The troubles of teaching about 9/11, the sixth anniversary of which is marked today, are its lessons are still being taught, and the topics the horrific incident raises remain difficult to address, as they cut into sensitive issues of religion, society, civics and public policy.As an educational opportunity, however, there’s little soil more fertile. Examinations […]

Only an undercover agent, or maybe Aaron Fuda, would drive around without hiding his marijuana, and the driver of an unmarked pickup in Rumford recently sure wasn’t the nude Norway activist.So discovered two twenty-somethings, whose horticultural curiosity landed them in cuffs last week, after they inexplicably trailed a Maine Drug Enforcement Agency pickup around town. […]

Kudos to Rumford Selectman Frank DiConzo, who apologized last week to a town firefighter he asked to “step outside” during a contentious meeting on Aug. 21.The apology was due. The audio recording of DiConzo’s remarks clearly proved his comments derived from rage, which, given his position as town selectman, he should have controlled. Otherwise, he […]

A dump is a terrible thing to waste.This is one of many fears regarding Lewiston’s proposal to privatize its landfill under Casella Waste Systems, which would allow the Vermont company to dwindle the landfill’s six-century lifespan into a mere three decades.Potential environmental damages, like polluted groundwater and atmosphere, and allegations of double-dealings by Casella also […]

Falcon Shoe is getting the boot, and couldn’t be happier.A five-year contract for firefighter footwear has put the 30-year-old Lewiston company on solid financial footing and, coming on the heels of L.L. Bean’s announcement to make pieces of its symbolic boots here, proves L-A’s manufacturing economy is evolving, not decaying.Mass production may have fled overseas, […]

“We’re sorry, Bust,” reads a new message on Lewiston’s graffiti wall, painted Thursday by a regretful Brian Serfes, the ne’er-do-well graffiti vandal turned artist, who is now a vandal again.“Bust” is Serfes’ street name, a christening from previous scrapes with local police. Now it’s the perfect descriptor for his credibility, after he was charged late […]

If necessity is the mother of invention, then ineptitude is the first cousin of citizens’ petitions. When lawmakers falter, “grass-roots” efforts arise to give voice to the people.And when this voice needs amplification, it dials Stavros Mendros, who hasn’t met a referendum question he didn’t like. Name your issue, he’ll name his price and put […]

The ability to parent knows no sexual preference or preferred legal standing. It should therefore be impossible to prohibit someone from becoming an adoptive parent for any of these reasons.This is the sensible opinion of Maine’s highest court, handed down last week in the case of a same-sex Portland couple, Marilyn Kirby and Ann Courtney, […]

The hurricane of public interest (and acrimony) about Lewiston’s proposal to privatize its landfill under Casella Waste Systems hit “Category 4” status last week, when more than 100 people crowded into a city waste task force meeting, demanding answers.Lacking them, the stormfront moved to Auburn, where it found a receptive audience. City councilors there asked […]

The only hyperbole Poland Town Manager Dana Lee expressed last Wednesday was with a toy sword.Brandished as a mock promise to commit hari-kari over the town’s woeful finances, Lee’s levity was the lone amusing anecdote from his plain-spoken presentation to townspeople.Poland is broke, he said, and there’s nothing to do about it.And nor, he said, […]