Some 36,000 people in the United States died from the flu last year. That, in a year when vaccines were widely available. With the current vaccine shortage in the millions of doses, the number of deaths in the coming year will likely climb, but there’s no way to predict how high.The British halted manufacture of […]

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Oct. 7 It’s going to be a fine mess of a flu season. Maybe the record inability to give influenza shots will shake the federal government into addressing America’s dangerously weak ability to assure vaccines to ward off a variety of illnesses.The latest trouble occurred just as the flu season nears. British […]

It becomes clearer by the day that the United States went into Iraq without a solid plan to secure the country and establish the peace.In a troubling report, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Monday that precision equipment, tools and machines, which Saddam had mothballed after the first Gulf War, have now disappeared.The IAEA said […]

No department would be spared – not police, fire, schools or streets – from the tax-cap budget cuts, Lewiston city officials warned in October.October 1980, that is.Yes, for many L-A voters, this year’s tax-cap debate must sound faintly familiar.On the day that Ronald Reagan won a landslide victory over Jimmy Carter, Lewiston gave a less-resounding […]

If you don’t own a Hummer yet, you had better move fast.The absurd tax break the federal government offers on extra-large SUVs – call it a “humdinger” of a loophole – expires at the end of the year.The tax break was originally intended to help people like the local plumber buy a truck for work. […]

In June, Mechanic Falls Town Manager Dana Lee was a leader in the successful effort to pass a ballot initiative requiring the state to fund 55 percent of the cost of public education.When Lee appeared in television commercials and before the editorial board of the Sun Journal, he lamented the difficult task of foreclosing on […]

Tonight’s the night. The last time President Bush and Sen. John Kerry will debate face-to-face before voters go to the polls on Nov. 2.The event, which will be broadcast from Arizona at 9 p.m. Eastern time, will focus on domestic policy. Viewers of Friday night’s town-hall-style forum got a preview of what to expect from […]

Rumford selectmen made the right decision during a special session Monday night.Selectmen were presented with a request, including the signatures of 27 residents, to allow a meeting to consider the recall of board Chairman Jim Thibodeau.According a report in the Sun Journal, Ron Theriault would like to kick Thibodeau out of office because he has […]

Democracy got a chance for life Saturday in Afghanistan.There were problems, some of them serious, but the fact that the election was held should be counted as a foreign policy success for the Bush administration.Just three years ago, the Taliban controlled the country, forcing its extreme views upon the population and providing sanctuary to al-Qaida […]

Christopher Reeve, the actor who became famous as Superman, died Sunday. He was 52.Reeve was paralyzed by a horseback riding accident in 1995. More than his on-screen roles, it was the accident and the courageous way he never gave up the hope of one day walking again that best defines Reeve.He became a dedicated and […]