Perhaps no sport rivals bicycle racing for its stringent drug-testing regime.Since his first win of the Tour de France in 1999, Lance Armstrong has faced intense speculation that he used performance enhancing drugs during competition. The French sports newspaper L’Equipe has been a particularly earnest critic.The newspaper has called Armstrong too good and too good […]

Today, several anti-smoking groups will gather to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Auburn Housing Authority’s successful smoke-free policy.They will also unveil a Web site (www.smokefreeforme.org) that helps private landlords gather information about making their properties smoke-free.Landlords have the right to ban smoking from their properties as long as the prohibition is included in a tenant’s […]

Proposed changes to the country’s fuel economy standards fall far short of what’s possible and could prevent states from adopting tougher requirements. Like doctors do, major changes in environmental rules should follow a simple rule: First, do no harm.With the announcement this week of a revision in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, the […]

Instead of planning for a recovery from bad news, Aroostook County can celebrate growth.On Thursday, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission reversed a Department of Defense recommendation to close the Defense Finance Accounting Center in Limestone and decided instead to nearly double the number of jobs there to no fewer than 600.After the roller coaster […]

Merck’s sin – for which it will pay dearly – was not that its arthritis drug carried increase risks for some patients.The drug company’s sin was going to great lengths to hide important information about Vioxx’s side effects while pimping it to an unsuspecting public through huge amounts of advertising.A jury earlier this month awarded […]

Given the animus that once existed between Lewiston and Auburn, the results of a survey conducted earlier this summer to gauge interest in combining some city services is refreshing.Old stereotypes and divisions between the two municipalities appear to be fading. Talk to longtime residents, and it doesn’t take a lot of badgering to hear how […]

TV preacher Pat Robertson is trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube, but his apologies and denials can not undo the damage done by calling for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.Hopefully, this latest absurdity will be enough to drive Robertson from the airwaves.Robertson is a national figure who once ran for […]

Salvation and desertion.Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has been saved. Brunswick Naval Air Station has been sacrificed.Wisely, members of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission voted Wednesday to keep the Portsmouth facility open, citing the base as the “gold standard” for public shipyards and a crucial component for naval capabilities.Foolishly, commissioners voted to close the last fully […]

The day of BRAC-ening is upon us.The Base Realignment and Closure Commission will begin formulating its hit list of military facilities today. The state could know by this afternoon about the fate of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Brunswick Naval Air Station. A decision on the military accounting facility in Limestone might not be made until […]

For every provocative stunt or nude celebrity that brings attention to PETA’s message without doing any real harm, there’s another that discredits the organization.People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals recently completed the first leg of a new campaign that equates the treatment of animals with some of the greatest horrors mankind has visited upon […]