WASHINGTON – President Obama is reaping political benefits from the country’s brighter economic mood. A new poll shows that Republicans and Democrats alike are increasingly saying the nation is heading in the right direction and most independents now approve the way he’s addressing the nation’s post-recession period. But trouble could be ahead: Still-struggling Americans are […]
February 2012
Journalist dies while telling of horrors in Syria
In Homs and other danger zones, Marie Colvin was driven to expose how war ravages innocent lives.
Nation Dispatches
NEWARK, N.J. Mayor says NYPD mislead his city on Muslim surveillance The mayor and police director of New Jersey’s largest city said Wednesday the New York Police Department misled their city and never told them it was conducting a widespread spying operation on Newark’s Muslim neighborhoods. Had they known, they said, they never would have […]
Local & State Dispatches
Police seek man in assault of woman on Saco street / AT&T Internet, phone service down for several hours / Bill would pay bounties for reports of MaineCare fraud / . . . and more news from around Maine.
‘Ideological gulf’ explains decreased party loyalty for Democrats
WASHINGTON — Far more Americans favor Democrats over Republicans. For decades, the number of Americans identifying as Democrats or calling themselves independent but leaning Democratic has far exceeded the share of Republicans and Republican leaners. That gap has persisted, even in landslide Republican years like 1984 and 1994. So why don’t Democrats perform better in […]
Protests over Quran burnings kill seven
The U.S. has said it was a mistake and apologized, but to Afghans, it flouted their laws and their culture.
Faster-than-light-speed experiment found flawed
GENEVA – Researchers have found a flaw in the technical setup of an experiment that startled the science world last year by appearing to show particles traveling faster than light. The problem may have affected measurements that clocked subatomic neutrino particles breaking what Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein considered the ultimate speed barrier. Two separate […]
Brake trouble suspected in Argentina train crash that killed 49
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – A train packed with morning commuters slammed into a downtown station Wednesday, killing 49 people and injuring hundreds as passenger cars crumpled and windows exploded around them. It was Argentina’s worst train accident in decades. The cause wasn’t immediately determined, but many pointed to a deteriorating rail system. Some passengers reported […]
Greece: Bailout a shield from default
Amid more protests and another downgrading of its debt, the country says it’s now bound to the euro.
Maine Voices: For gas prices, the law of supply and demand gives way to speculation
Futures contracts were tightly regulated until Congress let hedge funds and banks wreak havoc.