People are getting away with murder.Not literally, that we’re aware of, but figuratively.Stacks of old arrest warrants gather dust in local courthouses while criminals and others accused of crimes go about their lives. Many of them will never be found, and some of those who are discovered will escape punishment because the crimes of which […]

By Steve A. Yetiv,Special to the Baltimore Sun Budget deficits explode. Inflation rules. Stock markets plunge. Houses foreclose. Great powers clash. This may be our future if we do not take more serious steps on energy than those offered in the energy bill that President Bush recently signed.With oil prices hitting all-time highs and war […]

The United States remains, almost four years after the attacks of Sept. 11, vulnerable to terrorism.While it would be impossible to eliminate every threat, the country has done too little to secure chemical and nuclear power plants, cargo containers streaming through ports or rail lines on which hazardous material is transported.Instead, the federal government has […]

Replacing the state’s MEA test with the SAT for 11th-graders is a plan worth exploring.Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron discussed the idea last week during a conference on higher education held at Bates College.Many educators believe the SAT, a standardized, national test that is often required for students who apply to colleges and universities, is […]

Maine can’t be all things to all people, and it shouldn’t try.A study conducted for the Maine Office of Tourism asked visitors to the state to rank their experiences. All in all, the state did pretty well. Maine gets good scores for being family friendly and for its outdoor activities. Not surprisingly, the state scores […]

Bates College has been a national leader in the area of service learning for years. That commitment stands to grow with the new Harward Center for Community Partnerships.Named for former president Donald Harward, the new center brings together several of the school’s existing community outreach efforts under one administrative roof, including its student volunteer program.The […]

There was some good coming out of a poll released Thursday.According to Strategic Marketing Services, 61 percent of Mainers would vote to uphold the new anti-discrimination law passed this year by the Legislature, while only 28 percent oppose it. About 10 percent of survey respondents are undecided.It’s reassuring to see that Mainers, so far, aren’t […]

By Robert Scheer,Special to the Los Angeles Times We don’t respect or understand any religious or nationalist fervor other than our own. That myopic distortion has been a persistent historical failure of U.S. foreign policy, but it has reached the point of total blindness in the Bush administration.The latest exhibition of this approach was President […]

It took a lawsuit to convince the Pentagon of its obligations to the American public.Through its rules, the tragedy of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has too often been sanitized, scrubbed clean for public consumption.Since the first Persian Gulf War, the Pentagon has barred the release of photographs that depict American soldiers returning home […]

The Great Falls Balloon Festival is set apart from many of the other great events that dot the summer calendar.There are similar trappings: food, music and fireworks. But it’s the balloons that are the real draw.They are, simply put, stunning.To hear the roar as the balloons inflate and watch as they rise, tentative at first […]