Most of the people who go to college in Vermont — 57 percent — leave the state after graduation. That’s more than any other state.
McCallum: Should I stay, or should I go?
Federal Judge says Murder-for-Hire civil lawsuit can resume
A federal judge has agreed to allow a long-stalled wrongful death lawsuit to resume against a California scientist convicted last month in Burlington for being the mastermind in a cross-country murder-for-hire-case seven years ago in Danville.
Hornblas: Life, death, and a new Vermont Health Commissioner
The increase in deaths is only the tip of the iceberg. We are also failing in all of our health outcomes, across the board. Schools and businesses have struggled to find enough staff who are healthy and able to work, and health facilities are flooded with patients.
Digital wildfire: NotPetya, the most destructive cyberattack in history
How Russia weaponized America’s hacking tools to burn down the internet, and how Vermont lays vulnerable
Rally for African incarcerated by ICE
As NEKASAN members waited outside, they were informed only that “things have changed.” Lamidi, it turns out, was handcuffed upon entering the building and taken into custody.
House passes Gender X license bill
This Vermont bill is a response to a January 20 executive order issued by signed by President Donald Trump, mandating that federal agencies, including the State Department, recognize only two sexes (male and female) based on biological sex assigned at birth, effectively eliminating the “X” gender marker option for passports and prohibiting gender marker changes that do not align with birth certificates.
Police seek MA ‘career criminal’ in St. J shooting
tate police say Ladjuan Anthony Guichard, 27, of Dorchester, Massachusetts is wanted on a charge of attempted second-degree murder arising from the shooting of 30-year-old Adam Belliveau on Concord Avenue.
Clean Heat Standard dead without another vote, PUC states and House chair agrees
The Clean Heat Standard can’t be implemented without additional legislative approval, a key House committee chair concedes.
Veterans’ Place helps homeless vets find independence
The Veterans’ Place in Northfield has begun their 2025 fundraising campaign and they are seeking your support!
Senate leaders avoid GOP-led school reform vote
Voting on the Senate Education Committee bill might have gone 18-12 with all 13 Republicans voting in favor – creating a new GOP/blue dog coalition unacceptable to Senate Dem leadership.
VT Headlines: VT’s community radio stations get state funding for disaster response work
Rutland City School Board ratifies teachers’ contract in unanimous vote; Killington Select Board candidates call for financial audit to move forward
Roper: Democrats go full partisan on education reform
Kill bipartisan bill in favor of special interests.
Former Senate pro tem hangs art in State House cafeteria
A former Senate leader who took up painting during Covid now has an art show in the State House cafeteria.
Klar: Vermont’s Middlebury College should not receive Federal funding
DEI, CRT, and anti-Semitism must go!
Samets and Feldman: Vermont legislators have a chance to save Jewish lives—now
Vermont is the only state in New England without any Holocaust education standards, despite bills being introduced seeking this change since 2017. By equipping Vermont’s educational institutions to confront this hatred directly, H.310 not only offers protection but also affirms the dignity and identity of Jewish Vermonters.
Soulia: S.124: A decade of drowning in Vermont’s water policy
Ten years and over $200 million later, Vermont is right back where it started—struggling to comply with the Clean Water Act, while farmers, taxpayers, and lawmakers all try to catch their breath.
Klar: What’s controversial about the MAHA commission report?
Conflicting reactions suggest it hit the sweet spot.
Youth internet bill passes House, goes back to Senate
Intended to protect teens from predatory online practices, S.69 also would prevent youth online presence on business-related sites that also cater to adults.
Letters: Bruner and Mazur on anti-semitism
This is a classic example of an unhinged, white female liberal who sits in her cozy home reading the leftist propaganda known as the “failing New York Times”.
Unpaid leave, corpse abuse bills signed into law
No person shall, knowingly without legal authorization, intentionally burn, mutilate, disfigure, dismember, or destroy the dead body of a person.
Vermont third in northern border encounters during Biden admin
Vermont had 59,298 encounters during that period, compared to just 82 in New Hampshire, which has a narrow border with Canada and no cross-border interstate highway. Vermont has two interstate crossings.
When Vermont barn dances were all the rage
Someone’s grandparents always seem to remember one, and sometimes you can still find the scruffs and scrapes of shoes and boots on the floors. But where’d those hoedowns go? What were they like? And what did they do for small, rural communities?
Teenager surprises grandfather veteran with Memorial Day honor
Ed was seriously injured in a catastrophic fire and series of explosions in 1967 while aboard the USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin.
VT Headlines: Burlington man credited with saving woman from burning condo
Vermont, state officials honor fallen veterans for Memorial Day; Burlington businesses feeling strain from downtown construction; Route 5 reopens after tractor crash in Hartland
Fernandez: Behind Hamas, you will find BLM
Shalomyah Bowers, a leading administrator with BLM Global Network Foundation, was sued by the organization for “siphoning millions “from the group into his own “personal piggy bank.”
Police investigate fatal shooting in Brandon
Vermont State Police officers are investigating a suspicious shooting death of a 46-year-old Brandon man over the weekend. The victim, Brian Bailey, was found unresponsive inside his home on Champearl Road shortly after 7 a.m. Saturday, state police said in a news release. Bailey was pronounced dead at the scene by first responders, police said in the release.
Harrison: Sausage-makers grinding out housing, school funding bills
The legislative process is sometimes likened to sausage making, not pretty to watch. That was certainly true last week at the State House with education reform and a major housing bill being considered.
Despathy: VT media’s climate propaganda strikes again
Vermont Public’s propaganda superficially simplifies a complex issue into ‘the Democrats want climate policy and the Republicans are pushing back’.
Legislature honors Vermonters who served and died
“In our own body we have in our midst two members who have lost family as a result of service to our country during conflict,” Morgan said.
Deal: On guard, and for our Guard, on Memorial Day
Let us today never forget what such a memorial means for our freedoms, and for those we love. Let us never stop striving to do better for those who have given everything imaginable to us all.
Congress kills California/VT gas car ban
Congress has passed a measure to overturn California’s phased-in 2035 ban on the sale of new gas cars.
Bernie bashes Dem overuse of identity politics
Bernie: “And then you get to what we call identity politics. You’re black?, ‘you’re wonderful, you’re tremendous.’ You’re gay? ‘You’re the greatest human being on earth…’ Rather than say ‘what do you stand for?’ You’re gay? That’s fine, who cares?”
Roper: Unless it lowers taxes, vote NO on the education “reform” bill
Don’t just do something for the sake of doing something.
VT Headlines: Vermont’s Jewish community reacts to Israeli Embassy staffers killed in DC
Vermont state auction draws deal-hunters from across the Northeast; School board ratification vote on Rutland teachers’ contract postponed, rescheduled for next week
Men charged with gun, sex crimes, woman with hammer threat
Troopers investigating the incident determined that Mclain had fired a gun several times in the direction of Sirois’ residence.
State housing authority says no new vouchers
Portability will now only be permitted to areas where the Voucher Payment Standards are less than or equal to VSHA’s highest standard.
Jesses: Young people need civics
Upon graduation, our students need to be aware of how steeped our country is in values that recognize both the uniqueness of our form of government and how exceptional our country is in offering Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness to all without regard to religion, race, sex, ethnicity, or other demographic factors.
Balint fights ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ all night, but it passes at 6:56 AM
Reconciliation bills are considered by Congress using expedited legislative procedures that prevent a filibuster and restrict amendments in the Senate.
Klar: The vindication of Dr. Bhattacharya
Banished by the medical establishment for resisting Covid policies, he now runs the agency that made them
Sims: Trans anger at our protest of biological male Levine’s address to Smith College grads
They call us the haters and the unkind people but they always show their true colors. We did not have to do anything. The proof is in the video.
Train collision victim ID’d
Essex Westford School District was notified and requested to advise families and students to avoid the area while the scene was processed. The accident scene was blocked off from public view by black screens.
VT Headlines: Rutland teachers union votes to ratify new contract with city school district
Wild lake trout populations have rebounded in Lake Champlain. But scientists don’t know why; 120-mile kayak trip across Lake Champlain to benefit athletes with disabilities
CLG: Biden officials hid deadly health risks of COVID vaccines, bombshell Congressional report reveals
U.S. launches doomsday Minuteman III nuclear-capable missile in dramatic show of force; Senate votes unanimously to eliminate federal taxes on tips
Most fentanyl and terrorists enter through northern border, FBI Director Patel says
The majority of illegal border crossers were reported in New York, Washington and Vermont, The Center Square reported. In addition to arresting human traffickers and violent criminals, U.S. authorities have arrested alleged Islamic terrorists, including an Iranian with terrorist ties living in Canada and a Canadian woman who tried to poison President Donald Trump, The Center Square reported.
Soulia: Is 600,000 too small to count?
In a recently released open letter to Governor Phil Scott, health educator and Vermont Stands Up director Amy Hornblass raises a stark question: why has Vermont’s Department of Health not investigated the state’s persistent surge in excess deaths since the onset of COVID-19 restrictions?
Feds DOGE $4 million earmarked for City of Montpelier
The city was notified that $2.5 million for water main replacement and $1.5 million to elevate a 20-unit building on Elm Street damaged by 2023 floodwaters will not be funded.
Chittenden: School funding reform must balance freedom and unity
This bill would drastically shift the balance in our education system away from Freedom (local control) towards Unity (centralized state oversight) in ways I fundamentally do not support.
Report: VT fentanyl deaths drop 22%
While fatal overdoses involving fentanyl decreased by 25% between 2022 and 2024, fentanyl continues to be the number one substance involved in opioid-related deaths, accounting for 93% of opioid fatalities in 2024.
Breaking: Scott vows veto of Burlington gun ban
Phil Scott waves his veto pen over two bills still in the Legislature.
Vermont seniors poorer but healthy
Poverty increased 57% from 6.1% to 9.6% of adults age 65 and older between 2019 and 2023.
Person struck, killed by train in Essex Junction
Details are sketchy, but police report a person died in a Wednesday morning collision with a train in Essex Junction.
Bean: Mad River devastation and the growing geoengineering dilemma
In conversation over the weekend many Vermonters pointed out that it seems to be rainy every single Saturday! While this may seem like a classic complaint during mid-May, this recent flood in the Mad River Valley certainly triggers memories of floods in Vermont in recent years.
VT Headlines: One person hit and killed by train in Essex Junction, police say
Public meeting to discuss VT’s environmental protection rules this Thursday; Susan Stock: Proposed SNAP cuts would hit Vermont hard; Can U.S. residents get vaccines in Canada: Experts say yes, but at a cost
Mills: A new IEA report and the Iberian Blackout end dreams of an ‘energy transition’
Systems that can deliver reliable power at the scales necessary for robust growth remain anchored in precisely the fuels the transitionists want to abandon.
SCOTUS restores Rep. Laurel Libby’s floor privileges, enjoins Maine Dems’ censure of her
Late last month, Rep. Libby filed an emergency petition to the United States Supreme Court, asking for their intervention in her lawsuit against Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) over the fallout from her party-line censure earlier this year that stripped her of her rights to speak on the floor or vote in the legislature.
CLG: Trump says U.S. close to a nuclear deal with Iran
Joe Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive form’ of prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bone; Trump accuses Biden’s advisors of treason; Israel may strike Iranian nuclear facilities
McGuinness: S.28 legalizes modern-day equivalent of coat hanger abortions
Vermonters were told passage of Article 22 would keep abortion rare, safe, and legal, yet this new law opens the floodgates to unsupervised chemical abortions, making them common and dangerous, yet still legal.
Legislators preview enviro bills for next year
A House committee recently heard the introduction of seven new bills covering five topics legislators hope to tackle.
VT CO2 emissions down 20%, but it’s still not enough
State misses emissions goal, despite fossil fuel use and pollution reduction, report says. Lawmakers earlier this month listened to the report.
Roper: Unpaid Leave Bill comes with a cost
Another unnecessary hit to small businesses.
Keelan: A college education — How it has changed
What has happened in the last two or three decades that has put college operations on the front page?
House OKS lifting ban on switchblades
Repealing the switchblade ban has long been the goal of Sen. Pat Brennan (R-Colchester/Grand Isle), who introduced (unsuccessfully) similar legislation as a member of the House of Representatives.
Climate Superfund repeal introduced
Democrat leaders of the energy and environment committees this year have declined to consider other climate change repeal legislation.
VT Headlines: Hazardous materials spill closes Williston roadway for five hours
Freed from ICE custody, Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi graduates from Columbia; Fewer Vermonters are dying from opioid overdoses, mirroring national trends
Letters: Edmunds on surviving a system of advocacy
Pratt on “The Trillionaires Are Coming,” and Jablow on banning hounding.
Livingston: Government corruption is educating future generations
Forget textbooks. The actual civics lesson kids are absorbing is that accountability is for the weak. That truth is optional. That the loudest person wins. This isn’t some abstract worry—it’s cultural conditioning.
Bossange: Speak out before it’s too late
Trump’s MAGA Party took over the entire Republican Party and enforced internal party discipline by using political threats and intimidation to stamp out all dissent
Update: Smugglers Notch stuckage driver ticketed, company fined $2347
Boima claimed he saw a sign telling him he could drive through.
Shorts: cybersleuth honored, new UVM clinic, tree sex mystery
Though the trees can reproduce asexually, scientists still don’t understand why the male satiny willows are so scarce.
VT school sidelines fire-prone electric school buses
The Huntsville, Ontario school bus built by Lion Electric of Quebec was packed with students when the driver began to notice problems. He ordered the kids off the bus.
Education, housing reform bills unresolved
But even among supporters, there is an acknowledgment that much of the proposal includes placeholder language likely to require substantial revision—either in a forthcoming Committee of Conference or in future legislative sessions.
Three-time Bradford felon facing murder charge for missing friend
James D. Nickles Jr., 42, is now facing a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Corey Crooker, 43, of Bradford, according to records in Vermont Superior Court in Chelsea. Judge Daniel Richardson also found probable cause for a felony charge of unauthorized removal and disposal of a body without a state permit and with a misdemeanor count of false information to Vermont State Police.
Burlington gun ban bill now in House
S.131 and the end of Dillon’s Rule? Burlington gun ban tests Vermont’s Constitution and State authority
VT Headlines: Severe storms leave several roads washed out, rivers rising in Vermont & New York Saturday
‘Let’s get back to work’: Greensboro grapples with vote against affordable housing project; Former AHS Secretary Mike Smith shares plans for reviewing UVM Health Network costs; Middlebury women’s lacrosse punches ticket to NCAA semifinal
Kinsley: YIMBY, not NIMBY
We have become better at stopping things from being built than actually building them. Klein contrasted this with China, a country that seems to have an insatiable appetite for building things and the political will to make it happen.
Fireovid: HHS says puberty blockers high-risk, low benefit
This comprehensive review prioritizes evidence-based medicine and questions the treatment of minors with irreversible medical interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries.
Rodgers: Tilting at windmills won’t get the hay in the barn
It’s time we refocus our efforts on the issues that matter most to Vermonters. Let’s prioritize practical solutions over costly legal battles. Humility and hard work, not hubris and fantasy. The farmer’s way. The Vermont way.
The Vermont Podcast: Guv pauses EV mandate/ hidden comms in Chinese solar products/ Ben & Jerry’s & childhood obesity
Ben Cohen dished out obesity-inducing ice cream for decades. Now he’s worried about Medicaid funding.
Barre Legion Auxiliary offers All-Veterans dinner
All veterans dine free!
Roper: From ‘Net Zero’ to just zero
Cause of death in every case: a lethal collision with reality.
Bradford man says he killed friend
Detective Sgt. Lyle Decker spoke to a confidential informant (CI) that said he learned “Nickles shot Crooker with 2 shots to the head and a shotgun blast to the chest. The CI said they burned the body and decapitated Crooker’s head,” Merriam wrote.
Communication devices hidden in Chinese solar inverters could trigger blackouts
Experts, including the former Director of the National Security Agency, warn that these devices could be used to bypass cybersecurity protections, remotely manipulate grid-connected equipment, and potentially trigger blackouts across parts of the country.
Soulia: Why won’t DCF disclose who’s using the system?
Department refuses to release even anonymized data about where recipients came from — or if they’re from Vermont at all.
Ben Cohen exercises Heckler’s Veto, removed from Congressional hearing
This disruption by Ben Cohen and others at the hearing is yet another example of what some are calling a ‘Heckler’s Veto’ – also exercised bytrans activists at a State House seminar in March.
Medical debt relief bill sends wrong signals, Scott says – but still signs it
Medical debt payment by taxpayers sets risky precedent and disincentives repayment, guv warns.
VT Headlines: Family related to Winooski Superintendent self-deports following notice from ICE
US Department of Justice ends 3-year racial discrimination settlement early at Twin Valley Middle-High School; Federal judge in Vermont hears conditions for formerly detained Tufts students’ release
How tariffs could hurt or help Vermont agriculture
The state’s agriculture industries are paying close attention to prices on products they use.
Lake Champlain shipwreck program to expand access to non-divers
Yellow buoys mark the wrecks’ locations, and divers can follow their lines down to submerged signage identifying each.
CLG: Secret Service probing ex-FBI chief James Comey for allegedly threatening Trump
U.S., China strike deal after extensive talks in Switzerland as Trump official touts ‘resolving’ ongoing trade war; Trump to sign executive order to reduce cost of prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals up to 80%
Cubans plead guilty to illegal entry
U.S. Border Patrol received an image of two individuals walking south from the Canadian border near Mud Creek on May 8.
VT Headlines: NTSB releases report on Mount Equinox plane crash
Vermont City Marathoner prepares for last leg of her training; Vermont Supreme Court holds Vorsteveld farm in contempt, clouding farm’s expansion bid
Feds confirm Youngblut shot, killed Maland
Maland was fatally shot and a federal investigation is underway after a vehicle stop on Interstate 91 escalated into a deadly exchange of gunfire near the U.S.-Canada border on Monday, January 20.
Video: Gov. Phil Scott explains why he’s vetoed fewer bills this year
Somewhat paradoxically, having an effective veto means he has less reason to veto. “They have to come to the table,” he said.
Klar: Native Americans take on Wokism
The public battle over the name “Massapequa Chiefs”
Deal: Vermont National Security Consortium needed
Maybe it takes a flatlander like me to say: you may not always feel it, but Vermont is one of the best examples of such values and bipartisanship in the nation.
Accused killers from MA face federal drug charges
Fabrice “Savage” Rumama, 21, and Samuel “Smitty” Niyonsenga, 19, are charged with knowingly and intentionally conspiring with others to distribute crack cocaine and more than 40 grams of fentanyl between September and October 2024 in Vermont and elsewhere.
Thayer: Trump ’47 makes progress on education, energy, tax/tariff
Trump is doing everything that he and his Vice President JD Vance campaigned on to win back the White House from the disastrous former President, Joe Biden. He is knocking down Biden’s policies and getting rid of the deep state and lack of due diligence from the five prior Presidents.
North Country Hospital nurses celebrate and receive awards
This year’s awardees are Katrina Bennett, RN for Commitment to Quality, Jennnifer Lavelle, RN for Commitment to Professional Growth, Lucy Carpenter, LPN for Commitment to Customer Service, and Bruce Muir, RN for Commitment to Community.
Livingston: Trump’s tariff chess
A game-theory breakdown for the NDD (Narrative Dependency Disorder–Points to reliance on media narratives as a substitute for analysis) afflicted
Klar: Catholic funding by government in the political crosshairs
If funding Catholic charities that harbor illegal immigrants is acceptable, funding Catholic schools that prepare citizens for success should be a no-brainer.
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