Toting around reusable shopping bags used to be the mark of someone who most people would consider an environment-nut and dismiss as a tree-hugging Earth-lover. But no more. Turns out those folks were just ahead of their time. The era of the plastic shopping bag is coming to an end, and not a moment too […]

Dear Thanksgiving: You’re great. But you made me feel like I was going to rip apart in a violent explosion of entrails and cranberry jelly. Do it again and I’ll kill you in your sleep. Love, Jeff. So reads my imaginary letter to a holiday. I can forgive Christmas its commercialization, and Easter’s pointless fixation […]

Can our federal government avoid the fiscal cliff that lies ahead, when the Bush tax cuts end, and a number of domestic and military cuts are slated to go into effect? The talks between the Democrats and Republicans have slowed, but compromise is still possible before Dec. 31. According to Wall Street, fiscal cliff talks […]

Back in 2005, when the blighted Uranus Corp. building was deeded over to the City of Biddeford, the goal was to get the property back on the tax rolls. The building on the lot, which is situated at the corner of Main and Elm streets downtown, was rundown and neglected. Its owner sold it to […]

Hostess is closed. A stalwart in the snack foods industry, the more than 100-year-old, snack food and baked goods maker has shut down its 33 factories and laid off its 18,500 workers. Its roughly 500 bakery outlet stores remained open to sell off products, but those, too, will soon be shuttered. It’s an unfortunate end […]

The pond is calm at the moment but is apt to alter its mood at any time without warning. A shift of the wind can instantly transform its glassine surface to a small sea of ripples and wavelets that lap the serrated shoreline of this humble body of water. A topographical view of Wadleigh Pond […]

Sun gems sparkle on the surface of Wadleigh Pond on a late fall day. (RACHEL LOVEJOY PHOTO)

It seems like old times in the world of college football. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have emerged from their 24-year slumber of mediocrity, and put themselves into college football’s national title game. The Irish are the most storied program in college football, and annually used to put themselves in the top five of both […]

Thumbs down to the closure of Hostess Brands, Inc., whose Biddeford plant is a major employer in this area. Hostess has been struggling for years, in and out of bankruptcy, and while workers certainly had grounds for being disgruntled enough to strike, it’s a shame the situation could not end in an appropriate compromise to […]

In Massachusetts, undocumented young people should soon be able to attend state universities and pay in-state tuition fees. This change will probably allow a few thousand young people to attend school at a more affordable rate ”“ 50 percent or more of the nonresident tuition. While some people worry that changes like this will over-burden […]