Retirement conjures images of sunny climes, shuffleboard, morning golf, afternoon pinochle and all the other luxuries of financially secure golden years, following years of hard work.Yet retirement, more and more, is deviating from this stereotype. The word is becoming a status, instead of a lifestyle. We can be retired but still expected (or, oftentimes necessitated) […]

Please join Editorial Page Editor Anthony Ronzio and the Sun Journal’s new “Political Animals,” Will Fessenden and Scott Lansley, for a live, online chat at noon on Monday, March 2, on sunjournal.com.Everything is on the table. Fessenden and Lansley will talk about their new feature, their backgrounds, politics and their first columns coming March 8 […]

Thomas Paine knew how to motivate people.On Dec. 23, 1776, Paine started penning “The Crisis,” a series of essays that summed up the country’s dismal fortunes under British tyranny and summoned fearful, reluctant patriots to cast aside their doubts of success and redouble their commitment to independence.His essays were snapshots of a country facing incredible […]

Please join Editorial Page Editor Anthony Ronzio and the Sun Journal’s new “Political Animals,” Will Fessenden and Scott Lansley, for a live, online chat at noon on Monday, March 2, on sunjournal.com.Everything is on the table. Fessenden and Lansley will talk about their new feature, their backgrounds, politics and their first columns coming March 8 […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news:• Jeers to cell phone users who haven’t learned to use hands-free devices: Do it, or risk losing your right to drive. You may think you’re wonderful at multitasking.You’re not.Many of you slow to a near crawl, or speed to the point of missing your exit. Some of you […]

Like epitaphs, earmarks remain as testaments even after their sponsors pass. Like former Rep. Tom Allen, for example, who still has earmarks pending within an omnibus spending bill expected to earn approval by the U.S. House of Representatives this week.That’s because the bill is a pre-election holdover. Allen is one of many ex-representatives with earmarks […]

These are the approved ballot items for November, according to the secretary of state:• The Taxpayer Bill of Rights: We’ve heard about this one before. The new version going before voters is merely Son of TABOR, with the same bloodline of tax and expenditure limitations.• Excise taxes: This referendum attacks an unpopular, regressive levy, but […]

Unless gondolas somehow come into vogue, Lewiston is best served by trying to resolve its canal issues creatively, rather than allow them to exist as money-wasters instead of money-makers into the future. City Administrator Jim Bennett has a few ideas.He presented them on Monday night – a system of walking trails and greenspaces based, in […]

Goldilocks, line two. Maine has a question for you.Is its Legislature too big, too small, or just right? A slew of bills introduced this session have posited this eternal question, which pits competing principles of finance, democracy, bureaucracy and efficiency into an argument that lacks a definitive answer.It strikes us that, in reality, the size […]

Please join the newsroom side of the editorial board – Editorial Page Editor Anthony Ronzio, Managing Editor/days Judy Meyer and Executive Editor Rex Rhoades – in a live, online chat at noon today on sunjournal.com.If there’s anything you’ve always wanted to ask us about the news or otherwise, here’s the chance. No registration is required.