I have not been asked to contribute to the effort of waging two wars except to pay my federal taxes. I don’t feel put upon to do so. I would also willingly pay a surtax to contribute to the cost of the wars and reduce the deficit. These wars, along with the decisions that contributed […]

Takuma Kawamura passed away last September in his native Japan, and the ripples of this sad news are now quietly lapping our shores. For those of us who knew him, his passing leaves an empty place, a kind of hole in the heart, that is proving slow to heal. Takuma didn’t cut a particularly wide […]

Back on April 13, with very little media attention, LD 814, An Act Regarding the Sale of Weapons at Gun Shows, received a unanimous ought-not-to-pass vote from the Maine legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety committee. The proposed bill made a lot of sense. It would have closed the legal loophole that allows individuals to […]

Certainly, I understand the University of Maine (like all institutions of higher learning) is facing severe budgetary problems and that athletic budgets have to be a part of the belt tightening. What I did not understand is why the university decided to suspend men’s soccer as the way to trim its athletic budget. So I […]

Within hours after the owner of the Maine Mall announced last week that it had filed for bankruptcy protection, southern Maine news Web sites were all over the story. Most of them either quoted reports from national news organizations or had wire service stories online within six or eight hours of the 3 a.m. press […]

Michael Estes, principal of West Harpswell School, has estimated that the enrollment of West Harpswell School alone might go down to 58 in two years from the present number 71, but this is only an estimate. Indeed, in the past the school population has been that small. Many good small schools have many fewer students. […]

Picture this: the country is in the midst of a recession and many people have lost their jobs. You as a retiree have lost up to half of your retirement savings. The cost of most everything has risen, including heating oil, health care, food and transportation and now the town is forecasting a 10 percent […]

The Falmouth Memorial Library’s third annual month-long Beauty and the Books silent auction raised more than $7,800 for the community’s book collection and special programs this year. Sixty-five area artists, crafters, designers and photographers with ages spanning seven decades donated more than 130 works. Student crafts and a community knitting group’s afghan were two of […]