Cheers to teachers in Regional School Unit 16 — Minot, Poland and Mechanic Falls — for agreeing to take a four-day cut in pay, saving the district an estimated $175,000 and preserving some of their fellow teachers’ jobs. School administrators were facing a $319,500 budget shortfall and turned to teachers for help. Teachers agreed to […]

We’re a nation of Yogi Bears, all of us firmly convinced we’re “smarter than the average bear.” This is alternatively called the Lake Wobegon effect, thanks to radio theater host Garrison Keillor. His fictional hometown is, he regularly reminds listeners, a place where all of the children are above average. The phenomenon is humorously apparent […]

File this under, “what the ——– was he thinking?” And supply your own filler word. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, who is shepherding a massive rewrite of the nation’s health care system through the Senate, took time off last week from his labors to forward the name of his girlfriend, Melodee Hanes, to […]

Opera House owner Barry Mazzaglia is either a good actor or completely out of touch with reality if he is “shocked” by a Norway vote Tuesday night to take over his teetering building. A majority of the estimated 200 voters at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris voted to take the building by eminent […]

The politics of the Paris Board of Selectmen took another unfortunate turn Monday when Selectman Glen Young decided to obstruct the will of the voters. By refusing to provide the vote necessary to schedule a recall election for Selectman Troy Ripley and Board Chairman David Ivey, Young is playing a discouraging game of monkey in […]

It’s hard to believe the runaround endured by the parents of a Jay High School student trying to correct what they believed to be a grading mistake. According to Dean and Pamela Couture, their son had an 85 percent average in history last May when they checked his grades online. Many schools now encourage parents […]

In Virginia, 90-year-old Medal of Honor recipient Col. Van T. Barfoot is being denied his right of free expression. Ridiculously so. The decorated World War II veteran erected a flagpole on his front lawn in September, and has since devotedly raised the flag at sunrise and retired it at sunset. His neighborhood homeowner association wants […]

If you have a chance to see Jim Carrey’s “A Christmas Carol” this season, do, particularly if it’s the 3-D version in an IMAX  theater. Locally, it is showing at the Flagship Cinemas in Lewiston and Auburn. The special effects are stunning, and the oft-told story still brings a tear to the eye. Our bright […]

Bravo to the Lewiston police officers who quickly stopped a woman who could easily have killed someone early Tuesday evening. Police say Kristy Cookson, 28, of Manchester refused to stop after she was seen driving a pickup truck erratically in the densely populated area of Walnut and Howard streets. She raced down Central Avenue, finally […]

“I just killed someone. She died, and now I’m pretty much waiting for the cops to come.” The matter-of-fact voice of a cold-blooded killer, or the glib chatter of a teen party girl? Last week’s trial of Tiffeny Hamlyn showed they were one and the same. The 19-year-old Fryeburg woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges […]