The Vermont scenes, as depicted in Vermont Magazine and other tourist outlets, are being usurped, and our Legislative leaders need to stop their denial until the scourge is eradicated.
Keelan: The media’s two Vermonts
3-year-old on ventilator after ice fishing tragedy on Lake Memphremagog
A patch of thin ice was the scene of a family riding a side-by-side plunging into the icy waters of Lake Memphremagog Saturday.
Ehlers: House committee to vote on raising everyone’s electricity rates
The same influential lobby group that wants to remove local control from energy siting also wants ratepayers to pay more to fund the reconstruction of Vermont’s energy grid.
Legislature control over sheriffs, gender ID rights, “Climate Resilience Officer”and more discussed in Senate committees
Senate committees this week will ponder amending the Constitution to control sheriffs and make gender ID a protected civil right.
Legislature’s War on Age of Consent moves to child vaccination
The Legislature’s War on the Age of Consent is fought on the battlefields of schools, libraries, voting booths, and health clinics
Scott asks Biden for December flood relief $$
Mid-December flooding that produced some PTSD in flood-shocked Vermonters has elicited a request of federal disaster relief from Gov. Phil Scott.
Sibilia: The Consolidated Communications transition and the future of rural landlines in Vermont
Let’s work together to make sure all Vermonters, especially those in rural areas, have their voices heard in this process, ensuring a smooth transition for our communication services.
Klar: More cows needed to reverse climate change, experts say
Scientists are speaking up for beef.
VT Headlines: Road shut down for hours as crews put out Putney house fire
Feds Steer $1.5 Billion to GlobalFoundries’ Plants in Vermont, New York; Federal funding opportunities for Vermont library upgrades; Ranked-choice voting resurrected for mayoral race
Farmers’ Night Concert Series returns for the legislative session
This year’s circuit spotlights the diversity of performances as the Statehouse opens its doors to underrepresented cultures and groups in Vermont.
LaMarche: Lavish spending, lackluster results
Vermont’s K-12 system is broken.
Scott defends top health official over ‘safe injection’ sites
Gov. Phil Scott is disputing a civil liberties group’s claims that the state’s top health official illegally altered a report detailing how the state should spend opioid settlement money.
Bufka: Washington’s 1796 farewell address
There is much more wisdom to be found here. It is a powerful tonic just to follow his words, to drink in the clarity of his thought and vision.
Towns may postpone Town Meeting
A bill expected to pass the Legislature this week will allow towns to postpone Town Meeting in hopes of voting on reduced school spending.
Despathy: House committees ignore billion-dollar cost of Renewable Energy Standard – what is going on?
Two House committees punt on the billion-dollar price-tag of an energy bill rumored to be ‘the Speaker’s bill drafted by a renewable energy lobbying organization.
100% renewable power mandate, Wealth Tax, expanded socialized healthcare sought in House committees this week
Most bills need to be approved in their committee of jurisdiction by March 15 in order to be taken up for a full vote this year. Committees will be pushing hard until then.
Power struggle over trapping, coyote hunting peaks in Senate this week
S.258 would seize rule-making power from the Fish & Wildlife Board, expand the role of non-hunters, and prohibit coyote hunting with bait and dogs.
VT Headlines: Lawmakers ponder the future of medical-use dispensaries
RRMC earns first Blue Distinction Center for maternity care in Vermont; Renowned VT skier dies in avalanche; Milton Police acquire two new drones
CLG: Billionaire and former Epstein supporter has Vermont connection
Trump barred from operating business, ordered to pay over $350 million in NY civil fraud case; Biden appears to confuse NATO with Ukraine in calling for Congress members to pass funding bill
A teenager’s desperate search for a kidney donor
“It’s urgent, she needs a kidney now,” said family friend Jen Soderberg Straub. “They told her there was around four months [to find a kidney] back in October.”
Gorsline: In support of S.258
Contrary to what biologists at Vermont Fish & Wildlife, and some hunters may say, coyotes and other predators don’t explode in population if they’re not aggressively removed.
Armed illegal immigrant gets 10 months for scuffle with U.S. Border Patrol
In addition to a shotgun, law enforcement said they also found methamphetamine, brass knuckles, a knife and ammunition, including a 30-round AR-15 magazine and 103 rounds for the shotgun. Open beer cans also were found in the Jeep.
Breaking: Dangerous dude busted by SWAT team in Montpelier
Montpelier Police tried unsuccessfully to get Sicely to surrender during the day. Later the State Police Crisis Negotiators also made a try, but he still refused to budge. State Police eventually deployed a form of tear gas and Sicely surrendered.
“I will not go gentle into that good night”
Lately I am realizing that the “you” in “we need you more than ever” is a plural that refers to our whole team – me, my indispensable copy editor Tim Page, reporter Mike Bielawski, and social media director Paul Bean – as well as the score of other regular contributors.
Mandatory local option tax proposed
A new House bill takes the option out of the local option tax.
Bradley: Salisbury fish hatchery cannot be closed
Closing the Salisbury fish hatchery is a budget cut that will have disastrous effects for fishing in Vermont.
Avian Flu crosses species, kills Vermont bobcat
A Vermont mammal has died of the highly pathogenic avian flu.
Checkback on Clean Heat Standard slams 2025 deadline
The Public Utilities Commission ‘checkback’ report resisted by climate hawk supporters of the Clean Heat Standard has been issued – and it’s not good news for them.
Government-supported Front Porch Forum accused of more censorship
A woman who says she was banned from the local social media website Front Porch Forum is voicing her concerns over alleged censorship and political bias.
Solutions to public safety dispatch, unemployment computer woes years away
Public safety dispatch upgrade planning: two years. Unemployment insurance computer: four years away.
Balsamic: A menace unburied
A subterranean community of homeless addicts is causing sinkholes in Burlington
VT Headlines: Jenna’s Promise remembers and honors the inspiration behind their organization
Summit focuses on outside solutions to Burlington crime; North Hero Great Ice Fest kicks off’ What you need to know about the 2024 presidential primaries in VT
Warner: I’m running for Selectboard
Among the many issues connected to the board are complaints from former members of bigotry and racism while townsfolk have complained of incompetence and social justice activism from members violating the stated charter function.
Feds plan to reduce nicotine in cigarettes
With smoking still the largest preventable cause of death in the U.S., the feds want to limit the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. UVM researchers are enlisting Vermonters to help study low-nic smoking.
Roper: Pay no attention to that billion dollar price tag!
House Ways & Means Chair admonishes committee not to consider massive cost of Renewable Energy bill to ratepayers.
UVMMC ransomware hacker pleads guilty
The Ukrainian mastermind behind the devastating 2020 ransomware attack on Vermont’s largest hospital has pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court.
BeanTV: What’s dating like in Burlington?
Paul Bean goes to Dating Ground Zero – the University of Vermont.
Scott recommends tougher crime laws
“We should learn from the failed experiments in places like San Francisco and Oregon, where even they are thinking of repealing many of the measures they’ve put in place,” Scott said.
Senator typing during Scott budget address stirs discussion about decorum
A breach of decorum during Gov. Phil Scott’s January 23 budget address had the State House buzzing afterwards, and is believed to have spurred Senate leadership to give membership a refresher course on decorum when visiting the House chamber.
Bill states Vermonters should make every effort to abandon “personal vehicle ownership”
On Wednesday lawmakers in the House Transportation Committee discussed a bill that is meant to further nudge Vermonters into electric vehicles…or give up on driving altogether.
Bill aims to simplify workers’ comp process for prison, psych employees with PTSD
H.297 expands presumption of work-related PTSD.
Kenyon: Creating a crisis
The MO of Democrats’ governing
Dawson: Meeting VT EV mandates in a high-end market
Sales tips for selling luxury EVs to Vermonters.
VT Headlines: Local school leaders see ‘immense challenges’ in proposed state funding changes
Police say tip from brother averted CVPH mass shooting; Proposal for reining in Vermont’s motel housing costs creates uncertainty, anxiety; Addison County prosecutor takes medical leave while facing DUI charge
Galfetti: Legislation moves at warp speed
Voices of reason are being ignored as individual agendas are being pushed forward. The money from the Fed has dried up and we are facing huge shortfalls.
Wall Street Journal says geoengineering is really happening
“Scientists are resorting to once unthinkable techniques to cool the planet because global efforts to check greenhouse gas emissions are failing,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Windsor County embezzler convicted
A towing company was taken for a ride by its former bookkeeper. She’s escaped prison because the owner just wants his money back.
Three held in connection with Wright murder remain jailed
Kayla Wright had been associating with Keith, who also uses the name “Anthony Borrow,” and others at the house, Labor said.
Was Migrant Justice speaker “here…. illegally?” Pro & con
Major’s statement clearly was rude and crude. Both what he said and how he said it offended the council and his employers. But – was he wrong?
VT Headlines: SUV bursts into flames at Brandon gas station
Pop-up dental clinics offer free care to those who might go without; Drug Users and Homeless People Have Overrun a Burlington Low-Income High-Rise
Roper: Already the State can’t afford the clean heat standard
No funding to pay people to design the program, let alone run it!
In Vermont, gardening and foraging helped prevent hunger during COVID
Home and wild food production is not a silver bullet, but it is a potential solution that has been largely overlooked.
Bananas: Taylor Swift wins first Super Bowl championship & MVP
She is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Taylors).
Senators review ban on sale of gas-powered cars, kids who can’t read, hallucinogen decrim
Senate seeks solutions to students’ declining reading scores.
Bill would require farmers to house workers hired via state-run directory
No other state-funded employment directory requires employers to house workers hired under its auspices.
22 years for raping little girls and filming it
“One of the more serious child pornography cases in Vermont in recent years” involved a man (now seeking to become a woman) who filmed his rape of little girls.
Democrat Attorney General Clark contributes to Progressive mayor candidate
“The work is about recognizing where our system has disproportionately impacted people of color, and digging in to how to rectify that,” Charity Clark said of her job at the Vermont Attorney General’s office in 2020.
Letters: Today’s Progressivism is eerily similar to Nazism
Today’s State House: Indoctrination, convoluted budgets, and blamethrowers
VT Headlines: Students push to have Bear’s Head Tooth designated state mushroom
Vermont’s Elle Purrier St. Pierre sets new US track and field record; Legislators confront Barre’s slow flood recovery face-to-face; Addison County prosecutor faces judge in DUI case
Mimicking bills in neighbor states, Vermont House proposal would ban dog and cat sales
The bill aims to prevent Vermont from becoming a place for puppy farms or mills — commercial dog breeding operations that raise animals in poor conditions.
Bill depriving parents of vax consent breaks federal law, Senate Health & Welfare told
A proposed state law allowing child vaccination without parental consent violates Federal law, a Washington, D.C. law firm has notified a Vermont Senate committee.
Keelan: A rare species, the Primary Care Doctor
Searching for a primary care doctor in SW VT has taken on the same level of anxiety as finding a plumber, electrician, carpenter, or car mechanic.
Pro-life advocates criticize Christian group’s ‘pro-abortion'(?) Super Bowl ad
There’s a reason the “He Gets Us” commercial didn’t show a liberal washing the feet of someone in a MAGA hat, or a BLM protestor washing an officer’s feet. That would’ve been actually subversive.
A melancholic legacy
The malaise of Abraham Lincoln, Part Two
Paul Dame interview Thursday night
Q& A with Paul Dame on Twitter/X Thursday night
“Car-free” society, illegal immigrants in workforce, expanding socialized healthcare bills in House committees
The proposed transportation plan transitions away from gasoline-powered vehicles.
CLG: Biden administration admits surveilling Americans’ private financial transactions for words like ‘MAGA’ and ‘Trump
Doctors call for Biden to take mental competency test after scathing classified docs report; GOP Rep. Tenney calls to invoke 25th Amendment to remove Biden
Warner: Calling out Hartford DQSH and bomb hoax
The bomb hoax, obscured by an encrypted Russian server from whom the hoax emails came, needs to be addressed.
On second thought… Bill removes tax cap linked to big school tax hike
House committee steps back from looming school tax hike, while another committee advances renewable power bill that could cost ratepayers $1 billion.
The Malaise of Abraham Lincoln
Long before he ambled out of the backwoods, depression haunted the gangling 6’4” yokel.
Big brawl at the Whiskey Den
“I arrived on scene and found people on the ground engaging in a physical altercation with each other. I stopped the altercations.” – Cpl. George Johnson
Bill eliminating smart devices in Vermont schools hopes to improve student health — but education leaders aren’t so sure
The bill would dramatically limit the use of electronic devices, digital platforms and more in all Vermont schools.
When a fire displaced 400 cows in Sheldon, farmers and friends stepped up to help
About 75 cows died after a fire broke Jan. 20 and turned a 400-foot-long barn into a pile of rubble and ash.
VT Headlines: Health Dept. report shows above-average depression rates in VT
Bellows Falls project envisions a riverfront oasis; Rutland fluoridation vote pits naysayers against dentists; Anglers flock to Lake Elmore for free ice fishing
State climate change suit vs. Exxon may continue in state court
A federal judge says Vermont courts are a fitting venue for the State’s lawsuit against Exxon for alleged harmful climate change policies.
Malloy: It is an exciting time to be a Republican!
So we are moving in the right direction, but we absolutely cannot let up. Vermont and Vermonters, literally, cannot afford another two years of the Democrat/Progressive supermajority.
MacDonald: UK Daily Mail can’t find anyone who knows why Vermont is such a mess
They should have asked us.
One Day In July opens office on Main Street in Vergennes
Vermont-based investment firm One Day In July is a fiduciary financial advisory firm offering investment solutions for individuals, families, and institutions.
First Vermont Lottery benefited blind slaver from Alburg
Hawkins tried in vain to regain his vision. He learned from doctors in this country that an opthamologist in Europe was his only hope. With no money to pay his passage over, he needed help.
Cop quits three jobs after ‘hot mic’ statement about illegal alien
Major’s explanation that he was talking to his daughter was not accepted as either true or excusable by other members, who called for his resignation.
Sheriff John Grismore tells his side of the “kick”
“It was a seating maneuver to put him back on the bench,” Grismore said on the radio Tuesday.
VT Headlines: Lyndonville’s Millers Run Covered Bridge hit yet again
Northeast Kingdom is one step closer to walk-in mental health urgent care; North Country corrections officers punched by inmates in separate attacks
Roper: Bad information leads to bad policy
But Vermont lawmakers routinely seek out bad information if it confirms their bias.
Adjusted state budget creates Universal Afterschool, boosts flood relief, library and dispatch planning
Revenue for planning and implementing universal afterschool and summer programming will come from the legal sale of cannabis.
Police raid expected to yield more arrests
Fentanyl, coke, cash seized in raid. Fatal snowmobile crash. Truck hits covered bridge. Guns stolen from cars. Gunfire along Thetford highway near childcare center and pediatrician’s office.
JAM: Bill gives teeth to school mascot law
If the same Legislature that bungled its way to the proposed 20% school tax increase passes this law too, taxpayers had better look to either mascot compliance – or their wallets.
Tallest building in Vermont nears completion
Bill gives school mascot law teeth. ‘Right Side Up’ talks REAL substance abuse recovery. Sewage spill in Springfield. Presidential Primary and Town Meeting less than a month away.
LaMarche: Our city’s “Big Lie”
Will the truth be accepted? Or will there be a total, visceral rejection of it?
Scott signs flood-related municipal tax relief bill
S.160 passes along the duty to pay the lost tax revenue from the municipal property taxpayers to all Vermont property taxpayers.
VT Headlines: Lawmakers propose delay in school budget votes
Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch split over border reform, foreign aid deal; Vermont’s biggest municipalities set March votes on nearly $60 million in capital projects
Despathy: BTW Vermonters -You are all a bunch of NIMBYs
Renewable Energy Vermont, Sen. White, and industry lawyers like Wilschek are determined to clear the path for their profit-driven renewable energy projects, including removing us “NIMBY” Vermonters.
Woman shot in head, body dumped in container
Investigation showed Kayla Wright, 29, of Derby, was shot multiple times, and at least one shot struck her in the head, killing her.
CLG: Arrest Tucker Carlson? No way, Elon Musk says
U.S. ‘involved’ in deadly Ukrainian attack on Russian bakery; U.S. and UK bomb 36 targets in Yemen; Federal agencies refuse to cooperate with Florida grand jury investigating COVID-19 vaccines
Petition to remove State’s Attorney Sarah George passes 1,100 signatures
VDC reached out to George for a comment in response to this petition. There has not yet been a response.
Smith: Renewable power industry exploits poorest towns
Sen. White has turned this situation upside down. Aesthetics has nothing to do with it. Poor towns have been targeted because they are vulnerable to monetary promises.
Governor Scott addresses housing crisis, issues warning
Governor Phil Scott Wednesday reiterated the need to make it easier, less expensive, and faster to build the housing we desperately need; warns against some proposals under consideration
Gervais: Arlington selectboard needs a fresh voice
In Arlington, there has been much blame cast about following the issuing of property tax bills with a staggering increase in the town tax rate this past September.
Three state troopers placed on leave back to work, commander reassigned
Lt. Owen Ballinger, a 25-year state police veteran, was quietly moved to headquarters in Waterbury as of Jan. 14 and is now listed as the administrative services coordinator.
Ed funding crisis impacts legislative pay hike, cigarette ban bills
The looming 20.5% property tax increase is impacting legislative and state budget decisions in the State House, as legislative leaders and Scott administration seek to save money – even threatening favored policy initiatives.
State looks to South Burlington, Vergennes as new home for youth detention facility
Newbury is out and South Burlington and Vergennes are in as possible sites for the state’s new ‘justice involved’ youth detention and treatment facility.
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