Science. Technology. Engineering. Math. You’re talking about the jobs of the future there, the sort of skilled people Maine needs most. But, at Telstar Regional High School in Bethel, they are the teaching positions of the past. More than 100 residents Monday night took nearly two and a half hours to work through a very […]

A new statewide evaluation system for teachers and principals will help Maine qualify for “Race to the Top” federal school funding. That’s good, but the criteria adopted must seem cruelly ironic to the handful of school principals around the state who are losing their jobs to qualify for a different federal program. In May, 10 […]

From this side of the Atlantic, it’s hard to see why the Brits are being such twits about Sarah Ferguson’s efforts to make some money from her royal connections. Over here, we’d just call her a lobbyist. There were 13,754 people registered to lobby the federal government in 2009, and they spent $3.49 billion plying […]

Dog walkers may be disappointed, even angry, but we respect the right of the Stanton Bird Club to define the vision for Thorncrag Nature Sanctuary. If that means banning dogs, so be it. The club’s Stewardship Committee unanimously voted in April to no longer permit dogs at the 357-acre wildlife preserve, which has for years […]

Does anyone else see this coming? The Wall Street bailout followed by the Gulf Coast mop-up? We’re talking about the oil spill on the Gulf Coast, and the calls by that region’s governors for the federal government to step in and take over this clean-up. It’s rather remarkable to see governors who normally extol the […]

We are regularly rebuked for one thing or another, from being too liberal to being too conservative; for having too much national news or, occasionally, for not having enough. Thousands of readers will, we understand, have thousands of opinions, and we welcome and consider them all. But we’d like to correct an errant rebuke we […]

Cheers to Bob Roy Jr.’s vision, energy, pride and persistence in restoring the former Maine Central Railroad passenger depot into the awesome Ironhorse Court. Roy’s reason for spending personal funds to bring this old station back to life? “It’s a beautiful building with tons of historical relevance to this area. People came here on the […]

“Maine should establish a program that would be administered by municipalities to allow property tax increases to accrue and be paid, with interest, when the property changes hands.” That’s what we said in this column four years ago. Wednesday, what seemed like a good idea then finally became law.  Whether municipalities now take advantage of […]

USA Today created a stir last week with a headline that raised eyebrows across the blogosphere: “Tax bills in 2009 at lowest level since 1950,” the paper trumpeted. “Amid complaints about high taxes and calls for smaller government, Americans paid their lowest level of taxes last year since Harry Truman’s presidency,” the paper reported. “Federal, […]