By Cristina Kumka Kate LaPointe did her situps smiling. Her late husband would have been proud. The second annual Mark LaPointe 1,000 Sit up Challenge held this past Saturday, Nov. 15, at the Green Mountain Rock Climbing Center in Rutland was more successful than ever before — raising over $10,000 for the Rutland County Boys…

Editor's note: According to the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development, the EB-5 program of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is designed to encourage foreign business investment in the U.S. with the goal of creating American jobs. The Vermont EB-5 Regional Center is the only center in the nation that is entirely state-operated.…

Pop-up community universities may spread to other towns BETHEL — Last March, Bethel University launched and became the first community pop-up university of its kind. Next year it’s coming back – and spreading to other nearby towns. Bethel University is a community pop-up university. For one month last year, Bethel University offered free “mini-courses” that…

LUDLOW – Okemo Mountain Resort opened for skiing and riding on Sunday, Nov. 16. Four Okemo Mountain School students were the first in line to earn first-chair bragging rights. They ripped through a banner that welcomed snow-loving guests to the start of winter and Okemo’s 2014/2015 season. Okemo opened with top-to-bottom skiing and riding on…

Green Mountain Power President-CEO Mary Powell was recently named one of three national finalists for the Power-Gen 2014 Woman of the Year Award. The Woman of the Year nominees were judged in three categories, with the most weight given to how the nominee advanced the power generation industry. In addition, judges considered the impact that…

Vermont PBS’ web-original series, “Makin’ Friends With Ryan Miller,” announces Season Two on vermontpbs.org. The series, which launched its first season in May, shadows Miller, a noted film composer and lead singer of the band Guster, in his quest to make friends in his newly adopted home of Vermont. After relocating from New York City…

WOODSTOCK–On Thursday, Nov. 13, Lucy Mackenzie Humane Society joined the Village of Woodstock police in the rescue of nearly two dozen seriously malnourished horses from a Woodstock farm. A warrant granting search and seizure rights for the endangered animals–mares, geldings, and stallions of various ages–was approved earlier in the week after the organization ask the…

By Laura Krantz, VTDigger.org A Rutland man who was quarantined for the past three weeks since he returned from West Africa was released Monday, Nov. 17, the state health department said. Peter Italia, 61, was transported Monday to an undisclosed location, he said via a private Facebook message. Italia said he will not live in…

By Polly Lynn KILLINGTON — On Tuesday, Nov. 11, the Police and Fire Departments presented their budget drafts to the Killington Selectboard. Police Chief Whit Montgomery presented a Power Point presentation with statistics on the past year’s policing efforts. He showed charts and graphs of call volume analysis, ticket analysis and officer incidents analysis as well…

By Stephen Seitz KILLINGTON – Vito Resenas, Andrew Salamon, and Steve Finneron are the three Killington residents who have been named to the Killington Volunteer Fire Department Facilities Review Committee. Killington’s fire department no longer meets state standards, or the needs of the department. “We have to assemble before Thanksgiving to establish an agenda and…

By Jack Hoffman There wasn’t a lot of substance in this election season. “Where’s the beef?” isn’t a question we hear much during campaigns anymore, as Jon Margolis lamented in his column in VTDigger.org last week. But while candidates may not need to offer thoughtful, workable proposals or even clearly define problems to get elected,…

Dear Editor, Now that the truth is out of the bag, thanks to Vermont Digger and others, it is clear that our Legislature passed Act 48 with the intent to capture and control Medicare and Medicaid payments and services. What is unclear is, with all the denying coming from the administration and their representatives, did…

Dear Editor, The November elections are over, and though I was not re-elected as Representative for my district, I am feeling appreciative of my supporters and honored to have served for the last two years. I remain optimistic about our future. When we take stock of our assets, and plan with intentionality for the communities…

Dear Editor, We would like to deed our house to the State of Vermont. We have a nice home in a “gold town.” Our house has been listed for sale for over a year. We have lowered the price significantly and still draw little interest. Although we had never planned to move out of Vermont,…

Dear Editor, On a typical foggy morning in September I was commuting to work on my bicycle and every car was shrouded in a 50-foot cocoon of visibility. It occurred to me that what I was seeing was similar to how so many of us live in our own protective cocoons, and how we cope…