Last month, the governor and the Legislature agreed on the investments Maine needs to make in its highways and bridges.

My first memory was at the age of 4 when we lived on Hallowell’s Louden Hill. I was waiting for my mom, who was bringing home my baby sister, Eleanor, the last of us seven kids. She was named after our mom, Eleanor Falconi Routh.

In the fall of 2010, Republicans fought for and won majorities in both houses of the Maine Legislature for the first time in decades. Everywhere I went during that election season, people called for fewer regulations, lower taxes, more affordable health insurance and, most of all, jobs.

At last week’s roundtable exploration of the future of Maine’s newspapers, I came away with one piece of good news: Old people still love newspapers.

Last month, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein wrote a piece for The Washington Post’s Outlook section that dared to suggest the unthinkable: Both parties aren’t equally to blame for what ails Washington.

The Republican senator from Indiana lost his bid for a seventh term last Tuesday. So badly that he got 39 percent of the vote in the GOP primary. So badly that the guy he lost to — state Treasurer Richard Mourdock — had run unsuccessfully for office five times before.

For the past four years, in a series of columns, I’ve been tracking the debt burden placed on Maine college students. In 2009, we were fourth in the nation in student burden. Last year, we were second.

“Food, glorious food, We’re anxious to try it. Three banquets a day, Our favorite diet!”

This past week’s news cycle has produced two narratives:

Of course we love those macaroni necklaces. And who wouldn’t want another mug?