One thing Lewiston and Auburn could — and should — do together would be increasing their meager recycling rates. Auburn City Manager Glenn Aho sent an encouraging signal Feb. 9 that he’s willing to at least explore single-stream recycling, something the town’s Waste Management Committee, and this newspaper, have been promoting for several years. Single-stream […]

If the Obama administration has a strategy for passing health care reform, we certainly don’t understand it. First, the president reaches across the partisan divide to invite Republicans to a health care summit, scheduled to begin later today, and says he wants to hear ideas from all sides. That’s cool. Let’s put some Republican stuff […]

People talk about the national debt problem as if it’s something somebody else did to us. You know, like irresponsible politicians feeding harebrained pork projects to their cronies and home districts. Of course, there’s some of that, but a recent issue of the Kiplinger newsletter cast an interesting light on how we got to this […]

Dogs are like people — they love having a good job. That’s why it was a joy to read the story Monday about Anthony Colello and his 19 dogs. Colello operates Rangeley Region Sled Dog Adventures, where he takes visitors on  dog-sled trips around the Rangeley Lakes Trails Center on weekends. Colello’s dogs fight to […]

It’s been more then 40 years since seat belts were first required in cars, and more than 25 years since a state, New York, first required people to use them. Despite years of progress and legislation, it’s remarkable that about one in five auto occupants still does not wear one. Count 21-year-old Zachary Tenenbaum of […]

On Friday, 10 days after a special town meeting was held and townspeople voted to disband the Bethel Police Department in favor of contracting for police services with the Oxford County Sheriff’s Department, a majority of selectmen declined to ratify that vote. There was a worry, selectmen learned, that they and the town could be […]

There will be a casino in Maine. It might not be built next year or the year after that, but there is enough public support to concede that a casino is an inevitability here. The gamble for voters is in selecting the best, most businesslike project. The casino proposal that will go before Lewiston voters, […]

Cheers to Carrabassett Valley Academy. At first an offshoot of the Sugarloaf Ski Club, the academy was more or less formed in 1969 to “help racers and freestylers sharpen their skills for competitive skiing.” So while Mainers cheer the performances of Olympic medalists with ties to the Pine Tree State — including Seth Wescott and […]

Years of the Dr. Burgess and Sandy Record partnership to raise public awareness of disease prevention appear to have paid off. The Records are pioneers, having developed prevention programs and pushed public awareness about healthy eating and fitness habits for decades before it was popular to do so. The results, in Franklin County where they […]

Come on, people. How hard can it be to pick up after your dog? It’s terrific to see so many people using the recreation trail along Auburn’s Whitman Spring Road, where it’s sometimes tough to find a place to park on the North Auburn Road side. And it’s terrific that so many people are walking […]