Truck driver Vaughn Hardesty Jr. slipped through the “cracks.”Must have been the same “cracks” that allowed trucker Scott Hewitt to drive an 18-wheeler despite a long rap sheet of traffic violations and a prior fatal accident.Hewitt, you will remember, ultimately drove his truck into a line of cars stopped for construction on the Maine Turnpike, […]

“We have been too long content with the doubtful compliment that Maine is a good state to go from.’ She must be made a good state to come to, and stay in. We want to induce our young men and women to remain among us, and better themselves and us and the state by so […]

Some people paint swastikas on places of worship. Others burn crosses on front lawns.The members of the Westboro Baptist Church bring their brand of hate to the funerals of soldiers.They think God kills soldiers because he hates homosexuals. We won’t try to explain that kind of logic. We can’t.We do know that in a country […]

We’re trying something new today we’re calling P&S, or “Problem and Solution.”We’ll identify a problem, propose a solution and then invite you to give us feedback on our solution or propose one of your own. In a couple of days, the best of your responses will appear in this space.After reading today’s P&S editorial, you […]

The state’s supplemental budget is in its final draft stages and is expected to be released to the public early in the week. That budget is already heavy on paying for education, health care and making a deposit to the state’s Rainy Day Fund.There is a very limited amount of discretionary funding available, and many […]

Arthur Boivin has labored in love for his wife, and the result of that work is a recommended one-page, standardized, do-not-resuscitate form to ease the paperwork at the end of life.On Thursday, the Judiciary Committee voted in support of a bill to establish such a form for terminally ill patients to sign – in consultation […]

Maine’s two senators are usually regarded as among the most liberal members of their party. But, when it comes to fiscal restraint, they are apparently among the most conservative.Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins broke ranks with their Republican colleagues last week by voting for a requirement that any new federal spending be offset by […]

Some people really are, as the song says, just “bad to the bone.” Fortunately, a judge last week put one of them behind bars for a good, long stretch.David J. Mair was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years in prison for the 2004 attack on Mary Nash, a physician in her early 60s who happened upon […]

We are a nation of consumers. We shop, compare costs and purchase based on price. It’s pretty tough to do that, though, when we must buy goods without first knowing the price.Rep. Elaine Makas is fighting to give us the opportunity to compare prices on prescription drugs and we stand behind her. Unfortunately, Health and […]

By Paul Mulshine,Newhouse News Service Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, the news is out: Beer is better for you than milk.I’ve been saying this for some time now, but I was glad to see the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition weigh in on my side of the argument last week. The most recent […]