Armed with uplifting placards, encouraging business cards, paper flowers and boundless good will, a team of Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School third-graders fanned out across downtown Brunswick on Saturday. Their mission: Combat grumpiness. For adults with a proclivity toward negativity, the self-appointed smile patrol’s youthful ambition offers a welcome tonic to the February frowns. Whether […]

IN THE NUBA MOUNTAINS, Sudan — We heard the whine of a bomber overhead, and the families I was interviewing suddenly scrambled to their feet. Like starving people everywhere, they had seemed listless, their bodies conserving every ounce of energy to stay alive. “We’ve had nothing to eat but leaves from trees,” one young mother, […]

Regarding the recent newspaper editorial (“Be fair to Plant Home,” Feb. 3), letters and articles, I wish to add the following comments to the discussion on expansion of the Plant Memorial Home in Bath that is occurring in the press rather than in the City of Bath offices. My interest results from serving on the […]

To the editor: At the Feb. 6 Brunswick Town Council meeting, six of the nine councilors voted to table a decision on whether to draft a letter asking the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority ( NNEPRA) to follow the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Site Law Process and Standards for the proposed maintenance facility […]

To the editor: That the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is not willing to accept President Obama’s compromise offer to have insurance companies provide contraceptive coverage is not surprising. The U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ goal is to deny every woman, not just Catholics, the right to use contraceptive methods. Yet they do not […]

This nation’s tax code beanstalk is all about money. Planted by government, nourished by greed and plundered by the moneyed as well as by the masses, the tax code has grown too massive, too complex and too crazy. It would have been changed long ago if change did not gore so many oxen. Even the […]

Army Sgt. Jerry D. Reed II, 30, of Russellville, Ark., died Feb. 16, 2012, in Paktika province, Afghanistan. Navy Petty Officer First Class Paris S. Pough, 40, of Columbus, Ga. died Feb. 17, during a port visit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Four Air Force airmen died Feb. 18 when their U-28 aircraft was involved […]

Remember the days when many kids walked or rode their bikes to school? Well, those days are long gone. Since the 1960s, the percentage of kids who walk to school has dropped from 40 percent to just about 10 percent. Meanwhile, Americans of all ages have adopted a much more sedimentary lifestyle, and one of […]

Just a few months ago, almost nobody talked about the Strait of Hormuz, much less worried about its effect on our lives. Now, Iran threatens to close that narrow stretch of water in the Middle East. It’s the latest move in a growing international conflict over Iran’s possible development of a nuclear weapon. If the […]