It took half a decade, but bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate have finally approved free-trade agreements between the United States and three key nations: South Korea, Colombia and Panama. This is cause for celebration — but also for reflection.

Maine needs a comprehensive overhaul of the state’s tax structure. We don’t need piecemeal changes, stopgap fixes or just plain tinkering with tax rates and revenue streams.

Every so often you read or hear something that makes you think that maybe this isn’t such a bad old world after all.

There’s a lot to like about Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.

If the state could do one thing to improve the competitiveness of Maine industry while cutting the cost of health care and government services and putting money in the pockets of people who would spend it in local communities, reducing the cost of energy would be it.

We should be thankful to California for showing the rest of the states how not to handle medical marijuana.

International Trade Minister Ed Fast says he’s not worried about American efforts to reduce the volume of cargo moving through Canadian ports to destinations in the United States — including the introduction of a potential tariff of approximately $143 per container to offset a tax the U.S. imposes on containers off-loaded at U.S. ports.

Politicians and mining groups love to boast that West Virginia has enough coal to power America for another 200 years. But snowballing research tells a totally different story.

More than 4,000 teenagers die each year in automobile accidents. Many of these deaths are preventable. That is the intent of a bill before Congress that would create a national standard to prepare young people to become safe drivers.

How did it come to this? Who could have imagined such a thing?