After driving up and over a few hills, around a few turns, the young forest opens ahead and the white steepled Washburn-Norlands Living History Center Meeting House appears. The closer we get we see how badly the Meeting House needs painting. From steeple top to skirtboard, window frames, doors, exterior decorations — the last applied coat of white paint is cracking, peeling, or missing. Patches of gray sun-bleached clapboard are everywhere.

Everywhere you look, they're dropping like flies. Incumbent Democrats are being defeated left and right in primaries, typically losing to young, often diverse, hard-core liberal progressives.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan may play the part of the earnest Boy Scout on TV, but when it comes to real life he falls far short, particularly when it comes to telling the truth.

Summer is waning quickly and people are returning from vacations, something many look forward to each year. Did your ancestors do the same? Packing up and leaving home for weeks was a luxury most of our ancestors couldn’t afford, though many would try to do something relaxing if they could.

“It is a little bit of a dog whistle to call something a scam. But this truly is a scam,” said Stop The Scam campaign manager Ben Gilman. We were talking about Question 1, which voters will see on Maine’s November 2018 general election ballot.

When I was a freshman in college, I got very involved, and very invested in the upcoming presidential race in 2000. Being a young, politically minded student, forming opinions and wishing to express them, I decided to try out column writing for The Maine Campus, the University of Maine's student newspaper.

Locked away. Out of sight. Out of mind. Out of luck. Kids are left in prison because there’s no place else for them to go. Men with autism are living in hospital emergency rooms, no other bed to be had. A child is locked up, gets sick and never gets better.

If your ancestor was naturalized how do you find the records? It’s important to determine where your ancestor was living at the time he was naturalized. Prior to 1906 any court could perform a naturalization ceremony. Your ancestor could have been naturalized in a municipal, county, state, or federal court, so having an idea where he lived at the time is of great importance.

Some teens are raised to know the value of a dollar, some aren’t, radio talk show host Laura Ingraham said this morning. I agree.

White hot rage. That's what I, a fairly devoted Catholic, felt when I read the grand jury report last Tuesday that detailed horrific abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses -- Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton.

Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument will celebrate its second birthday with a hootenanny this weekend. And there is plenty to celebrate.

Were your ancestors naturalized American citizens? Naturalization isn’t something new on our national horizon. Even in the 17th century, the English colonies required an oath of allegiance to the English crown or confirmation from a Protestant minister that the alien was in good standing with the church before he could become a citizen of a colony.

At age 35 I first developed a serious interest in politics, government, public policy, and how those three interests actually worked together in the real world. I was tired of being ignorant, more confused than informed by daily news stories.

It is a brave new world out there, ladies and gentlemen, and I don't think it is a better one. Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former contestant on Donald Trump's old show, "The Apprentice," who later became a campaign aide and staffer in the West Wing, has dominated the news cycle this week for taping conversations in the White House, and now making them public. Several of those conversations portray the White House in an unflattering light, and the Trump administration is having a difficult time fighting back.

President Donald Trump and his administration didn’t invent attacks on the free press, but they have taken them to incredible and dangerous new levels.

Music is my first love, but I don’t listen to music when I’m working, neither do I listen much to music while I’m driving. When I listen to music I prefer giving music my full attention. That’s true even when I listen to music while sleeping. I focus my attention on one instrument, block out the rest, and I’m soon asleep.

Susan Patten is full of surprises. We’ve known each other through various incarnations in Maine's news business. Mostly, Susan was a radio news broadcaster; I was communications director for legislators or political campaigns.

I have a confession to make, which is sure to set the teeth gnashing of my conservative brethren. I was once a proverbial "card carrying member" of the American Civil Liberties Union. Not something you hear a lot of Republicans admit, I grant you.