For anyone who remembers the aroma of a grade-school classroom on a hot day, this will come as no surprise: Fawaz Almansour, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Texas-Austin, reports that more than 90 percent of the lunches carried by preschoolers had reached unsafe temperatures long before lunchtime.

It might all go back to a 1973 hit by Tony Orlando and Dawn, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” though historians say yellow ribbons, handkerchiefs and scarves have long been symbols of awaiting a loved one’s return.

Maine lawmakers trying to get answers this week about how a top state employee was able to negotiate the purchase of valuable state property found the effort essentially fruitless.

Maine lawmakers trying to get answers this week about how a top state employee was able to negotiate the purchase of valuable state property found the effort essentially fruitless.

It might all go back to a 1973 hit by Tony Orlando and Dawn, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” though historians say yellow ribbons, handkerchiefs and scarves have long been symbols of awaiting a loved one’s return.

We have seen the Republican plan to redraw Maine’s two congressional districts, and we have seen the Democratic plan. We would like to see one more.

Forgive the people who run the nation’s public schools if they show a lack of patience when it comes to waiting for Congress to get its act together and rewrite No Child Left Behind.

President Barack Obama may be a Democrat, but he is certainly no Harry Truman.

Across the United States, there is a growing battle over new voter registration laws. In 36 states, laws are being changed or proposed that would increase identification requirements for voters.

The world, locked in financial crisis, seems to have shrugged off the drought and famine gripping much of the Horn of Africa. Winter rain failed in Somalia, alerting aid agencies as early as last November that the country faced famine.