As we continue to work through an economic recovery, one of the greatest responsibilities of those of us who serve the public is to ensure that we are spending public funds in a responsible way. We have made difficult cuts and spent many hours finding ways to stretch every dollar in the budget. I find […]

The U.S. Senate decision last week to allow presidential appointees to be approved by a simple majority was a waypoint on the path of history. The Constitution specifies only a few cases when Congress must have more than a simple majority to take action. Appointees need only a simple majority, so the vote should have […]

The effort to legalize marijuana for recreational use has been booted off the horizon for Maine in the upcoming legislative session, despite considerable movement toward that end, both nationwide and within the state. Earlier this month, the Legislature completed its final review of bills that will be considered in the January 2014 emergency session, and […]

All too often, we see progress bogged down by too much bureaucracy as our world becomes ever-more formalized and hierarchical, wrapped in red tape. It’s nice to see old-fashioned, person-to-person dialogue result in problem-solving among neighbors, as is the case for the Kimball/Beacon Street neighborhood in Sanford. Residents there raised concerns, about 18 months ago, […]

Thursday’s an awkward day to have a holiday. In some professions, a Thursday holiday translates into a blissful four-day weekend, and if I worked in one of those professions, I’d probably be ranting about something else, like candy cigarettes, or Toronto’s crack-smoking mayor. Another time, perhaps. Another time. The way things are now, today is […]

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks. That’s what we hear, anyway. What we see is an entirely different story. It seems we wouldn’t need signs at retailers explaining why they won’t be open immediately after dishes are cleared on Thanksgiving Day, but that’s what we’ve got. It seems we wouldn’t need to prepare extensive […]

Biddeford High School students will get to hear from a former professional basketball player about his past drug addiction thanks to the city council. The council last week approved taking the funds from the general fund to pay former Celtics player Chris Herren’s fee, so he can come and speak about the issue. While this […]

We are back here again, to where the pines and firs once more take over the landscape, their green the only color that does not speak of death or dying. For the next few months, they will dominate, the tallest among them defying even winter’s blast and her universal coverage of most of what we […]

In my youth, Thanksgiving meant a 50-mile drive “up to the country,” where Grandma, her daughters and her daughters-in-law would prepare and assemble a sumptuous feast for about 30 family members and friends. At the same time, Grandpa, attired in a headdress and smoking his “peace pipe” outside a teepee he had fashioned in the […]

Pine needles and maple leaves swirl in a vortex high above the ground. (RACHEL LOVEJOY PHOTO)