When one person wins $315 million on a single lottery ticket, as the Powerball champ in West Virginia did, Americans bet even more on lotteries. It’s a good reason to call lotteries “The Sucker Tax.”Yet lotteries are more than a levy upon the cerebrally challenged. They are a fraud upon taxpayers, who were told lotteries […]

Making New Year’s resolutions is a tradition, a tradition that includes not keeping the resolutions made.We have a suggestion for Maine.This year, make fewer resolutions and take more action.When Gov.-elect John Baldacci assumes his office following his Jan. 8 inauguration, his primary task will be to straighten out Maine’s financial mess.What will help him is […]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ark. – The young man playing the guitar and mandolin 21 stories underground here in Blanchard Springs Cavern has, quite inadvertently, helped me to understand the dangers of a pervasive culture.He, his sister and his mother are entertaining 100 or so of us with Christmas carols and seasonal songs. They’re quite engaging.But in […]

The Maine Principals Association’s rules on home-schoolers may need some tinkering, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong. The intent – to keep abuses out of Maine high school athletics – is important to the quality and fairness of play for all state athletes.MPA rules prohibit home-schooled athletes from choosing to play for a private school. […]

LONDON – It feels pretty strange to sit opposite a man who once worked at one of Saddam’s biological weapons plants.Ahmed left Iraq in 1999 for an Arab country; he spoke to me while visiting London and disguised his name because he still has relatives in Iraq. His story reveals how hard it will be […]

WASHINGTON – It is a truth universally acknowledged that nations that are protected from harm by other nations soon grow to resent their dependence. That is why many Europeans were delighted to watch thousands of American troops depart after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is why Israel rewarded decades of U.S. patronage by […]

The new 8th District Courthouse in Lewiston is a showplace, a modern and spacious hall in which to dispense justice.This building, shrouded for months behind plywood walls, is both beautiful and functional. Designers did not cover every interior wall with sheetrock, but left much of the brick and stone uncovered. The hallways are accented with […]

‘Tis the season to be merry and miserable. After the cocktail parties, the buffets of excess, and all the anxiety eating and compulsive drinking, comes the penitence. After the spiritual message of the rabbi, priests, pastors and mullahs of Hanukkah, Christmas and Ramadan, comes the need to atone for the fleshly sins of overindulgence.The new […]

Every year, we take this picture.It’s late on Christmas Eve after the fat man has gone and the last bike has been assembled. We are exhausted, ready to tumble into bed. But before we do, we take a snapshot of the finished product.It’s usually impossible to fit it all into one frame. The loot spills […]