Huei-Ju “LuLu” Yen has been banished from the United States for five years. She was a student at the University of Maine at Farmington.Her crime: She wrote a free column for the Franklin Journal and then accepted reimbursement for expenses. On her way back to Maine after visiting her family in Taiwan, Yen was detained […]

Bush critics have a question about his conduct in the war on terrorism almost as pressing as the ubiquitous “Where are the WMD in Iraq?” It is “Where are the tax increases here at home?”Tim Russert announced in his “Meet the Press” interview with President Bush – in a disapproving why-can’t-you-get-with-the-program tone – “Every president […]

The most recent mind-blowing revelations about weapons of mass destruction had nothing to do with Iraq.While the world and the Bush team were focused on Saddam’s nonexistent nukes, the top nuclear scientist in Pakistan was peddling bomb designs and hardware.Abdul Qadeer Khan, father of the Pakistani bomb, was the key figure in a black market […]

The Lewiston Police Department is taking a positive, proactive approach to a task they would have rather avoided.After the state eliminated its liquor enforcement division, those responsibilities fell to local police departments. There was a lot of grumbling, as well as legitimate concerns, about how the duties would be absorbed.Lewiston has devised a plan that […]

“Do you want to limit property taxes to 1 percent of assessed value?”Sure. Who wouldn’t? It’d be a nice little windfall.But the real questions should be: Do you want less fire and police protection? Do you want fewer, more crowded schools with poorly paid teachers? Do you want snow plowed and garbage picked up? Do […]

Troubled by falling approval ratings and relentless criticism about the conduct of the war in Iraq, President Bush took his case to America Sunday with a taped appearance on “Meet the Press.”Almost immediately, the president was on the defensive.On the war, job losses and the fruitless hunt for weapons of mass destruction, Bush was intractable […]

Editor’s note: This column, written by Chris Potholm, was published Sunday under the wrong byline. We regret the error and offer the column again in its entirety. It’s truly unbelievable.I probably know too many liberal Democrats. But still, Bush Bashing this year seems to have gone over the top.Never, ever – not even in the […]

“We do not need to divide America over who served and how.”– John Kerry, Feb. 27, 1992 As his campaign rolls on, Sen. John Kerry sat down the other day for a brief and imaginary interview about the issues. Sitting on his campaign plane tightly wedged between Vietnam veterans, the senator was at the top […]

In a perverse sense, you’ve got to hand it to President Bush: When he sets out to bamboozle us with his budget, the man thinks big.Consider the facts. Bush’s new budget calls for a record federal deficit of $521 billion, meaning he will borrow nearly one in four of the dollars he wants to spend.He […]

Farwell Elementary School in Lewiston has had it.To say the school, which was built in the early 1950s, is past its prime doesn’t do justice to the building’s poor condition.Its wiring isn’t up to code. It’s not appropriately accessible for the handicapped. There’s asbestos. And there just isn’t enough room for the 327 students.School officials […]