Will America soon be begging for immigrants to come? And by the way – all the climate doomsday scenarios are bogus because they ignore Peak People.
Guy Page
Guy Page is the editor and publisher of the Vermont Daily Chronicle.
Median price new VT home: $554,000, up 21%
In the age of ‘equity,’ wealth-creating home equity becomes less and less attainable for young and lower income Vermonters.
Pathologist, biochemist Jackson Clemmons
He was only the second African-American on the medical school faculty. With his wife Lydia, he bought, restored, and worked a farm in Charlotte – now the non-profit Clemmons Family Farm.
Randolph lawmaker intros bill to ban hunting bears with dogs
Two anti-hunting and trapping bills introduced by a former Colorado wildlife worker would leave Vermonters defenseless against problem bears, coyotes, and problem furbearers such as beavers which cause flooding and raccoons which carry rabies, the Sportsmen’s Alliance says.
Senate bill would pay $1000/month to youth exiting foster care
Youth leaving foster care often struggle on their own. A Windsor County senator wants the State to provide them with a monthly stipend.
News video: HomeShare Vermont matches people needing housing with people needing housemates
A well-known radio personality visits the State House to inform lawmakers, media and visitors about an alternative housing option.
Smith: Legislature taken over by Climate Cult
The State House is populated by a climate claque whose only villain is carbon emissions. Nothing else matters to these true believers.
VIOLENCE IN THE ER: staff suffer threats, assault
After hitting a woman staff member with a urinal, an ER patient taunted, “this is Vermont. What are they going to do?”
Epiphany in Vermont Climate Council: The Climate Action Plan isn’t realistic
Two epihanies, actually. A senator admits the Senate doesn’t do things to help poor people, but must save the world instead. And, there just aren’t enough workers to weatherize, etc. enough to meet self-imposed carbon reduction mandates.
Mexican dies at northern border / Windsor school bus collision / Two more cops banned from working in Vermont
A bus full of basketball players escaped serious injury last night when icy roads caused a collision.
Stefanik blames Biden for northern border crisis
President Biden’s porous border policies are to blame for the alarming spike in illegal crossings of the northern border, the congresswoman for Plattsburgh and much of northern New York says.
Rescued by crisis pregnancy center, human trafficking survivor urges Senate to value CPCs
“When we left the motel about 5 to 10 mins later, she gave birth to her baby on the sidewalk, cut the umbilical cord, and continued to walk in hopes of making money. She knew not making money meant her receiving bruises.”
Vermont AG joins group defending CVS, Walgreens for planning to dispense abortion pills
The FDA will now allow retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone to people who obtain a prescription for it. As a result, Walgreens and CVS are seeking FDA approval to dispense the drug.
Study: Vermont could tweak telehealth laws
Recent laws have improved telehealth, but improvements could be made, a recent study says.
Senate bill offers free abortions for all
A Senate bill would deliver what the holy grail to Vermont abortion providers: free abortions to all, required to be paid for by Medicaid and private health insurance.
Louvenia Bright: first black woman lawmaker in Vermont
Not until the close of the 20th century did a black woman sit in the Vermont Legislature.
Juvenile semi-auto ban removed from Senate bill
An appeal to recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions has led to striking a controversial proposed Senate ban on under-21 possession of semi-auto firearms.
House bill would protect 16-17 year olds from ‘child abuse’ of legal marriage
Supporters of a bill banning 16-17 year old marriage with parental consent raised the spectre of child abuse, excess child-bearing, coercion, and human trafficking.
Krauss: Dick McCormack owes Rube Goldberg an apology
Mr. Goldberg’s complex contraptions were easily understood by everyone who looked at them and could in fact be recreated proving that they actually worked.
Bufka: the simple truth about the Energy Transition Delusion
the world’s mining can not and will not be able to supply us with the required quantities of the two dozen or so minerals needed to make the machines of our world’s “Energy Transition”.
Ehlers: Why I have changed my mind about S.5
It’s time to stick it to that redneck Republican who has been hauling the #2 fuel-oil hose up your posted, habitat-fragmenting driveway to ensure all 4,000 square feet (and three-car garage) stays at 70 degrees when the heat pump succumbs to the laws of physics.
Marshfield teen arrested for Montpelier bus station stabbing
An 18-year-old stabbed his victim several times at the Montpelier bus station last night, police say.
Paid medical leave with 100% wage replacement OK’d by committee
Administering mandated insurance would double size of Treasurer’s office The House Committee on General and Housing passed out H.66 Thursday February 16, which would create the most generous paid family and medical […]
Wilton: the Affordable Heating Act That Isn’t (affordable)
The proponents of the bill themselves can’t or won’t tell Vermonters what it will cost and how much fuel will increase to pay for it, as no financial analysis has been requested or developed by the committee.
Bananas: Dear Alien Overlords
On behalf of my fellow Earthlings, we would like to offer the people at the World Government Summit as a lovely parting gift for taking so much of your time to come all this way. Seriously, feel free to take as many as you’d like.
The Ballad of Buckshot Willy
A dog rescued from starvation and a heavy chain found his way to a loving couple in Addison County. They call him Buckshot Willy – and in this video, he tells you why.
S.5 shows Democrats are the weak link in democracy
For many seniors, their home is their last large asset. They can’t make expensive renovations on fixed incomes.
Highway death / DUI #6 / 101 MPH
State police were busy this weekend enforcing traffic laws and investigating another highway fatality.
Conflict of interest an issue in Vermont’s expensive, high-tech transformation
Often, Vermont’s elected leaders respond to conflict of interest concerns with four words: “we’re a small state.”
Senator, army vet says he, his son and grandson could have been victims of paramilitary training ban bill
When two U.S. Army vets took their son/grandson out into the woods to prepare him for his upcoming military training, a nosy neighbor could have reported them as a ‘paramilitary training camp.’
Fighting for black adoption pushed Phil Hoff into public spotlight
The fascinating, unlikely story is told in “The Man of the House,” a 2022 memoir by Robert Wallace Bennett, a former Vermont journalist, public relations and marketing executive, Brooklyn Dodgers hero Johnny Podres biographer, internationally-recognized expert rabbit breeder – and diligent, committed husband and father.
DCF gets new boss / more than half of moose calves dying / Congress protests slow mail service / Prison warden demoted
The new boss at DCF is an old hand in state government. More moose calves are dying in the Northeast Kingdom, thanks to a tick infestation, and the proposed solution is a moose hunt. And mail delivery in Hinesburg (and elsewhere) is sllloowww.
CDC changes vinyl chloride toxicity guidelines 2 weeks before crash / transformer fire blacks out Oakland
Is it a coincidence that the CDC drastically reduced the official toxicity of vinyl chloride two weeks before the Ohio train wreck? And was there really a push for locals to sign up for biometric tracking in the event of a major disaster?
Cannabis board whacks non-compliant weed producers / without drivers, school bus routes cancelled
On some days, Vermont public schools don’t have enough school bus drivers and cafeteria workers to transport and feed students.
Stella: vax data bill needed
Vermonters already expect vaccine outcome data are being compiled and monitored – but incredibly they are not.
Director of Racial Equity says Clean Heat Act ‘doesn’t meet the mark’
Xusana Davis: “It’s now my third or fourth session in the state and one of the things I often hear from legislators is, oh yeah, sorry, the equity piece isn’t quite there but we’ll fix it in January. We’ll fix it later. And what that says to me is there is something that motivates us to do this that is more important to us than justice. So the justice will have to wait.”
Benning quotes Jefferson: “I cannot live without books”
No technology can replace the quiet solitude and person-to-person educational learning experiences found in a library environment.
State college vice-chair and digital tech exec conflict of interest re: library plan?
The unprecedented move of making the Northern Vermont University library almost all-digital has raised conflict of interest questions about Vermont State College Board Vice-Chair Megan Cluver, who is also a senior manager of Deloitte, a digital technology firm.
Opinion: Denying tuition to religious schools ‘petty, close-minded’ / Unshoveled churches / Tax money helping China build manufacturing in U.S.A
If Rice and others forfeit tuition vouchers for including religion in their curriculum, why can the public schools teach woke?
Wilson: When Vermont fails, where will we go?
The tide has turned to what is now a social welfare state, implementing similar programs that have been a failure in California, and closer to home, in Burlington.
40 Days for Life spreads to three Vermont cities
The 40 Days for Life prayer vigil begins this coming week in Barre, Rutland and Burlington.
News Video: S.5 passes Senate committee
Despite testimony about how the ‘Affordable Heating Act’ would actually raise energy prices for poor and middle income Vermonters, a Senate committee unanimously approved S.5.
‘Affordable Heating Act’ passes 5-0 in Senate Committee
A bill that could add up to $4 to the cost of heating fuel passed the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee this morning.
Roper: Conflicts of interest that lead to bad laws like the “Unaffordable Heating Act”
Lawmakers’ ears appear to be stuffed with cotton.
Burlington cold murder case solved
Longtime news reporter Mike Donoghue broke one of the biggest crime stories in Vermont history on Thursday when he reported that the rape, beating and strangulation death of a Milton teacher more than 51 years ago in Burlington has been solved.
In Burlington, bike lanes replace parking spaces
The Queen City continues its new look: less parking, more biking.
Homeless hotel resident arrested in car thefts
Several days after two car thefts in which police say he was connected, Foy was apprehended walking down Rte. 302 shortly after 5 pm with a shopping cart that carried a computer stolen from WalMart.
Medical freedom bills introduced
A series of bills seeking a balance between public health policy goals and individual rights have been introduced into the Vermont Legislature.
Hospital wants $130 million outpatient surgery center in South Burlington
More surgical capacity is needed because by 2030 Vermont’s 65-plus population will grow by 30 to 60 percent, UVMMC officials said.
‘Democracy vouchers’ put free campaign cash in voters’ hands
Every February of municipal election years, Seattle voters receive four $25 “democracy vouchers” — blue slips of paper totaling $100 on which voters can write in candidates and direct public funds to those campaigns.
In 1945, segregation kept black legislator out of Montpelier hotels
Elected to the Legislature in 1945, many Montpelier institutions like the Pavilion Hotel and the Montpelier Tavern were closed to him due to segregation.
Federal prosecutor starts safe gun storage campaign
The U.S. attorney for Vermont is giving out free gun locks as part of a new gun safety campaign.
Empty positions strain mental health services in VT
Hundreds of Vermonters are seeking mental health support that just isn’t there.
Lawmakers take offensive against abortion alternatives
Vermont lawmakers are seeking to outlaw efforts to counter the pro-abortion agenda.
Kauffman: H89 answers the ‘what-if’ questions about Article 22
Too late for voters considering Article 22, expert/lawmaker discussion of new legislation answers some then-unanswered questions about the controversial amendment to the Vermont Constitution.
Drug clinic refugee trashes cabin, claims he was shot / 108 MPH / embezzlement
A man who had recently left a drug treatment clinic trashed a rented cabin, cut himself jumping out of a window, and then told police an intruder had shot him.
More pro-abortion than thou
2023 Vermont legislative leaders seem less about “choice” and more about making abortion the only known alternative to women in crisis pregnancy.
‘No fish is worth risking your life to catch’: Stay off Lake Champlain advisory extended
Following the death of three anglers off Grand Isle, and with 40-plus degree temps expected, the state game warden colonel advises staying off Lake Champlain until cooler weather returns later this month.
Last Page: Prosecutor, side judge retires after four decades
Lamoille County side judge Joel Page hung up his robe February 1,marking 41 years of working day in and day out at the county courthouse in Hyde Park village.
Charges dropped against Montpelier city council critic
Every town has a Stephen Whitaker – the person who regularly stands up at local meetings and shares strong opinions and inconvenient facts. Few of them get handcuffed and led away – only to have their charges dropped, months later.
News video: Brady letters & lifetime ban for police misconduct
Here at the Vermont Daily Chronicle, we’re now trying to produce news videos. Today: Brady letters as another basis for the State permanently decertifying a police officer to work in Vermont.
New bills target police immunity and pregnancy center advertising, repeal retail cannabis
Legal protections now enjoyed by police and crisis pregnancy centers are in the crosshairs of two House bills introduced Tuesday.
Vergennes’ black sheriff, police chief
Born a slave on a Virginia plantation, Bates was first elected to the office of Sheriff in Vergennes in 1879, fourteen years after the end of the Civil War.
UVM athletic complex needs another $87 million
The pandemic and workforce shortages have led to an $87 million pricetag for completing the new UVM athletic complex.
Senator: Clean Heat Standard a ‘Rube Goldberg contraption’
A Democratic senator on the committee reviewing the ‘Affordable Heating Act’ compares the complex, inscrutable carbon-taxing bill to a Rube Goldberg contraption.
Wilson: Independent schools bill could leave NEK students with no high school
S66, a bill intended to cut religious schools out of public tuition, could lead to the closure of private Lyndon Institute, thus depriving NEK sudents of their long-standing tuition high school.
Staff shortage closes public school, State plans new youth jail in St. Albans
Ever since the Woodside facility in Essex closed, the State of Vermont has sought without success for somewhere, anywhere to safely and securely hold juvenile delinquents. Next stop, St. Albans.
Bill gives State another tool to ban police officers from working in Vermont
H251 would add the issuance of a Brady or Giglio letter as a basis of law enforcement misconduct under the jurisdiction of the Vermont Criminal Justice Council, the state’s police disciplinary board.
Drug dealer whose girlfriend died of gunshot in Killington gets 4 years
A Killington man whose girlfriend died in September 2021 of what he told police was a self-inflicted gunshot has been sentenced to four years in prison for related drug and gun charges.
Evslin: Vermont needs more forest, more housing
Failing dairy farms can be converted to a combination of forest land and housing.
How fast Vermont’s economy is growing
Unemployment dropped a percentage point, and economic growth was slow compared to the national growth during the third quarter of 2022.
‘We basically nuked a town with chemicals’
Train fire in Ohio….
The latest solution to Vermont’s housing crisis? Paying landlords to rent to people
The Vermont State Housing Authority launched the Landlord Relief Program last week with help from the state Department for Children and Families.
Paramilitary training camp bill passes committee
Unlawful militia conspiracy or lawful Second Amendment activity?
Angry, 400 lb. voter convinced town clerk Vermont’s not ready for Ranked Choice Voting (yet)
All it took was one raging 400 lb. voter to convince this town clerk that making complicated electoral changes must be accompanied with robust education of both voters and voting officials.
Sanders highlights teacher ‘pay crisis’
For decades public school teachers have been Bernie Sanders’ most loyal campaign volunteers and donors. Last night it was payback time.
McClaughry: Exterminating parental choice
This retreat from Vermont’s long practice of parental choice for their children in tuition towns will be a disgraceful victory for a public school monopoly that puts its own interests far ahead of the interests of the pupils that Vermont education is supposed to serve.
Keelan: Don’t let State take over local zoning to ‘fix’ the housing crisis
Let the State of Vermont ‘fix’ the housing crisis like the way it fixed the education spending crisis and the climate crisis? Beware the Trojan Horse.
Video: no conscience protection allowed in abortion/transgender shield bill
The acting Speaker of the House would not allow an amendment to the abortion/transgender shield bill requiring conscience protection for health care providers to be voted on by the full House.
Mary Anderson: first African-American woman Phi Beta Kappa
A woman born and raised in Shoreham was the first black woman elected to a prestigious academic society, and later became a professor at Howard University.
Hills to die on – or not
In the matter of legislative sausage making, nothing is ever cut and dried.
Letters: You first, woke legislators / Dollar devaluation looms / lamenting the lost libraries
For every bill or proposal you want to force on Vermonters, the first step must be for you to comply immediately, even before the law is passed. Lead the way!
Eshelman: Real per-pupil spending in school district almost $27K – more than Castleton college tuition, room & board
Despite higher-than-college per-pupil costs, only 40% of VT public school students meet grade level standards, and discipline and school safety are problematic.
Affordable Heating Act scheduled for committee vote this week
Critics of the so-called Affordable Heating Act will testify before a likely committee vote later this week.
Deadly Ice
Stay off the ice, police and Fish & Wildlife authorities urge, following the deaths of three ice fishermen off the eastern shore of Grand Isle County last week.
First ordained black minister in USA pastored in Rutland
While a soldier during the American Revolution, Haynes wrote extensively, criticizing the slave trade and slavery. He continued these activities after the war, and also began to prepare sermons, family prayers and other theological works.
Abortion shield bill passes without conscience protections
In a speech on the floor of the House, a Northfield lawmaker decries the abortion shield bill’s lack of conscience protections for health professionals.
Reader: “I recommend the VDC to all my like-minded friends, and some who are not”
“The heads up you provide regarding proposed legislation is a launching pad for my efforts to write to [legislators] either in opposition or approval,” a Windsor reader writes.
Library closings, mental illness crisis, shooting threats in VT school news
A terrifying hoax about active shooters in 21 schools was among several highly concerning Vermont school headlines last week.
Bufka: S.5 shoddy workmanship, more stick than carrot
If the people building the more stick-than-carrot Affordable Heating Act were building a house, I would go nowhere near it.
Citizens push back against teacher takeover of public school curriculum, infringement on gun rights
A farmer from the islands and a retired doctor in Derby show how citizen advocacy is done.
Air force jets shooting down unspecified ‘objects’ in northern skies
U.S. Air Force jets are shooting down one ‘object’ after another in skies over Alaska and northern Michigan. What’s going on here?
Burlington seeks state OK for warming buildings with woodchip plant ‘waste heat’
The Vermont Climate Council is frowning on burning ‘biomass’ – what will this mean for Burlington’s plan to heat UVM, the hospital and other buildings with waste heat from McNeil?
Roper: Partisan legislators are going after the wrong schools
“Public schools are in a crisis,” school superintendent Libby Bonesteel said. “Every school system has students who are explosive in ways that we have never seen before…. Teachers are quite literally scared, and administrators are at a loss. People are getting hurt, and rooms are getting trashed.”
UPDATE: third fisherman dies off shore of Grand Isle County
A third fisherman this week has died after going through the ice off the shores of Grand Isle County.
Bananas: Will my heart make it to Valentine’s Day?
Even the hour I gained last month is one hour closer to imminent death thanks to the inherent risks associated with daylight savings time.
Another year-round Legislature study bill introduced
Now the House also has a bill to study whether the Legislature should meet year-round.
Anti-religious school tuition bill could stop ed funding to secular, private schools
Secular private schools now receiving public tuition could suffer financial harm under a bill meant to stop tuition to religious schools.
State’s top cop denies slow movement on trooper investigation
The school shooting hoax has occupied much of Jen Morrison’s attention this week, but she says she’s not dragging her feet on the investigation into allegations of racist, sexist comments made by off-duty state troopers.
CDC adds Covid-19 to routine vax schedule for adults, kids
Now that the CDC has added a Covid-19 vax to the ‘routine vaccination’ schedule, will it be required for students?






