On Saturday, a contractor began the demolition of the buildings in downtown Lewiston that were heavily damaged in Tuesday’s fire and subsequently deemed dangerous. The loss has cast a pallor over the Twin Cities’ holiday season. Downtown had been flooded with optimism just days ago, as a stunned crowd attended the unveiling of the redeveloped […]

Heart wrenching images came from Oregon this week: families of missing climbers, appearing day after day, hoping for a miracle. “I know my son’s coming down today,” one climber’s mother said Dec. 16. “It’s my birthday. He wouldn’t miss my birthday.”Whether veteran mountaineers lost on Mt. Hood’s summit, or wandering hikers lost off Old Speck […]

There isn’t a moneymaker in the bunch.Lewiston city councilors voted Tuesday on a $550,000 bailout of the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. Portland and Bangor’s aging facilities are also subsidized heavily by taxpayers.And as long as publicly funded arenas in Portland, Lewiston, Augusta and Bangor compete for slivers of Maine’s entertainment scene, taxpayers will support these venues […]

White House officials are aggressively promoting the idea of sending more U.S. troops to Iraq over the unanimous objections of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to news reports.This is the right idea at the wrong time – put forward for unclear reasons.The White House has yet to answer the pointed questions of Colin Powell […]

It hasn’t taken new Auburn Mayor John Jenkins long to make a lofty promise.“City participation will be at its highest level ever,” the enthusiastic Jenkins said Monday, during his inaugural meeting as presider over the Auburn City Council. The former Lewiston mayor is bringing a frenetic governing style across the river.To start, Jenkins wants to […]

Just as Halloween started early for Tom Connolly, so apparently has Christmas.On Monday, the eccentric attorney struck a charitable holiday agreement with prosecutors, stemming from his Oct. 31 arrest next to I-295 in South Portland. Connolly, a former Democratic candidate for governor, was draped in an Osama bin Laden costume, brandishing a toy rifle, and […]

In the film “Thank You for Smoking,” a girl informs the lead character – tobacco company spokesman Nick Naylor – that her mother says smoking kills. “Is your mother a doctor?” Naylor asks. When the girl says no, he snidely replies: “Well then, she’s hardly a credible expert then, is she?”The response, though brusque, reflects […]

There’s something amiss when cable subscribers in Lewiston-Auburn can watch Manchester United play Arsenal live from Old Trafford, but not – maybe – the New England Patriots play the Chicago Bears live from Super Bowl XLI in Miami.We’d break out the rabbit ears first.This scenario could happen, if the intolerable machinations of the cable industry […]

Dear George, There’s a Web site out there called deadmalls.com. It’s a digital mausoleum to retailing gone sour, and catalogs vacant and flatlining mall monoliths from coast-to-coast, including detailed descriptions of their demises.Only one mall in Maine is listed on this site, and surprisingly, it’s yours.“Today, the 1992 renovation mixed with the remaining 1979 style […]

In some places in Maine, having a vehicle that will fail inspection is a point of pride. Islanders, for example, are famous – and notorious – for puttering about their friendly confines in vehicles held together with spit, glue, trap rope, wire hangers, duct tape and sheer will.In 2003, a New York Times writer lovingly […]