Courtesy Woodstock Vermont Quechee Hot Air Balloon Festival, New England's longest-running event, celebrates 44th anniversary in 2024, featuring 16 balloonists, craft vendors, specialty food, and entertainers. 
Submitted - Gov. Scott 
By Paul Holmes - This weekend, June 14-16, the skies over the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire will be filled with hot air balloons during the longest running hot air balloon festival in New England. See page 14 for a full schedule of events for the weekend. 
Local News
Yale student wrote her thesis on Vermont’s school mergers, found they don’t save much
June 12, 2024
By Ethan Weinstein/VTDigger While studying economics and education at Yale University, Grace Miller found a surprise topic on the agenda: Vermont’s one-of-a-kind school funding formula. The 22-year-old from Newport and her classmates learned about the Brigham decision, a 1997 Vermont Supreme Court case that found the state’s education finance system was unconstitutional. In response to the case, the…
Killington road work extends into Saturday morning
June 12, 2024
Drilling and blasting will continue this week at the intersection of Route 4 and Killington Road in Killington. A detour remains in place via West Hill Road. As the project approaches the scheduled end date of July 8, work to haul out rock will occur on Saturdays till about noon time going forward, Markowski Excavating,…
Hartland board to propose new vendors’ ordinance
June 12, 2024
By Curt Peterson The Hartland Select Board refined a proposed new Vendors’ Ordinance to replace the original that’s been in effect since 1996. According to Town Manager John Broker-Campbell, “There are minor changes which will hopefully help to clear up any confusion or ambiguity on the applicability of the ordinance.” The Select Board will next…
Building a stronger Killington-Rutland community:Essential nonprofits tackle tough issues
June 12, 2024
Vermont’s vibrant spirit thrives on a network of over 7,000 nonprofits; some 1,500 of them in the Killington-Rutland region alone. Considering that number, it’s not surprising that some of these organizations prompt the question: “Why does that nonprofit exist?” Yet, the ones that tackle tough issues and enrich lives spark admiring comments, like “Imagine how…
Killington’s Amy Spear named president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce
June 7, 2024
The Vermont Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors announced June 6 that Amy Spear will be the incoming president of the organization. Spear was selected from a robust pool of applicants following a six-month search committee process that leveraged the expertise of Burlington-based Hawley Consulting Services. The committee’s recommendation was ratified by the full board…
Opinions/Columns
Short-term rentals are a scapegoat for every housing issue
June 12, 2024
Dear Editor, Short-term rental owners are not the evil housing tycoons we are sometimes made out to be. Vacation rentals peppered around our state make up just 2.5% of our housing stock yet contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to our state budget in the form of rooms/meals taxes and consumer spending. I’ve lived in Guilford for…
Override Scott’s veto to protect pollinator, ecosystem, public health
June 12, 2024
Dear Editor, In the peaceful farmlands and meadows of Vermont, a silent emergency unfolds. Bees, the heart of our agricultural ecosystem, face unprecedented threats to their survival. Despite Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food and Market reports claiming that bee populations are thriving, beekeepers around the state emphasize the deteriorating health of their colonies. These adverse…
Vermonters deserve affordability, but Gov. Scott has no ‘grand plan’
June 12, 2024
By Rep. Rebecca Holcombe Editor’s note: Holcombe is the state house representative for Windsor-Orange 2 and member of the Vermont House Appropriations Committee. She also served as the Vermont Secretary of Education 2014-2018. It’s groundhog day. Governor Scott vetoed the yield bill, again leaving Vermont school districts adrift. The reason: all the school budgets voters…
‘Time we stopped, hey,what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down’
June 5, 2024
Dear Editor, The movement to stop Israel’s murderous campaign against Palestinian civilians is up against the entire American military/industrial/congressional complex and assorted American war/death culture allies like AIPAC, The Heritage Foundation, and Fox News. Leaders of the most powerful American institutions and major party presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden want to continue official…
Starting June 1, bobcats, foxes, bears, others are in danger
June 5, 2024
Dear Editor, Every year, beginning on June 1, bears, bobcats, foxes, and other wildlife are pursued by packs of hounds, potentially over miles of land, during Vermont’s hound “training” season. Since this is also the time of year when wildlife is tending to their young, this “training” may lead to orphaned animals, as well as vulnerable wildlife suffering…
Top Events
State News
Back to the State House, June 17
June 5, 2024
The full Legislature will return to Montpelier on June 17 to take up any bills the governor has vetoed. Leaders will be deciding in the next few weeks which of those vetoed they will attempt to override, (two thirds required for an override), which will be rewritten to address some of Scott’s objections. The rest…
Former Democratic lawmaker John Rodgers to run for lieutenant governor as a Republican
May 29, 2024
By Ethan Weinstein/VTDigger John Rodgers, a former Vermont House and Senate Democrat from Glover, is running for lieutenant governor as a Republican. “I don’t feel like I left the party. I feel like the party left me,” Rodgers said in an interview Friday, describing himself as a moderate. “I feel closer to Phil Scott than I…
Gov. Scott signs budget, vetoes renewable energy standard bill
May 29, 2024
On Thursday, May 23, Governor Phil Scott, as expected, signed the budget bill into law H.833, while vetoing H.289, An Act Relating to the Renewable Energy Standard. Scott has long voiced his opposition to the renewable energy bill because of the cost and complexity in how the law could be carried out and the ultimate cost…
Gov. Scott vetoes bill that would’ve restricted bee-killing pesticide
May 22, 2024
Staff report On Monday, May 20, World Bee Day, Gov. Phil Scott vetoed legislation meant to protect bees and other pollinators from a widely-used neuorotoxic pesticide. The bill (H.706) would eliminate most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides (neonics) in Vermont, which have been associated with alarming losses of managed and wild bee populations. Neonic insecticides are used on…
Health premium increases of 16%-19% projected for 2025
May 22, 2024
Vermonters are again facing steep upward premium growth for 2025 due to the cumulative impact of hospital costs, drug prices and state health care policy choices. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont projects that these trends will continue and will require rate increases of 16.3% for individual health plans and 19.1% for the small group…
Arts & Entertainment
Donations and parade participants sought for Killington’s Fourth of July Celebration
June 12, 2024
Killington Parks and Recreation has announced the schedule for this year’s July 4th Celebration and seeks participants and volunteers to help make the events successful. Participants can get involved in multiple ways. Children 12 years or younger can bring their patriotically decorated bike and ride in the parade. Parents of younger children can walk with…
Vermont Bikepackers hostsBeginners’ Community Campout
June 12, 2024
Friday, June 14 at 8 a.m.to Sunday, June 16 at 8 a.m.—GOSHEN—A free, fun, off-road ride and campout in the Green Mountain National Forest in Goshen. The event will be based at the Blueberry Hill Outdoor Center, 1288 Goshen-Ripton Rd, Goshen, which has been reserved for the weekend to offer this event free of charge…
Capturing Time: A Neil Rappaport Retrospective
June 12, 2024
Saturday, June 15, 5-7p.m. —POULTNEY—Stone Valley Arts, 145 E. Main St., Poultney announces “Capturing Time: A Neil Rappaport Retrospective,” a major exhibition of the late Pawlet, Vermont based photographer. The show will cover Rappaport’s life’s work including portraits from the Pawlet Community Study, slate industry, farms, Vermont landscapes and rare photos from Comstock Prison where…
Quechee hot air balloon festival lifts off
June 12, 2024
Hartford Area Chamber Prepares for Balloon Festival Friday, June 14 at 3 p.m. to Sunday, June 16 at 6 a.m. —QUECHEE —The Quechee Hot Air Balloon Craft and Music Festival, Village Green, Quechee, the longest running hot air balloon festival in New England, will celebrate its 44th anniversary in 2024 when thousands are expected to…
Music Listings
June 12, 2024
Wed 6/12 LUDLOW6 p.m. Off the Rails – Learn to Line DancePOULTNEY7 p.m. Poultney Pub - Open Mic with Danny LangQUECHEE6 p.m. Public House Pub – Chris Pallutto8 p.m. Center Street Alley – Full PA/Backline Open Mic hosted by Josh LaFave Thurs 6/13 BARNARD5:30 p.m. Fable Farm – Feast & Field with Le Winston BandBRANDON5:30…
