Mid-April is a lousy time to have a holiday in Maine. What do we really have to celebrate? Mailing in our tax returns? Confronting the trash left behind by the retreating snow drifts?

You know what Maine Republicans need? More Jimmer.

You know what Maine Republicans need? More Jimmer. Jimmer Fredette, the sweet-shooting senior guard for Brigham Young University, led his team to the NCAA basketball tournament’s Sweet 16 by offering nothing but offense. He attacked his opponents’ weaknesses, exposed their deficiencies and scored at will. Jimmer-mania rocked the country.

So much for adult conversation and serious debate about the nation’s debt problem.

A legislative committee is tackling a long list of proposed changes to Maine’s gun laws this week, and most Mainers must be asking themselves why.

If you want to look at it from the dark side, there are things not to like about the federal budget deal, starting with the process that led to it.

The five-year struggle to approve Plum Creek’s North Woods property near Moosehead Lake was all about finding the best possible deal.

When is a budget not a budget? When it’s not so much about dollars and cents as about politics and public perception. When the person who conjured up the numbers for the budget says it’s not really about the numbers.