In February 2017, Marco Toninelli boarded a red-eye special plane at Orio al Serio International Airport in Milan, Italy. Landing at Newark Airport in New Jersey, Marco picked up the car he rented ahead of time, and drove three-and-a-half hours through the night, to his pre-booked hotel room in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Jacob Reed earned top honors at the annual SeDoMoCha Middle School Science Fair on April 5. Reed came in first for examining habitat influence on the behavior of the common shiner. Grade 7-8 students at the school in Dover-Foxcroft prepare their projects for an evening public exhibit.

Piscataquis Community High School senior Bryce Gilbert, a 6-0 guard for the Pirates, is a Third Team selection on the 63rd Bangor Daily News All-Maine Schoolboy Basketball Team. The honor places Gilbert among the top 15 players across the state of Maine in all five classes.

What is it about a well-cast fly line that unfurls gently across a quiet trout pond or a roiling river? Done properly it is a graceful ballet. There is a rhythm that can mesmerize, not only the angler, but the onlooker as well. And when the softly whispering line finishes its ufurling roll, and the floating tippet dances the #16 parachute Adams upon the water like a descending butterfly, well, sir, that is the crescendo moment.

On April 5 U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine visited students elementary and middle school students at the SeDoMoCha School.

Ridge View Community School students recently participated in the Eastern Maine Math League middle school meet. The grade 7 team from the school in Dexter comprised of Will Kusnierz, Payson Rienhardt, Sydney Fogler and Anna Jayne Pittman placed fourth out of 23 seventh grade teams.

A pair of area senior football players have been selected to participate in the 2018 Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic, which is scheduled for Saturday, July 21 at Thornton Academy in Saco. Chosen for the East team -- made up of high school seniors from Classes A, B, C, and D -- is Dexter Regional High School’s Tyler Beem and Reggie Johnston of Foxcroft.

As we wrap up this legislative session, I am making our elderly a top priority. Unfortunately, they are not a priority for Democrats.

Well, the legal battles over ranked-choice voting have already gotten absurdly messy and confusing, and the system hasn't even been used in an actual election yet.

Two weeks ago, I made an offer to all the candidates running for governor: Send me a big idea explained in 50 words or less, and I’ll share it with the world as written and without comment.