Back in the ’90s, Maine looked like an island of moderation in a country divided. We had two Republican senators, two Democrats in the House, a closely split Legislature and an independent governor who was broadly popular across the political spectrum.

The political reform movement Americans Elect has chosen an odd way to go about opening up the presidential nomination process to disaffected voters: Instead of being transparent in all of its activities, the group that plans to put an Internet-selected ticket on the ballot in all 50 states won’t say where it gets its money.

Andrew Weaver, the respected Canada research chair in Climate Modeling and Analysis at the University of Victoria, and a lead author with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, recently confirmed what we’ve been saying for a long time: The demonization of Alberta’s oil sands is vastly disproportionate to its actual impact.

Iran is turning a wheel with four spokes to ratchet up tension in the region.

The profession is routinely denigrated by critics or those with political agendas, so it is easy to forget that journalism is an often thankless, endlessly difficult and, at times, life-threatening occupation. Marie Colvin reminded the world of that.

Unlike their dysfunctional cousins in Washington, the members of the Maine Legislature have managed to steer clear from the kind of partisanship that gives politics a bad name.

A bill designed to reform the Maine State Housing Authority has been criticized here and elsewhere as a blatant attempt to politicize an independent state agency.

Sometimes the best move is no move at all.Gov. Paul LePage made the right choice by staying out of an effort to extend the deadline for candidates hoping get a seat in the game of political musical chairs created by Sen. Olympia Snowe’s retirement surprise.

A teacher being issued a summons for making a joke about having his students shot? It sound outrageous. It sounds absurd.

If Sen. Olympia Snowe is really retiring from the U.S. Senate because she can’t stand the poisonous partisanship in Congress — and we have no reason to doubt her word on that score — then Maine is paying a terrible price for the rancor that has become business as usual in Washington, D.C.