2012
American violence comes home to roost
To the Editor: Enough of the violence already! Assault weapons killing children here at home is a horror. But it’s also a horror when U.S. drone strikes kill innocent men, women and children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Can we ever feel the pain of those children? The U.S. proclivity toward every problem needing a violent […]
Going beyond self-defense
To the Editor: There has not been a time in this country when personal leadership was more needed. Mayor Bloomberg has called upon President Obama to “stand up and lead.” The amendment to our constitution which guarantees Americans “the right to bear arms” has been rendered obsolete by technology. Our Founding Fathers were thinking in […]
The dollars and sense of an assault weapons ban
In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass murders, a particular gun came under special scrutiny. It is the AR-15, originally made for the military (where it is known as the M-16), but eventually the design was sold to Colt, a civilian rifle manufacturer. Even so, it’s a military weapon, a lightweight, magazine-fed, […]
Marie Bernadette York
TOPSHAM — Marie Bernadette York died on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, after a valiant fight with breast cancer. Her strong will to live, her faith in God, and the love and prayers of family, friends and other strong supporters have carried her through. Marie has made Topsham her home for 30 years with her four […]
Benghazi review slams State Department on security
The leaders of an independent panel that blamed systematic State Department management and leadership failures for gross security lapses in the deadly Sept. 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya will explain their findings to Congress today. The two most senior members of the Accountability Review Board are set to testify behind closed […]
Child dies from flu in Maine; CDC urges vaccines
AUGUSTA (AP) — An early-arriving flu season has claimed the life of a healthy youngster for the first time in years in Maine, officials said Tuesday, prompting pleas for people to get vaccinations. The victim was an otherwise healthy elementary school-aged child in central Maine, a heartbreaking case that flies in the face of the […]
President is Time’s ‘Person of the Year’
NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama has been named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2012. “We are in the midst of historic cultural and demographic changes, and Obama is both the symbol and in some ways the architect of this new America,” Time Editor Rick Stengel told NBC’s “Today” show, where he […]
Another member of NBC team free after Syria kidnapping
BEIRUT (AP) — A manager at a U.K.-based security firm says an employee who was traveling with NBC correspondent Richard Engel and his crew in Syria is free after the group was kidnapped. Gillan McNay, operations manager for Pilgrims Group security firm, told The Associated Press today that employee Ian Rivers “has been freed.” Engel […]