The celebratory gunfire in Gaza that greeted the start of the Nov. 21 truce may have been in part to greet the end of the slaughter of the Israeli onslaught. This has seen at least 162 Palestinians die, the majority of them civilians, and in excess of 1,200 people injured. Some of these will die later and many more will have to live with crippling disabilities for the rest of their lives.

‘We’re No. 10! We’re No. 10!” You may not hear that very often at football games, but it rang loud and proud in Augusta last week after the U.S. Department of Education released its tally of high school graduation rates for all 50 states.

Though those who are critical of Gov. Paul LePage’s decision in 2011 to remove a specially commissioned mural from an anteroom at the offices of the Maine Department of Labor don’t agree, the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston made the legally correct decision in saying the governor had the right to do what he did.