Cheers and jeers from around the news:• Thunderous cheers to what’s been happening at Leavitt Area High School.It started Tuesday with the amazing night of Joshua Titus, a senior hoopster with high-functioning autism who finally suited up for the Red Eddies in the last minutes of their game with Edward Little. When his three-pointer arced […]

Gov. John Baldacci acted prudently last year in resisting raids of the state’s rainy day fund. We were among those who said he should spend it, given its large size against the small-by-comparison shortfalls, especially with important services – like the courts – on the block.We’re glad he didn’t take the advice. It was worth […]

Sherbrooke’s loss was Lewiston’s gain; now Lewiston’s loss is Boisbrand’s gain. That’s the way it seems to go in the Quebec Major-Junior Hockey League. But rationale from Maineiacs owner Mark Just for the team’s imminent relocation doesn’t sound like the full story.On Jan. 31, Just said the team’s inability to average 3,000 fans caused deficits […]

The Tuesday, Feb. 3, editorial, “A ride in the woods, on a snowy border,” contained inaccurate information.The $770,000 federal grant for Maine-Canada border-area ground patrols is shared by Oxford and Franklin counties, not Oxford alone, and will be disbursed over four years.It was the editorial writer’s error.

Even clean elections get dirt under their fingernails, which is why lawmakers should scrub Maine’s trailblazing public campaign financing program every session. Leading the nation along this particular path is an exercise in constant cuticle care.Legislators should get past, though, discussing whether the program should exist. More than 85 percent of candidates used clean elections […]

There are few more unforgiving places in winter than Oxford County’s border country. Its vast tracts of frigid wilderness warn even hardy travelers to pick another route – regardless of their business in the region.For here, the federal government has awarded Oxford County $770,000 to patrol, which buys two snowmobiles, fuel, gear and overtime to […]

“If the fate of these two cities rests in the hands of any commission, we’re in a lot of trouble, truly.”– Auburn Mayor John Jenkins, Jan. 27.“Auburn will take a leadership role by tapping its local business geniuses and inviting them to become part of a commission This group is what I would refer to […]

In economic stimulus, numbers have ceased to matter.The current package before Congress is $819 billion, but it could be a quadrillion, for all it matters. What’s been proposed is stimulus at any cost, because continued lagging of American economic output is a failure beyond comfortable calculation.Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are center stage in […]

Cheers and jeers from around the news:• Cheers to the Maine Principals’ Association, which did right with its vote on trimming school athletics. The recommendations from its ad hoc committee were unworkable, given staunch opposition; a little give-and-take was warranted.The compromise is sensible. Fewer playoff teams and non-countable games – but not as many as […]

University of Maine Chancellor Richard Pattenaude’s challenge in transforming the system is taking all of the anecdotes he hears and using them to create a smarter educational model.Anecdotes abound. A nursing student wonders why she must drive to Lewiston to watch a class televised from Portland. A nontraditional student can’t make a class schedule that […]