Somebody tell Yogi and Booboo to grab their pic-a-nic baskets and head to Bethel. Some townsfolk there want to make a permanent path for the ursine kind, allowing them to feast on the finest pickings from the transfer station.And there’s nothing Ranger Smith can do about it.Why? Wetland mitigation. A subdivision plan in Bethel aims […]

Whoops! We spoke too soon.On July 8, in referring to wind energy, we said “Anything environmentalists and industrialists can agree upon must be worthwhile.” We should have clarified our statement, to instead say “certain” environmentalists.For since then, it’s become clear the environmental community – despite its alignment with across-the-aisle groups like steel and electrical workers […]

Well, either our eyes were closed to a situation we didn’t wish to acknowledge, or we were unaware of the disaster possible by swallowing promises of the Fractionation Development Center in the community.So now we have trouble, my friend, trouble right here in the River Valley.Scott Christiansen has turned into Harold Hill, the flim-flam man […]

For decades, U.S. News & World Report has meticulously ranked American colleges and universities. Many parents of college-interested children use its meaty rankings to guide where, and where not, to direct their progeny.Now, some institutions – such as the University of Maine at Farmington, a high achiever from U.S. News – are spitting the magazine’s […]

Summer is a dangerous time. Really.What with E. coli potentially lurking in our burgers, broken bones from too much Slip’ n Slide, splinters from the deck that needs a fresh protective coat of stain, ozone stealing our healthy air, sunburns and skin cancer from lazy days spent sitting on the beach, heat exhaustion from working […]

Anything that can get environmentalists and industrialists to agree must be worthwhile.We’re talking about harnessing energy from wind turbines, a prime source of renewable power upon which Maine is ideally situated to capitalize. We have the need, the landscape, the investors, and the political will (except, so far, from the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission).Now […]

The American Medical Association, on June 27, declined to add “Internet/video game addiction” to the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, which would have elevated the suspected disorder to a malady with professional acceptance, and a formal diagnosis.The association asked for more study on the topic, and a review of how video games are […]

The story so far:Long spurned by the Androscoggin County Commission, Sheriff Guy Desjardins triumphed over the imperious panel – aided by an insulting “faux pas” by its chairman – and received consent to hire an additional patrol deputy.As long as he started over.This was a problem, given Desjardins had hired someone for the job. So, […]

When the dam on Lake Anasagunticook was built, American and British troops were still skirmishing inside the territory that wouldn’t become known as Maine until six years later.That was 1814. Judging by recent pictures of the rusty, dilapidated dam, little about it seems to have improved. It’s hanging open like a mouthful of busted yellow […]

Everyone has a right to defend their reputation, especially when it’s besmirched through no fault of their own.Leon Levesque, the superintendent of the Lewiston school system, did not deserve the national ridicule he suffered at the hands of one misguided satirist and several shortsighted and vitriolic national pundits, following a hate-motivated incident at Lewiston Middle […]