As the United States moves toward rebuilding its economy and ensuring the long-term strength of our middle class, we’re mindful of the wise words of President Harry Truman: “In the long view, no nation is healthier than its children.” By that measure, we have some work to do, and we’re tackling it head on.

Republicans have reached their 1984. I don’t mean this in the Orwellian sense, though Republicans have more than their share of Orwellian impulses. Rather, I mean that the kind of divisions that have characterized Democratic presidential primaries since the 1984 contest between Walter Mondale and Gary Hart have now popped up in GOP primaries as well: This year, Republicans are dividing along lines of class.

It seemed strange that aging crooner Tony Bennett’s first comment about the death of Whitney Houston was a plea for the legalization of now-outlawed drugs.

The ground is frozen solid. We’re two months away from spring and more than three months away from the last frost date, which can be as late as the first week in June.

In the time-honored tradition of live and let live, more than 100,000 Maine voters signed petitions to place marriage equality on the fall ballot.

The raw facts central to Maine’s current budget crisis do not appear debatable.

What’s behind America’s deepening class divide? Charles Murray — probably best known to readers as author of “The Bell Curve” in the 1990s — has a new book: “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.” He argues that America is increasingly, dangerously divided between an out-of-touch upper class and a lower class that has abandoned the virtues of industriousness, honesty, marriage and religiosity.