With all the privacy promises and assurances we receive from doctors, hospitals, banks and utility companies, you’d think most of us would feel confident that our privacy is safer than ever.But with the growing ability of big institutions, big government and big corporations to gather data comes the growing realization that personal information is too […]

An editorial Wednesday mistakenly reported that the Taxpayer Bill of Rights would, if it were enacted, have prohibited Mechanic Falls voters from exceeding a $25,253 expenditure limit.In actuality, the TABOR proposal that will be on the statewide ballot in November would allow any town or city to exceed its statutory spending limit if the governing […]

It’s been a hot week for global warming.Al Gore’s movie about the greenhouse effect opens in New York and California. While it’s unlikely to beat the Da Vinci Code at the box office, it is reportedly a colorful, engaging and thought-provoking examination of the issue.Meanwhile, a longtime environmental author and global-warming doubter, Greg Easterbrook, shocked […]

Many of us remember the old style of physical education: Boys in one class, girls in another. Shorts, T-shirts and calisthenics on a frosty athletic field under the scornful eye of the ex-drill sergeant coach recruiting for the football squad.And, many remember it as a miserable, humiliating experience that instilled a dread of sports and […]

In Mechanic Falls on Saturday, voters – convinced of needed spending for the public works and police departments – overwhelmingly approved a budget that exceeds Maine’s tax-cap law.It was democracy in action.After a full discussion of the town’s proposed budget, a majority of voters, some 36-8, approved spending that will undoubtedly raise their taxes because […]

The Acadia Byway.The Old Canada Road Scenic Byway.The Rangeley Lakes Scenic Byway.The Schoodic Scenic Byway.These four stretches of Maine roads are designated by the nation’s Scenic Byways Program as among the most scenic in the country.In Bethel, Toni Seger of the Western Maine Cultural Alliance is intent on earning a scenic byway designation for the […]

This is scary: In Maine, for every 100 ninth-grade students, 76 graduate from high school four years later. Of those, 41 students immediately enter college. Of those in college, 31 remain enrolled in school in their second year. And, of those, 22 students graduate with either an associate degree within three years or a bachelor’s […]

Lawmakers, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the Maine Hospital Association have reached a compromise on DirigoChoice that will fund the program through next spring.The compromise – which has already passed an initial vote in the Senate and is expected to be taken up by the House early this week […]

It’s been nearly 53 years since Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa, made the first ascent of 29,035-foot Mount Everest.In the intervening years, more than 2,000 others have stepped foot on the highest place on Earth. Lest you think it’s an easy climb, bear in mind that nearly 200 people have also died […]

Mainers are taking the bus more this year than last, and public transportation workers are encouraged that the use will continue to rise.The Land Use Regulation Commission has applications for wind farms in hand, and there is growing community support for construction of wind-collection towers.A group of Mainers – mostly from Franklin County – have […]