It had to come to an end sometime. After days of pomp and pageantry, of waving flags and rousing music, the boats have been moored, the ceremonial uniforms set aside and the bunting taken down.

With combat operations in Iraq at an end and the U.S. presence in Afghanistan winding down, a lot of soldiers are marching home. These cutbacks, which began last year, have consequences.

Mitt Romney officially sewed up the Republican presidential nomination with his victory in Texas.

A few of us will go to the polls on Tuesday, when a minority of registered Democrats and Republicans will pick their candidates for the big U.S. Senate race in November.

The official position of China’s rulers is that the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 3-4, 1989, is not open for discussion: A student-led “counter-revolutionary rebellion” was put down by security forces. Case closed.

The latest mission of an American spacecraft to the International Space Station was one of those marvels of balletic NASA precision. Except it wasn’t a NASA spacecraft that splashed back to Earth on Thursday. It was the Dragon, built by a private company called SpaceX.

Only time will tell whether Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s solid victory in Tuesday’s recall election will resonate nationally as other voters go to the polls in November.

After a regime change, it’s always tempting to blame all the new administration’s troubles on the last one.

Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, and 1st District U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, don’t find themselves on the same side of many issues, so we should pay attention when they line up together.