Saturday, March 17, 3:30 p.m.—LUDLOW—While sugar makers all over Vermont are tapping trees and collecting sap for making maple syrup, Okemo Mountain Resort is tapping into the sweet sounds of 90s music sensation Blues Traveler. Okemo’s annual Sugar Daze is a free outdoor concert event scheduled to take place in the Jackson Gore Inn courtyard March…

Saturday, March 17, 3 p.m. & 5 p.m.—WOODSTOCK—The eighth annual Woodstock Vermont Film Series at the Billings Farm & Museum will feature the award-winning documentary “Once,” on Saturday, March 17, at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. in HD projection and surround sound, with complimentary refreshments. All films are open to the public and accessible to people with disabilities. Reservations are…

March 18-20—MENDON—Special Olympics Vermont presents the 2018 Winter Games at Pico Mountain, March 18-20. Athletes will compete in Alpine skiing, snowboarding, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing. The snowshoeing portion of the events will be held at Mountain Meadows XC Ski Center. Sunday will see the Parade of Athletes at 6:45 p.m., a procession through Pico…

Friday, March 16, 7 p.m.–GRANVILLE, N.Y.—The Slate Valley Museum is excited to again host popular celt band Gypsy Reel on Friday, March 16 from 7-9 p.m. The night before St. Patrick’s Day, the band will be playing Irish classics and its own mix of modern Celtic flare. Gypsy Reel plays high energy stirring music rooted in the Celtic tradition but…

By Julia Purdy and Polly Lynn Mikula With 32 inches of new snow in the past week at Killington and a possibility of 8-12 more inches by Wednesday, March 14, the old weather proverb seems to be proved true: March has come in like a lion! Winter Storm Quinn was the second Nor’easter to strike…

Laurie Canterbury and how Hairball came to be By Karen D. Lorentz Laurie Canterbury volunteers with the mountain ambassador team at Killington Resort. She was born in Palmer, Mass., and lives on the same small lake where she grew up. She loves the peacefulness and the outdoors and learned to ski at a “three-trail ski…

Saturday, March 17, 7:30 p.m.—BRANDON—Acoustic double-neck guitarist and Candyrat recording artist Ian Ethan Case is quickly becoming recognized as “one of the most creative and engaging fingerstyle guitarists in the world,” according to the International Center for Creativity. He has wowed audiences and packed the barn at Brandon Music since 2014, with listeners quickly catching…

By DJ Dave Hoffenberg Okemo Resort knows how to throw a St. Patrick’s Day Party. I highly recommend you head over to the Jackson Gore Inn courtyard on Saturday, March 17 for the Sugar Daze concert extravaganza. In honor of this major musical event, the courtyard will transform into a concert venue with a beer…

By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Moon that will be Void-of-Course in Capricorn until Monday night. As usual, there is a lot to talk about. The Moon’s last aspects, before she turns Void-of-Course will be a square to Uranus, and two sextiles: one…

Vermont cheesemakers took home 15 top awards in the 2018 World Championship Cheese Contest held in Madison, Wis., the first week in March. The contest drew 3,402 entries from 26 nations, including cheeses, cheese foods and cheese spreads from the old favorites to the exotic, competing for the title of “World’s Best.” Awards were announced…

On Friday, March 2, the Vermont Senate approved bill S.216, to allow medical marijuana sales for any “disease, condition, or treatment as determined in writing by a qualifying patient’s health care professional,” according to page 334, of the March 1 Senate Journal. S.216 also requires the Vermont Department of Agriculture to establish marijuana testing laboratories, a necessary…

By Colin Meyn, VTDigger Before it became the vehicle for universal background checks and increasing the legal age to purchase guns, Senate bill S.55 had a fairly simple purpose: clear the way for the state to get rid of hundreds of abandoned or unlawful guns currently in storage. While the initial aim of S.55 was straightforward,…

By Katy Savage RUTLAND—Gov. Phil Scott emphasized the need to reverse Vermont’s declining population trend during a legislative breakfast at the Franklin Conference Center on Monday, March 12. “For years we’ve seen, on average, six fewer workers in our workforce, three fewer kids in K-12, and — c ertainly the most concerning — nearly one baby…

In school budgets presented to voters on Town Meeting Day, school boards and administrators rose to the challenge of keeping spending growth below the state’s target of 2.5 percent. FY 2019 statewide education spending growth is estimated at 1.5 percent, with education spending per equalized pupil coming in at under 1 percent. Ninety-six percent of…