Temporary jobs are becoming a permanent fixture in Maine’s employment picture, a trend that could slow down the already sluggish recovery and alter the way we think about work.

Kim Jong-un is once again playing host to Dennis Rodman. The United States basketball player, though on a private sojourn to the Stalinist state, has stirred the media over his possible role as an emissary to build bridges between Pyongyang and Washington.

The National Football League has begun play in earnest, and across the nation millions of Americans will welcome another season of this thrilling, but violent sport.

The settlement of the bitter contract negotiations between Time Warner Cable and CBS cost cable subscribers in Los Angeles, New York and Dallas a month of darkness on CBS-owned channels, including Showtime. Viewers were denied “Under the Dome,” “Ray Donovan” and, in L.A., nine Dodgers games.

People usually have only one reason to hide something — when they have something to hide.

Whatever its flaws, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has sparked innovation across the U.S.’s sclerotic health-care system. An especially welcome example is the push to expand the role of nurse practitioners in primary care.

Elected officials are not bound to follow the wishes of their constituents. Public opinion plays a role in their decision-making process, but in the end it is their duty to vote based on their conscience and the best available information.

Maine adopted the Common Core education standards about two years ago to relatively little reaction. Since then, though, critics have assailed the standards, and with a drive under way to put an initiative repealing the standards on the 2014 ballot, the debate will only grow in intensity.

Loons stricken with lead poisoning die slowly and painfully. It’s no surprise that those who have seen it firsthand recognize the tragedy in what is a wholly preventable death.