The overcast skies and rain just couldn’t squeeze the good news out of Tuesday’s Sun Journal: * Bravo to Dirigo basketball coach Gavin Kane who has fulfilled his goal of coaching Division I basketball. Kane, who put together an incredible 263-17 record coaching the Dirigo girls and was 74-10 coaching the boys, will become assistant […]

If Barack Obama is looking for a shortcut to a one-term presidency, taxing health care benefits is it. Yet Obama aides are now signaling his willingness to do just that. They would use the trillions in new tax revenue to pay for health care coverage for the 46 million Americans who don’t have any. While […]

Gov. John Baldacci has offered a breather to nonconforming Maine school districts, by granting them another year to reorganize under the landmark 2007 consolidation law. With a repeal effort coming before voters in November, this delay makes sense. If repeal is rejected, however, leniency cannot continue. School reorganization must have some teeth, as the policy […]

Iran’s turmoil has caused the U.S government to tread lightly with its political response. President Barack Obama has shied from strong rhetoric, opting instead for nuanced statements that show American respect for the Iranian electoral process, yet concern for its people’s welfare. This approach has inflamed hard-liners, who feel the proper response is a powerful […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news: • Jeers to a lack of information. In reporting cases of swine flu, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention thinks being specific about locations makes no difference. We disagree; the more the public knows about an outbreak, the better served we are to take precautions. Releasing […]

If there is such a thing as an “establishment” environmental advocate, the Natural Resources Council of Maine would qualify. This description is not meant to insinuate anything negative; rather, it aims to portray the organization’s stability, strong influence and broad mission. Over the past 50 years, the NRCM has developed into as potent an interest […]

Political reaction to Maine’s tax reform has become so odd, we’re starting to wonder if Rod Serling is writing the script. There are Democrats mad at Democrats for passing the legislation, accusing it of masquerading as a Bush-style tax-cut wolf in progressive clothing. And Republicans — who should, theoretically, support such a policy — are […]

There are plenty of claims about wind turbines. The latest deals with the weather and how spinning turbines can fool satellites into thinking they’re rain, which could impede the forecasting of threatening weather systems. We can drop laser-guided bombs in Afghanistan from drones piloted from California, but our technology cannot tell spinning steel from falling […]

The editorial of Saturday, June 20, regarding a new map of the Androscoggin River watershed, insinuated no public access to the river exists between Leeds and Rumford. This failed to acknowledge a public access point in Canton plus several others maintained by Verso paper, which were not included on the map. It was an editorial […]

Perhaps Marvin Gaye said it best in “Heard it Through the Grapevine,” when he crooned: “People say believe half of what you see, son, and none of what you hear.” Gaye was — essentially — espousing that a healthy dose of skepticism and cynicism is necessary when being presented with significant information. His tune was […]