Less than a month ago our communities celebrated La Kermesse ”“ a 33-year tradition honoring our French-Canadian heritage. While my last name may be misleading, I am proudly one-half French-Canadian and one-half Irish. My mother’s family came down from Canada and worked in the textile mills of Biddeford-Saco. My maternal grandfather was the Mayor of […]

The Providence Journal (R.I.), July 10: At some point, spending money you do not have catches up with you. Greece can serve as an object lesson in that. The beautiful country faces financial ruin after voters, by a huge margin, signaled July 5 that they will not accept a plan by creditors that promised only […]

Last week Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered an important economic address, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin formally announced his candidacy for the White House, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont explained how he hopes to win the allegiance of blue-collar voters, and Gov. Chris Christie made nice to Donald Trump even as he criticized his remarks on […]

Local State Rep. upset with LePage I was very disappointed in Governor LePage’s comments disparaging the Franco community. I wish he would remember how hard so many members of our community have worked over the years to stamp out negative stereotypes. At one time they were commonly repeated throughout the state, and we still hear […]

Is the Confederate battle flag merely an historical relic or a symbol of racism? Why do people in northern states, who have no racist history, display this flag? The recent killings in Charleston, S.C., which led to the lowering of that flag from a prime spot on the state capitol grounds in Columbia, have renewed […]

On Wednesday, the Biddeford and Saco planning boards discussed traffic mitigation strategies that could be implemented to go along with the anticipated growth of mill development, and the accompanying increase of traffic, on both sides of the Saco River. In addition to the mitigation strategies, an impact fee to be charged to developers to pay […]

The Standard-Times (Mass.), July 9: Amid all the praise and success for girls and women through Title IX, let’s never forget the myriad ways in which women have yet to be treated equally. We could talk about pay, opportunity or access, to name three, but today let’s talk about their safety. Thanks to a Philadelphia […]

The headline read, “4 gored during annual Running of the Bulls.” It’s hard to say how many people were surprised when they saw this. I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the vicinity of zero. Now, if the headline had been, “4 abducted by slug-like space aliens during annual Running of the Bulls,” that would have come […]

Thumbs down to those who think making a fake call to police is entertaining in any way. An incident of this dangerous practice known as swatting occurred in Biddeford on Sunday, when an unknown caller reported a murder and hostage situation that was later determined to be a hoax. Fortunately, nobody was hurt during the […]