Far too often our government leaders and lawmakers try to “fix” all our perceived problems in a particular area in one fell swoop, an approach that is actually flawed and impedes progress.

U.S. oil production surged almost 14 percent in 2012, despite falling domestic consumption. Production is projected to further accelerate in 2013.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission should be congratulated for a forward-looking decision last week that opened the door to an emerging industry for Maine.

It’s not science fiction, it’s science fact. The same technology that allows unmanned drones to hunt and kill terrorists in remote mountain hide-outs in southern Asia also could be used at home to conduct surveillance on ordinary Americans.

These have not been been easy days for cyber security experts at some of the nation’s leading banks. A barrage of attacks on bank networks has intensified since September, clogging websites with traffic, slowing or crashing them. The banks have not lost data, but their online services have been interrupted.

By now, Gov. Paul LePage knows how to get our attention.

While the United States’s foreign wars wind down, the body count at home keeps rising. The Department of Defense said last week there were 349 suicides by active-duty members of the armed services in 2012, as opposed to 311 combat deaths.

A key economic development challenge for state government is providing Maine workers with the kind of education they need to fill the more technical jobs that will be created and that exist now, unfilled.

For years, educators have argued about the best ways to grade teachers’ performance in the classroom. Some skeptics doubted it was possible to fairly evaluate teachers, partly because some teachers had brighter students while others faced classes filled with struggling kids.

The lie behind the love story was exposed last week, after reporters for the sports website Deadspin asked the questions that should have been answered months ago.