By Governor Peter Shumlin Putting together a budget is never an easy task–everyone knows that from personal experience–and it is harder when finances are lean. But we all do what we need to do to make ends meet. Perhaps we cut back on dinners out, cancel a family vacation or keep the family car another…

By Amy Ash Nixon, VTDigger Rural Vermont schools with high poverty rates have higher numbers of first-year teachers than other schools in Vermont, according to information in a federal report that looks at educator equity in public schools nationwide. The greatest concern identified in the report—that high-poverty rural schools have more first-year teachers—is the point…

By Amy Ash Nixon, VTDigger.org A House bill that would introduce paid time off is not sitting well with everyone in Vermont’s business community. H.187, introduced last week, proposes to establish three days of paid leave for the next two years, eventually increasing to five days of leave. A letter from the Vermont Retail &…

By Dom Cioffi I learned at a very young age that a sport coat is a highly necessary life item. After all, you never know when someone is going to die or get married or ask you to interview for a new job. In each of these cases, a sport coat provides a level of…

KILLINGTON—With the deep snowpack outside, it might be hard to imagine turning over soil in garden beds and planting seeds, but spring will be here soon, and it will be time to get vegetable and flower gardens ready for planting. Killington Mountain School was recently awarded a grant of $600 for its community garden from…

The New England housing market felt the effects of historic or near-historic levels of snowfall across much of the region in January. Many states accumulated more than 60 inches of snow in a two-week period, forcing potential homebuyers to put their plans on hold. Month-over-month, home sales reflected the inclement weather with a decrease of…

By Polly Lynn KILLINGTON — On Feb. 28, The Inn at Six Mountains sold for $3.3 million to a group of investors. Killington Hospitality Group 1 LLC, a Vermont-based company owned by John Kalish, and Innisfree Hotels, a Florida-based resort company are two major investor groups involved in the purchase and renovation plans. They will now…

Courtesy of Killington Mountain School KILLINGTON—Killington Mountain School alpine athletes had strong results over the Feb. 21-22 weekend, competing in both Middlebury and at home on Killington’s Highline trail. The U14s were at Middlebury for a Council GS on Sunday, where Izzy Jenne took the win in the women’s race, with Bella Amico in second,…

By Robin Alberti KILLINGTON—On Saturday, Feb. 28, Killington Resort hosted the Neff Land Space Jam, an open format competition in its outer-space-themed terrain park located at Ramshead.  There were three divisions, one for the groms (14 years old and younger), and men’s and women’s divisions. Neff is a Southern California headwear company, started in 2002…

RUTLAND—Head Over Heels Gymnastics had a full house Wednesday, Feb. 18 for its Cheer Hawaii Fundraiser/open gym at its location on North Main Street, Rutland. The main focus of the event was to raise money for two Fair Haven cheerleaders, Mollie Coltey and Sophia Rampone, both sophomores at Fair Haven Union High School and members…

Fighting Saints march in at Uniontown, Penn. By Justin Lemanski, sports reporter National tournament preview The Lady Saints will face Penn State-Fayette in the opening round of the USCAA national tournament at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 5. Fayette has an overall record of 8-17, while holding the No. 8 seed in the tournament. They are…

By Justin Lemanski, sports reporter The Fighting Saints Softball team got off to a good start in the fall with a 3-1 record, and now are heading down to Texas to play against very good competition to start off their spring season. The Saints will be matched up against UT-Tyler, Letourneau, UT-Dallas, Murray State, Eastern…

By Daris Howard I couldn’t get off work until almost 5 p.m., and since it was February, that meant I couldn’t get my scout troop to the campsite until after dark. We had prepared everything we could the Tuesday before, so it was pretty much just a matter of loading up and heading on our…

Anyone growing up in today’s world would be pretty amazed to learn what a person went through to talk on the telephone back in my youth. I am pretty sure they would not want to take a step back in time for that experience. As fond as I am of the “good ol’ days” I…

What do you do when you’ve already watched all the good movies on Netflix Instant? Reevaluate your life, maybe? No, you move on to the digital movie library at Amazon Instant Video. Like Netflix, Amazon.com offers a subscription service for unlimited streaming access to a collection of thousands of movies and TV shows, including its…