneuvering along a narrow, rutted dirt track and through wheel-deep puddles of water, we reached the Marefat school.

Personal care is cost-effective, productive and needed

A recent federal investigation into personal care services providers in Lewiston has brought these critical services public attention. It's important to clarify some misinformation about this program, which is has strong oversight, is cost-effective and delivers solid results.

Affordability is key for health care reform

In drafting a national plan, Washington should follow Maine's lead. 

 In the health care debate, most agree that costs will not be controlled until everyone is covered and able to access the right care, including preventive care and management of chronic illnesses, at the right time and in the right health care setting.Otherwise, costs for expensive emergency and catastrophic care for the uninsured and under-insured will continue to be passed to those who are paying private health insurance premiums.

Cities have no direction - let's give them one

This has been a week that's shaken Lewiston-Auburn.

There was the move to fire Jim Bennett, without cause or public discussion. Then, within 24 hours, a major anchor of this community's history was lost to a mighty blaze.

A old phrase, with a local spin, is aptly applied here: while the councilors fiddle, Lewiston burns.

Those in seats of power have chosen to occupy themselves with unimportant matters, and have neglected the community's priorities during a crisis.

Keep our powder dry on intelligence

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, July 14:

In the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the CIA reportedly launched a secret plan to capture or kill al-Qaeda leaders at close range. It's not clear how far this counterterrorism effort advanced.

CIA Director Leon Panetta learned of the plan in recent weeks and canceled it.

End of story? Not quite.

Howard's death still echoes

The July 10 editorial, "Remember Charlie Howard" mentioned there is still a long way to go. I couldn't agree more.

I remember those days surrounding the murder of Charlie Howard. I met him once in Bangor, all those years ago. I thought he was a sweet kid and for me, I believed him to be very courageous for being "out" in, of all places, Bangor, Maine. Until his murder, I had felt relatively safe in the more southern city of Lewiston. Then I found out otherwise.

Justice Ginsburg comment generates little hoopla

Here's what Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said in Sunday's New York Times Magazine: "Frankly I had thought that at the time (Roe v. Wade) was decided," Ginsburg told her interviewer, Emily Bazelon, "there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of."

Is NAACP relevant in a Barack Obama world?

Every journalist should be required to endure the bracing experience of being "covered." Nothing is more instructive for us journos than to put ourselves and our views in the hands of someone else to interpret to the world in all-too-brief quotes and sound bites.

Judging by my e-mails, my appearance in a "CBS News Sunday Morning" report on the NAACP's 100th anniversary convention this week left many viewers with a false impression.

G-8 summit shows Obama's lack of leadership

ROME — What did President Obama achieve for himself and for America during last week's G-8 summit? Not much.

Situation in Pakistan poses opportunity for U.S. forces

Despite the exciting events in Iran, Honduras and the Koreas, pay attention to a less-observed drama beginning in Pakistan this week.

The drama revolves around the fate of 2 million refugees who fled a battle between Pakistan's army and Taliban extremists in and around the Swat Valley.

The Pakistani government says the refugees can start going home this week. But they feel trapped between failed government promises and Taliban threats. Their fate will reveal whether Pakistan's leaders really want to defeat al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Obama must hope for a 'rosy apocalypse'

Barack Obama spent all of 2008 running against the sputtering economy, and warned earlier this year of a crisis "we may not be able to reverse." Yet, as the unemployment rate climbs beyond the administration's projections, Vice President Joe Biden informs us that the administration "misread how bad the economy was."

Obama didn't make much progress with Russian leadership

By Trudy Rubin
The Philadelphia Inquirer

A new poll of 20 nations, with 62 percent of the world's population, finds that, among global leaders, President Obama inspires the most confidence — while the leaders of Russia and Iran inspire the least.

Nearly two-thirds of those polled by World Public Opinion (www.worldpublicopinion.org) had confidence in Obama. On the other hand, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took last place, while Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin came in next to last.

Palin plays the victim, reaps the rewards

Editor's Note: Leonard Pitts Jr. is on vacation through July 20.

Poor put-upon Sarah Palin. As questions swirled around the suddenly announced resignation of Alaska's governor, it took no more than a day to wrap herself in the flag and unleash a Fourth of July rocket attack via Facebook squarely at a favorite target, the media.

Turn the page on immigration debate

A report released this week in Britain, intended to assess the basis for widespread perceptions, may create a framework for similar assessment in Lewiston-Auburn. The study, requested by the UK-based Equality and Human Rights Commission, was titled "Social housing allocation and immigrant communities" and investigated the use of public housing by immigrants.

Put a stop to Maine's capital punishment

A bad recession is like those June rains. Neither last forever.

During this bad economic weather, Maine should prepare for the coming recovery by implementing tax reform under the law that takes effect this January.

Hateful pastor wins a round with the U.S. Supreme Court

The following editorial appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Tuesday, July 7:

Both Thomas Jefferson and the 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire, from whom Jefferson borrowed many of his ideas, are given credit for the memorable phrase, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Actually it may have been one of Voltaire's biographers, but never mind. The point is, none of them ever met Fred Phelps.

Government care a health hazard

Most of us are familiar with the old expressions: Look before you leap; a stitch in time saves nine; if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. These phrases remind us to think before accepting anything as fact. And never have they been more applicable than now, as the Obama administration attempts to re-fashion the healing arts.

Washington Post's 'salon' mess brazen, not shocking

Before Sarah Palin stepped on the story, the talk of the Beltway was Salongate at the Washington Post. The venerable newspaper hatched a scheme whereby it would hold a series of "salons" at the home of publisher Katharine Weymouth in order to sell lobbyists and corporations access to Obama administration officials and the Post reporters and editors who cover them.

Iraq nears end with no resolution

The long, controversial U.S. effort in Iraq is ending more with a whimper than with a bang.
In Baghdad, Tuesday's deadline for withdrawing American forces from Iraq's cities was a national holiday, an occasion for rejoicing, despite some continuing violence.
In this country, it's mainly a time for relief tempered with some concern, the beginning of the end of a seemingly good idea gone awry.

Sarah Palin may be down, but she could rise again

The soon to be former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is like one of those souffles my mother sometimes made. The recipe warned against premature removal from the oven because the dish would collapse.

On Terror 'No-Fly' List, But Still Buying Guns

For gun purchasers, should "no-fly" mean "no buy?"

People on the government's terrorist watch list tried to buy guns almost 1,000 times in the last five years, a federal study finds. In nine out of 10 cases, federal authorities let them do it, the report finds, because there was no legal way to stop them.

Nation's Founding Fathers studied mankind's failings

As a nation, we were extraordinarily blessed in our revolutionaries. It wasn't just that they were brave and determined. So were the avatars of revolution throughout the 20th century who wrecked nations and peoples. No, what makes them so wondrously distinct is that they were also just and wise, grounded always in a cleareyed view of human nature.

U.S. talks with Iran put on hold for foreseeable future

Now that Iran has officially confirmed its tainted election outcome, President Obama must reconsider how to deal with the regime.
The big question is whether Obama should junk his plans for direct engagement with Iran's leaders after their brutal crackdown on civil protest. "There's no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks," the president said last week.
That's an understatement.

Yorktown: The end, and the beginning

By Jim Jenkins
McClatchy Newspapers

YORKTOWN, Va. — First, we did the Pledge of Allegiance. Then, "America the Beautiful," and then "God Bless America." A person is struck with such impulses standing on the edge of the Yorktown battlefield. Nearby Williamsburg has its moments, of course, full of the historic footprints of Thomas Jefferson and the other patriot-revolutionaries who trod its streets now well more than 200 years ago. ("Trod," I know. But I was feeling very colonial.)