At some point in every presidential campaign, candidates put on their most somber face, look directly into a TV camera and tell us the road ahead will be difficult. For candidate Michele Bachmann, that moment arrived in colorful fashion Sunday when she told an interviewer that she has a “titanium spine for doing what we […]
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Census shows married couples declining in U.S.
Recent U.S. Census Bureau statistics confirm a troubling new crack in the bond that holds society together: Married couples now make up fewer than half of American households. Of even more concern, the number of households headed by a woman without a husband jumped 18 percent between 2000 and 2010. In 1950, 78 percent of […]
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New research no reason for a potato panic
First, the nutritional pyramid turns into a platter. Now the humble potato is responsible for a health-care epidemic. It’s enough to cause a severe case of nutritional whiplash. Researchers at Harvard University reported Wednesday that an extra serving of potatoes is more likely to cause weight gain than an extra can of soda pop. Over […]
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Alcohol Mary Road withstands a challenge
We applaud Greenwood selectmen for unanimously voting Tuesday not to change the name of Alcohol Mary Road. A family that once lived on the road, but had since moved, said they still receive calls from people asking whether the road was named after their grandmother. It was not. Current residents said they were proud of […]
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Gulf Island ramp important to the entire community
A free community boat ramp on Gulf Island Pond? What’s not to like about that? Plenty, according to local residents who see a host of reasons why the first proposed location for the ramp would disrupt their neighborhood. “The one thing we’ve learned is that neighbors never support infrastructure like this,” NextEra Energy official Ernie […]
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Medical system is holding back U.S. economy
The last thing America needs with high unemployment and a stalled economy is an innovation gap. Yet that is exactly what we have. You wouldn’t know it with the near constant release of new cell phones and computer tablets, but Americans just aren’t striking out on their own like they used to. Recessions have traditionally […]
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Helping children grow
Buckfield middle school teachers Gretchen Kimball and Annette Caldwell were honored last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture with a prestigious national award for Excellence in Teaching about Agriculture. The truly excellent part is that middle schoolers learn their lessons in agriculture the right way, by putting their hands in the soil, planting seeds […]
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Keep the light shining on public investments
After years of struggle, and months of political wrangling, lawmakers have finally reached a controversial compromise to resolve the $4.3 billion unfunded liability in the state employee pension fund. The crisis of the unfunded liability developed over time, partly because previous lawmakers raided the fund, but more recently because the market, as they say, tanked. […]
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Maine cuts red tape, gives business a hand
Gov. Paul LePage and Republicans in the Maine Legislature delivered their signature piece of legislation last week, a collection of red-tape cutting measures designed to make Maine more “business friendly.” Yes, it was a compromise piece of work, supported in the end by Democrats as well. But there is no doubt that the impetus for […]
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A look back at the week’s news
On Monday, Steven Lake carried two guns and a knife into his estranged wife’s house in Dexter, where he shot and killed her, their children and then himself in a burst of domestic violence. On Tuesday, knowing full well of the Dexter crime, by a margin of 708 to 546 Rumford voters rejected the town’s […]