The national narrative about newspapers is expressed in two words: they’re dying. Over the past few years, newspaper circulations have declined, staffs have been cut back, budgets have tightened with the shrinking economy and the explosive growth of digital and social media, and some publications even closed their doors. However, ...

Quiet diplomacy and a sudden absence of irresponsible rhetoric have enhanced prospects for an acceptable agreement to allow Iran to develop nuclear energy but give up its presumed nuclear weapons programs. A continuing stand-off at the second round of talks in Baghdad this week is hardly surprising after five weeks ...

Like thousands of young American men eager to see action in World War II, Maurice Phair of Limestone enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in May 1941 because the United States had not yet entered the war. After the United States declared war on the Axis powers later that ...

America’s children can sleep better tonight. Baby polar bears around Hudson Bay are not drowning. A recent Canadian study of these “vulnerable” animals has shown that they’re doing very nicely, thank you. There’s an astonishing 66 percent more of them around Hudson Bay than previously estimated. Another dire warning from ...

What could you buy for $800 a month? Residents of Maine’s second congressional district could buy a lot. That could pay the rent for an average sized apartment, groceries, gas and dinner out once a week. It could buy a few new suits or day care for a couple kids. ...

JPMorgan Chase has spent upward of $20 million on lobbying and campaign contributions in the past three years. On Tuesday, the bank received a healthy dividend on that investment. Its chairman, Jamie Dimon, has admitted that the firm was “sloppy” and “stupid” in making trading bets that lost at least ...

In response to the May 12-13 Bangor Daily News editorial “Conservation Priorities,” I would like to offer a third dimension to the discussion. The BDN has addressed the potential lack of funding for the Land for Maine’s Future program and the governor’s dedication to a balanced budget. What the paper ...

“Corporations are people” Mitt Romney is often quoted, arguing that what is good for corporations is good for people. But this is a backwards way of looking at the truth; it’s not the cart that pushes the horse. If corporations are made of people, then what is good for people ...

It is past time that we stop caring about what Moody’s Investment Services and the other credit rating agencies have to say about Maine. Last week, Moody’s put Maine’s credit on a negative watch, which means sometime in the future it might decide to downgrade the state’s credit rating, maybe. ...

Blond, blue-eyed Elizabeth Warren, the Senate candidate and Harvard professor who cites “family lore” that she is 1/32nd Cherokee, was inducted into Oklahoma’s Hall of Fame last year. Her biography on oklahomaheritage.com says she “can track both sides of her family in Oklahoma long before statehood” (1907) and “she proudly ...

Friday’s state-level employment figures remind us that this economic recovery, like the recession that preceded it, is astonishingly uneven across America. The unemployment rate remains more than 11 percent in Nevada and less than 4 percent in Nebraska. This heterogeneity poses great challenges to any nationwide stimulus policy, which will ...

Mitt Romney, so long bedeviled by the politics of health care, may be about to make another serious mistake. He is on the verge of spelling out a plan to replace President Barack Obama’s health plan. Romney’s advisers, both inside and outside the formal campaign, want the main component of ...

What a difference four years make. When Barack Obama was running for president, he successfully managed to distance himself from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, leaving his Chicago church during the campaign and shrugging off suggestions that the preacher’s fiery rhetoric had any effect on him over the 20 years of ...

Cuts can be costly. As the saying goes, one can be pennywise and pound foolish. Whether maintaining a home or managing a business, sometimes frugality backfires, leading to more spending and costs down the road. Maine’s supplementary budget and a new approach on taxes will be quite costly. At the ...

As recorded in the May 21 Bangor Daily News, on May 20, I was arrested for yelling at former British Prime Minister Tony Blair during his commencement address at Colby College in Waterville. Since then, some have expressed disapproval of my disrupting Colby’s graduation. I understand and sympathize with this. ...

Most parents know who are the great teachers in their schools and who are the teachers to avoid. So on one level the resistance to evaluating teachers more systematically, rewarding good ones and encouraging bad ones to leave, is puzzling. Evaluation advocates say: Measure how well a student reads at ...

Big business, we keep being told, has been so hampered by regulatory uncertainty over the past few years, it has been reluctant to hire workers. So it is surprising to read the results of a little-known survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Very large businesses, it turns out, have ...

As I campaign across Maine, I find that the usually discerning Maine voters are more demanding than ever of those of us seeking office. This makes it challenging for a candidate, but that is the way it should be. I am heartened that voters are not settling for glib, easy ...

The second president of the United States, John Adams, predicted in 1780 that “English will be the most respectable language in the world and the most universally read and spoken in the next century, if not before the end of this one.” It is destined “in the next and succeeding ...

For those who are lucky enough to reach their 90s, here are a few tips from someone who has made it and is still going strong. First of all, we should give up driving if we haven’t done so already. Reactions slow with age. And we should realize that there ...