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.

Camp No. 22 covered some 775 square miles, a larger geographic expanse than London, New York or Los Angeles.

With the addition last week of 12 properties, including the Kennebec Arsenal in Augusta and the Stevens School in Hallowell, more than 100 sites have been included on the list of the state’s most endangered historic properties since its inception.

The apology by a Montana judge for his appallingly ignorant comments that blamed the young victim of the man being sentenced for her rape is meaningless. It is also as insulting as his original remarks. That’s because worse than the comments were the scant 30 days in jail for the rapist, an absurd sentence that the judge has continued to defend as appropriate.

In a recent speech in Syracuse, N.Y., President Barack Obama offered up one fact that speaks volumes about what has gone wrong with higher education: During the past three decades, the average price of a four-year degree at a public university has risen by 250 percent, while average family income has risen by just 16 percent.

The United States has a moral responsibility to step up efforts to identify, defuse and collect unexploded ordnance that U.S. armed forces rained down on Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

The A-F school grading system unveiled in May by Gov. Paul LePage is meant to identify underperforming schools and hold them accountable for improvement.

Unless Congress acts, the U.S. government will hit its $16.7 trillion borrowing limit by mid-October.

An editorial about housing in Augusta (“Old housing in dire need of attention”) in Thursday’s Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel misreported the number of buildings declared unfit for occupancy in the last year. According to the city, the correct number is seven entire buildings and one floor of an additional building, for a total of 42 residential units.

Stereotypes die hard as long as there are people willing to believe them. The story about the welfare cheat never seems to go out of style.