There are certain tasks most of us will face, assuming we have the good fortune to live long enough. One of those is cleaning out the house of our parents — perhaps the house where we grew up. My mother, Louise Farmer, died in October 2015, and I have put off dealing with her house for almost four years.

While the increase in broadband speeds has been dramatic and is encouraging, these numbers mask a disparity between urban and rural Americans. Nearly all Americans living in urban areas have access to the Internet at speeds that meet the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband threshold, while one in four rural Americans do not.

In my last column I dealt with family associations. There are other types of associations which can also prove of immense value including DNA studies. These go back in the mists of time. Usually it’s men who are invited to join because their Y-DNA markers show a relationship to other men.

"Chris Pratt is facing criticism over a T-shirt he was pictured wearing featuring a controversial symbol." So read the first line of an article in Yahoo! Entertainment on Tuesday. Actor Chris Pratt, who you may know as Star-Lord from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, apparently wore something that caused him to "face criticism."

Save for a few welcome exceptions, today’s political discourse at all levels is awful. From politicians to political staffers; political reporters and commentators across all media; political party communicators, activists, public policy non-profits — the bulk of all this messaging is negative, emotionally and physically draining, and culturally corrosive.

My single proposed amendment to LD 1708 had nothing to do with “local control” but would have merely placed in statute some safeguards to ensure that standard fiduciary procedures were followed and that the citizens of the district would have an opportunity to keep a hospital in Dover-Foxcroft should something happen down the road.

This week, H. Ross Perot, the enigmatic Texas billionaire, two-time presidential candidate and reform party founder, passed away at the age of 89.

Republicans are facing a self-inflicted calamity with a lawsuit that puts at risk the health care coverage for millions of Americans. And they are doing it just in time for a contentious US Senate race in Maine and a presidential election.

The Fourth of July, Independence Day, celebration begins at our home on the third of July, with house cleaning and grocery shopping. Before the sun set on July 3, however, I paddled out onto Bear Pond on our trusty stand up paddle board, dropped my flat rock anchor, and snorkeled awhile in the cool, refreshing water.

There's a big difference between a healthy dialogue between people with true differences of opinion, and weaponized, irrational social activism meant to terrify people into doing what you want them to do.

If you’ve ever given money to a political candidate, then you know that we just ended the quarter – and started a new fiscal year – for campaigns ranging from town council and mayor right up to president of the United States.

Family associations can be great sources of material for genealogists. They range from informal reunions, where the descendants of a particular couple meet for a picnic once a year, to full-fledged organizations with dues and membership cards and newsletters. The associations run the gamut from Scottish Clans to Mayflower Pilgrim descendants to surname societies and everything in between.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Susan Collins is beatable. She is uniquely vulnerable this election cycle, and a good, strong Democrat can take her out. She has lost a lot of her popularity and is really vulnerable. This is the year she goes down.

I wanted to write about women’s soccer this week. On Friday, Team USA will play France in a highly anticipated match up of giants in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

In junior high school, and high school, two “guidance” counselors told me I should drop out of school. I was never going to make it to graduation, they said. Failure was inevitable. Why not just hasten the process and drop out?

Earlier in June, leaked polling information from inside the Trump re-election campaign was released to the public, and it wasn't good news for the president.

Kids in Maine are doing better in a lot of important ways. And it’s not an accident. Smart public policies are making a real difference in the lives of Mainers, including our youngest residents.

This is the time of year when we visit cemeteries. Sometimes what we find is not what we expected. In a neighboring town I found one cemetery with missing stones. We located heaps of pieces of stones tossed over a bank into the woods like so much rubbish. In another we found that when old stones fell, the town crew hauled in soil, burying the stones and leaving nothing but an empty green space.