The Patriot Ledger of Quincy (Mass.), Oct. 20: This week we bring you three stories of hope for the economy and our pocketbooks. No. 1: Jobless benefits lowest since 2000 Yes, we’re wonking out here. That’s because it’s been years since the Labor Department issued such an unequivocally positive unemployment report. It announced the national […]

The Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer, Oct. 24: There’s been a lot of talk lately about income inequality, or the “wealth gap,” in this country. Some say the answer is to raise the minimum wage and increase taxes on the super rich, while the other side says the government needs to cut taxes and ease certain regulations […]

One Halloween, my husband persuaded our kids to give away most of the candy they’d just collected while trick-or-treating. They were preschoolers and the house we were renting then had previously drawn teens with haunted tours. We’d run out of candy when a stream of teens showed up at our underwhelmingly spooky doorstep, shaking badly decorated […]

By any estimation, it was an unusual experience. 2007, this was. A cluster of us gathered around a makeshift, plywood coffin, peering in at a friend who lay therein, his eyes closed and arms crossed around his exposed torso. The group’s ringmaster, dressed in a monkish robe and gazing at our mutual acquaintance through black-painted […]

The days are getting shorter now, even as the nights are getting longer and colder. There are many interesting highlights this month that will be well worth the experience. The sun has also been unusually active, so there is a good chance of northern lights even in southern Maine, if a large enough flare interacts […]

It’s been years since I managed a political campaign, but I get outside of Washington, D.C. nearly every week. With early voting commencing in more than half of the country, and millions of ballots being cast absentee or in person, there is only one thing known for certain: This midterm election remains fluid. But no […]

I wonder why you would print such a silly, baseless letter as that of Mrs. Welch, with nothing more than name calling and no references whatsoever to any specific differences of opinion or reasons for them. Would anyone reading the letter, without knowledge of previous letters, have a clue as to what she was writing […]

For heaven’s sake, Frank N., stop and take a breath, and give us a break. Donald E. Harper, Biddeford