On Friday April 5 Dexter Dover Area Towns in Transition (DDATT) will hold its next public discussion, the topic of which will be “Humanity’s Phase Shift.” Faced with rising environmental, social, economic and political problems across the planet, human beings are recognizing that the old governing systems based on competition and rivalry which have produced remarkable results for our species in the past are no longer workable as we approach 8 billion of us.

Maine wildlife biologists on March 21 proposed a slight increase in the number of moose permits for the coming seasons. If approved, the number of permitted hunters would jump from 2,500 to 2,820, according to a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokesman.

A Superior Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to halt the ongoing merger between Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft with Northern Light Health, the statewide health care organization that includes Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

I am doing something these last two weeks I once did all the time, but not much the last several years. For about 30 years I owned a circa 1820 post-and-beam Cape with an El. That house always needed fixing or sprucing. And I was lucky to have neighbors, friends and family I could hire to tackle the tricky stuff (electrical wiring, plumbing), but I wanted to do as much of the home repair as possible. I was curious much more than I was trying to save a buck as a do-it-yourselfer.

The Foxcroft Academy Marching Band’s most recent fundraiser for a return trip to Disney World involved selling Krispy Kreme donuts to the community. On March 22 Foxcroft Academy/SeDoMoCha School Resource Officer Pete Dennis volunteered his time to help deliver the donuts around town, joking that what is funner than a cop delivering donuts.

Dexter Regional High School’s Seeds Of Peace students led a dialogue session on Tuesday, March 19. Student leaders from clubs and organizations at the high school were invited to address issues and begin to discuss solutions.

I am always energized in the spring. This year, as so often before, I am in awe of the many opportunities we have in our community to grow more inclusive, more engaged, more healthy. So I am writing today about opportunity.

Thanks to the hard work of Maine’s congressional delegation, on March 12, the Land and Water Conservation Fund was permanently reauthorized when a bipartisan public lands package was signed into law. Since 1965, the fund has supported community projects all across the country.

A 23-year-old LaGrange man who stole two separate vehicles last spring -- a Dexter police cruiser and a Toyota Celica belonging to a veteran of the Iraq War -- and led authorities on a high-speed chase that ended when he crashed the Celica will serve five years of a 10-year sentence.

This week, Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout signed a new contract that is worth $430 million over the next 12 years, giving him the largest contract in North American professional sports history.