My wife is a sportswriter. This is good and bad.The good part is this: Say I’m lying on the sofa watching pro football, and my team, the Miami Dolphins, have the ball, and it’s third and four, a situation in which the Dolphins, after considering all 3,487 of their offensive plays, always decide to send […]

The system that ties health insurance to employment is failing.The Dirigo health reform plan, which formally linked up with Anthem Thursday to create DirigoChoice, is an attempt to save the system that dominates the way Mainers obtain insurance.Call it “raging incrementalism.”Those are the words Trish Riley, Gov. Baldacci’s point person on Dirigo, used to describe […]

Chicago Tribune, Aug. 21 Workers of the world, shop till you drop! Then belly up to a five-course meal! Say, how about a visit to a nice comedy club?That’s how New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg might express his novel offer to the many protesters expected at the Republican National Convention.In exchange for their promise to […]

Police were too cute by half to catch any real criminals with a dubious sting operation that went down Wednesday.Twenty cops from 13 police agencies set up a sweepstakes scam in an attempt to catch 472 people wanted on outstanding property crime warrants in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.A Rumford detective spent more than a […]

Middle and high school students in Poland will find a new grade on report cards this year. Teachers will be giving students marks for effort and attitude.At first blush, we were put off by the idea of grading students for their effort and attitude. We didn’t like the idea that a sour disposition could hurt […]

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld did not directly order the abuse of prisoners that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But his policies led to confusion and indirectly contributed to the beatings, humiliation and torture of prisoners in U.S. military custody.A damaging report released Tuesday by a group of independent civilian defense experts tasked […]

New overtime rules went into effect for millions of American workers on Monday.Described by the Bush administration and the Department of Labor as a much needed update to workplace rules that will end costly litigation over who is entitled to time-and-a-half pay and when, so far the results have just added to the confusion.According to […]

U.S. gymnast Paul Hamm won Olympic gold last week for his performance in the all-around gymnastics competition.It was an amazing comeback after a fall seemed to knock Hamm out of the running for the gold medal.But a mistake by three judges has sunk the achievement in controversy, and now the president of the International Gymnastics […]

Merit should always be the most important factor when state government looks to hire.Sadly, that’s not always the case.Already having a government job can push some applicants ahead of others with better qualifications.The Maine Revenue Service is in the midst of filling 20 new jobs, including revenue agents, to beef up enforcement of the state’s […]

Lewiston’s property tax cap panel will meet for the first time tonight.Unfortunately, the panel has lost much of its punch.Originally, City Administrator Jim Bennett suggested forming a committee of city residents to produce a budget under the constraints of the Palesky tax cap proposal.The cap would limit property taxes to 1 percent of valuation, reducing […]