WASHINGTON — If Republicans are truly engaged in a “war on women,” as the Democrats claim, they are fighting it about as well as Gen. Custer did at Little Bighorn.

WASHINGTON — As the space shuttle Discovery flew three times around Washington, a final salute before landing at Dulles airport for retirement in a museum, thousands on the ground gazed upward with marvel and pride. Yet what they were witnessing, for all its elegance, was a funeral march.

When Ruth Epperson died from injuries suffered when a car struck her on a North Belfast Avenue sidewalk, it wasn’t just a tragedy for her family and friends. It was a sad day for all pedestrians in Augusta. It’s a scary place out there for anyone on foot.

As an expression of justifiable national pride (egad, I almost wrote the P-word!), the often-heard chant, “USA! USA! USA!” is uplifting and stirring.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead created plenty of controversy in her day; but on one score, she was indisputably right. “Never doubt,” she said, “that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Evidence of that truism is writ large in history. Just 50 years ago, a small army of black and white Americans led by Martin Luther King succeeded in upending laws that for decades had denied equality to black Americans. Likewise, a few dedicated women provided the impetus for passage of the law that finally gave women the right to vote.

In the weeks since the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the cases challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, I’ve made a number of presentations about the litigation, and one question keeps coming up: Why doesn’t the Supreme Court televise its hearings?

April is a month focused on putting a stop to child abuse and neglect. Governors all across our nation are declaring this “Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month,” and we are working to draw heightened public understanding of the tragic affects abuse and neglect have on our most vulnerable citizens.

When Agriculture Commissioner Walt Whitcomb started dairy farming, Maine had 2,200 dairy farms.

The gender gap in support between President Barack Obama and his now-certain Republican rival Mitt Romney has been a topic with no small amount of national attention.

Earlier this month, the Maine Legislature, in a show of strong bipartisan support, issued a joint resolution sponsored by Rep. Teresa Hayes, D-Buckfield, calling on the U.S. Congress to restore funding under the federal Clean Water Act, so that the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program can continue to monitor the health of Maine lakes.