I’m solidly on board with the bill sponsored by Sen. Roger Katz restricting certain junk foods from purchase using food stamps. A Portland recipient objects, lamenting parents not being allowed to buy their children a candy bar or lollipop “now and then.” The problem is now and then — throughout the day.

A small group of city officials and ordinary citizens have held open meetings for some months now to update Waterville’s Comprehensive Plan. We’ve been looking at what the city needs and how those needs can best be met in spite of the difficult economy.

In the May 22 paper in an article on the expansion of Medicaid, Newport Republican Kenneth Fredette said, “The die Is cast” — in Latin, “Alea iacta est” — and your writer Steve Mistler attributed it to a civil war in ancient Greece.

Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among Maine’s youth. It is important that we all work together to do whatever we can to help protect our state’s most vulnerable citizens.