By Nicholas Boke Editor's note: Nicholas Boke is a freelance writer and international education consultant who lives in Chester. In late December, Rutland Board of Aldermen member Matt Whitcomb asked the big question as he and his colleagues puzzled over the possibility of enacting mask mandates. Rutland Herald reporter Gordon Dritschilo explained in a Nov.…

Dear editor, We recently learned that the federal government has notified the state of Vermont that the enrollment targets for all-payer model (and thus the Accountable Care Organization, One-Care) are both “unattainable” and “unnecessary.” This is an entirely new way to set standards. Imagine if a professor or teacher tells her students they need to…

Dec. 1-20 — LUDLOW —This holiday season, get on out of the house with the kids and spouse and head down to the village. Elves have been hidden around town with care, in hopes that you will find all 12 that are there! Spy an elf? They are all the same size. Identify its number,…

U.S. Alpine Ski Team member and two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin won the Slalom race for the fifth time in a row at Killington Resort in front of a sold-out crowd as Killington Resort hosted the Audi FIS Ski Women’s World Cup over Thanksgiving weekend. “The crowd here is so amazing. They are just pure…

By Sandra Dee Owens Living without running water for 8 years was the hardest part for me. In our early 20s my husband and I had bought a small piece of land with a burnt-down house on it. It was cheap and had important features we needed in order to shift from homelessness to first-time…

By Mary Ellen Shaw If you are a skier or snowboarder you must be excited that the time has come to do what you love! However, just because we live in this beautiful state doesn’t mean that we all love snow! If you are here to hit the slopes, you are probably saying to yourself,…

Join Chef Emery in this live online workshop from the Billings Backyard Series Saturday, Dec. 4 at 10 a.m. — WOODSTOCK — Get inspired this season! Learn to make homemade, delicious gifts for family and friends to complement their holiday table from start to finish. Follow along with Chef Emery as she makes an appetizer:…

By Alan J. Keays/VTDigger The Vermont Attorney General’s Office has ruled a Rutland City police officer was justified in using deadly force when he shot and killed a man inside a bathroom at a McDonald’s restaurant. The officer said he believed the man was charging at him with a weapon, but it turned out to…

By Dom Cioffi During one of my late-night forays into the depths of YouTube, I stumbled upon a video of a guy playing individual keys on a piano while his young son, who had his back turned, rattled off the identifying notes. Once they finished with individual keys, they moved onto chords, whereby the kid…

Vermont’s loons are thriving with a record 109 nesting pairs recorded in 2021, the highest since loon monitoring began in 1978, according to the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Dept. and Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE). “Across Vermont, 77 loon nests produced 125 chicks this year, and 84 of those chicks survived through August,” said VCE…

A virtual book discussion Thursday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. — VIRTUAL — Please join Phoenix Books to celebrate the release of Sarah Strohmeyer’s new novel, “Do I Know You?”, a psychological thriller about two women, a tragedy that connects them as teenagers, and the terrible reckoning that will decide their fates a decade later.…

Future success of town, businesses, development prospects assessed By Polly Mikula A lack of basic municipal infrastructure is holding the town of Killington back. That was the summary of a presentation by White + Burke Real Estate Advisors to the Killington Select Board at a special meeting, Monday, Nov. 29. Growth is lacking namely due…

By Lee Emmons Come winter, after the bears have retreated to their cold weather dens, many backyard bird enthusiasts hang feeders to attract — and nourish — avian visitors. Birds need more than a supplemental food source, however. Whether they are roosting, feeding, selecting a nest location, or flying from one grove of trees to…

Nov. 28- Dec. 5 at 6 p.m. — WOODSTOCK — Chanukah is the Jewish holiday that brings light to the darkest time of the year, when Jews light one more candle each evening on an eight-branch menorah until, on the eighth night, all the candles burn brightly. This year, Chanukah arrives early on the lunar…

By Merisa Sherman It was dark when I got out of work. The recently fallen snow was glittering in the golden lamplight. We had gotten so much snow that the birch trees above my car were bending under the weight. I shuffled my boots under the snow, the fluffy white snow poofing upward with every…