A century ago, cautious housewives demanded that the butcher grind their beef in front of them so they could be sure he didn’t toss in offal or scraps of lower-quality meat.

The nation’s high school graduation rate rose from 72 percent to 75.5 percent between 2002 and 2009. The progress reflects intensive efforts by a number of states to develop and implement strategies to keep students from dropping out. And one key factor in prodding states to act was federal pressure — most notably, the oft-maligned […]

There are good reasons why the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black youth who was shot to death by a neighborhood watch volunteer while walking through a gated community in Florida, has attracted national outrage.

In the decade since Wikipedia showed how it could be done, there has been an extraordinary democratization of knowledge.

As the U.S. unemployment rate has dropped over the past year, a persistent refrain from many quarters has been that part of the drop can be chalked up to people removing themselves from the labor force.

You may have heard this phrase: “You can’t get something for nothing.”

Is Maine one of the most corrupt states in the nation?

The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case titled Astrue v. Capato, but a better name for it might be “In re: Brave New World.”

That seems an odd question to ask in Maine, where the state’s first slots-only “racino,” Hollywood Slots in Bangor, last fall got approval from Penobscot County voters to add table games (blackjack, poker, roulette, etc.) and changed its name to Hollywood Casino to reflect its elevated status.

For more than a decade after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, France avoided the spectacular plots, attributed to al-Qaida or its sympathizers, that shocked Britain, Spain and Germany.