Courtesy of College of St. Joseph’s Mary Guggenberger By Polly Lynn On Wednesday, July 1, former Principal of Killington Elementary School Loren M. Pepe announced that Mary Guggenberger would be taking over the reins as the new school principal starting July 20. “This week the KES Board officially appointed Mary Guggenberger to be the new…

By Stephen Seitz A man who arrived late after the official ceremony receives the citizenship oath from Judge J. Garvan Murtha. PLYMOUTH NOTCH – Fittingly enough for the Fourth of July, 20 new Americans were sworn at a naturalization ceremony held at the Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site. The new citizens came from all over…

Option taxes, surplus funds, charter and parking lot all pass, Wyman elected By Lee J. Kahrs BRANDON — Despite a very low voter turnout, all five articles on the Brandon ballot passed on Tuesday, many by almost 4-1. Voters approved using surplus paving funds for other public works needs, establishing a charter and a 1…

By Sam Heller, VTDigger.org A new federal grant will arm Vermont with $12.4 million to combat the state’s worsening drug problem, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Gov. Peter Shumlin announced at the Statehouse on Monday. The money, granted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will fund the expansion of Vermont’s Regional Prevention Partnerships…

Hailed for his vision for Killington, Pico By Karen D. Lorentz Chris Nyberg, who served as the president and chief operations officer of the Powdr Resorts Division since September 2012 and prior to that the president and general manager of Killington and Pico mountains since April 2007, has left Powdr Corp. after almost eight years…

Submitted Lucas Farrell (left) and Louisa Conrad (right) of Big Picture Farm, with judge Alex Guarnaschelli (center). Raspberry Rhubarb Goat Milk Caramels, from the Townshend, Vt. producers won the Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation award for 2015. Vermont specialty food producers took top honors at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City, June 28-30.…

Longtime journalist and educator Mike Donoghue of South Burlington has been selected to receive the Matthew Lyon Award for his lifetime commitment to the First Amendment and the public’s right to know the truth in Vermont. The Vermont Press Association, which represents the interests of 11 daily and about four dozen non-daily newspapers circulating in…

By Elizabeth Hewitt, VTDigger.org The number of Vermont children in the custody of the Department for Children and Families (DCF) has jumped by a third since the beginning of 2014, according to a report published this week. The child abuse hotline saw an increase of more than 10 percent in calls in 2014, with a…

By Lisa Chalidze The world is a messy place. We ask our police officers to keep cleaning it up. It’s a hard job to do well, and easy to do poorly. Often it’s the poor choices that make the news. This presents us with a difficult choice of our own: Do we respond to the…

By Sarah Olsen, VTDigger.org That Coke now costs a little more. A 6 percent sales tax on sugary drinks went into effect July 1. The Vermont Legislature and Gov. Peter Shumlin approved the extension of the sales tax to soda and other sweet drinks as part of a tax package passed last session. Tina Zuk,…

Dear Editor, On behalf of the hundreds of families who will benefit, bravo to everyone who helped make Pack the Paramount a tremendous success. From The Vermont Country Store to Westminister Crackers, Hannaford and Price Chopper, from employees of Heritage Family Credit Union and Rutland Regional Medical Center to Green Mountain Power, from the elderly…

Dear Editor, The letter to the editor in last week’s edition penned by Town Manager Seth Webb on the town’s behalf, seemed more of a press release than the answers I was looking for regarding FEMA reimbursement. I posed these questions to Webb in an email a week before writing the letter for publication. I…

By Ed Gogek, M.D. State legislatures across the country are legalizing medical marijuana, but the nation’s physicians aren’t demanding these laws. The American Medical Association (AMA) doesn’t support them, and the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Society of Addiction Medicine both oppose these laws. The American Cancer Society hasn’t demanded medical marijuana, and…

Dear Editor, We have had several letters to the editor in recent weeks expressing their concerns about town matters. I would like to address the issues in the paper as a way of creating an open dialog where all citizens and the Selectboard can come to understand and respond to issues at hand. The Selectboard…

By Guy Page Just because it's summer, that doesn’t mean Vermont has taken a holiday from energy deals and projects. Far from it! In June alone, the wheels were turning to bring more hydro, nuclear (you read correctly), natural gas, and solar power to Vermont–or in the case of hydro, at least through Vermont. Nuclear…