While America’s traditional industries collapse, we can all be heartened that one service business seems to be thriving: Washington lobbyists.If you’ve been looking for that really hot career, consider the following: There are now 34,750 registered lobbyists in Washington, double the number registered in 2000. The starting salary for a well-connected congressional aide willing to […]

The opening of another summer camp in Maine Thursday was unlike any other. The campers were not Americans and did not come to the United States to learn to swim in our fresh water or taste a red hot dog.They came here to make peace among themselves and at home.For the past 13 years, campers […]

Just what will it take, exactly, for Americans to conserve fuel?Crude oil is creeping toward $60 a barrel, pushing up the cost of heating oil, gasoline and kerosene.At some point – and we’re just not there yet – the cost will force lowered consumption, but not before we get sick of shelling out precious dollars. […]

By Mary Sanchez,Knight Ridder Newspapers People who rail against the Bush administration for abuses at Guantanamo Bay are pitching an incomplete argument. We lease it.That right, Fidel Castro is our landlord. And the United States is a bad tenant.Under an agreement signed in 1903 and another in 1934, the U.S. agreed to pay Cuba for […]

On Wednesday, two teens lost control of their ATVs in Lewiston after cresting a hill, seriously injuring each of their passengers.The same day, two teens were hurt when their ATV launched 40 feet in the air in a New Gloucester gravel pit.In the first case, the teens had the owner’s permission to ride on his […]

Gov. Percival Baxter’s champion is leaving.Buzz Caverly has worked at Baxter State Park for more than 45 years, directing park operations since 1981. He announced his retirement this week.Caverly has been a tireless advocate of protecting Baxter’s vision of the 200,000-acre wilderness and its crown jewel, Mount Katahdin. He often echoed the late governor’s mantra […]

Thomas Edison. Henry Ford. Jack S. Kilby.That’s right, Jack Kilby’s name should be spoken in the same breath with America’s most famous inventors and industrialists.He invented the microchip in 1958, ushering in the age of transistor radios and, ultimately, supercomputers, which made possible everything from the Internet to space travel.Over his career at Texas Instruments, […]

While America’s traditional industries collapse, we can all be heartened that one service business seems to be thriving: Washington lobbyists.If you’ve been looking for that really hot career, consider the following: There are now 34,750 registered lobbyists in Washington, double the number registered in 2000. The starting salary for a well-connected congressional aide willing to […]

The right of eminent domain – that the government can take your property for the public good – grew exponentially Wednesday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government can seize property for private purposes.This will open the door to all sorts of unfortunate mischief as developers turn to the coercive power of government […]

One of the most onerous aspects of the U.S. Patriot Act is a provision that allows the government to demand library records of books checked out by U.S. citizens. Supporters of the act have argued up to now that the provision has been rarely, if ever, used.Not so.The American Library Association, however, spent $300,000 studying […]