Author Archives

Guy Page

Guy Page is the editor and publisher of the Vermont Daily Chronicle.

Scott admin would spend $200 mil on carbon reduction

Vermont will receive $1 billion through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). This funding presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to immediately accelerate “no regrets” climate action work. Governor Scott’s proposed ARPA budget calls for $200 millionover three years to facilitate direct, strategic, and measurable emissions reductions.

Why turtles cross the road

Vermont’s turtles will be on the move this spring, and the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is asking for the public’s help in keeping them safe.  Female turtles will be looking for places to deposit their eggs, sometimes choosing to lay them along the shoulders of roads, which can bring them into the path of motor vehicles.

Vax discrimination suit goes to court May 10

On March 2, Jim Hogue of Calais, Emily Peyton of Putney, Karen Eddings, Morningstar Porta, Kathleen Tarrant, and Deborah Dailey filed for an immediate emergency injunction in US Federal Court against Gov. Phil Scott, Attorney General TJ Donovan, and Health Commissioner Mark Levine “to halt orders, rules and enforcement regarding the lifting of quarantine solely for those who vaccinate” and other measures.

Shepard: RINOs for Biden – are you happy now?

I think it is time to check in with a few of those RINOs. We need to ask folks like Mitt Romney, Governors and former Governors Charlie Baker, Larry Hogan, Phil Scott, John Kasich, Rick Snyder and others, like John Bolton, Jeb and George W. Bush, Carly Fiorina, Jeff Flake, Colin Powell and Cindy McCain if President Biden has been their kind of Republican.

Three Vermonters play for Lake Monsters

As the Vermont Lake Monsters inaugural Futures Collegiate Baseball League season quickly approaches, the former Minor League New York–Penn League team’s roster is beginning to take shape and the team posted its first three players all with Vermont connections: pitchers Leif Bigelow of Guilford, Owen Kellington of Plainsfield, and Middlebury’s Evan Stewart.

Page: Uppity women speak out!

None of this cliquey high school drama stuff mattered to Lefebvre, who saw Vermont electoral integrity at stake and realized that she was elected for such as time as this. Worn out by her insistence, and desperately seeking a unanimous vote, Hanzas blinked first.

Worker shortage due to pandemic, pot, depopulation

Everyone thought Vermonters would flock to these relatively high-paying, benefits-producing jobs. Compared to the long, irregular hours and low pay of farm labor and the service industry, these jobs were gold. But now, some employers who invested millions in Franklin County operations are looking elsewhere. There just aren’t enough workers. 

Teen Challenge gives back on Green Up Day

On a cold, cloudy Saturday May 1, a group of women spread out across Hardwick’s Main Street picking up trash and exchanging banter. All members of Teen Challenge Vermont, an addiction treatment center in Johnson, they were more than excited to be outside helping the community. 

Rallyers seek change in VT education, government

Event co-organizer Greg Thayer spoke on how America is a “Constitutional Republic, not a democracy.” Thayer equated his premises to the principle of equality and that our Constitution is a representative form of government and not by a king or mob rule. Thayer continued “that the government gets its authority from the People, who can take it away too.”

McClaughry: Vermonter deep-sixed Roosevelt plan to pack Supreme Court

President Biden is under pressure to find a way to control a Supreme Court whose present majority may find constitutional limits to what the Democratic party’s left wing is urging him to do. He has created a 36-member Commission to cope with the explosive question of packing the Supreme Court with additional Justices in order to create a compliant 7-6 liberal majority to support his proposals.

Heroin, meth dealer busted

The arrest of Poole was the conclusion of a Vermont Drug Task Force investigation that began in July 2020 in cooperation with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department and South Burlington Police Department. The investigation revealed that Poole sold methamphetamine and heroin.

Ex-boyfriend torched car

Upon arrival troopers met with the Fairfax Fire Department and observed a vehicle in the driveway that had sustained fire damage from what appeared to be a plastic bottle containing gasoline that had been poured on the windshield and hood before being ignited.

Kinsley: Pandemic legislation reactionary

If you look at the list of bills the legislature has passed so far, you might be tempted to think they are focused on the pandemic. However, if you look a little closer, you can see that these bills are actually reactionary. They would direct federal funding to emergency housing, food banks, and childcare assistance; all worthy programs, but they serve the immediate need, not the future need six months to a year from now.

Ross: It must be now. Silence is defeat

Too many Americans have allowed themselves to be defined as the enemy. This attack on our values starts with the majority party in Congress and includes our President. Their attacks are relentless as well as mindless. They lie shamelessly, they ignore the Constitution, they are re-writing American history to fit their false narrative, and they pursue an agenda that will end the society that has made our country the envy of the world. 

Trailblazer cop Jonas to retire

Her list of superlatives is considerable: Jonas was the first commander of the Office of Fair & Impartial Policing and Community Affairs when it was established in 2016. She was the first woman in the Vermont State Police to lead the Internal Investigations Unit. And she was the first woman in the agency to attain the ranks of captain and major.

Roper: least-secure voting in the nation

Proponents argue that they are trying to “create a balance” between making it easy to vote and maintaining ballot security. That’s the rhetoric, but the truth is that should S.15 become law Vermont would have no effective security mechanisms to verify the validity of an absentee ballot, and the objective is to have everyone vote absentee (though that is not required). There is no balance, nor any attempt to create any.

Moore: spend one-time fed $$ on wastewater treatment

More than 150 Vermont downtowns and village centers are without a public wastewater system, which limits economic growth. Failed septic systems prevent the redevelopment of buildings; wastewater system limitations stop a general store from adding a market café; and a lack of public water and sewer is often a key limiting factor to a community’s ability to add new housing or businesses.

Barre Police “continue to exhaust all investigative avenues” to find Jean-Marie

Yesterday, Vermont Daily published a news story about the Burlington Police Commission urging the Barre Police Department to involve the FBI in the investigation of the year-long disappearance of a black man. The proposed resolution was couched in terms of doing more to provide justice for Vermont’s BIPOC community. Today, Barre Police Chief Tim Bombardier provided the following press release (issued April 13), in which he says “the Barre City Police have continued to exhaust all investigative avenues in our attempts to locate Ralph and to identify the individual(s) responsible for his disappearance.” He is considering a response to the Burlington Police Commission.

McLeod: Medical freedom the issue of our time

We often hear that the ethical principle of informed consent is the bedrock of modern medicine, but it is not commonly understood why. The Jacobson decision provided a precedent for other decisions, particularly the 1927 decision of Buck vs Bell, which upheld the primary tool of the worldwide eugenics movement: involuntary sterilization.

Keelan: Scores of bulldozers, but no operators

Vermont does not have the building trade labor force to meet today’s demand for new construction, home repairs, and residential and commercial remodeling. If the ARPA comes to fruition, many of the projects Vermont needs to accomplish will, at best, be wishful thinking. The labor force is not here. 

Falling Overboard

The minimal efforts towards repeal of old boards take on an even greater importance in light of the dozens and dozens of new boards proposed for creation this year. Vermont Daily has reviewed hundreds of pending bills in the Vermont Legislature and identified countless new boards that have been proposed.

Taxing electric bikes different than motorcycles

Exempting electric bikes from the vehicular ‘purchase and use’ tax, expanding the sale of unpasteurized milk, creating another state commission, and requiring an economic impact study of closing the Ryegate biomass power plant are among the bills to be taken up Tuesday by the Vermont House of Representatives.

Senate seeks lost loan $$

$5 million allocated in 2010 by the Vermont Legislature for economic development loans hasn’t been recouped as planned. The Senate Economic Development Committee wants to know why, according to a report from the Campaign for Vermont (CFV).

An everyday life they loved

Terry Dinnan, 71, and Marty Illick, 70, were a different kind of power couple. Their power came from enthusiasm, passion, artistic pursuits, environmentalism, and volunteerism. They both died on Monday, April 19 after a boating accident in Lewis Creek just outside of their Charlotte home.

Vermont F-35 does Fenway Park flyover

An F-35A Lightning II assigned to the Vermont Air National Guard joins a KC-46 Pegasus assigned to Pease Air National Guard and an F-15 Eagle assigned to Barnes Air National Guard for a flyover tribute during the Boston Red Sox 2021 season home opener at Fenway Park, Boston, MA, April 2, 2021.