An editorial published in last Tuesday’s edition was critical of the McLaughlin Foundation’s lack of public recognition for Richard Tribou McLaughlin regarding his part in the preservation of Bernard McLaughlin’s property on Main Street in Paris. According to the foundation’s executive director, Mike Desplaines, the foundation has assembled an exhibit of the garden’s history, dating […]

Revelations that two Boston firefighters had intoxicants in their systems when they died in a fire last month raise three troubling questions:• First, how widespread is this problem, not just in Boston but in other departments across the U.S.?• Second, did fellow firefighters cover up for these men, knowing that they had drug and alcohol […]

What’s the cliché? We can’t improve safety until someone gets hurt?Well, somebody did.Derek Caron, a 14-year-old Auburn Middle School student, got hurt.On Sept. 26, Derek was riding his bike to school and was struck by a school bus as he was crossing the street in the crosswalk. He did everything right and still got hurt.The […]

In the shadowy world of arms dealing and nation building, Viktor Bout is the name to remember. Immediately after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush declared that the rest of the world had to decide whether it was with us or against us. But it turns out that in the new world […]

Last summer, it was a $1,342 dinner tab that had motorists fuming.This year, it’s a $25,684 excursion to Vienna, a trip made too late for Oktoberfest but just in time for the Austrian formal ball season.The Maine Turnpike Authority’s 2006 feast of excess now seems to pale in comparison to the autumn globe-trot to Austria.MTA […]

We’re reluctant to second-guess judges in criminal trials. But we are also very concerned that the judge’s ruling in the Kyle Karkos manslaughter trial was patently illogical and sent a frighteningly irresponsible message to young drivers.The 19-year-old Karkos was cleared of all criminal charges Tuesday by 8th District Court Judge Mary Gay Kennedy.Karkos was at […]

The town of Norway doesn’t own the Norway Opera House, but it does own the right to maintain the clock in the building’s tower and it certainly owns – at least in part – the building’s current dilapidated condition.The Main Street structure – featured on the town seal – has been owned by hands-off out-of-staters […]

Every since Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett dropped motionless to the turf in Week One of the NFL season, football coaches and players at all levels are probably paying more attention to sports-related head and neck injuries.Since the largest number of head and neck injuries occur in football, and since football is played almost […]

The McLaughlin Foundation marked a true milestone Saturday: it’s 10-year anniversary, or what it calls “Ten Years of Preservation and Education” at the stunning McLaughlin Garden.Sadly, the anniversary celebration was marred by a striking oversight: the absence of any acknowledgment of Bernard McLauglin’s cantankerous adopted son, Richard Tribou McLaughlin.The McLaughlin Garden, as it is called, […]

The Scott Hewitt case is still rippling across Maine statutes.Hewitt, a trucker with a miserable driving record, killed Tina Turcotte of Scarborough in a tractor-trailer crash along the Maine Turnpike in Hallowell. Her death inspired Tina’s Law, which strengthened penalties for drivers with multiple, serious driving infractions.It also was the basis for LD 514, a […]