There’s an old expression that city managers arrive fired with enthusiasm and they usually leave the same way.It’s a high-stress job with multiple bosses who revolve regularly based upon the whims of voters who can, like a Maine winter, grow ugly overnight.The average city manager in the U.S. has been on the job for 6.3 […]

A letter to the editor from Jo Hoke (Feb. 20, page A6) criticizing the Sun Journal for running a story about Anna Nicole Smith’s death on the front page was inaccurate. Hoke stated the death of former President Gerald Ford was “buried inside the paper;” two stories on Ford were published on the front page, […]

For families of war dead to travel hundreds of miles to claim their loved ones is an unconscionable inconvenience.Sharon Bouchard, the grandmother of the late Sgt. Corey Dan of Norway, recounts the mournful passage from Western Maine to Manchester, N.H., to meet his military transport last March. A three-hour funeral procession ensued, during which Dan’s […]

While other House Democrats were pretending that their nonbinding resolution against the Iraq troop surge was of great import, anti-war champion Rep. John Murtha spoke the truth. It is not “the real vote,” he said in a webcast for the left-wing MoveCongress.org. That comes with Murtha’s imminent attempt to hamstring President Bush’s conduct of the […]

A letter to the editor from Jo Hoke (Feb. 20, page A6) criticizing the Sun Journal for running a story about Anna Nicole Smith’s death on the front page was inaccurate. Hoke stated the death of former President Gerald Ford was “buried inside the paper;” two stories on Ford were published on the front page, […]

For families of war dead to travel hundreds of miles to claim their loved ones is an unconscionable inconvenience.Sharon Bouchard, the grandmother of the late Sgt. Corey Dan of Norway, recounts the mournful passage from Western Maine to Manchester, N.H., to meet his military transport last March. A three-hour funeral procession ensued, during which Dan’s […]

While other House Democrats were pretending that their nonbinding resolution against the Iraq troop surge was of great import, anti-war champion Rep. John Murtha spoke the truth. It is not “the real vote,” he said in a webcast for the left-wing MoveCongress.org. That comes with Murtha’s imminent attempt to hamstring President Bush’s conduct of the […]

For a little while on Monday, Mother Nature gave back what the city of Lewiston took away.Children and adults gathered Monday for Visible Community’s winter carnival in the city’s empty Maple Street Park. They built multi-colored frozen mountains, and carved steps into their sides, as piles of snow temporarily replaced the thousands of dollars worth […]

It’s a paradox of the modern financial age: There is no credit without debt, and no debt without credit. A gaudy credit score is the gateway to the American dream, because few can afford to write the check for it anymore.Skilled debt management can lead to financial rewards, but mismanagement is ruin. Two groups – […]

For want of one deputy, a budget was nearly lost.This was the saga of Androscoggin County, as officials of county government wrangled for weeks about the budget prepared – at their request – by Sheriff Guy Desjardins before talks finally ended Thursday.The process was a portrait of dysfunctionality. It started in October, when county commissioners […]