By Meghan McCarthy McPhaul In the woods behind our house, there’s a pile of cones and gnawed-apart bracts–easily two feet deep and twice as wide–built against the trunk of a tall hemlock. Over consecutive winters–when the newly discarded bracts stand out against the snowy white backdrop–we’ve watched as the heap continues to expand. This pile,…

Sunday, Jan. 18 — RUTLAND — This Sunday the Packers take on the Seahawks in Seattle at 3:05 p.m. EST for the NFC championship followed by the Colt and the Patriots in Boston at 6:40 p.m. vying for the AFC championship. The game are being shown in HD on the Paramount Theatre’s 30-foot by 24-foot…

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department reports that bear hunters in Vermont had a safe and successful hunting season in 2014. Hunters took 567 black bears during the 84 days of the two-part ‘early bear season’ and ‘late bear season.’ There were also no hunting-related shooting incidents. The final harvest was nearly identical to the 2013…

Vermont wild turkey hunters had safe and successful spring and fall hunting seasons in 2014, according to the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. A total of 6,414 turkeys were taken by hunters during Vermont’s three hunting seasons–the spring youth hunt, the regular May spring season, and the fall turkey hunt. Young turkey hunters mentored by…

By Tony Crespi The two young skiers boarding the chairlift were smiling. Then everything changed. As my wife Cheryl and I moved through the final turn in the maze and prepared to load, we observed that the young man on the second seat seemed awkwardly balanced as the chair moved up and away. As the…

KILLINGTON—“Out on a Limb,” an outdoor short film created by Richmond’s Tyler Wilkinson-Ray’s T-Bar Films and a finalist at the 2014 Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival, will be one of the many shorts featured at the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour 2014/2015, presented by Ski Rack at UVM’s Davis Center in Burlington, Jan.…

After getting lost while skiing out of bounds on Pico Mountain, 63-year-old Lyndon Mann of Royalton is safe. On Dec. 22, authorities were notified around 7 p.m. that Mann was missing. Though they'd been told he was skiing, they weren't sure where. Once his vehicle was found at Pico Mountain, a ground search began. Officials…

Cal Garrison (a.k.a Mother of the Skye) writes weekly horoscopes for The Mountain Times. If you would like an emailed notification sent to you weekly, sign up for the newsletter, below.         Horoscopes for January 1 - January 7, 2015 Aries March 21 - April 20 All of us are playing Truth…

BY CRISTINA KUMKA CORRESPONDENT RUTLAND TOWN - Rutland city will lose money and at least 30 locals will lose their jobs come April, when J.C. Penney will leave the Diamond Run Mall. According to Rutland Alderman Ed Larson Wednesday: "In a lengthy telephone conversation with J.C. Penney Corporate, they advised that April 5 is the closing date. They also…

By Laura Krantz, VTDigger.org Gov. Peter Shumlin was re-elected to a third term Thursday morning in a secret ballot by a joint assembly of the Vermont Legislature. Shumlin defeated Republican Scott Milne in a 110-69 vote. In the Nov. 4 general election, Shumlin beat Milne by 2,434 votes. He won 46.4 percent of the vote,…

The National Weather Service is warning of extremely cold temperatures for much of this week.  Wind chills will be below zero at times and could be colder than 20 degrees below zero Wednesday night into Thursday. Those temperatures have the potential to pose a danger to health and property, police report. Some steps to take…

By Anne Galloway, VTDigger.org On Thursday, Jan. 8, lawmakers will cast secret ballots to elect the new governor. Neither Scott Milne, the Republican candidate, nor incumbent governor Shumlin received more than 50 percent of the vote on Election Day, and under the Vermont constitution, the Legislature must now decide. Legislators have traditionally supported the top…

By Anne Galloway, VTDigger.org The minimum wage in Vermont went up by 42 cents from $8.73 per hour to $9.15 per hour on Jan. 1. The rate is set to increase again in 2016 to $9.60 an hour, to $10 an hour in 2017 and  to $10.50 an hour in 2018. In subsequent years, the…

By Robin Alberti A large crowd of representatives, colleagues and community supporters gathered to say farewell to Police Chief Baker at the Howe Center in Rutland on Tuesday, Dec. 30.  It was a send off party for Baker, who has accepted a job as Director of Law Enforcement and Support for the International Association of…

By Polly Lynn KILLINGTON — J.D. (short for Just Dog) is a 5-year-old yellow lab who ran away from his ski house on Dean Hill Road in Killington on New Year’s Eve after being spooked by fireworks. He has been spotted at least twice since his disappearance; once on Jan. 1 and again on Jan. 3.…