When it comes to graduation, Maine should do betterHigh school graduation season has passed.Audiences filled with beaming parents, friends and family have watched hundreds of our young people take one of the most important and often hardest-earned steps in life.Every diploma passed from school official to graduate – often accompanied with a heartfelt handshake or […]

In Wales on Wednesday, the school board voted to cut music, art, physical education, gifted and talented programs, health and Spanish plus activities at Wales Central School to achieve a $202,691 voter-imposed budget cut.The board also voted not to provide transportation for students attending Oak Hill High School, and it will eliminate extracurricular activities, including […]

We’re always reluctant to read too much into low voter turnout numbers.Tuesday’s primary election, for instance, drew relatively few voters to the polls. Despite an interesting statewide race on the Republican side featuring three candidates for governor, only 27 percent of Republicans hit the polls.When voters don’t bother to vote, it can be read as […]

An editorial in Thursday’s edition failed to include Barbara Merrill, a Democrat-turned-independent, in the field for the gubernatorial race.

A lot of Mainers may volunteer, but we’re not breaking our backs doing it.That’s the long and short of a federal report about volunteering in America. The Corporation for National and Community Service found Americans across the country doing more volunteering than four years ago. Between 2001 and 2005, the number of Americans volunteering increased […]

Tuesday’s primary kicked out crystal clear gubernatorial choices for voters in November. There will be no middle ground for these candidates on the issues, social or economic, as we look left or right for governor.John Baldacci of Bangor, the Democratic incumbent – in a speech delivered at the state party convention in June – is […]

Despite extensive planning and tireless determination to be named an All-America City, Lewiston was not a winner in last week’s national contest in Anaheim.The city’s contingent – which included business youth and government representatives – clapped gamely as 10 winners each took that prize. They were disappointed at the outcome, having gone to California near-certain […]

Could 3 percent of truckers on Maine’s highways be operating with suspended licenses?We don’t know how else to read the results of a commercial vehicle inspection effort last week in York County. During the three-day crackdown, 584 trucks were inspected and 795 violations found, according to the Maine State Police. Of those, 83 vehicles, or […]

Taxes are going up for homeowners – blame a shift in the tax burden from commercial to residential properties.No, we’re not talking about Auburn this time, and we’re not talking about Lewiston.The pain this time is being felt in South Portland. That’s right, the Mecca of commercial and retail development in Maine.That city began sending […]

There’s always someone eager, willing and able to steal your money.We get so many e-mail requests from Africa seeking help transferring large sums of money that we can’t believe anyone would fall for this scam.Yet, as we learned last week, good-hearted but naive people do. A Wilton woman lost $3,900 in an Internet scam trying […]